Downstream is a weekly interview show featuring hosts Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani in conversation with activists, authors, economists, politicians, scientists, YouTubers, philosophers and thinkers of all stripes. The show is produced by leftists, but made for everyone. 

Produced by Jonah Sealey Braverman and Gary McQuiggin.
Brought to you by Novara Media.

Downstream with Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani

If I Speak – with Moya Lothian-McLean and Ash Sarkar

Committed

Who's hiding behind London's empty mansions? A four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B Productions and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster

Welcome to ACFM, the home of the weird left. Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn bring you a show examining the links between left-wing politics, culture, music and experiences of collective joy.

ACFM

If I Speak

05: Are we trapped in a fantasy?

04: Can you teach an adult to have empathy?

03: The dating trap

02: Is my long-distance relationship doomed?

01: Should I give my mum an allowance?

How does a teenage goodie-two-shoes grow up to be a convicted criminal? On Committed, a new four-part series from Novara Media, we go behind bars to find out why dozens of young climate activists are risking prison for what they believe in – and why Britain's courts are sending more of them to jail for longer. 

Committed begins on 22 April in the Novara Media podcast feed. 

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

Committed: A New Series Out Now

In episode one of Committed, Clare and Rivkah meet imprisoned Just Stop Oil activists who took direct action against the climate crisis and faced dire consequences.

By blocking roads, climbing bridges and throwing soup at paintings, they made headlines – and became national hate figures in the process. We find out how four ordinary young people ended up as convicted criminals, at the sharp end of the government’s crackdown on protest.

Episode 2 coming on 24 April.

Committed: 1. What Kind of Person Goes to Prison for Their Politics?

Locked in their cells for up to 22 hours a day, how are Britain’s jailed climate activists coping with a life of inaction? In episode two of Committed, Rivkah and Clare follow the Just Stop Oil inmates to find out how they’re adjusting. How does JSO prepare activists for incarceration? What’s it really like inside Britain’s prisons? And what do the guards and other inmates think of Just Stop Oil activists’ crimes?

Episode 3 coming on 29 April.

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

Committed: 2. How Do Climate Activists Cope in Prison?

In episode three of Committed, Clare and Rivkah find out what it’s like to see your loved ones locked up. How do the Just Stop Oil prisoners’ families make sense of their crimes? When your partner is in prison, how can your relationship survive? And what’s it like to know your fiancée would choose activism over you?

Final episode coming on 2 May.

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

Committed: 3. How Does It Feel When They Choose Activism Over You?

Just Stop Oil has ended its campaign of direct action, yet many activists still face years in prison. In the final episode, Rivkah and Clare find out whether their commitment to their cause has wavered. They also speak to veteran climate campaigner Roger Hallam, currently serving a four-year sentence, about his role in sending young activists to prison.

CN: This episode contains mention of suicide. For support with your mental health, contact samaritans.org.

Read Clare's story about right-wing journalists infiltrating activist groups on Novara Media: https://novaramedia.com/2024/09/11/rightwing-journalists-keep-grassing-up-activists-to-the-police 

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

Committed: 4. Was Prison Worth It?

After last week’s ACFM episode on Parties, this time we expose the predicament facing Your Party, the new leftwing faction led by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn.

What expectations do leftwing voters have for Your Party? Does the Corbyn faction distrust the membership? Is Zarah a politician or a poster? And does Yorp stand a chance of overtaking the ascendant Greens? Nadia, Jem and Keir analyse a turbulent few months in British left politics.

ACFM Microdose: What's Going On Inside Your Party?

In this Trip episode, Jem, Nadia and Keir debate the meaning of 'mainstream' – something none of them could ever possibly be, of course. 

Is 'woke' the new 'mainstream'? Can there be a mainstream if we don't all have access to the same culture? Is Tommy Robinson shifting the Overton Window? Why is nonconformity associated with coolness? And who engineers the 'typical girl'? The gang answer these questions and more, with ideas from Raymond Williams and Perry Anderson and songs from Pulp and The Slits.

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'.

