Politics Theory Other
A podcast on radical politics, critical theory, and history. Hosted by Alex Doherty. The show explores topics from a leftist perspective, often featuring interviews with academics and activists. It aims to provide in-depth analysis of contemporary political issues through a theoretical lens.
Episodes
Excerpt - Daniel Trilling responds to listener questions
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New York's rising socialist tide w/ Liza Featherstone
Liza Featherstone joins PTO to talk about the impressive primary victories for DSA-backed candidates in the New York primaries.
We chatted about what the ramifications of the results are - both statewide but also nationally - and what the implications are for who will be the Democrats' candidate in the next presidential election. We also talked about the differences between the organising models
Interregnum - Peace in the Gulf?
On the peace deal between Iran and the United States, which is expected to see the strait of Hormuz opened in exchange for a lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran. We talked about how seriously to take the deal (given how vague it is and how much has been put off to future talks). We also talked about the historic significance of Iran linking the peace deal to a cessation of Israeli violence in
Heatwave politics w/ Adrienne Buller
Last month the UK was hit by a record-breaking heatwave, part of a wider climate event that affected much of Europe, whilst a subsequent and more severe heatwave hit South Asia. To talk through the politics of heatwaves, I was joined by Adrienne Buller, editor of The Breakdown.
We talked the differential impacts of heatwaves, and why it is that focus on climate in the media has declined at the s
The rise of the UK far-right w/ Daniel Trilling
For decades in much of Europe far-right opinion has had electoral expression in political parties that can command millions of votes, but until relatively recently in Britain anti-migrant and racist views - though prevalent - did not result in electoral vehicles with truly mass support. This all changed with the rise first of UKIP - and then its successors the Brexit Party and Reform - who can now
China and the US - a durable thaw? w/ Tobita Chow and Jake Werner
China experts Tobita Chow and Jake Werner join PTO to talk about the recently concluded summit in Beijing between the United States and the People's Republic of China. We chatted about whether or not the relative thaw in relations (and the continuation of the tariff truce) is durable. We went on to talk about China's approach to Taiwan, and how realistic or otherwise the idea of a Chinese blockade
Labour's election disaster w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins PTO to talk about the recent local elections in England and the parliamentary elections in Wales and Scotland in which the Labour Party suffered an historic defeat. We talked about what the results mean for Starmer's leadership and for the long-term trajectory of the party. We also chatted about the Greens and what can be done to respond to media smears against Zack Pol
American Crusade w/ Eleanor Janega
Eleanor Janega joins PTO to talk about the Christian right and the role of Christian Zionist ideology in the minds of key figures in the Trump administration and the decision to launch the US-Israeli war on Iran. We chatted about why the religious beliefs of US policy makers are often under-discussed, whether it's conceivable that Donald Trump is undergoing some sort of religious turn under the i
[UNLOCKED] China and the Iran war w/ William Figueroa
William Figueroa returns to PTO to talk about China's response to the US-Israeli war on Iran and the country's role in the subsequent peace negotiations. We chatted about whether the conflict has substantially changed Chinese foreign policy in West Asia, and whether Iran's ability to withstand the extraordinary violence of the US and Israeli assault has changed the weight China gives to its relati
Excerpt - China and the Iran war w/ William Figueroa
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Strategic defeat in the Gulf w/ Jennifer Kavanagh
Jennifer Kavanagh joins PTO to talk about the two-week conditional ceasefire that has been agreed between the United States and Iran, and how the Islamic Republic succeeded in inflicting what looks to be a major strategic defeat on the US. We talked about the implications of the ceasefire, what it means for US-Israeli relations and what will happen to American bases in the region - now that it's b
Excerpt - A hegemonic Iran?
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Why Iran isn't breaking w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi joins PTO to talk about the US and Israeli war on Iran, as the conflict - apparently expected to last mere days in the Trump White House - approaches its second month. Eskandar explained why the Iranian state and military have proven so resilient despite the overwhelming firepower that the United States and Israel are able to bring to bear, and why in his view the Trump
Israel's forever war in Lebanon w/ Nathaniel George
On March 2nd, in the early stages of the ongoing attack on Iran by Israel and the United States, and following the assassination of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah launched missile strikes on northern Israel. Hezbollah described the attack as a defensive act after more than a year of near-daily Israeli strikes. Israel has since launched major attacks on
Interregnum - Operation Epic Fury
Richard Seymour on the widening war in West Asia. We talked about the current military situation, the confusion around what US and Israeli objectives are, and the divergent responses of European states to the attack. We also talked about how to situate Operation Epic Fury in the context of gradual US decline, and what the prospects are for a revival of the US anti-war movement.
Excerpt - James Meadway on the Green's historic byelection victory
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Interregnum - Labour's Death Spiral
On the ongoing crisis within the Labour Party following the resignation of Morgan McSweeney, over the appointment of Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson to the position of US ambassador. We talked about why the parliamentary Labour party has stepped back from trying to oust Keir Starmer, and whether or not a left turn from the government is now conceivable. We went on to discuss just how dev
Interregnum - mail bag (part one)
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Richard responds to some more excellent listener questions.
Topics included:
- What a left foreign policy might look like in the context of collapsing US hegemony.
-Why Mark Carney called time on the so-called 'rules based order' before any major European stat
Homeland Empire w/ Nikhil Pal Singh
Nikhil Pal Singh joins PTO to discuss his recent article in Equator, titled Homeland Empire - in which Nikhil argues that from from Venezuela to Minnesota, Donald Trump is creating a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity.
We talked about how the relative shift away from the preoccupation with the southern border towards the targeting
ICE, resistance, and 'capitalism without humans' w/ Sarah Jaffe
On January 7th, Renee Nicole Good, a 37 year old prize winning poet and mother of three was murdered in Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross. Sarah Jaffe has reported extensively on protests and organising in Minnesota and in today's episode we spoke about the political background to the current situation in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. We talked
Interregnum - The Donroe Doctrine and US decline w/ Richard Seymour
In the latest episode of Interregnum, Richard Seymour discusses the Trump administrations' attack on Venezuela and its broader global and regional implications. We spoke about whether the US is retreating to becoming a mere regional power, how unprecedented the attack was (given the history of US intervention in central and South America) and we talked about why Trump's actions are - in Richard's
Excerpt - Alex responds to listener questions
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COP30 and Lula's politics of class conciliation w/ Sabrina Fernandes
Last month the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference - better known as COP30 - was held in the Amazonian city of Belem in northern Brazil. The conference was widely seen as a disappointment - with a binding agreement for a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels being blocked by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other oil producing states.
In the today's episode economist and activist Sabrina Ferna
Spotify unwrapped w/ Liz Pelly
In 2006, the music streaming service Spotify, founded by Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon was launched in the context of widespread music piracy, file sharing, and declining profits for the music majors.
Presenting themselves as music fans who were intent on saving the music industry, Spotify has since gone on to become the dominant music streaming platform, far eclipsing any
Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listener questions
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Rewind: Alexander Gallas on the Thatcherite offensive
PTO has now been going for more than seven years and some of the earlier episodes unfortunately have truly abysmal audio quality - because of the podcasting technology of the time. But, thanks to the wonders of audio editing software in 2025, it's been possible to quite significantly improve the sound quality of those episodes, and so in the coming months there will be a few interviews from the ar
The Sunlight Managers w/ Sofia Menemenlis
Sofia Menemenlis joins PTO to chat about her recent article in The Breakdown on the concept and history of solar geoengineering - or “solar radiation management" as it has become known. We talked about how the implementation of SRM is imagined, what the potentially catastrophic side effects of such a project might be, and who the key players are in terms of research and potential deployment of the
Excerpt - Sebastian Budgen on collapsing trust in the French state
Sebastian Budgen returns to provide an update on the political situation in France.
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The roots of the Korean far-right w/ Kevin Gray
In December of last year, the then South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol - of the right-wing People Power Party - attempted to impose martial law on the country in what was described as a 'self-coup'. Kevin Gray joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the New Left Review on the Korean far-right. We chatted about the background to the attempted coup and the history of the Korean far-right and
When the party's over w/ Phil Burton-Cartledge
Phil Burton-Cartledge returns to PTO to talk about the ongoing crisis of the British Conservative Party and whether there is a way back for the party that has dominated British politics for two centuries. We talked about whether the failings of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch are particular to her, or merely a reflection of deeper lying structural problems, and we discussed why it is that Nigel
France's political impasse and Macron's legacy w/ Sebastian Budgen
Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the political crisis in France where Emmanuel Macron has appointed his third prime minister in a year. We talked about the political background of the new prime minister, and long-time Macron ally, Sebastien Lecornu and whether the French Socialist Party is likely to prop up the new government. We also talked about the 'Block Everything' protest moveme
Richard Seymour responds to listener questions
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Britain's new left party w/ James Schneider
Juliet Jacques interviews James Schneider (co-founder of Momentum and director of strategic communications during Jeremy Corbyn's time as Labour leader) about the creation of the new left party in Britain, why there's a greater opportunity for a left electoral breakthrough now than there has been in living memory, and about the need to rebuild the left's social institutions.
Resisting Erasure w/ Adam Hanieh, Rafeef Ziadah and Robert Knox
Adam Hanieh, Rafeef Ziadah, and Robert Knox on their new co-authored book, 'Resisting Erasure: Capital, Imperialism and Race in Palestine'. We spoke about the inadequacy of framing the question of Palestine and the Gaza genocide solely as a humanitarian issue and how the Israeli project of settler-colonialism has been part and parcel of the expansion of European and American capitalism. We also ta
Digital Sovereignty and resisting the tech giants w/ Cecilia Rikap
In today's episode Cecilia Rikap - an expert in the political economy of science and technology - speaks with Paris Marx (host of the excellent Tech Won't Save Us podcast). Cecilia and Paris discussed the subservient approach that Keir Starmer's Labour government has taken to tech policy and how willing Starmer has been to give tech companies whatever they want. They went on to discuss global depe
Understanding Iran-China relations w/ William Figueroa
Expert on China-Iran relations William Figueroa joins PTO to talk about the relationship between China and Iran in the wake of the twelve day war between Iran and Israel. We chatted about why China's backing for Iran has been - and is likely to continue to be - relatively limited as China balances support for Iran with its other interest in West Asia. We also talked about the extent to which Xi Ji
Excerpt - Owen Hatherley responds to listener questions
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Owen Hatherley responds to listener questions
Owen Hatherley responds to listener questions by Politics Theory Other
Fake work and Y2K w/ Leigh Claire La Berge
In 1998 Leigh Claire La Berge was hired by a major communications conglomerate, where she worked alongside employees of the soon to be disgraced Arther Anderson (the auditor of companies involved in high profile corporate fraud such as WorldCom and Enron). Leigh Clare and her colleagues were tasked with working on the problem of Y2K - also known as the millennium bug - when it was predicted that t
[UNLOCKED] Look back in anger w/ Jeremy Gilbert
Jeremy Gilbert on the Oasis reunion and the britpop phenomenon more generally. We talked about the music that britpop marginalised, why 90s nostalgia is so prevalent, and why it was that of the various guitar groups of the time it was Oasis who became so successful in the mid 1990s.
Aftermath of the Israel-Iran war w/ Séamus Malekafzali
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali joins PTO to talk about the aftermath of the Israel-Iran war. We chatted about where the cessation of hostilities leaves the two states militarily, and whether Iran's strategy of reliance on ballistic missiles and a loose regional alliance was wholly misbegotten or just poorly implemented. And we talked about why the Trump administration shifted from their red line of
[UNLOCKED] Owen Hatherley on the Manic Street Preachers
Owen Hatherley returns to discuss his New Left Review article on the Welsh guitar band, the Manic Street Preachers. We talked about the particular appeal the group seemed to hold for working class kids from non-metropolitan backgrounds in the 1990s, and about the forbearance and occasional embarrassment that is the lot of fans who've followed their work in the subsequent decades. We also talked ab
Excerpt - Richard Seymour on the US attack on Iran
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Israel's war on Iranian society w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the New Left Review on Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran. Eskandar explained why he sees Israel's goals as not being confined to destroying Iran's nuclear programme, but also - and more importantly - the de-development of Iranian society and the balkanisation of the country. We also talked about how Iran is weathering Israe
Excerpt - Owen Hatherley on the Manic Street Preachers
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Excerpt - Richard Seymour on the logic of the Gaza genocide
Richard Seymour discusses the abrupt increase in Western criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, China's energy transition, and how to understand the Trump administration.
If you'd like to hear this episode in full please consider becoming a £5/pm PTO supporter on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
The India-Pakistan conflict w/ Radhika Desai
Radhika Desai returns to PTO to talk about the latest round of violence between India and Pakistan, following the terrorist attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian administered Kashmir on April 22nd. We discussed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019, when the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi revoked the territory's special status under the Indian constitution and brought it
Excerpt - Natasha Lennard answers listener questions
Natasha Lennard returns to answer listener questions on the escalation of the Gaza genocide, the prospects for a federal ban on abortion in the United States, and whether we are seeing the emergence of a distinctly liberal brand of transphobia in the US. If you'd like to hear this episode in full please consider becoming a £5/pm PTO supporter on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Where do US-China relations go from here? w/ Jake Werner
Jake Werner on US-China relations in the context of the trade war. We discussed why Donald Trump has dialled down his rhetoric over tariffs, and why the term "decoupling" hardly captures the severity of what a breakdown of the economic relations between the US and China will look like. We also talked about the prospects of increased military tension, and whether we can expect the development of pr
Israel's renewed offensive w/ Amjad Iraqi
Amjad Iraqi returns to PTO to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza - following on from Israel's violation of the ceasefire in late March. We spoke about why the ceasefire was always likely to be violated, the eroding support for continuation of the war within Israel (as the war increasingly comes to be seen as a way of shielding Benjamin Netanyahu from corruption charges) and about the increasing
Excerpt - Quinn Slobodian responds to listener questions
Quinn Slobodian returns to answer questions sent in by listeners in response to our recent episode on Quinn's new book, Hayek's Bastards: The neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right.
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Hayek's bastards w/ Quinn Slobodian
Quinn Slobodian returns to PTO to talk about his new book 'Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right'. Whilst politicians and thinkers of the new right are typically characterised as fierce opponents of neoliberalism, Quinn explains how the emergence of the populist right developed through a split within the neoliberal movement itself. We talked about the intellectual developmen
Whither the Democrats? w/ Natasha Lennard
Natasha Lennard joins PTO to talk about her recent writing on how the Democrats are making sense of their electoral defeat in November and how the mainstream of the party is adopting conservative social policy while flirting with far-right activists and influencers. We also talked about the enduring and ever more bizarre democrat obsession with civility and bipartisanship.
Excerpt - Ambushed in the Oval Office? w/ Richard Seymour
In the latest episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour comments on the the fallout from the calamitous meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and JD Vance.
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The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat w/ Hannah Proctor
Hannah Proctor joins PTO to discuss her book Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat. Amongst other aspects of the book, we discussed the practice of Maoist self-criticism and its influence on the American and European New Left, the accounts of women involved in the 1984-85 miners strike following its defeat at the hands of the Thatcher government, and about the Paris Commune of 187
Excerpt - Adam Tooze on resistance to Trump
Adam Tooze returns to answer the many excellent questions sent in by PTO supporters.
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Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listeners' questions
Richard returns to answer more questions - including on the Gaza ceasefire, bible study in American schools, and what might be learned from Mexico's Morena party.
Gaza's future w/ Muhammad Shehada
PTO is joined by the Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. In our conversation we talked about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after fifteen months of war and genocide. We also talked about the military capabilities of Hamas and why Israel was unable to inflict a total defeat on the group. We dicussed how the Trump administration will relate to Israel, and finally Mohammad shared his
A crisis in credibility - Labour's economic programme
Will Davies joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the London Review of Books on the UK government's economic agenda. We discussed the policies that Labour has adopted in its attempt to break out of the low growth and low productivity rates that have characterised the UK economy in recent years. We also chatted about the extent to which the Starmer-Reeves project emulates and diverges from
Excerpt - Richard Seymour on Luigi Mangione
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In today’s episode Richard Seymour responds to listener questions on the overthrow of Assad in Syria, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the significance of widespread public sympathy for Luigi Mangione. We also talked about “normi
Richard Seymour on Luigi Mangione
If you would like to listen to this episode of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 patron on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
In today’s episode Richard Seymour responds to listener questions on the overthrow of Assad in Syria, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the significance of widespread public sympathy for Luigi Mangione. We also talked about “normi
Excerpt - Richard Seymour on the US election and Trump redux (part two)
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In this second part of a two-part episode Richard Seymour responds to more of the questions sent in by listeners on the US presidential election and its ramifications. We also talked briefly about the International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants
Excerpt - Richard Seymour on the US election and Trump redux (part one)
To get access to episodes of PTO Extra please consider becoming a £5 supporter on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/c/poltheoryother
In part one of a two part episode Richard Seymour responds to some of the excellent questions sent in by listeners on the US presidential election and its ramifications. Richard answered questions on the role of social media in the election, the nomination of RFK J
It's the inflation, stupid w/ James Meadway
Today we're publishing a crossover episode with our friends at the Macrodose podcast, hosted by James Meadway. In the episode talk about the economics of Donald Trump's election victory and why James lays much of the blame for Kamala Harris' defeat at the door of mainstream economics. We also talked about why Donald Trump did so well amongst young white men, and about what role the Democrats' enab
Towards war with China? w/ Adam Tooze
Adam Tooze returns to PTO to discuss the extent to which war with China is increasingly being treated as a serious prospect in Washington and the Pentagon. We also talked about how successful, or otherwise, the Biden administration has been in constructing regional alliances against China during the last four years. And we went on to talk about why the Chinese Communist Party leadership's decision
Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions (part 2)
In today's episode Richard Seymour responds to more of the great questions sent in by PTO supporters. Those questions covered topics including degrowth, the extent to which Green party's can be vehicles for radical change, the left's impasse in the UK and Richard's appearance in the audience on BBC Question Time at the tender age of twenty-one.
Become a £5 supporter of PTO on patreon to get acces
“Where are the Arabs?” w/ Nihal El Aasar
As Israel's genocide in Gaza escalated in the autumn of last year, there was much speculation as to whether we would see mass uprisings in the Arab States of the region. Yet although there have been major Palestine protests in the region, and other acts of solidarity, we have not seen the kinds of uprisings that many hoped for. Nihal El Aasar takes up this question and argues that repression and t
Israel's violent escalation w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Nathaniel George
On the 27th of September Israel dramatically escalated its war on Hezbollah, by assassinating its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Four days later Iran responded to the killing of its long-standing ally by launching a missile attack on Israel - targeting military and intelligence facilities. In today's episode Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Nathaniel George join PTO to talk about whether the
Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions
In part one of a two part listener's questions episode Richard responds to questions on Israel's murderous attack on Lebanon, the prospects for Gaza, the appointment of Michel Barnier as French prime minister and psychoanalytic insights into nationalism.
Become a £5 supporter of the show at patreon.com/poltheoryother to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra
Excerpt - Jeremy Gilbert on Oasis
Jeremy Gilbert returns to PTO to discuss the news that Oasis have announced that they will be reforming to perform a series of gigs next summer. We discussed the reaction to that news, why 90s nostalgia is so prevalent, and why it was that of the various guitar groups of the time, it was Oasis who became so successful in the mid 1990s.
Zionism as a form of anti-semitism w/ Jake Romm
Zionism, and the project of ethnic cleansing and colonial settlement in historic Palestine, is often rightly compared to other projects of European colonialism. But in a recent essay for Parapraxis, my guest Jake Romm argues that Zionism not only has been influenced by the European imperial project, but that it has also been massively shaped by anti-semitism, and that in its recapitulation of anti
Excerpt - Phil Burton-Cartledge on Labour's project of authoritarian modernisation
Phil Burton-Cartledge joins PTO to discuss the first few weeks of Keir Starmer's Labour government. To get access to this episode of PTO Extra please consder becoming a £5 supporter on patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
The UK's pogroms and resurgent Islamophobia w/ Nesrine Malik
On July 30th, a week of Islamophobic and racist violence broke out in England and Northern Ireland, following a mass stabbing even in the seaside town of Southport in which three children were murdered. The subsequent racist attacks were fuelled by misinformation, spread by far-right groups, that the perpetrator was a Muslim and an asylum seeker.
In today's episode Nesrine Malik joined PTO to t
Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions (part two)
Richard Seymour returns to the show to respond to more listener's questions and to address the recent outbreak of racist and Islamophobic violence in the UK.
Become a £5 supporter on patreon to get access to all episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother
Germany, Israel, and staatsräson (part one) w/ Bue Rübner Hansen
Bue Rübner Hansen joins PTO to talk about his recent essay The New German Chauvinism. In the first part of our conversation we discussed the history of the German-Israeli alliance and how its emergence was far more complicated than is commonly supposed. We discussed the contrasting attitudes to Israel amongst the German public and the political and media class and big business. And we went on to d
Excerpt - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions
In today's episode Richard Seymour returns to answer some of the excellent questions sent in by PTO patrons. To become a PTO supporter go to patreon.com/poltheoryother
Peak Hindutva? w/ Radhika Desai
On January 22nd the new Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh was consecrated in a ceremony led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event kicked off Modi's election campaign that was widely expected to lead to a landslide for Modi and the BJP. Instead, the Hindu nationalist party lost 63 seats and the opposition coalition led by congress made significant gains. In today's episode I spoke with Radhik
The French left's shock election win w/ Sebastian Budgen
Sebastian Budgen returns to the show to discuss the recent shock result in the French legislative elections that saw the left wing New Popular Front win the highest number of seats, beating both Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble and the far-right National Rally, who had been widely expected to emerge with the most deputies in the French parliament.
UK Election Special w/ James Meadway and Richard Seymour
Today’s show is a crossover episode with our good friends over at the Macrodose podcast, which is hosted by economist James Meadway. In the episode James is joined by Richard Seymour to discuss the upcoming UK general election. We talked about the crisis in the Conservative Party and the prospects of a post-election merger with Nigel Farage's Reform party. We also discussed whether Farage's commen
The Searchers w/ Andy Beckett
Andy Beckett joins PTO to talk about his new book, The Searchers: Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies. The five rebels in question being Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, and Ken Livingstone. We talked about the role of the global tumult of 1968 in the development of the politics of the five, the extraordinary racism that Diane Abbott has f
