Bungacast
Bungacast is a global politics podcast that navigates the strange era after the supposed end of history, when political ideologies have become both unfamiliar and unavoidable. Through interviews, long-form discussions, and documentary-style episodes, the show examines the legacy of the 'bunga bunga' age and the resurgence of politics in new forms. It offers critical analysis and conversation about a world where old certainties have collapsed and new political realities are being built.
Episodes
/560/ Indonesia's Putin ft. Vedi Hadiz
On oligarchy and the end of reform.
Vedi Hadiz is back on to talk to Lee and Alex about Indonesia, amidst severe economic instability in the country.
What does the ascendancy of Prabowo Subianto represent?
What is going on with the erratic economic policymaking?
How is Prabowo bullying other oligarchs, and is it working?
What similarities are there between Prabowo and Putin, or even Trump?
/559/ Global Jihad: 9/11 at 25 ft. Philip Cunliffe
On the complex connections between globalisation and political Islam.
The OG Bunga Boys reflect on the quarter-century since that spectacular terrorist attack, and talk about Phil's recent essay on the waning of Islamism.
Whatever happened to 'solving' Islamic radicalism through moderate conservatism?
Is the end of globalisation also the end of global jihad? Why?
Why did Islamism fail in pur
/558/ Sewer Socialism, or Left in the Toilet? ft. Ross Barkan
On Zohran Mamdani.
Writer Ross Barkan, author of The Revolutionary on the New York mayor, talks to Ryan Zickgraf and Alex Hochuli about what Mamdani means for the Left.
How did Mamdani mute cultural progressivism to focus concentrate on rent, transport, childcare and food?
Is municipal socialism part of a strategy to rebuild national power, or is it a retreat to the cities after the failure of
/557/ Letters to the Editors: Aug 2026
We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month.
Key issues:
How big a deal, historically, is the US's failure in Iran?
Is populism rooted in resentment and/or cynicism?
Why is fascism not the right label for Trump?
How to debate immigration?
Are NGOs and international organisations actually relevant?
For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Lin
Where's Bungacast? Nowhere...Everywhere
Taking a short break – back in late August.
/556/ World Cup 2026: Stick to Politics ft. Many Guests
On politics and football.
Alex is joined by Karl Sharro, Juan David Rojas, Tim Abrahams, and Euan Marshall to pick over the stories of this World Cup.
If the World Cup is a branding exercise for the hosts, what exactly is the USA selling here? And Mexico? Canada?
Are conspiracy theories good, actually?
Is Argentina evil? Should you support the global South against the colonisers?
Are evang
/555/ Who Denies US Empire? ft. Daniel Bessner
On 'imperialist realism'.
Daniel Bessner, historian, is back on to discuss the relation between US foreign policy and ideology. He talks to Alex and Lee about his forthcoming book and other writings.
Why has acceptance of imperialism accompanied declining support for empire?
What is the US's sense of mission and how does this coexist with cynicism?
Is US politics stuck between liberal guilt
UNLOCKED: /551/ Reading Club: Mythologies ft. Catherine Liu
On Roland Barthes' Mythologies.
(This is an unlocked episode from our Reading Club. Subscribe for more like this.)
Alex, George, and contributing editor Catherine Liu delve into Barthes' 1957 classic to understand the form of ideology critique it proposes – and particularly as it relates to left and right.
If the bourgeoisie generates myth, is revolution a cathartic act that gets us beyond myth?
/554/ Capitalism Is When the State... ft. Corey Robin
On writing the history of capitalism.
Political theorist Corey Robin talks to Alex H and Alex G about what is wrong with Sven Beckert's monumental new Capitalism: A Global History.
Have historians returned to writing about big themes and grand narratives?
Why does Beckert date capitalism's emergence to 12th century Arabia?
Is capitalism essentially about free markets and free trade – or abou
/553/ Energy Sovereignty = Political Independence? ft. Benjamin Bradlow
On global shortages and their political consequences.
Benjamin Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex and Lee about the world-historic impact of the Hormuz Strait closure.
How will shortages – beyond oil and gas – reverberate through global supply chains?
Why are markets so sanguine about all this? Are financial economic elites too insul
/552/ Bunga Live: Is History Back (Baby)?
Audio from the live event held at Verdurin, London, on 28 May 2026.
The OG Bunga Boys - Alex, George, and Phil - present their takes, followed by responses from contributing editor Lee Jones and friend-of-the-pod Nina Power - and audience questions.
/551/ Reading Club: Mythologies ft. Catherine Liu
On Roland Barthes' Mythologies.
Alex, George, and contributing editor Catherine Liu delve into Barthes' 1957 classic to understand the form of ideology critique it proposes – and particularly as it relates to left and right.
If the bourgeoisie generates myth, is revolution a cathartic act that gets us beyond myth?
Is the direct producer also unable to speak myth, or is this a romanticisation?
/550/ The New Dollar Imperialism ft. Costas Lapavitsas
On world money and war.
Costas Lapavitsas, professor of economics at SOAS, London, talks to George and Alex about financialisation, arrested development, and the Strait of Hormuz.
What is the state-led stabilisation of finance capital?
How does today's imperialism differ from prior versions – even if they also inhibited development outside the core?
What is the "liquidity tribute" that devel
History’s back, baby! (Event in London)
History’s back, baby!
Thu 28 May, Verdurin, London
Tickets: https://verdur.in/store/historys-back-baby-admission/
It is obvious today that the “end of history”, postulated by Francis Fukuyama in 1992, is over. Liberal democracy as the final form of human organisation? Pah! The arc of history tending towards justice? Pah!
Will the end of twentieth-century modernity be the start of something new
/549/ Why Has Politics Genderised? ft. Ashley Frawley
On angry young women.
Ashley Frawley, sociologist and senior editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to delve more deeply into young people's political polarisation on gender lines.
Why is there a lack of mutual understanding or goodwill between young men and women when we have never been more equal?
Why do differing political views on anything from Israel/Palestine to Donald Trump cause such
/548/ Post-Legitimate Society ft. Will Charles
On the gig economy, big tech, and ideology.
Sociologist Will Charles talks to Alex about a form of social organisation that has stopped trying to justify itself.
How should the gig economy work and how does it actually work?
Is any worker in this economy a 'true believer'?
Why isn't digital sophistication a proof of economic efficiency?
What's the relationship between secular stagnation, v
/547/ What Are the Politics of Stagnation? ft. Dylan Riley
On political capitalism and divided workers.
Sociology professor at UC Berkeley, Dylan Riley, talks to Alex and Lee about economic stagnation, the state propping up capitalism, and class politics.
What is "political capitalism"? And is it true that plunder and predation matter more now than exploitation?
Why hasn't the ruling class purged the system through mass bankruptcies and unemployment?
/546/ Reading Club: Are We All Post-Liberal Now? ft. Geoff Shullenberger
On postliberalism, MacIntyre and Gray.
How was the 1950s "end of ideology" (Bell, Lipset) different from the Fukuyaman 1990s "end of history"?
Is John Gray correct in his characterisation of Alasdair MacIntyre as a prelapsarian?
Does hyperliberal individualism lead to a search for meaning, and thus to communitarianism?
Is the competition between liberalism and post-liberalism now our poli
/545/ Orbanism without Orban: the New European Centre? ft. Szilard Pap
On Hungary's elections.
Hungarian political analyst and editor of Partizan, Szilard Pap, talks to Alex about the end of 16 years of Fidesz in government.
What is the scale of Fidesz’s wipeout?
Who is Péter Magyar, and is he actually to the right of Orban?
What was Orban’s rule built on, and what parts of it have been rejected?
Does Orban mark a shift from national-populism to radical conse
/544/ Iran War: Rogue State USA ft. Arash Azizi
On the brave new world we have entered.
Historian Arash Azizi is back on the pod, talking to Alex H and Lee Jones about the ongoing war. We try to draw out some firm consequences, beyond the immediate situtation.
Why did Trump go to war?
Is this Netanyahu's war? And will he continue it regardless of the US?
Will the Islamic Republic become more conservative now?
What has the war revealed
/543/ Squeamish About Sex, Aroused By Identity ft. Ran Heilbrunn
On abolishing queer theory.
Ran Heilbrunn talks to Lee Jones and Alex Hochuli about his chapter, "Abolish Queer Theory!" in the edited collection Inversion: Gay Life after the Homosexual.
What is queer theory and why should it be abolished?
What is the meaning behind the shift in terms: invert, to homosexual, to gay, to queer?
How does queer theory politicise sex and why is this bad?
Do ou
/542/ Letters to the Editors: March 2026
We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month.
Key issues:
The difference between radical conservatism and the far right
Racism in class society in decomposition
Tech bro übermenschen (or just Uber men)
Who is doing the work of justifying this order?
And Ursula, the villainous Cecaelian sea witch, about whom songs must be sung
For the full episode, subscribe
/541/ Wedging in a Lever ft. Benjamin Fong
On Amazon, labour & logistics, and trains.
Benjamin Fong, of ASU's Center for Work and Democracy, as well as an editor at Damage and co-author of the substack On The Seams, talks to Alex and George about organising workers in locations of corporate vulnerability.
We also preview the forthcoming print issue of Damage, Trains, by discussing modernity and its avatars, and development and de-devel
/540/ Welcome to the Apolar and Post-Multilateral World ft. Tom Chodor
On "non-hegemony" and world disorder.
Tom Chodor, IR & politics scholar at Monash University, joins us to talk about a world that still retains the formal shells of multilateral institutions but whose contents have been hollowed out.
What is "multilateralism"? Why is it an important concept to capture the US-led order that is now falling apart?
If multilateralism was always in crisis, what
/539/ Reading Club: Where's Our Flying Cars?
On the slowing rate of technological progress.
Alex, George and contributing editor (and science writer) Leigh Phillips discuss David Graeber's 2012 essay, Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit. This builds on two of this year's themes: state capitalism (how planning and growth – or their absence – intersect with technology) and the pre-political (how technology shapes
• Were we right
/538/ Muskism ft. Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff
On the operating system of the 21st century.
Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff talk to Alex Hochuli and Alex Gourevitch about their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, and why we should ask "what is Musk a symptom of?"
If Fordism characterised the mid-20th century, are our times those of Muskism?
What are the touchstones of Muskism that the authors identify: fortr
/537/ Letters to the Editors: Feb 2026
We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month or so. Key issues this month are:
What are the wrongs of the postmodern right – aand left?
Will the civilisational paradigm become hegemonic?
Is Trump's foreign policy techno-populist?
Whether, and how, to protest anti-immigration policing
To defend or to smash the professions?
For the full episode, subscribe at p
/536/ Can Racism Be Overcome Within Capitalism? ft. Paul Gomberg
On anti-racism, communism, and philosophy.
Alex Gourevitch talks to political philosopher Paul Gomberg about his original and deep Marxist arguments for what makes racism wrong, why racism cannot be eradicated without overcoming capitalism, and the limits of many contemporary anti-racist arguments.
What does it mean to "alienate" race?
What is the harm in racism? How does it harm everyone, not
/535/ Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Conservatism ft. Matt McManus
On postmodern conservatives.
Matt McManus talks to Alex and George about a Right increasingly shaped by the parameters of postmodern culture – and his Damage article on this.
Who are the key thinkers of postmodern conservatism?
Does truth matter anymore?
Is "flooding the zone" an act of post-truth politics?
Does all that is solid melt into advertising – and is it Charlie Kirk's fault?
Is
/534/ Is There a Doctrine Called Donroe? ft. Juan David Rojas
On Trump and Rubio, Venezuela and Cuba.
Writer Juan David Rojas talks to Alex and Lee about the abduction of Maduro, what next for Venezuela, and Trump's "hemispheric" foreign policy.
What is the Trump administration's policy toward Latin America?
Is the attack on Venezuela a war for oil? Or a war vs 'narcoterrorism'?
What are the internal divisions in Venezuela, and could it fall into civil
/533/ Reading Club: Illiberalism?
On "thin ideologies" in a postmodern age.
The Reading Club kicks off with an exploration of illiberalism, a "new ideological universe" that exists in "a permanent situational relation to liberalism."
For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast/membership
What are examples of this backlash against liberalism?
How is illiberalism different from populism, conservatism, or the far rig
/532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet
On Trump & radical right ideology.
Jean-François Drolet, a leading researcher into the 'World of the Right', talks to Alex and Lee about Donald Trump's coveting of Greenland, and puts the move into its ideological context.
What is the paleoconservative worldview, how is it different from the neoconservative one, and which is more influential in the Trump regime?
How does paleoconservatism
/531/ Interiorising the Border ft. Ryan Zickgraf
On ICE, Minneapolis – and your questions & comments.
Contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf is back from Minnesota and tells us what is happening on the ground. We also discuss:
If this was Trump picking a fight, why Minnesota?
Do the slayings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti mark a step-change in who can be killed in the US with relative impunity?
What are the implications for the 2nd Amendment
/530/ Urgent and Immediate and Impossible ft. Christie Offenbacher & Ricky Levitt
On the social turn in psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysts Christie and Ricky talk to Alex and George about their article in issue #5 of Damage, on ill-fated attempts at solving social problems through therapy.
What is the 'social turn' and is it another case of immediacy?
Why are the social problems to be dealt with treated as both urgent and impossible to resolve?
Is this a case of hyperpolitics
/529/ Don't Pick Up: The Scam Economy ft. Mark Bo
On Southeast Asia's scam compounds.
Mark Bo, organised-crime researcher and co-author of Scam, talks to Alex and Lee about his book, his experiences and why this fusion of gangsterism and speculation has taken root in the contemporary economy.
What is the scale of the scam industry?
How do scams like pig butchering, fish butchering, or law-enforcement impersonation work?
How does organised c
/528/ The Heroic Bourgeoisie in the Democratic Post-Colony ft. Sandipto Dasgupta
On the making of independent India – and its lessons.
Assistant professor of politics at The New School, Sandipto Dasgupta, talks to contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about this new book, Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony.
Why was the postcolonial movement insufficiently anti-colonial?
What is the difference between the legal and political meaning of pop
/527/ Exit the Minoritarian ft. Panagiotis Sotiris
On the collective subject at the end of the End of History.
Panagiotis Sotiris, Historical Materialism editorial board member and assistant professor at the University of the Aegean, talks to Alex and Lee about class and the "national-popular".
Is the way to recover popular sovereignty to "return" to the nation?
Is there a contradiction between this and declaring oneself to be "in favour of op
/526/ Come On Feel the Paranoise
On US derangement on screen.
The OG Bunga boys get togther for the annual end-of-year film episode. We discuss Ari Aster's Eddington, as well as a bit of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia: the three films that together marked 2025, and which deal with paranoia, conspiracy, disinformation and unmoored political activity.
Is this hyperpolitics on screen?
/525/ Neoliberalism in One Country? ft. Branko Milanovic
On homoploutia and national market liberalism.
Branko Milanovic, Research Professor at City University of New York, talks to Phil and Alex about his most recent book, The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World.
What unites the political trajectories of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump?
How is global inequality, growth and political conflict evo
/524/ You've Been Diagnosed with Subjective Problems ft. Amber Trotter
On overmedicalisation and the crisis of authority.
Amber Trotter, practicing psychologist and an editor at Damage magazine, and George Hoare tell Alex about their co-written article in the print issue of Damage on "the pre-political".
What is driving the explosion in mental health diagnoses? Why are people seeking diagnosis?
How is it the product of the subjective and the purely scientific?
/523/ Woke in the Dark ft. Ryan Zickgraf
On post-woke strategies.
Ryan Z is back on, talking to Alex and George about the US Democrats' attempt to respond to Trump/MAGA.
In association with Damage magazine.
Can the Democrats escape the shadow of woke?
Is Big Woke dying? Everywhere?
Who are the groups and think-tanks pushing for a reorientation, and what are they proposing?
Will the Dems adapt to Trump’s challenge or pretend nothi
/522/ At the Bottom of the Tar Pit ft. Benjamin Studebaker
On legitimacy and chronic crisis.
Benjamin Studebaker talks to Alex and Lee about his book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy – and why the absence of the threat of revolution makes the crisis drag on.
What's wrong with 20th century accounts of legitimacy crises? What's changed?
Why is contemporary politics so stuck? Is it inescapable?
How does the breakdown of consensus make the emergence of
/521/ Too Smart to Read ft. C. Derick Varn
On the crisis in literacy.
Poet, podcaster and teacher, C. Derick Varn – who has taught in Mexico, Korea, Egypt and the US, at various levels – joins Alex and George to interrogate the coming "post-literate society".
What do we mean when we say 'post-literate'?
This seems a global problem – so is it a problem of the education system?
Is it as simple as blaming smartphones?
How else has edu
/520/ Conspiracy Culture & Paranoid Styles ft. Catherine Liu
In this special episode, we present talks given by contributing editor Catherine Liu and co-host George Hoare on the paranoid style at a recent conference at UC Irvine, co-hosted by the Palm Springs School for Social Research.