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

ACFM Trip 56: The Mainstream

Ash and Moya are joined by author, musician and podcaster Jordan Stephens to talk about changing attitudes to gender, dating and relationships. Are we regressing into essentialist ideas of gender? Is having a boyfriend embarrassing? Plus: advice for a disappointed wife – with help from our audience. 
Recorded live at EartH in East London on 16 December (apologies for the bass bleed from the other venue!).

Further reading: Sam Jennings – The Trouble with Men and Women; Chanté Joseph – Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

94: Resentment, hostility, scarcity… is this modern dating? w/ Jordan Stephens

Norman Finkelstein is one of the west’s leading anti-Zionist scholars. The son of Holocaust survivors, he has spent his life studying and critiquing Israel’s assault on Palestine, decades before it became socially acceptable to do so.

Yet despite having dedicated his career to it, by the day before Hamas’ attack in October 2023, Norman had all but given up on the cause of Palestinian liberation. His most recent book on the subject had sold 370 copies. When news of the attack arrived, Norman knew people would want to hear from him. He wrestled with what to say, eventually coming to the view that Hamas’ actions could be viewed through the lens of the slave rebellions in the early 1800s: heinous acts of violence borne out of desperate circumstances. Acts that he could not condemn.

​In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Norman tells the story of his parents’ lives before the war, and the life they built in the shadow of the Holocaust. Could they speak about what they had been through? How did their experience impact Norman’s work and his devotion to the truth? What was it like arguing with his mentor, Noam Chomsky? And what is Israel’s endgame?

Downstream: ‘Gaza Is Over, It’s Gone. There’s Nothing Left’ w/ Norman Finkelstein

Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani joined each other on 17th December for a special end-of-year Downstream, wrapping up the year in politics.

Downstream: 2025 – What Actually Happened? w/ Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani

After ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ on October 7th, a specific narrative quickly emerged and pervaded the entire Western mainstream media. Namely, that unprecedented horrors were committed against the state of Israel and that whatever way it responded was justified. Any deviation from this narrative was quickly shut down.

In the intervening years, the British state has aided Israel in its response, a response that organisations including Amnesty & B’tselem have called a genocide in Gaza.

Peter Oborne is a journalist and author whose new book, ‘Complicit: Britain’s Role in the Destruction of Gaza’, provides a forensic account and set of references defying anyone denying Britain’s fuelling of genocide in Gaza.

Downstream: Exposing the Israeli Capture of British Politics w/ Peter Oborne

Culture writer Lanre Bakare joins Ash and Moya in Manchester to talk about Black cultural identity outside of London, the precarious state of arts and nightlife around the UK, and the rise of ‘cultural deserts’ – as well as the unofficial launch of the 'BAMÉ Army'. Plus: Lanre tackles a dilemma about a xx housemate.

Lanre’s book, We Were There, is out now. 
Recorded at Contact Theatre in Manchester on 25 November 2025.

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

95: Does British culture need saving? w/ Lanre Bakare

It has been a bellicose start to 2026, with the US army kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and threatening to annex Greenland, putting many more nations, including Mexico and Colombia, on high alert.

On Downstream this week is investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who’s best known for helping Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the NSA’s global surveillance program come to light, as well as investigations that led to Brazilian president Lula’s release from prison.

He sat down in his Rio De Janeiro studio to speak to Aaron Bastani about the differences in Trump 2.0’s foreign policy, how the last year has seen unprecedented corporate consolidation of media and whether the US empire is flexing a novel expansionist ambition or if the lashing out of the last week is a sign of decline.

Downstream: Venezuela, China and the End of the Dollar w/ Glenn Greenwald

Sure, you look great – but can you spell pharaoh? Ash and Moya start the year with a tough conversation about the beauty regime that rules over us all. Has women’s freedom been undermined by a fixation on beauty? Are men experiencing 2000s-levels of body dysmorphia? Plus: advice for a listener who wants more intellectual conversations with her husband.

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available now from https://crossedwires.live/ now!

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

96: Why are women choosing looks instead of books?

Our guest this week was born in 1943, in what was then British India – modern day Pakistan. Unlike most, who have learned history through books and second-hand sources, he has witnessed first-hand a great deal of the 20th and 21st centuries. Tariq Ali founded Verso Books, the leading left-wing publishing house in Britain, as well as the New Left Review. He met Malcolm X, was friends with John Lennon and Hugo Chavez, and spearheaded the anti-Vietnam War movement.

