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

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

A podcast about the ideas, people and movements that wield power in our lives.

Novara FM

Once upon a time we dreamed of a world free from household drudgery, helped by robot butlers, self-cleaning appliances and "smart" homes that saved energy and tidied after themselves. Yet despite decades of high-tech innovation in the home, we've barely reduced our workload – and still no one's managed to automate the folding of laundry.

So why is household labour stuck in the past? If technology won't save us, what kind of political fix will? And why does the list of chores just keep getting longer? These are some of the questions explored by Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek in their new book, After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time.

Eleanor Penny visited Helen and Nick at home in Surrey to discuss the impact of automation on our domestic lives, the neoliberal fixation on the nuclear family, the possibility of public luxury, and how raising their own family has informed their thinking on the promise of the post-work society.

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

Novara FM: We Were Promised Robot Butlers w/ Helen Hester & Nick Srnicek

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.

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

Was Prison Worth It?

Is the UK still a liberal country? With terrorism laws criminalising speech around Palestine Action, it’s a serious question.

A growing gulf between public opinion and state policy on Gaza reveals a liberal order in decline.

Richard Hames spoke to Simon Childs about where our society is going.

Novara FM: Does the Palestine Action Ban Signal the Decline of Liberalism in Britain? w/ Simon Childs

Keir Starmer claims that growth is the only cure for a country in decline. But why is it the central obsession of modern capitalist economies? And can we think our way out of it before our planet runs out of resources? 

Nadia, Keir and Jem offer their weird-left take on growth, degrowth, radical abundance, ecomodernism and personal productivity, with ideas from Kate Soper and Kohei Saito and music from Minnie Riperton, 7 Samurai and Joanna Newsom. 

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 53: Growth

Novara FM was Novara Media's first show – it's now coming to an end.

On the final episode, Richard Hames sat down with Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar to talk about 15 years of Novara Media.

What have we learned from a decade and a half fighting a media landscape that insists nothing can ever change?

A new product will launch next month. Animated by the same complexity and depth as Novara FM, it will be available both on this podcast feed and YouTube.

Novara FM: Where Did Novara Media Come From? w/ Aaron Bastani, James Butler and Ash Sarkar

*Support the show by copping the If I Speak Baggu bag – it's ethically made, comes in two colours and is available from shop.novaramedia.com*

Ash and Moya talk to Sophie Gilbert about the pornification of the '90s and '00s – an era when riot grrl gave way to girl power, the supermodel was replaced by the waif, and feminist solidarity battled against tabloid body-shaming and Terry Richardson. Sophie's new book is Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves.

Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com

Music by Matt Huxley.

76: How porn went mainstream and changed everything w/ Sophie Gilbert

Dan Wang is a technology analyst and author whose life experience, spent partly in North America, partly in China, sets him up as an authoritative observer of the differences and similarities between the American and Chinese empires. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Wang shares his thesis that elite overproduction of engineers in China, and lawyers in America, can explain the traits of each empire as they face down the 21st century, from high speed rail and housing, to lockdown policy and manufacturing strategy.

Why has China been able to roll out high speed rail while America hasn’t? Why does so much of the anglophone world appear to be living in the ruins of industrial society? How did the one child policy come into being and has there been any reparation for the atrocities committed in its name? And is China today fundamentally left or right wing?

Downstream: China Is Building While the West Crumbles w/ Dan Wang

Are gardens a sanctuary or an enclosure? The ACFM gang sketch out a weird-left history of gardening, from the walled gardens of paradise to the tarmacked lawns of suburban Britain. 

Find the books, music and Dunmore Pineapple mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters

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

ACFM Microdose: Gardening

*Get the If I Speak Baggu bag from shop.novaramedia.com*

A shocking real-life incident prompts a conversation about feeling safe, trusting your gut and the politics of public safety. Plus: advice on finding friendship after leaving a conservative religious community. TW: sexual assault (at 43m)

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

78: What does it take to feel safe?

Our politicians don’t agree on much, but one thing most of them agree on is that growth is universally good. Grow the pie, they assure us, and there will be more to go around. Our guest on Downstream this week could not disagree more. 

