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Latest Episodes:

Downstream: Israelis Want Genocide w/ Abby Martin Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

Abby Martin is an American journalist and activist, host of the interview series The Empire Files, and a co-founder of the citizen journalism website Media Roots. She joins Ash Sarkar to discuss her political journey after 9/11, working for the state broadcaster Russia Today, how Israelis really talk about Palestinians, and why she believes the west doesn’t care about Ukraine.

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Novara FM: What’s Really Causing the Housing Crisis? w/ Nick Bano Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

Why is it so expensive to rent in the UK? In a divisive new book, barrister Nick Bano places the blame squarely on price-gouging landlords, rejecting the conventional wisdom that calls for more new housing as a solution to the crisis.

He goes head to head with Novara Live’s Michael Walker to explain the thinking behind Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis, out on Verso Books.

This episode was produced in a collaboration with the Crash Course With Michael Walker podcast.

Novara FM now has its own inbox. Send your comments, criticisms, corrections and provocations to fm@novaramedia.com

Downstream IRL: This Ideology Threatens Our Fundamental Freedoms w/ Judith Butler Apr 01, 2024

Show notes

For a special edition of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar is joined by philosopher, author, and one of the world’s most cited academics, Judith Butler. Their new book, ‘Who’s Afraid of Gender’ charts how a transphobic moral panic morphed into an all-our war on so-called ‘gender ideology’. Together, Ash and Judith explore how Britain became TERF island, the limits of self-identification, and what really defines a woman.

Downstream: We Are Getting Foreign Policy Very Wrong w/ Steve Coll Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

With hindsight, the wars waged by the US and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq look like terrible failures, both strategically and politically: the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and living standards are worse in Iraq than they were before Saddam Hussein.

In his new book The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003, veteran American journalist Steve Coll looks at British and American foreign policy through the lens of one man: Saddam Hussein. He sat down with Aaron to explain why it’s a mistake to avoid talking to your enemies.

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Novara FM: Critical Theorists Hate This One Weird Trick w/ Anna Kornbluh Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

We’re living in a world of hurry and shortcuts, of intimacy on tap and just-in-time production. Immediacy, according to Anna Kornbluh, is the link between flow-states and Fleabag, between food delivery apps and a mistrust of political systems.

She joins Richard Hames to explain the thinking behind her new book – Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism – and what the effects of immediacy both reveal and conceal about our world.

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Downstream: On Gaza, Grammar Schools and British War Crimes w/ Peter Hitchens Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

Peter Hitchens is an author and journalist whose contrarian takes on drug policy, education and foreign policy have found him occupying a singular place in the British media – with his brand of conservatism often angering audiences who would consider themselves staunchly conservative. He sat down with Aaron to discuss grammar schools, Gaza and Britain’s profoundly inhumane actions at the end of the second world war.

ACFM Trip 41: Trust Your Gut Mar 17, 2024

Show notes

From fecal transplants to the yoghurt-industrial complex, we’ve never been more absorbed in the workings of our gut. But can we trust it?

Nadia, Jem and Keir investigate the mysterious connections between mind and body, reason and instinct. How did capitalism separate our minds from our bodies? Is a belief in intuition filling the gap left by religion? And will reclaiming our biomes be a win for anti-capitalism?

They digest their thinking with music from Björk and Olivia Rodrigo and ideas from Max Weber and Daniel Kahneman.

Find our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”.
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Books and films: Jeanette Winterson – 12 Bytes /  Chinatown  / Eve Chiapello and Luc Boltanski – The New Spirit of Capitalism / Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast and Slow / Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams – Hegemony Now / The Last of Us

Tracklist:  Devo – Gut Feeling / FSOL – Stomach Acid / FSOL – Papua New Guinea / Frenzy – Fire in my Gut / Guts – Voyaging Bird / John Cale – Guts / Björk – Sweet Intuition / Olivia Rodrigo – Love is Embarrassing

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

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Novara FM: The Untold Histories of Black Gay Britain w/ Jason Okundaye Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

Researching Black British history “often feels like a rescue effort, a race against time,” writes Jason Okundaye. In his first book, he narrates the mingled histories of seven astonishing lives in the Black gay community of South London during the 1980s. The narrative he pieces together from oral history, archival research and even gossip (a vital historical record in its own right, he argues) is a fresh depiction of Black gay life on its own terms: from politics and activism to Aids, music, fashion, sex, love and grief.

He talks to Moya Lothian-McLean about undoing stereotypes of Black Britishness, working with a disappearing archive, and the creative art of non-fiction. Revolutionary Acts: Love and Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain is the first book from Okundaye, whose essays on politics and culture have appeared in the Guardian, GQ and the London Review of Books.

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Downstream: Retired Major-General on Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan w/ Charlie Herbert Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Major General Charlie Herbert has stood out in recent months for his vociferous condemnation of Israel’s war on Palestinians. His media appearances have proven vital in synthesising a moral and strategic critique of war in which civilians are treated in a manner he characterises as unprecedented.

He sat down with Ash to talk about serving in Northern Ireland in the 80s, conscription and why Israel’s plan for Gaza will not work.

Novara FM: Not Westminster’s Whipping Boys w/ Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

Less than 20% of the promised levelling-up projects for England have been completed. The problem lies not only with the current government, but with the whole way the UK’s political system is set up, with its whips and Lords and not a constitution in sight.

So say Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, the mayors of Manchester and Liverpool. In a new book, they propose sweeping changes to fix this problem, from a Basic Law that guarantees equal living standards across the country to a transformed upper chamber.

Craig Gent, Novara’s new North of England Editor, speaks to them about their vision for the North and when we might see an Andy Burnham premiership. ‘Head North: A Rallying Cry for a More Equal Britain’ is out now.

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