In conversation with Aaron Bastani, this week on Downstream we are talking about the ways we remember – and misremember – the 20th century, and how these events have a long tail that shape our present and future. How significant was the cultural revolution in China, in sparking anti-colonial struggles across Asia? How do the dynamics of the Cold War still dominate the mainstream media? And who are the substantial political figures and ideologies set to dominate the next decades of the 21st century?

Downstream: Exposing the Lies of the 20th Century w/ Tariq Ali

Ash has a big theory about what makes someone into a proper adult – and it’s less about age or wisdom than the experiencing of caring for someone else. Plus: a special one who’s holding out hope that a casual hook-up will turn serious.

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available now from https://crossedwires.live/ now!

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

97: When will I start feeling like a grown-up?

This week, Donald Trump continued his streak of threatening tariffs against any country that opposes him, increasing the odds of an escalating trade war and further destabilising the global economic system. But according to this week’s guest, the system is in desperate need of reform. Indeed, she thinks without a complete structural overhaul, it will soon ‘blow itself up.’

On Downstream this week is Keynesian economist, Ann Pettifor, to discuss her latest book, ‘The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet.’ In conversation with Ash Sarkar, they discuss the state of the global economy, and the ‘shadow’ banking system that holds $217 trillion in financial assets – beyond the control of any taxman. How did Ann predict, with precision and foresight, the global financial crisis of 2008? Will the AI bubble burst, triggering the next economic crisis? And is the Green New Deal – which Ann helped to create – dead in the water, or a transformative plan B that we can turn to when the next crisis invariably comes?

Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor

Have we become reliant on having our feelings validated instead of taking valid criticism? Ash and Moya offer their own strategies for worrying less about what other people think. Plus: how to deal with an ex who’s found God and turned rightwing but is still hanging around.

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available from https://crossedwires.live/ now!

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

98: Are we obsessed with having our feelings validated?

Recently Moya has been breaking the habit of a lifetime by choosing to stick with her choices rather than quit. She asks Ash how to trust your gut when it comes to leaving or staying, whether it's a job, friendship or romance. Plus: would you use Chat GPT to name your baby?

Next week it's our 100th episode – so ask us anything! Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available now from https://crossedwires.live/

Music by Matt Huxley.

99: How do you know when it’s time to quit?

Over the past three years, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flash point for freedom of speech in the West. Expressing solidarity with Palestinians has given Western governments an excuse to crack down on dissenters. There has been intimidation and job insecurity at one end of the scale, through to brutal policing, arrests, and extraditions at the other.

Our guest on Downstream this week knows a thing or two about censorship. Artist Ai Weiwei holds the unusual position of having been censored in both China and Europe. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, they discuss how a rising authoritarianism in many Western nations represents a fragility at the heart of the liberal political project. What was it like being interrogated over 50 times by Chinese authorities, and what kind of relationship did Ai Weiwei develop with his captors? Why did he choose to be an artist, rather than a journalist? And what is his art in service of?

Downstream: China, AI and the West’s Free Speech Crackdown w/ Ai Weiwei

When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, those on the left generally think of exploitation. People often turn to crime, so the thinking goes, because they can’t make ends meet by legitimate means. Whatever your views on that framing, there is also another - far less discussed - connection between capitalism and crime, namely the relationship between elites, the shadow economy and money laundering. ​

On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani talks to Oliver Bullough about his latest book: Everybody Loves Our Dollars: How Money Laundering Won. Bullough explains how money laundering, as a global phenomenon, is estimated to be worth trillions of dollars a year. What makes such industrial-scale crime even possible is, ironically, the basic infrastructure that permits globalised trade in the first place: a basket of important currencies, centring on the American dollar.

So while the White House talks about the war on drugs, or the war on crime, the currency being issued by the Federal Reserve - America’s bank - is what makes much of that crime profitable at all. It turns out, according to Bullough, that while elected officials talk tough, they generally fail to take necessary steps to curb the global flow of dirty money.

