It's cleaners all the way down!

How can we care for each other within a system that doesn't care about us? In this episode, Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn get to grips with birth, death and all the social reproduction in between.

When did we start putting our elders in care homes instead of our own homes? What happens when childcare is socialised instead of privatised? And why do we seem to be talking about "self-care" more than caring for others?

The gang consider these questions and more in a suitably extended episode, with help from Foucault, feminist theory and caring tunes by Kate Bush, Bill Withers and Rihanna.

Music: Vashti Bunyan - 'Lately' / Bill Withers - 'Lean On Me' / Kate Bush - 'The Man With the Child In His Eyes' / George McRae - 'Rock Your Baby' / The Beatles - 'When I'm 64' / Sam and Dave - 'Hold On I'm Coming' / Rihanna - 'Umbrella'

Books, podcasts & videos: Joan Tronto - Caring Democracy / Michel Foucault - The Care of the Self / The Care Collective - The Care Manifesto / David Graeber on Novara FM / Plan C - WTF is Social Reproduction?

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

ACFM Trip 26: Care

We live in irrational times. From the resurgence of interest in astrology, tarot and occultism to the deepening influence of conspiracy theories and positive thinking, culture is experiencing a turn towards the magical. What does that mean for those of us on the "weird left"?

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn gather round the cauldron for an episode that will challenge believers and rationalists alike, with music from Siouxsie, Queen and The KLF. Up for discussion: Sigmund Freud, the I Ching, Puritanism, crop circles, Psychic TV, modern macroeconomics, the Pendle Witches, the fake religion of Discordianism and much more.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Wv61PS6qItwCBUluNcSFx">Spotify</a>.

Music: The KLF - 'Justified &amp; Ancient (Stand By The Jams)' / The KLF - '3AM Eternal' / A Guy Called Gerald - 'Voodoo Ray' / Miles Davis - 'Miles Runs The Voodoo Down' / Screamin' Jay Hawkins - 'I Put A Spell On You' / Queen - 'It’s A Kind of Magic' / Siouxsie &amp; The Banshees - 'Spellbound' / MC 900ft Jesus - 'Truth Is Out Of Style' / Lisa King - 'You’ve Got Magic'

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

Books and films: Sigmund Freud – The Unconscious / John Higgs – The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds / The KLF – The Manual: How to Have A Number 1 The Easy Way / K Foundation Burn a Million Quid / Ben Myers - The Perfect Golden Circle / Robert Shea &amp; Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus! Trilogy

ACFM Trip 27: Magic

We don't get enough of it. We take drugs all day to fend it off. We'll do it when we're dead. And it's our last line of defence against 24/7 capitalism.

Sleep, the main course in life's feast! The ACFM crew rouse themselves from slumber to wokeness in this month's Trip, exploring the political and cultural aspects of shut-eye. How has a biological necessity been manipulated by everything from mechanical clocks, electric lighting, screen addiction and the insatiable needs of capitalism?

Nadia Idle lives up to her name and argues we should all be spending more time in bed, Keir Milburn worries about an insomniac culture obsessed with productivity, and – despite his sideline as a party organiser and DJ - Jeremy Gilbert rails against the culture of all-night dancing. Plus, music from Faithless, The Fall and The Beatles.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify.

Music: The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping / Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night / John Coltrane - Russian Lullaby / Alex De Grassi - Luther's Lullaby / Faithless - Insomnia / The Beatles - I'm So Tired / Flowered Up - Weekender / The Fall - Rowche Rumble

Books & articles: E. P. Thompson - Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism / Paul Lafargue – The Right to Be Lazy / Jonathan Crary - 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep

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

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

ACFM Trip 29: Sleep

As Wales crash out of the World Cup after defeat against England, Keir Milburn and Tom Williams question their dedication to international football. After all, how can you support a national team if you don't believe in borders?

On the third episode of Pro Revolution Soccer, Keir and Tom are joined by writer and broadcaster David Goldblatt, author of acclaimed football history tome The Ball Is Round, to discuss football as a national culture. Is cheering for England inherently jingoistic? Or can football be the bedrock of a popular progressive identity – one that no longer feels the need to mention the war when England play Germany? David explores the political potential of the current squad and reflects on the varied responses to Qatar '22 around the world.