Professor Jason Hickel argues that the mindless pursuit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth isn’t just a bad thing, but is leading humanity to catastrophe. He is an expert on what climate collapse actually means, as well as the solutions available to us that could mitigate the crisis.

He spoke to Aaron Bastani about where the current growth forecasts will lead humanity, and the planet we live on. How does Palestine fit into the broader geo-political picture? Is green growth a plausible economic strategy, or just a greenwashed version of capitalism? And does degrowth need a re-brand?

Downstream: Infinite Growth Will Lead to Collapse w/ Jason Hickel

What can the collapse of the Ottoman Empire teach us about the danger of the current discourse around migration?

‘Re-migration’ is not a new concept conjured up by the far-right, but rather something that would be familiar to many Europeans of a century ago. What would those involved in these tragedies think of the direction in which the world is heading?

To answer these questions and more, Aaron Bastani is joined by Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics and author of a new book, ‘Indignity’.

She spoke about the myths surrounding migration, the surprising relationship between the British state and Balkan Communists and her grandfather’s time with Enver Hoxha.

Downstream: Are We Living Through the End of an Empire? w/ Lea Ypi

*Get your If I Speak merch from shop.novaramedia.com*

Moya and Ash tackle your dilemmas, featuring a middle-class mum who’s become distant and critical, an ex-boyfriend who’s blowing hot and cold, a looming holiday with an abuser, a single man wondering where all the single women are hiding, and a twenty-something struggling to build friendships.

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

Help! I’ve moved back home and now my mum hates me

What were the ancient alternatives to democracy? Did people in the Bronze Age forget how to write – or deliberately stop? And what's the use in studying ancient languages?

In a Downstream IRL recorded at EartH Hackney, Aaron Bastani speaks to Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge University, about some lesser-known aspects of the ancient world, as explored in her book How the World Made the West. 

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

Downstream: The Political Possibilities of the Ancient World w/ Josephine Quinn

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Moya has a simple proposition: September is the best month for fresh starts. But why do we always want a clean slate? Plus, a straight white man who's trying to be good and getting flak for it anyway.

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

80: September is the real new year. Will your resolution stick this time?

What if we stopped treating the future like a speculative asset and started trying to actually build and prepare? The ACFM gang look to the horizon in this Trip episode.

Did young people always worry so much about their futures? Has the currency of emergency been devalued? Does conservatism have an idea of the future? Nadia, Jem and Keir wonder what's next with ideas from Max Weber and Kate Raworth, and music from LTJ Bukem and FKA twigs.

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 54: The Future

It's almost 10 years since Britain voted to leave the EU, and we're still dealing with the consequences. In a new book, Between The Waves, Politico's chief UK political correspondent Tom McTague argues that the journey to Brexit really began with Enoch Powell, before be taken up by his political heir, Nigel Farage. 

He talks to Aaron Bastani about how the dissolution of empire shape Britain's relationship to Europe, how the Labour party switched from Eurosceptic to Europhile, and what Farage learned from Powell. Between The Waves: The Hidden History of a Very British Revolution 1945-2016 is available from Pan Macmillan.

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

Downstream: How Brexit Paved the Way for Farage's Bid for Downing Street w/ Tom McTague

*We've got merch. Gift yourself the If I Speak x Baggu bag, only from shop.novaramedia.com*

A mystery question from producer Chal prompts a conversation about secrets in romantic relationships – from watching porn to cheating with an AI boyfriend. Plus: advice for an autistic dater who’s been banned from Hinge.

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

81: Is it wrong to love my AI boyfriend?

*Join the Baggu believers: it’s a huge foldable bag just for Special Ones, available from shop.novaramedia.com*

Moya wants to stop hating men and start building trust – which means a dialogue about all the things that make that difficult: objectification, racist over-sexualisation, degrading comments, and rape (TW: 27m; 40m). Plus: a few things we love about men, too.

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

82: Help! I can't stop hating men

After last week's ACFM Trip to the Future, Jem and Keir reconvene to talk about science fiction. Is sci-fi a reaction to the "time-space compression" of the present? Is it inherently progressive? How did dystopian and paranoids visions of the future come to dominate sci-fi? Was Arthur C. Clarke an early acid communist?

Find the books and films mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters

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

ACFM Microdose: Sci-Fi

In the summer of 2024, hotels sheltering Muslim asylum seekers across Britain were attacked by violent mobs. A year later, as the summer of 2025 drew to a close, a far-right demonstration of 100,000 people marched through London, bearing St George’s flags and led by Tommy Robinson.

On Downstream this week is Myriam François, a broadcaster and journalist, whose conversion to Islam 20 years ago has profoundly shaped her life in Britain. In conversation with Ash Sarkar, she tells the story of how she was politicised by a trip to Palestine in the early 2000s.

Does she think Britain’s move to recognise the state of Palestine will make any difference to the lives of people on the ground in Gaza? What is ‘whiteness’ and how do those who are included in it wield power in society? Is Islamophobia getting worse? And is an end to racism possible, without an end to capitalism?

Downstream: The Right Is Stirring up Anti-Muslim Hate – and It’s Getting Worse w/ Myriam François

Economist, and former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis joins Aaron to discuss his most recent book Raise Your Soul: A Personal History of Resistance, a memoir about the women in Yanis’ family who raised him, and gave him his political conscience.

They discuss the Hegelian Master-Slave dialectic, is patriarchy harmful to the perpetrators, as well as women? Did Tony Blair do more to privatise Britain than Margaret Thatcher? Does Keir Starmer have a plan?

And how does fascism end up destroying not just those it deems to be its enemies, but the motherland as well?

Sign up for the upcoming Downstream Newsletter here: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/the-downstream-newsletter/ 

Get tickets for the next Downstream IRL, ‘Gaza: The Story of a Genocide’ (with Aaron Bastani) at EartH Hackney on Mon 13 Oct at 6:30 pm:  https://link.dice.fm/N3e5f1cbd3ee

00:00  Intro
02:27 Five women who inspired Yanis’ political life
09:34 The Greeks In Egypt
22:02 The Asia Minor Catastrophe
29:30 Fascism always wrecks the motherland
36:43 The root cause of fascism is capitalism
39:44 Was America ever great?
45:19 Why Yanis doesn’t take Steve Bannon’s call
50:16 Communism can save the climate
1:00:18 The problems with Starmer
1:05:25 “Tony Blair is as evil as they come”
1:09:09 The road from Thatcher to Reform
1:13:36 Feminism, the manosphere, and the master slave paradox
1:23:44 On pornography
1:32:52 Humans Need Rules to live by
1:34:34 Physics or economics?
1:42:48 Collective will
1:48:14 Coming back from a bad year

Downstream: Was the 20th Century a Catastrophe, or a Miracle? w/ Yanis Varoufakis

*We've got merch! It’s a big foldable bag just for Special Ones, available from shop.novaramedia.com*

Prompted by Elena Ferrante’s novel My Brilliant Friend, Ash wonders what makes Moya jealous. Can friendships survive a power imbalance? What happens when YOU are the brilliant friend? And is jealousy a crucial part of desire?

Reading: Wounded Attachment by Wendy Brown

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

83: Is jealousy the spice of life?

Artificial intelligence is set to be one of the most disruptive technologies this century. For some, a machine capable of augmenting its own intelligence is a matter of time — and could even arrive within a decade.

This week’s guest is philosopher and author William MacAskill. One of the leading thinkers in the Effective Altruism movement, MacAskill is the author of several highly influential books, including Doing Good Better and What We Owe The Future.

His work explores not only on how to live a life of purpose, but how we also shouldn’t discount the interests of generations yet to be born.

What new technologies, medicines, and workflows might AI invent? How could AI affect the distribution of power and resources across the planet? Will democracy, as a political system, be able to manage it? And what might it mean to live a good life in a world of intelligent machines?

Downstream: Democracy Is Under Massive Threat From AI w/ William MacAskill

84: How to ace a first date (by two very different daters)

*Display your Special One status with our only piece of merch so far, available from shop.novaramedia.com*

Moya and Ash are joined by Kemi Alemoru, editorial director of Glamour UK, to analyse the current state of pop culture, from Taylor Swift to A24. Has pop turned to slop? Or is it on us to fix our algorithmic intake? Plus: advice on a workplace crush.

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

85: Has pop culture turned to slop?

Amid the bumpy launch of a new left-wing party and the rise of the Greens and Reform, the ACFM crew turn their attention to parties. Do we still need political parties? Do parties work by drawing people together or excluding the uninvited? And what does a political party have in common with a dance party?

Nadia, Keir and Jem offer a weird-left view on parties with reference to the Paris Commune, Unite the Right, Abigail's Party and Beauty and the Beat, plus music from Fred Wesley and The Beastie Boys.

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 55: Parties

The Gaza Strip, home to 2.2 million people, is a tiny land mass about the same size as the Isle of Wight. Yet in terms of munitions by weight, Gaza has been subjected to more than all of the bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined, over the whole of World War II. Another even more terrifying statistic: in Ukraine, after two years of conflict, there were around 30 cases of child amputees. In Gaza, there were a thousand cases of child amputation in two months.

This October marked two years since the high-intensity genocidal assault on the people of Gaza began, though the attempt to erase Palestine and ethnically cleanse its people began a century before. To mark the occasion, we hosted a live event at EartH Hackney to raise awareness and raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Kieran Andrieu is a political economist, journalist, and activist with six siblings living under Zionist occupation in the West Bank. Earlier this year, he joined the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of over 40 boats and 500 activists, taking humanitarian aid to Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of the strip. In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Kieran tells the whole story for the first time. What was it like being kidnapped at sea by amphetamine-using IDF soldiers? How were tactics of sleep deprivation used against them? How did the activists maintain morale in such circumstances? And what were the political victories of the mission?

Downstream: Kidnapped at Sea by the Israeli Military. The Full Story w/ Kieran Andrieu

Iran has been in the news a lot in 2025. Over recent decades, it has been a variable in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. But during the Twelve Day War with Israel in June of this year, Iran very much took centre stage. People started asking questions, chief among them being: What does Iran really want?

On Downstream this week is Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, and author of a new book, Iran's Grand Strategy. 

In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Nasr traces the roots of Iran’s foreign and domestic policy, from western imperialism through the revolution, and into the present day. What have been Iran’s failures and successes, domestically and beyond its borders, in the years since the revolution? Why does a country with no real military or economic base find itself enmeshed in so many conflicts overseas? Does Iran sincerely support the cause of Palestinian liberation? Why would it want nuclear capability? And as the revolutionary guard grows old, what will Iran do next?

Downstream: The West Misunderstands Iran w/ Vali Nasr

We're coming to Manchester! On 25th November we'll be at Contact Theatre for a live show with special guest Lanre Bakare. Tickets are available now from the Contact website: https://contactmcr.com/events/if-i-speak-live

Moya and Ash offer a thought for spooky season: why do love hearing other people’s horror stories? Plus: Moya spills on a dating disaster, and a dilemma about a mentoring relationship gone wrong.

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

86: Why do we lap up other people’s horror stories?

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 1989, Francis Fukuyama, then a very young political scientist, declared that history was over. He wrote a book with the same title just a couple of years later. The Cold War had finished, the USSR had collapsed, liberal democracy and market capitalism reigned supreme, and it wasn’t going to change. And yet in the last few years, the script has moved quite significantly. History has returned. Emblematic of that has been the conflict between Russia and Ukraine which began in 2022, although of course, you can date that back to 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.

On Downstream this week is Serhii Plokhy, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University. He offers a deep history of Russia and Ukraine, the conflict, where it comes from, and where it sits within the broader sweep of collapsing empires. He’s also got a new book out, about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy: The Nuclear Age. They discuss what is driving Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, almost four years after it began. What does Putin’s stated aim of ‘de-Nazification’ really mean? What role does Russia’s nuclear arsenal play in determining the shape of the conflict? And, in an increasingly multipolar world where history has indeed come back, is nuclear proliferation within the next ten years likely?