While completely eliminating laundering may never be possible, making a start is easier than you think. What is money laundering, and why should you care about it? How does it look different in places like China and Russia when compared to the United States or Europe? Is it really like the TV shows? What do vape shops, NFTs and luxury watches all have in common? And is rampant criminal activity much more common, and closer to home, than we are led to believe?

Downstream: Vape Shops, Crypto and Luxury Watches: How Money Laundering Is Everywhere w/ Oliver Bullough

We’re 100 episodes old! To celebrate, our audience of Special Ones ask us anything, from the personal to the political to the completely potty. What do Ash and Moya love and hate about each other? Whose greatest skill is cod psychology? And do they ever get anxious after sharing on the podcast?

Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026 – tickets are available from https://crossedwires.live/

Music by Matt Huxley.

100: We're 100 episodes old – ask us anything!

Just a week ago, the architect of Starmer’s rise to power, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over his connections to Peter Mandelson, after further proof of Mandelson’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the newest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice.

According to this week’s guest, this scandal isn’t an anomaly, but an inevitable outgrowth of the New Labour politics that have shaped Britain since Tony Blair took office in 1994.

Maurice Glasman is a Labour peer and founder of Blue Labour, a campaign group that unites culturally conservative values with left-wing economic policies. He sat down with Ash to talk about meeting Steve Bannon, Tottenham Hotspur, and what Marx got wrong.

Downstream: Mandelson & the Perverted Fantasies of New Labour Liberalism w/ Maurice Glasman

Are humans distinct from nature? Are there natural limits to inequality? Can you have action without effort? Do bacteria have agency?

Jem, Nadia and Keir find themselves dwarfed by the concept of ecology in this planetary-scale episode, which touches on cybernetics, systems thinking, ecofeminism and actor-network theory. Their ACFM guide to ecological thinking includes ideas from Rachel Carson, Peter Kropotkin and Donna Haraway, plus music from Joni Mitchell, Brian Eno and Marvin Gaye.

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'.

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

ACFM Trip 57: Ecology

Contains Wuthering Heights spoilers!
What else would two literature lovers (and actual Brontë experts) be talking about this week but the film of the moment. Is Jacob Elordi too white? Is Margot Robbie too old? How much adaptation is too much? Plus: tough love for a special one in a situationship.

Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July 2026! https://crossedwires.live

Music by Matt Huxley.

102: I'm not ready for relationship – but I don't want him to see other people

Ash wants to cultivate a better relationship with nature, but Moya detects a deeper issue around burnout and the lure of the countryside for busy city dwellers. Plus: advice for a listener who’s lost sexual interest in her partner. 

Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! https://crossedwires.live/

Music by Matt Huxley.

103: Will getting back to nature heal my feelings of burnout?

The notion that the Global South is affected ‘first and worst’ by global shocks they didn’t cause, namely climate change, is one of the cornerstones of leftist thought. But what if it’s not entirely true? What if, contrary to this tenet, it’s wealthy Western nations who have over-developed and lost their resilience in the process?

This is the argument made by John Rapley in his latest book ‘Icarus Economics’.

In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Rapley discusses how the West’s growth has reached certain limits, most notably those imposed by the natural world in which we are all embedded. Has a focus on the wrong kind of growth in the West reduced resilience to shocks from the natural world? Are the majority of us already in a recession, despite what GDP figures tell us? And what can the Global North learn from the Global South?

Downstream: The Next Shocks Will Hit Wealthy Countries Hardest. Here’s Why w/ John Rapley

The final episode. Back in Westminster, Kojo confronts the human cost of hidden wealth – and asks if change is still possible.

Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: 4. The Tunnel

A homeless man dies in Westminster surrounded by vast wealth and empty homes. His death sparks a disturbing investigation into how secrecy and evasion have become normalised in the heart of British power.

Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: 1. The Station

Coming 10th March 2026. Who's hiding behind London's empty mansions? A four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: Trailer

In episode three, the dark web of offshore finance connects Britain’s imperial past with its political present.

Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: 3. The City

In episode two, the trail leads offshore. From Westminster to the Cayman Islands, Kojo uncovers how tax havens are fuelling London’s housing crisis.