Pro Revolution Soccer is out every Friday until the World Cup final.

Produced by Chal Ravens. Music by Matt Huxley. Design by Pietro Garrone.

Pro Revolution Soccer Ep 3: Should You Support Your National Team?

Jeremy Gilbert returns to PTO for the final part of our conversation on his new book, co-authored with Alex Williams, Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (and How We Win it back). In this part of our conversation we talked about some of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's key concepts, including the assemblage and multiplicity, and how their ideas inform Jeremy and Alex's understanding of political change and left strategy.

Hegemony Now (part three) - w/ Jeremy Gilbert

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

Ghosts have already got their own festival: Halloween. So why do they spook us at Christmas too? Do they represent forces of goodness and charity, or some nameless demonic evil? And what gifts have they brought?

Jeremy Gilbert shields his eyes from the ghostly apparitions of Jacques Derrida, Lee 'Scratch' Perry and M.R. James as he explores the connections between festive cheer and spectral fear in this Microdose, which accompanies the recent Trip episode on Gifts.

An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM.

Books & articles: M.R. James - Collected Ghost Stories / Jacques Derrida - Specters of Marx / Plato - Phaedrus / Francis Fukuyama - The End of History and the Last Man / Mark Fisher - Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures / Raymond Williams - Border Country / Jeffrey Sconce - Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television / Steven Connor - 'Angels in the architecture: the economy of the supernatural' / David Toop - Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory / Derek Johnston - Haunted Seasons: Television Ghost Stories for Christmas and Horror for Halloween / Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol

Music: Pierre Schaeffer - 'Etude aux chemins de fer' / Brian Eno and David Byrne - 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' / Lee Perry (The Upsetters) - 'Black Board Jungle' / Burial - 'Archangel' / Rufige Kru - 'Ghosts of My Life' / The Sabres of Paradise - 'Haunted Dancehall'

ACFM Microdose: A Ghost Story For Christmas

In the midst of Britain’s biggest wave of industrial action in years, the gang turn their attention to the long and bloodied history of strikes. Who do we find on the picket line? Nadia, Keir and Jeremy explore a lineage that stretches back hundreds of years, from matchgirls to miners, from 1840s century Chartists to 2020s university lecturers, and from smoggy cities to leafy suburbs.

Along the way they ask whether 18th century sailors were the original tech workers, why Britain’s only general strike was a failure, and if civilisation itself might have started with a sex strike. Plus, the gang discuss their favourite pro-union hits from Paul Robeson, Judy Collins, The Flying Pickets and more.

Want more? Get the ACFM newsletter: novara.media/ACFMnewsletter
Find our complete Spotify playlist – just search ACFM.

Music: Strawbs - 'Part of the Union' / Florence Reece - 'Which Side Are You On?' / Judy Collins - 'Bread and Roses' / Bev Grant - 'We Were There' / The Flying Pickets - 'Only You' / Paul Robeson - 'Joe Hill'

Books and pamphlets: William Benbow - Grand National Holiday, and Congress of the Productive Classes / E. P. Thompson - The Making of the English Working Class

Films: Pride / Made in Dagenham

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

ACFM Trip 31: Strikes

From the epic of Gilgamesh to the archetypes of Carl Jung, the mysterious power of myth is at hand in this Trip. Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn explore the alternate realities created by psychoanalysts and professional wrestlers, and discuss how theorists of myth have fed into both left and right-wing ideologies. 

How did the fantasy of Brexit become a reality? Is Genesis as mythical as Oedipus? And what stories underpin the emerging theory of Gilbertism? The gang bring their weird left analysis to ideas from Barthes, De Beauvoir and Peterson, with music from Okkervil River, Bob Dylan, This Mortal Coil and Sun Ra.

