Anna Della Subin joins PTO to talk about her book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. The book tells the stories of men who have inadvertently been turned into living Gods - from Gandhi and Haile Selassie to Prince Philip and Narendra Modi. In the book Anna shows how deification and violence were intertwined in the colonial enterprise and in the present day cult of the political strong man, yet - she argues - it's also a process that's been central to struggles of liberation. In our conversation we focussed on the chapters of the book on Haile Selassie and the emergence of the Rastafari in Jamaica in the 1930s, and on the history of deification in the British Raj - regarding both the colonial authorities and the iconic leaders of the independence movement.

Accidental Gods w/ Anna Della Subin

Jane Hayward joins PTO to talk about the protests in China that have resulted in Xi Jinping's loosening of the country's zero covid strategy. We talked about the widespread grievances and sporadic protests that have taken place in China over the last decade, and the particular importance of the recent worker protests at the giant Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou. We also talked about why it might be that the Chinese state has failed to provide adequate vaccine coverage - especially for the elderly population. And finally we talked about Western media coverage of the situation.

China's protests and the end of zero-Covid w/ Jane Hayward

I spoke alongside Natalie Fenton, Will Davies, Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams at an event on Jeremy and Alex's excellent book Hegemony Now. The theme of the talk was hegemony, work and political organising under neoliberalism. I introduced the term "entrepreneurial leftism" to describe contemporary trends in radical left activism and point to a correspondence between experiences of work and orientations to political activity.

"Entrepreneurial leftism"

This week on the podcast we're joined by Jack Frayne-Reid of the Reel Politik podcast to review Nick Robinson's podcast, 'Political Thinking'. It's a podcasting hall of mirrors.

Music by Makaih Beats.

2.14 The Political Thinking of Nick Robinson

This week Dan and Tom are joined by journalist, author and Blue Tick Twitter Personality Hussein Kesvani to discuss celebrity columnists and the Twittersphere. Over the course of the show we cover the politics of newsrooms, unpaid internships, Aaron Sorkin, David Aaronovitch, The Spectator and, regrettably, Jordan Peterson. 

Music by Makaih Beats.

2.16 TFW Columnists Take to Twitter

A year ago, we saw story after story in the news about how people of a whole generation of Commonwealth citizens, who’d been living in the UK for decades were left homeless, wrongly detained, denied their legal rights and threatened with deportation. A year on from these brutal events, it’s important to understand that they didn’t just happen because some people didn’t have the ‘right documents’ – they were a direct result of the government’s horrific approach to immigration enforcement also known as the hostile environment policies instituted by Theresa May in 2012.

In this very first episode of the Global Justice Now podcast, I’ll be looking into what exactly the hostile environment policies are and how they affect people and society as a whole. We’ll also be hearing more about why they came about and what we can do to challenge them. 

Featured in this episode are campaigners, activists and policy experts from JCWI, MedAct, ABC Schools, Liberty, Migrants Organise and Global Justice Now.

Music: Creepy Delta Ship by Sro @ Free Music Archive

Episode 1: What is the 'hostile environment'?

In the first #RedHacks live event Joana Ramiro chats with Owen Jones, Kimberly McIntosh, and Simon Childs at The World Transformed festival in Brighton about the problems facing journalism and how both the general public and those working in the media can start bringing in change to a fundamentally neoliberal industry.

Sound Recording: @JAPinto
Live Sound: James Tranmer @ Green Door Store

Politics Theory Other #RedHacks - Live @ TWT w/ Owen Jones, Kimberly McIntosh, and Simon Childs

This is a mixtape that I'm sharing with Jen Monroe's amazing blog Listen to This (www.listentothis.info). She will share the playlist too. Thanks.

This is a selection of music composed by Czechoslovakian musicians between 1974 to 1994.
Això és una selecció de música composada per músics checoslovacs entre 1974 i 1994.
Jedná se o výběr hudby kterou složili českoslovenští hudebníci v letech 1974 až 1994.

The cover picture has been taken from the leaflet of reissue album "Smyčcem & Háta H." by Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi .

Listen to This! Special : Vojtěch a Irena

Dan and Tom return to podcasting after the Christmas break to discuss the media's behaviour in the General Election and the implications for the Labour Party of trying to operate in a communicative space that is as deceptive as it is hostile. Along the way we touch on some familiar themes - the awfulness of PPE, the awfulness of the New Statesman, liberalism's inability to distinguish between basic sociology and conspiracy theory, and much, much more. 

Peter McColl's article on deliberative democracy as a superior alternative to technocracy and market forces can be found at his blog: https://petermccoll.wordpress.com/2019/09/02/from-the-crisis-of-meaning-to-challenge-focused-democratic-economy/

Shout out to Andy McDonald, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, for pointing out that 'the conduct of broadcasters in this election demonstrates the urgent need to debate democratic reforms to our media.' https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/labours-unfair-treatment-shows-broadcasters-21222653.amp

Music by Makaih Beats.

3.5: 17-19: A Podcast Comes of Age

Brett Christophers joins PTO to talk about his new book, Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? We chatted about the extraordinary dominance of monopolistic rent-seeking in the UK economy, why the concept of rentierisation is more useful and accurate than the notion of financialisation when talking about the trajectory of the UK and world economies, and we also talked about how and why entrepreneurialism and competitiveness are values that are taken up far more by ordinary people in the labour market than by UK business.

You can listen to the extended version of the episode by becoming a £3 supporter on patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44326998

#103 Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? w/ Brett Christophers

Ed Rooksby passed away this weekend after a prolonged and public struggle with Long Covid. I've ventured yet another eulogy for a close friend of the show and re-aired an interview I conducted with him from a couple years ago. Please enjoy as s tribute to the incredible intellect of this man. 

He will be missed terribly. Part two will follow later this week. 

His blog can be found here: https://edrooksby.wordpress.com/

*** This show is able to function entirely due to support from listeners like you. Please help continue this project of democratic socialist education by subscribing here: http://www.patreon.com/deadpundits ***

Ed Rooksby on Socialist History and Strategy (Part 1)

A podcast on radical politics, critical theory, and history. Hosted by Alex Doherty.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

Contact: politicstheoryother@gmail.com

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