Novara Media

Latest Episodes:

ACFM Microdose: The Joy Of Fascism Sep 15, 2024

Show notes

A month after racist riots engulfed the country, the ACFM crew ask what fascism – and antifascism – look like in Britain today. Do the riots and counter-protests mark a return to “street politics”? Why didn’t the Labour party align itself with opponents of the pogroms? And how popular are extreme rightwing views among Britain’s frustrated youth?

Jem, Nadia and Keir take a closer look at the make-up of the rioters and the reaction from the public, the media and politicians.

Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Novara FM: Mourn the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living w/ Sarah Jaffe Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

“Don’t mourn, organise” were the final words of American labour activist Joe Hill before his execution in 1915. But sometimes our feelings of grief don’t lend themselves to good organising – sometimes we might just want revenge.

In her forthcoming book, critic and journalist Sarah Jaffe looks at the many kinds of grief that shape our social and political lives, from family bereavement and mass death during a pandemic, to factory closures and the spectre of climate breakdown.

She joins Eleanor Penny to talks about the ghosts of the industrial worker, the fate of capital’s “sacrifice zones”, how Israel tries to weaponise Jewish grief, and what to do when we are denied the means of mourning our lost futures.

From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire is out in the UK on 10 October.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Downstream: We Have Enabled Putin w/ Anne Appelbaum Sep 10, 2024

Show notes

Political scientists agree that we are now living in a “multipolar” world, with power contested by multiple states and blocs. But how we arrived at this formation, and whether the newly powerful actors on the global stage are inherently problematic, remain areas of disagreement.

Someone with has a distinct perspective on this new world order is Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.

Anne sat down with Aaron to discuss Putin’s rise to power, the problem of misinformation, and how Israel fits into the network of autocratic states who share little but a desire to consolidate each other’s power.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara FM: Motherhood In and Against the State w/ Helen Charman Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

Motherhood was once at the centre of the feminist movement’s demands, from campaigns for reproductive rights to the mobilisation of anti-nuclear mums at Greenham Common. But in the 21st century, the politicisation of mothering seems to have shrunk in its ambition.

In her new book Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood, literary scholar and historian Helen Charman tells the story of motherhood in the UK and Ireland from the 1970s to the 2010s. From Margaret Thatcher’s weaponisation of femininity to Stella Creasy’s support for the capping child benefit, she explains how the relationship between mothers and the state is never anything but awkward – and often violent.

Charman joins Rivkah Brown to talk about both the repressive uses of mothering and its liberatory potential.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

ACFM Trip 45: Holidays Aug 25, 2024

Show notes

Everybody hates a tourist, as Jarvis Cocker once pointed out, and the ACFM gang are no exception in this ACFM Trip exploring the allure of holidays.

Keir, Jem and Nadia consider all the different ways we avoid work, from holy days and vay-cays to grand tours and gap yahs. Does travel make fools of us all, or is there a smarter, more ethical way to go sightseeing? Is the promise of an annual getaway the only thing keeping the working population docile?

Featuring ideas from John Urry, David Harvey and Arun Saldanha, plus music from Dead Kennedys, Cliff Richard and Madonna.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”.

Novara FM: Clean Energy Is Already Terraforming the Earth w/ Thea Riofrancos Aug 22, 2024

Show notes

In 2019, mines expelled 100 billion tonnes of solid waste.

Vast and destructive almost beyond imagination, mining is nevertheless essential to the green transition: without the minerals that we pull from the Earth, we cannot wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

Thea Riofrancos is associate professor of political science at Providence College and an expert on the politics of resource extraction, green energy transition, the global lithium sector and the Latin American left.

She tells Eleanor Penny about the contradictions that mining throws up for the left, how our mining operations have already started terraforming the Earth, and the surprisingly radical history of Opec.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Downstream: Is Humanity Really Heading for Population Collapse?! w/ Paul Morland Aug 20, 2024

Show notes

During 1960s, fears of planetary ‘overpopulation’ became widespread. And yet, in more recent years, an altogether different worry has emerged: future population decline. Fertility rates have fallen for decades – and in some places centuries – as humans live in cities, gender equality improves and access to birth control becomes widespread.

But, according to some, if they fall too far, and too fast, the basis of the modern welfare state is in jeopardy – not to mention our entire economic order. Could falling birth rates, combined with increased life expectancy, even if not universal, really be as big a challenge in the 21st century as climate breakdown and runaway inequality? Or is this just another moral panic with no basis in fact?

To discuss all of that Aaron Bastani is joined by Dr Paul Morland, a demographer whose latest book is titled “No One Left”. Dr Morland’s previous books include “The Human Tide” and “Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers.

Novara FM: Fear and Loathing in Silicon Valley w/ Malcolm Harris Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

People walk around San Francisco in Make America Great Again hats. Major CEOs endorse Trump. JD Vance is a hit among the crypto whales.

So what?

It’s part, perhaps, of a cultural change in Silicon Valley: a swing decisively to the right in a state famed for its contributions to radical politics, from the Black Panthers to the counterculture.

There’s no one better to understand this change than Malcolm Harris, author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.

He explains to Richard Hames how military tech links the sunny settler colonies of California and Israel, how Elon Musk became indispensable to NATO, and whether or not computer have their own politics, man.

Downstream: Can The Green Party Keep Winning? w/ Carla Denyer Aug 05, 2024

Show notes

The Green Party of England and Wales now has four MPs in Parliament, and even more impressively has doubled its vote share to 7%, coming second in 39 other seats. So what happens now? How will the Greens exercise their new agency in government, and how can they navigate a biased media landscape and increase their influence?

Aaron is joined by Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party and MP for Bristol Central, to talk about the challenges ahead.

Help us build people-powered media: novara.media/support

ACFM Trip 44: Humility Aug 04, 2024

Show notes

What happens when you lose? In this Trip, the ACFM crew explore the role of humility – and humiliation – in politics.

Should we cultivate humility to cope with political weakness? Is fear of humiliation a product of patriarchy? Can humility help us be better political thinkers and organisers? And who’s the humblest ACFM host of them all?

Nadia, Keir and Jem apply their weird-left lens to the topic with ideas from Nietzsche and Lyotard, and music from Erik Satie, Kendrick Lamar, Ravi Shankar and Joni Mitchell.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected