Has democracy broken down? Is it even an idea worth fixing? Trip 22 is a three-horse race as Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn consider the anti-democratic shifts happening across the political spectrum and ask what it really means to be ruled by the people.

The gang discuss whether democracy is necessary to tackle climate breakdown, how democratic relationships can spawn creativity and joy, and what happens when left politics abandons mass movements – as well as selecting some suitably egalitarian music from Crass, Shonen Knife, the Scratch Orchestra and more.

Music: Crass - 'Punk is Dead' (Use Knife Remix) / Cornelius Cardew & the Scratch Orchestra - 'The Great Learning' / Shonen Knife - 'Riding on the Rocket' / Persimfans Orchestra - Beethoven's 9th Symphony / Weather Report - 'Milky Way'

Books & articles: Robert D. Putnam - Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community / Andreas Malm - How to Blow Up a Pipeline / Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright - Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future / Paul Hirst - Associative Democracy / Francesca Polletta - Freedom is an Endless Meeting / Sean Smith - Crass Goes Disco

Produced and edited by Chal Ravens and Matt Huxley. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

#ACFM Trip 22: Democracy

In a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), a group of people take a trip into an imaginary world, guided by an MC or ‘dungeon master’. Not limited to the Tolkien-esque themes of the famous Dungeons &amp; Dragons, TTRPGs range from gritty sci-fi scenarios to steampunk heist fantasies, and from everyday life to magic, monsters and vampires.

In this Microdose, Nadia, Keir and Jeremy gather round the table to talk about how role-playing games have evolved over half a century and what different game-playing styles might say about other societal battles – from feminism and reactionary masculinism to the revenge of the nerds.

Discussing games like Call of the Cthulu and Vampire of the Masquerade, as well as TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Expanse, the gang look at the huge cultural impact of TTRPGs. How has the rise of Silicon Valley changed the reception of geek culture? How might a players' politics turn up in their gameplay? How have women navigated these subcultural spaces so long dominated by men? Shake those polyhedral dice and find out.

ACFM Microdose: Tabletop Role-Playing Games

In 1999, an anonymous Italian collective published a spy novel called Q. Imagined by its left-wing authors as an "operation manual for cultural disruption," the book has had a bizarre political afterlife, with its story arc and themes of Satanic ritual and paedophilia seemingly providing the basis for alt-right conspiracy theory QAnon. Did a '90s literary prank foment an American insurrection?

In a Microdose to accompany an ACFM Trip episode about magic, Keir Milburn speaks to Wu Ming 1, one of Q's co-authors and a founding member of the Wu Ming collective, about the universal appeal of conspiracies. 

Books: Q – Luther Blissett / La Q di Qomplotto – Wu Ming 1 / The Tyranny of Algorithms – Miguel Benasayag / The Critique of Judgement – Immanuel Kant

The stage magician mentioned by Wu Ming 1 is Mariano Tomatis and the walking tour of Leeds mentioned by Keir is a NovaraFM podcast called Riots and the Red Flag.

ACFM Microdose: Fantasy and Conspiracy with Wu Ming 1

ACFM reunite for spooky season with one thing on their minds: the horror, the horror!

Nadia, Jeremy and Keir embark on a historical, literary and cinematic exploration of scary stuff. Why do (some) humans love to be terrified? What can horror teach us about the nature of the universe? What do the latest crop of scary movies say about the fears plaguing our society?

From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Jordan Peele's 'Get Out', from H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror to Sigmund Freud's idea of the uncanny, the gang discuss books and ideas spanning several centuries – along with music from Bauhaus, Gravediggaz and Metallica.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Remember you can find the  version of this show on Novara Media's SoundCloud.


Books: Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness / Sigmund Freud – The Uncanny / Susan Hill – The Woman in Black / Stephen King – On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft / H.P. Lovecraft – Various / Paul Santilli – 'Culture, Evil, and Horror’ / Mary Shelley – Frankenstein / Bram Stoker – Dracula / Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto / H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds

Films: Everything Everywhere All At Once / Get Out / Halloween / Invasion of the Bodysnatchers / Night of the Living Dead / Poltergeist / Rosemary's Baby / White Zombie

Music: Dave Matthews Band - 'Halloween' / Bauhaus - 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' / Warren Zevon - 'Werewolves of London' / Jegsy Dodd - 'A Scouse Werewolf in London' / Metallica - 'Enter Sandman' / Ray Parker Jr - 'Ghostbusters' / Gravediggaz - 'Diary of a Madman' / Insane Clown Posse - 'Hocus Pocus' / Black Sabbath - 'Paranoid'

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

ACFM Trip 28: Horror

Welcome to Pro Revolution Soccer, a football podcast that doesn't leave politics at the turnstile. In the first episode of a five-part series, Keir Milburn and Tom Williams confront the most corrupt, rapacious and deadly World Cup in sporting history. 

Repulsed by football's hyper-capitalism but compromised by their desire to watch Wales v England, Keir and Tom bring together political and tactical analysis in an episode of two halves. 

They're joined this week by Novara Media's Ash Sarkar and writer and tactician Alex Stewart, formerly of Tifo Football, to talk sporting boycotts, World Cup players-to-watch and the missing England song.

Catch a new episode of PRS every Friday until the end of the World Cup. 

Music by Matt Huxley. Produced by Chal Ravens. Design by Pietro Garrone. Name by Tim Burrow.

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

Pro Revolution Soccer Ep 1: Should We Boycott the Qatar World Cup?