00:01:23 – Catherine Liu: Opening Remarks, on Richard Hofstatder’s classic essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”
00:12:18 – George Hoare: The Paranoid Style in
UNLOCKED: /519/ Reading Club: White Collar & Post-Mass Culture ft. Dustin Guastella
[We are unlocking this episode from the Bungacast Reading Club, originally released Nov 2025, which is normally available only to Reading Club subscribers. If you'd like to join, sign up at patreon.com/bungacast]
On the middle classes and cultural compression.
For the concluding episode of the 2024/25 Reading Club, we discuss C. Wright Mills' White Collar, plus some additional short texts on what
UNLOCKED: /497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
On technology, transhumanism, and progress.
James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips.
What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL?
Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now?
What are the
/518/ We Have Never Been Postmodern ft. Geoff Shullenberger
On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation.
Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist.
Does it make sense to talk of "right-wing cancel culture"? Is it different from the left's?
Is countercultural trolling in tension with "defending Western civilisation"?
What does René Girard argue ab
/517/ Wonders of the Modern World ft. Pier Paolo Tamburelli
On places of ritual.
Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly.
For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
How has architecture lost its ritual dimension?
Why are these "modern wonders" kitsch? And why are they found the world over, from Munich to Malay
/516/ France's Two Peripheries: Riots and Insurrection ft. Fred Lyra
On 20 years since the 2005 riots.
Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – riots in the banlieues; 2015 – Islamist terror; 2025 – government collapse.
For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
How were the riots normalised? And what was the state's response?
/515/ State Capitalism Is Now ft. Ilias Alami
On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion.
Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism.
Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but is global?
What does the rise of state capitalism tell us about the health of contemporary capitalism?
How did globalisation and stagnation combine to give birth to it?
Is t
/514/ The Expressway World ft. Richard Williams
On living with modernity.
Richard J Williams talks to Alex and George about his new book, The Expressway World and how cities have adapted to the infrastructural legacies of the mid-20th century. We talk about New York, London, São Paulo, Madrid, Glasgow and Seoul.
Why do people hate expressways – and who actually loves them?
What are Big Man cities? How do expressways bring together populism,
/513/ Global Right: LATAM Division ft. Guilherme Casarões
On the Bolsonaros, Milei and MAGA.
Alex talks to Guilherme Casarões, Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies at Florida International University, about Bolsonaro's sentencing, Trump's tariffs on Brazil, and the bailout of Milei.
Is the motivation behind the tariffs on Brazil just partisan interest?
How has Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, become point-man for the Latin American radical right's
/512/ Reading Club: Middle-Class Dreams & Nightmares
On Göran Therborn's article, "Dreams and Nightmares of the World's Middle Classes".
The penultimate episode of this block on the middle class, we discuss the differing fortunes and politics of the global North and South middle-classes – as well as ways they may be similar.
Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Is the middle-class dream increasingly only a dream?
Can the "ever-rising middle-class
/511/ Britain's Tinderbox ft. Lisa McKenzie
On the UK's working-class unrest.
Sociologist Lisa McKenzie talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about why the country feels like a powder-keg.
What's behind protests like Unite the Kingdom? How responsible are far-right agitators?
Why are threats posed to women and children such an explosive issue?
What is the type of nationalism that is behind the proliferation of English and Br
/510/ Couch Potatoes to Screen Sausages ft. Ryan Zickgraf
On critiques of entertainment.
New contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf joins Alex and George to talk about the history of media critique and contemporary cases.
How does consensus-age comedy like King of the Hill deal with hyperpolitics today?
Is the reliance on archetypes a problem, or inherent to all comedy?
Why is Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death still relevant?
Is the Gen X crit
/509/ The Revenge of Ethnic Chauvinism ft. Orlando Patterson
On slavery, racism, and the politics of freedom.
Renowned sociologist Orlando Patterson talks to contributing editor Alex Gourevitch about themes brought up by his recent The Paradox of Freedom as well as his works as a whole.
Why is the study of slavery too affected by the exceptional US American experience?