Death in Westminster is a four-part podcast hosted by Kojo Koram with Dalia Gebrial. Produced by Planet B and distributed by Novara Media.

Death in Westminster: 2. The Island

Have the Greens got what it takes to become the main political vehicle of the radical left?

Following their Trip episode on Ecology, the ACFM crew take a closer look at Zack Polanski's party as it nudges past Labour in the polls.

From the '60s dream of 'steady state economics' to the anarcho-green convergence of '90s rave culture, the Green tendency is mapped out by Nadia, Jem and Keir – with ideas from Playboy, Adam Curtis, David Icke and some sensible people too.

Follow our Spotify playlist of all the music discussed on ACFM and subscribe to the ACFM mailing list to get weirder and leftier.

Music by Matt Huxley.

Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Help us build people-powered media: https://novaramedia.com/support

ACFM Microdose: The Green Party

Moya and Ash wonder what’s attracting young British ex-pats (and influencers) to cities like Dubai and Bali. When did emigration become so aspirational? Plus: a dilemma about being stuck in a dead-end job – or so it seems.

Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! https://crossedwires.live/

Music by Matt Huxley.

104: Why are young Brits flocking to Dubai?

Rising unemployment, increased military spending, and a decline in living standards for most people, including the middle class: the description fits both the 1930s and the 2020s. In the 1930s, it was a situation that morphed into the destruction and horror of the Second World War.

On Downstream with Aaron Bastani this week is Clara Mattei, professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, and author of ‘Escape From Capitalism: Economics Is Political and Other Liberating Truths’. Mattei’s PhD was on the relationship between austerity and fascism in inter-war Italy, and her book is a comparative study of Britain and Italy in that period.

What, they ask, is the relationship between austerity and fascism – both then and now? Is capitalism a ‘natural fact’, as its proponents would have you believe, or a contingent set of affairs designed and propped up by governments? And if capitalism is in fact a choice, how can we go about building an alternative?

Downstream: The Middle Class Is Collapsing. Fascism Could Be Next w/ Clara Mattei

Ash has a big theory about why so many aspects of modern life feel like masturbation: private, self-centred, disconnected. They discuss the objects and subjects of sex, and Moya makes a confession. Plus: advice for a special one who’s dating her first communist.

Got a dilemma? Email ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Join us at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! https://crossedwires.live/

Music by Matt Huxley.

105: How can I connect during sex?

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn bring you #ACFM, a new show examining the links between left-wing politics and culture, music and experiences of collective joy. In this episode: what is - or was - the counterculture? What is 'Acid Corbynism'? And is expanding consciousness anti-political? You can find the Acid Corbynism project on Facebook. http://novaramedia.com/?p=11481

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

#ACFM – Trip 1: Out of the Box

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the politics of collective joy.

Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull.

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Tracks featured:

Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the streets
MFSB - Love is the message
Orbital - Halcyon
Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
Sun Ra - UFO

Books referenced:

Baruch Spinoza - Ethics
Lynne Segal - Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy.
Barbara Ehrenreich - Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.
Jeremy Gilbert - Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism.
John Protevi - Political Affect: Connecting the Social and the Somatic.
E. P. Thompson - Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.
Sigmund Freud - Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

Novara Media Podcast

#ACFM – Trip 2: Collective Joy

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the weird left.
Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull.

Jeremy Gilbert will be speaking with Erik Davis in London at the end of June: https://www.facebook.com/events/2299886550339374/

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Tracks featured:
The Fall – The Theme from Sparta FC
Captain Beefheart – Sun Zoom Spark
Throbbing Gristle – Discipline (Manchester) 
Laraaji - All of a Sudden

Texts referred to:
Normie Socialism or Communist Transgression, An interview with Kate Doyle Griffiths, Red Wedge Magazine: http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/online-issue/normie-socialism-or-communist-transgression-red-wedge-interviews-kate-doyle-griffiths
Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House - Ken Goffman and Dan Joy.
Keep Socialism Weird, Peter Frase: http://www.peterfrase.com/2018/10/keep-socialism-weird/
Mark Fisher & Jeremy Gilbert Reclaim Modernity : http://www.compassonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Compass-Reclaiming-Modernity-Beyond-markets_-2.pdf
Joe Kennedy Authentocrats (Repeater Books, 2018)
Erik Davis High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (Strange Attractor Press, 2019).