Imagine you had a few million ill-gotten pounds, rubles or dollars. Where would you stash it? You'd need to make sure no one knew it was yours, or where you'd nabbed it from. It turns out that the best place in the world for these money-stashing services is the UK. Oligarchs from all over the world use British financial services, overseas territories and even tube stations to hide their wealth.

Ash meets Oliver Bullough, author of Butler to the World: The book the oligarchs don’t want you to read – how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals.

Downstream: How to Hide a Billion Pounds w/ Oliver Bullough

After the 2008 financial crisis, a vast number of people were booted from the formal labour market. Many of them ended up in the gig economy: Uber, Deliveroo, Fiverr. Their exploitation at the hands of these platforms is well known, but often overlooked are the processes of racialisation that contribute to this reorganisation of labour power.

In this episode, Eleanor Penny talks to TyskySour co-host Dalia Gebrial about her PhD research into what she terms 'racial platform capitalism'. Looking at Uber drivers and nannies in particular, Dalia explains how 'the racial fix' is used to justify the surveillance and punishment of a disposable workforce, and how Britain's imperial past has produced a lineage of exploitation stretching 'from plantation to platform'.

Dalia's paper, 'Racial platform capitalism: Empire, migration and the making of Uber in London', is available to read online at Sage Journals.

Novara FM: From Plantation to Platform w/ Dalia Gebrial

Adam Smith claimed that "the propensity to truck, barter and exchange... is common to all men", but anthropologists know that this isn't the case. In fact, humans tend towards the opposite. So why do we feel compelled to give away our wealth?

Nadia, Jem and Keir unwrap the cultural and economic pressures on doing pressies in a loosely festive edition of ACFM. Talking about Santa's workshop, energy price controls and the lavish tradition of potlatch, they bring in the works of Marcel Mauss and David Graeber plus music from The Velvet Underground and Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. 
Sign up to the ACFM mailing list via the shownotes on the Novara Media website.
Looking for a gift for the ACFM fan in your life? Head to shop.novaramedia.com

Books: Emmanuel Levinas – Totality and Infinity / E.P. Thompson – The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century / Bronislaw Malinowski – Argonauts of the Western Pacific / Georges Bataille – The Accursed Share / David Graeber – On Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit / Marcel Mauss – The Gift / Jacques Derrida – The Gift of Death

Music: The Velvet Underground – The Gift / Lee 'Scratch' Perry – Merry Christmas (Happy New Year) / El Vez – Feliz Navidad / El Vez – Feliz Navi-Nada / Fox The Fox - Precious little Diamond (Shep Pettibone Remix) / Patti Smith – Free Money / Double Exposure – My Love Is Free / The Dickies – Silent Night

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

ACFM Podcast

ACFM Trip 30 - Gifts

Cutting-edge research has recently revealed that festive movie The Muppet Christmas Carol is actually based on a book. Many are now speculating that there may even be historical context at play. But what could it be? To unwrap the politics of A Christmas Carol, Eleanor Penny is joined by James Butler, co-founder of Novara Media and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. 

Together they discuss the hungry 1840s, deflationary economics, Scrooge's miserly capitalism and why Charles Dickens' conversion story is our most enduring ghost of Christmas past.

Happy Christmas from everyone at Novara Media!

Novara FM: A Christmas Carol w/ James Butler

The ACFM groupmind went into overdrive on last week's Trip, a wide-ranging conversation about the long and violent history of strikes. This time, Nadia, Jem and Keir take a closer look at cultural representations of worker organisation – that is to say, they sat themselves down with a huge stack of old movies and an extra-large bucket of opinions.

From blacklisted Hollywood dramas to bawdy British comedies, the gang survey nearly 100 years of strikes on screen – courtesy of directors like Danny DeVito, Sergei Eisenstein, Barbara Kopple and Boots Riley – and consider the changing public attitudes to labour and capital.

This episode contains some spoilers, so if you're not sure what happens to Billy Elliott in the end, proceed with caution...

Get bonus content from this episode and enhance your weird left experience by signing up to the ACFM newsletter: novara.media/ACFMnewsletter

Films: Strike / The Man in a White Suit / Salt of the Earth / I’m Alright Jack / The Working Class Goes To Heaven / Carry On At Your Convenience / The Rank and File / Tout Va Bien / Norma Rae / Matewan / Riff Raff / Hoffa / Billy Elliott / Made In Dagenham / The Full Monty / Pride / Sorry To Bother You

ACFM Microdose: Strikes on Screen

Millions have protested against the bombing of Gaza by taking part in marches, boycotts, sit-ins and other demonstrations. But what difference does it make, either to the world or to ourselves?

The gang confront a contentious topic in this Trip. Do "A to B" marches ever achieve anything? What about joining hands around an RAF base? Digging up roads? Refusing to pay your taxes? Is squatting a form of direct action?

They discuss Irish hunger strikers, Montgomery bus boycotters, Greenham Common women and the people that Suella Braverman calls "hate marchers", with music from Lowkey, the Plastic Ono Band, Steel Pulse and more.

Find our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching "ACFM".
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters

Music: Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Man / Dylan - Masters of War / Samba extract / Public Enemy - 911 is a Joke / Lowkey - Ghosts of Grenfell / Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution / The Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance / John Lennon - Working Class Hero

Book: Charles Tilly – Social Movements: 1768-2004

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

ACFM Trip 28: Horror

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