Downstream: Putin’s 1,000 Year War in Ukraine Has Ancient Roots w/ Serhii Plokhy

Come and see us live on 25th November in Manchester with special guest Lanre Bakare, author of We Were There! Tickets are available now from Contact Theatre: https://contactmcr.com/events/if-i-speak-live

Inspired by a famous pop psychology quiz, Moya and Ash tackle a quiz about the culture that shaped them, from celebrity crushes to memorable quotes. Plus: advice for a young fiancé who's losing interest in his partner.
Send us your dilemmas: ifispeak@novaramedia.com
Music by Matt Huxley.

87: I'm losing interest in my fiancée. Should she make more effort?

Come and see Ash and Moya live this winter. If I Speak hits Manchester's Contact Theatre on 25 November with special guest Lanre Bakare, author of We Were There. Then the show will return to EartH in East London on 16 December alongside Jordan Stephens – actor, author and one half of Rizzle Kicks. Tickets are available from Dice.

This week, after listening to the new album by Lily Allen – the patron saint of oversharing – Moya and Ash debate the ethics of spilling your guts in public. Do we owe a level of privacy to those that have wronged us? Plus: when was the best time to be a Roman?

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

88: What are the ethics of oversharing?

Investigative journalist Paul Holden has spent the last four years digging into the political machinations that brought Keir Starmer's Labour Party into office – findings that propel his powerful 2025 book, <a href="https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-fraud/">The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Labour Together and the Crisis of British Democracy</a>.

He tells Ash Sarkar about the cache of leaked emails that revealed the secret dealings of Morgan McSweeney – an adviser who's risen through the ranks to become perhaps the most powerful man in the Labour party – and explains how McSweeney's faction, Labour Together, sabotaged the Corbyn project.

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

Downstream: The Dark Truth About Starmer’s Rise to Power w/ Paul Holden

Come and see us live! We're in Manchester on 25 November with Lanre Bakare, author of We Were There – get tickets from Contact Theatre. Then we'll be at EartH in East London on 16 December with Jordan Stephens – actor, author and one half of Rizzle Kicks! Tickets are available from Dice.

A mystery question leads Ash and Moya into conversation about whether their politics are changing as they age – including their takes on Your Party, Zack’s Greens and why the UK left hasn’t produced a Zohran. Plus: how to escape a situationship.

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

89: Am I doomed to get more conservative as I get older?

At Novara, we focus on the trends that are remaking the world and affecting our lives: technological development and automation, multipolarity, the demise of an American-led world order and the rise of China. On Downstream this week is a man whose work draws together all of these themes: former World Bank macroeconomist and leading expert on global inequality, Professor Branko Milanovic.  

In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Branko answers all of Aaron’s burning questions about modern economic history and where things are heading. How significant is the rise of Asia today, compared to the seismic historic shift of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century? What was the cause of World War I, and why don’t mainstream accounts understand the real roots of it? Who are the new elite, and why is it so hard to break their hold on wealth? And how likely is a conflict between China & the USA?

Downstream: Ex-World Bank Insider on Western Decline & the Chinese World Order w/ Branko Milanovic

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

James Butler is joined by Richard Seymour to discuss his book 'The Twittering Machine'. Are we all digital narcissists now? What has the rise of the social industry done to our politics? And can we break free of its emotional lures? http://novaramedia.com/?p=15280

#NovaraFM: Screen Capitalism: the Twittering Machine

James Butler is joined by Anna Minton, author of Ground Control and Big Capital. Drawing from her work encompassing the decline of council housing, the rise of capital-led 'regeneration' and growing precarity and homelessness, they ask: could this be a housing election? http://novaramedia.com/?p=15640

#NovaraFM: Where Will We Live?

James Butler is joined by Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the Green New Deal, to discuss the relationship between ecology and economics, to explore Keynes's proto-localism, and discuss what the latest batch of economic figures tell us about the UK. https://novaramedia.com/?p=15811

#NovaraFM: Paying for the Planet? Ann Pettifor on the Green New Deal

James Butler is joined by Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats, to discuss the history and politics of migration in the UK, what Windrush tells us about the migrations system, and whether migration will play a key role in this election. https://novaramedia.com/?p=15964

#NovaraFM: Hostile Environment: Maya Goodfellow on Race and Migration

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.

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