In what way is violence a constitutive feature of slave relations that aren’t true of
RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 5
The fifth and final part of a series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we examine the Millennials and Generation Z. Uniquely, generation war today seems to be a conflict over resources more than over values. Is there any basis for this, and what do Millennials actually want? With generational and class conflict seemingly bound together today, we analyse 'Generation Left'
RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 4
The fourth in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we examine Generation X – the generation of the End of History. How was this generation overshadowed by the Boomer's failures? In the Eastern Bloc, the fall of Soviet regimes was a traumatic moment – how did this shape consciousness? And how did the Iranian Revolution – and subsequent war – shape
RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 3
The third in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we examine the Baby Boomers – myth and reality. The revolt of the '60s has been misunderstood in many dimensions. Was it betrayed or did it always express capitalist ideology? Were the Boomers the ones who really did the 1960s anyway? And what world have the Boomers created as they passed thro
RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 2
The second in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we look at the emergence of 'youth' as political concept in the age following the French Revolution, and its shifting meanings. How important was generational consciousness in the Young Italy movement and its imitators in the 19th century, and how should we understand the so-called 'Lost Generati
RE-RELEASE: OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, 1
The first in a special five-part series on generational consciousness and conflict.
In this episode, we look at the current, vexed discourse around generations, and analyse competing theories on how to understand generational cleavages.
Guests include:
Felix Krawatzek, political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin
Jennie Bristow, sociologist at Canterbur
/508/ Digesting the Four Ds
On disruption, disturbance, decline, decay.
We continue our attempt to conceptualise the present moment by looking at Silicon Valley-style disruption, geopolitical disturbances and 'polycrisis', and decline & decay along two axes: normative vs descriptive, and geopolitical and universal.
Then we deal with your questions and comments over the past month on: religious authority; Russia, imperial
UNLOCKED: /201/ Reading Club: The New Class War
[Bungacast is on holiday, so we're unlocking/re-releasing a July 2021 episode that was previously only available to higher-tier subscribers]
We discuss Michael Lind's The New Class War.
Lind identifies new lines in the class war, between working class and managerial overclass, between those in the "heartlands" and those in the "hubs". How convincing is this account? What is his critique of technoc
/507/ Put 'General Will' in Charge ft. Philip Cunliffe
On The National Interest.
Aufhebunga Bunga co-founder and contributing editor Phil Cunliffe joins us to talk about his new book about politics after the age of globalisation. We ask questions about his book – and then put him on trial for wrongthink.
SUBSCRIBE: PATREON.COM/BUNGACAST
Who is the 'national interest' good for? Is it a domestic or a foreign policy concern?
Why did the 'national int
/506/ Bunga's Been Juicin' ft. Jason Myles
On image-enhancing drugs.
Jason Myles of This Is Revolution is back on, talking to George and Alex H about his article in Damage on increasing steroid use.
What does the discourse around 'fake natties' tell us about authenticity? Do SSRIs provide "fake happy"?
If steroids are a short-cut, how do we understand the "work" in "working out"?
Is the taboo on drug use completely gone?
Are we med
/505/ Reading Club: Classes in Bourgeois Society
On Franz Jakubowski's Ideology and Superstructure in Historical Materialism.
We focus on a very short section from Jakubowski's 1936 book, and delve into wider questions regarding ideology, social totality, and the middle classes.
Is ideology “false, partial consciousness”?
Is Jakubowski right that capitalism is the least ideological social form so far?
Is it true that the middle classes on
/504/ Vietnam's Victory: American War to Globalisation ft. Sean Fear
On resistance and reform in southeast Asia.
Historian Sean Fear talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about Vietnam on the 50-year anniversary since the end of the war.
How is Vietnamese identity wrapped up with the notion of resistance?
Is Chinese influence as great as resistance to China?
How is the ‘American War’ thought about in Vietnam today?
How similar is Vietnam to China: defying Fukuyama’
/503/ Effervescent Decadence in the Third Modernity
On the end of the end of history and what comes next.
Phil is back on the pod, talking with George and Alex about the big themes of the podcast. In particular, we look at a recent essay in Foreign Policy by historian Christopher Clarke called "The End of Modernity".
To what extent was the 1989 moment as significant in Beijing as Berlin?
Is Trump actually Stalin (but in a good way)?
Is Russia
/502/ Their Own Personal Jesus ft. Lamorna Ash
On the "return of religion" in Britain.
[Patreon Exclusive]
Journalist Lamorna Ash talks to George and Alex about how and why young people might be turning to religion today.