Subscribe to our mailing list: novara.media/ACFMnewsletter

Books: The Epic of Gilgamesh / George Eliot - Middlemarch / Sigmund Freud - Totem and Taboo / Carl Jung - Man and His Symbols; The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious / Claude Levi Strauss - The Structural Study of Myth / Shakespeare - Hamlet / George Lakoff - Metaphors We Live By / Roland Barthes - Mythologies / Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex / Ernesto Laclau - New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time / Joseph Campbell - The Hero with A Thousand Faces / Georges Sorel - Reflections on Violence / Leo Strauss - The City and Man / Yves Citton – Mythocratie: Storytelling et Imaginaire de Gauche / Greil Marcus - Lipstick Traces / Greil Marcus - Mystery Train / Mark Fisher - Capitalist Realism / Jordan Peterson - Maps of Meaning

Films: You May Be Pretty, But I Am Beautiful: The Adrian Street Story / Generation Zero

Music: Okkervil River - 'We Need A Myth' / Cocteau Twins - 'Persephone' / This Mortal Coil - 'Song to the Siren' / Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra - 'Realm of Lightning' / The Doors - 'Hyacinth House' / Brian Eno - 'Apollo' / Bob Dylan - 'Isis' / Siouxsie and the Banshees - 'Mirage' / Lloyd Price - 'Stagger Lee'

ACFM Trip 32: Myth

What’s the point of comedy? Stand-ups were at the forefront of the cultural backlash against Thatcherism, but today’s meme-driven lols are rarely in the service of left-wing politics. Meanwhile, the world’s most powerful people seem intent on having a laugh, from podcasting politicians to presidential comedians.

In this Trip, Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn put together an ACFM theory of humour. Does satire make us more cynical? Is there such a thing as a national sense of humour? Are men funnier than women? Where did all the comedy songs go?

The gang consider theories of laughter from Lauren Berlant, Freud and Bergson and the efforts of jokemongers like Phyllis Diller, Larry David and Alexei Sayle. Brace yourself for musical humour from The Wurzels, Afroman and Half Man Half Biscuit.

Subscribe to the newsletter: novara.media/ACFMnewsletter

Books & articles: Juvenal – The Satires / Lauren Berlant and Sianne Ngai – Comedy Has Issues / Christopher Hitchens – Why Women Aren’t Funny / Henri Bergson – Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic / Sigmund Freud – Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious / Thomas Hobbes - Human Nature / Alenka Zupančič – The Odd One In: On Comedy / Todd McGowan – Only a Joke Can Save Us

Music: Benny Hill – Ernie / The Wurzels – The Combine Harvester (Brand New Key) / The Commentators – N-N-Nineteen Not Out / The Tiger Lillies – Gin / Spinal Tap – Big Bottom / Calimar White – Never Do S#!t At Work / Chumbawamba – Bigmouth Strikes Again / Half Man Half Biscuit – Joy Division Oven Gloves / Bob Dylan – Lenny Bruce Is Dead / Afroman – Because I Got High / The Beat – Tears of a Clown / Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

TV & film: The Thick of It / Brass Eye / Have I Got News For You / Spinal Tap / 30 Rock / Curb Your Enthusiasm

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

ACFM Trip 33: Comedy

After last week's look at the politics of comedy, this time the gang turn to the gogglebox for a Microdose about sitcoms. Specifically, we're watching comedy shows set in the workplace – from shoddy B&Bs to big-box superstores, from Wernham Hogg to Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

What lies beyond the double entendres and cheap sexism of the '70s? Where did workplace humour go in the '90s? How did TV cops reckon with Black Lives Matter in the 2020s? And which sitcom is a favourite of both Nadia Idle and Mrs Thatcher? Only ACFM has the answer.

Subscribe to the ACFM mailing list at novara.media/acfmnewsletter

TV shows: The Dick Van Dyke Show / Steptoe and Son / On The Buses / Are You Being Served / Fawlty Towers / Taxi / Yes Minister / The Simpsons / The Office / The IT Crowd / 30 Rock / Parks & Recreation / Party Down / Brooklyn Nine-Nine / Silicon Valley / Superstore / Atlanta / Corporate / Severance

Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. Music by Matt Huxley.

ACFM Trip 29: Sleep

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