#ACFM – Trip 3: The Weird Left

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert discuss love and hate. 
Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. 
PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 
http://novaramedia.com/?p=13988

Tracks featured: I Hate Hippies - The Skinflics / Love is All You Need -  The Beatles / Hate and War – The Clash / Bullet with Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins / You Got the Love – The Source (featuring Candi Staton) / I’ll Take You There - Staple Singers / Socialism is Love - Max Romeo / Revolution – Nina Simone 
Texts referred to: Empire – Hardt and Negri / Ethics - Spinoza / Turn the Beat Around - Peter Shapiro Other Links:
This is Not a Love Song – The Free Association - http://www.freelyassociating.org/this-is-not-a-love-song/
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast – The Free Association http://www.freelyassociating.org/six-impossible-things-before-breakfast/

#ACFM – Trip 4: Love and Hate

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn discuss Utopias, including the Paris Commune, analogue dreamlands and kettle logic. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. 

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 

Tracklist: Goldfrapp - Utopia / John Lennon - Imagine / Nairobi Sisters - Promised Land / Harry McClintock - Big Rock Candy Mountain / Joe Meek - I Hear A New World / Noel Brass Jr - Cortex Overflow / Liverpool Cathedral Ringers and Cleo Evans - Imagine. 
Texts: George Orwell  - Homage to Catalonia / P.M. - Bolo Bolo / Thomas More - Utopia / Fredric Jameson - Archaeologies of the Future / Kristin Ross - Communal Luxury / Jodi Dean - The Communist Horizon / Raymond Willians - Marxism and Literature. https://novaramedia.com/?p=18525

#ACFM – Trip 9: Utopia

Nearly 12 months ago some said that we were on the verge of entering a new Roaring '20s. How prescient they turned out to be. 

One pandemic and a global economic freefall later, all the assumptions we started out with in January have turned to dust. In their place are pressing questions. Did Boris Johnson's landslide breathe a new lease of life into the Conservative Party? Has coronavirus changed politics for a decade? What does the explosive rise of BLM mean for the anti-racist cause?

Downstream hosts Ash Sarkar and Aaron Bastani are joined by NovaraFM's James Butler to discuss the year in review and what comes next.

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics  

Downstream: The Year In Review 2020

On Monday a British judge ruled that Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States on charges of espionage and computer hacking. Yet despite that verdict the judgment arguably represented a blow to freedom of the press, with the judge accepting the substance of the case made by the US State Department. 

On Downstream, Aaron Bastani is joined by Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and prominent supporter of Julian Assange during his time in prison, as they discuss the meaning of the outcome and what next for the founder of Wikileaks.

Downstream: Does the US Want Julian Assange Dead?

#ACFM is a podcast about left-wing politics, culture, music and experiences of collective joy, brought to you by Novara Media. 

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn present a new Trip just about once a month, as well as Microdose interviews with special guests.

Search for "ACFM Music" on Spotify to find a playlist of music discussed on the show and join the mailing list to keep up with everything #ACFM: http://novara.media/acfmlist

Welcome To #ACFM!

The last few years have heralded the rise of the influencer: social media users who have, in essence, found a way to get paid for being themselves on the internet. But has this commodification of the self poisoned the public sphere? Or are we witnessing the end of gatekeeping - and the beginnings of a new, more democratic kind of celebrity? Moya Lothian-McLean, politics editor at gal-dem magazine, joins Ash Sarkar on Downstream to crack open the influencer industrial complex.

Downstream: The Influencer Industrial Complex w/ Moya Lothian-McLean

A year after the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, with Britain enduring more than 100,000 deaths since, major questions remain unanswered. Why was the response of the UK among the worst in the world? How is it possible that the death toll of countries in Europe and North America is so much higher than poorer countries such as Thailand and Vietnam? And when will things go ‘back to normal’?

Aaron Bastani poses these questions to Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet and author of The Covid-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again.

Novara Media

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