Have things moved on from the New Atheists and their critique of religion?
What are the divides in Christianity today? How do culture wars over sexuality play out?
Why do ritual, quiet, and the 'new monasticism’ hold ap
/501/ Reading Club: The Lower-Middle Class
On Arno Mayer's "The Lower Middle Class as Historical Problem".
We kick off the third block of the 2024/25 Reading Club, which is dedicated to the question of the middle class:
The abatement of class struggle between workers and owners has shone a light on the role of the middle classes. Beyond the resurgence of the debate around the much-maligned professional-managerial class (PMC), what is the t
/500/ Disrupt, Decline, Decay
We celebrate 500 episodes of Aufhebunga Bunga with a cold, hard look at the decay around us.
Alex and George plus contributing editors Lee Jones and Alex Gourevitch wrangle with four principal questions:
What does it mean to say our era is one of decay or decline?
How does this relate to the non-death of neoliberalism – its intellectual destitution, its practical weakening, but also its mutati
/499/ Shame! Shame on Bungacast! ft. Taylor Hines
On shame, guilt and responsibility.
Taylor Hines, an editor at Damage magazine, talks to George and Alex about his essay "Fool Me Twice" in Issue 4 of the magazine, which deals with the theme Responsibility.
Remember, subscribers to Bungacast get a complimentary online subscription to Damage!
We discuss:
Why is Robert Eggers' Nosferatu about shame? What about the Rape of Lucretia?
What can Fré
/498/ After the 12-Day War ft. Eskandar Sadeghi
On Iran and its Axis of Resistance.
Historian Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi talks to Alex about the leadup and aftermath of the so-called "12-Day War between Iran and Israel and the US.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been humbled, Assad is gone from Syria – how weakened is Iran?
Did the 12-Day War actually happen? What prevented it becoming a wider war?
What is the meaning of Israel's maximalist aim
/497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
On technology, transhumanism, and progress.
James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips.
What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL?
Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now?
What are the
/496/ Insane-Washing the War (Which Did Not Take Place)
On the war on Iran that wasn't (yet).
Alex and George review the past month in the world and on Bungacast:
The crazy will-they-won't-they of a potential US war on Iran
The ex post facto justifications on all sides
Where does "sanewashing" come from
Ways to understand and not understand US political polarisation
And we deal with your questions and comments from the past month:
Woke Dung
/495/ Heritage America vs the World? ft. James Pogue
On land conflicts, MAGA , and the frontier.
Journalist James Pogue talks to George and Alex about his book Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West. The book concerns the events surrounding the 2016 armed occupation of the Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge led by the rancher Ammon Bundy. We discuss:
Why were these 2016 events so important and so telling?
Is the Jacksonian concept of Ameri
/494/ National Democracy or Globalist War ft. Wolfgang Streeck
On the dual crisis of the world.
Wolfgang Streeck, renowned economic sociologist, is back on to talk to us about the crisis of capitalist growth and of democracy. We focus on the solutions proposed in his brilliant new book, Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism.
Then, Lee and Alex discuss three key themes emerging from the interview: federalism and small states; the nation
/492/ The Armed Wing of the Deplatforming Movement ft. Alex Gourevitch
On the right to protest.
[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]
Contributing editor Alex Gourevitch talks to Alex H and George about restrictions on speech and protest at US universities and beyond – particularly with regard to Palestine solidarity demonstrations.
How have uni administrators not just undermined by seemingly attacked the right to protest?
Why is Trump going
/491/ Squeezed Between Two Empires ft. Maciej Szlinder
On Poland's election, its history, its self-conception.
Philosopher Maciej Szlinder joins us to talk about Polish politics, society and history. Maciej is a member of the general council of the left-wing political party Razem ("Together"), as well as the president of the Polish Basic Income Network, so we discuss these matters as well as the general context.
How did Poland represent a beacon of
/490/ Reading Club: Who Is Anti-Nationalist?
On the former Yugoslavia and the ethnography of anti-nationalists.
[For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast]
[Reading Club LIVE: Sat 14 June, 9am LA, 12am NY, 5pm London, 6pm Berlin]
In the third installment of this block on inter/nationalism in the 21st century, we take a look at the other side of nationalism, through scholar Stefaan Jansen's “Anti-nationalism: Post-Yugoslav Resist
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