What is ecofeminism, and why is it necessary in the fight for climate justice?

In this third episode of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Dalia Gebrial join Eleanor Penny to discuss prison abolitionism, racial capitalism, and critical geography.

You can find Ruthie's book "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation" on our website at bit.ly/3OrC5cu

Abolition Geography | Ruth Wilson Gilmore & Dalia Gebrial

In this fourth episode of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast, Kevin Ochieng Okoth and Robin D.G. Kelley join Eleanor Penny to discuss the radical life and groundbreaking work of Guyanese historian, revolutionary, and guerrilla intellectual, Walter Rodney, who was assassinated 43 years ago this week.

You can find a selection of Walter Rodney's books on our website at https://tinyurl.com/4xd5twt6

This podcast was produced by Planet B Productions, head over to planetbproductions.co.uk to find out more.

Walter Rodney: Guerilla Intellectual | Robin D.G. Kelley & Kevin Ochieng Okoth

In the latest episode of The Verso Podcast, Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharyya join our host Eleanor Penny to discuss exploitation, expropriation, and racial capitalism. Together they probe the very edges of capitalism - examining what lies beyond, what's holding it all up, and reflecting on it is a system that constantly undermines the conditions of its own existence.

You can find Nancy's book "Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet – and What We Can Do About It" here: https://tinyurl.com/45j87f53

On Cannibals and Capitalists | Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharyya

In this bonus episode of The Verso Podcast, Esther Leslie and Stuart Jeffries discuss the life and legacy of Walter Benjamin. Join them for this fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of one of Western Marxism's most important philosophers.

The Storyteller: Tales out of Loneliness by Walter Benjamin is out now: https://tinyurl.com/2p9bta5w

Walter Benjamin: The Storyteller | Esther Leslie & Stuart Jeffries

After a short end-of-summer break we’re happy to bring you season two of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast. This week Brett St Louis and Arun Kundnani join our host Eleanor Penny to discuss the near foundational figure in the domains of decolonial, marxist, and pan-african thought - C. L. R. James.

You can find Sakina Karimjee and Nic Watts' graphic novel adaptation of a C. L. R. James play here: tinyurl.com/32hvfftu

And Arun's book "What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism" here: tinyurl.com/yp6rw5j2

C. L. R. James | Brett St Louis & Arun Kundnani

This week we were planning to bring you an episode about money in the digital age, but with everything that is currently unfolding in occupied Palestine we felt that this conversation between two leading thinkers on the subject was an important contribution to current discourse. 

In this episode, recorded on October 6th, Ghada Karmi and Antony Loewenstein sat down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to discuss the Israeli state’s military-industrial complex, its relationship with the global far right, and why a one-state solution is the closest approximation to a just conclusion for seventy-five years of occupation. Having been recorded prior to the events that have followed since October 7th, please listen in the awareness that some of the language in the episode may not be reflective of the detailed situation that has developed over the last two weeks. 

You can find Antony's book "The Palestine Laboratory:
How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World" here: tinyurl.com/mwu7hbed

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Arming Apartheid | Ghada Karmi & Antony Loewenstein

On this week’s episode of The Verso Podcast we’ll be taking a close look at the history of tokens across time, and the cultures that have grown up around them in the digital age. Rachel O’Dwyer and Edward Ongweso join our host, Eleanor Penny, to talk Bored Apes, art markets, Ponzi schemes and butter tokens.

You can find Rachel's book "Tokens:
The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform" here: tinyurl.com/4jk9zk69

Cryptocracy | Rachel O’Dwyer & Edward Ongweso

This week on The Verso Podcast Eleanor Penny is joined by McKenzie Wark and Toshio Meronek to talk trans narratives, the politics of desire, and queer family. Together they take a critical look at the medical model of transition, its relationship to transmisogyny, and tactics of resistance.

You can find McKenzie's book, "Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir", here tinyurl.com/ycyvkam8

And Toshio's book, "Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary", here tinyurl.com/4whkpdxw

Love and Money, Sex and Death | McKenzie Wark & Toshio Meronek

On the last episode The Verso Podcast before the new year, Eleanor Penny is joined by Lynne Segal and Loree Erickson to discuss the myth of total independence, disability as a social construct, and the politics of care. In a conversation that ranges from the gendering, racialisation, and devaluation of caring labour, to abolitionism and disability activism, Loree and Lynne unpack the deep connections between autonomy and dependence, whilst suggesting ways to reimagine care outside of institutions that want to make it all about control.

You can find Lynne's book, "Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care", here tinyurl.com/mwcapmn7

The Kindness of Strangers | Lynne Segal & Loree Erickson

In this bonus episode of the Verso Podcast, authors Anton Jäger and Vincent Bevins reflect on the previous decade, the mass political movements that took place, and the ultimate failure of these movements to produce meaningful political change. They consider the lessons that can be taken from the 2010s and discuss what will be required of current and future movements in order to achieve a more just and democratic world.

Grab a copy of Anton's book "The Populist Moment: The Left After the Great Recession" co-authored with Arthur Borriello here: tinyurl.com/2uvznjav

2010-2020: The Decade of Discontent | Anton Jäger & Vincent Bevins

Welcome back to the third season of The Verso Podcast! To kick off this run of shiny new episodes we’re taking a bit of a detour into the past, to have a closer look at the protestant reformation. This was a turbulent time in history - of tyrants, merchants, popes, peasants and roving priests - when early capitalist forms of power were just beginning to unsettle the old order. 

Together with our host, Eleanor Penny, Andrew Drummond and Eleanor Janega paint a detailed picture of the social and political terrain from which the seeds of the German peasants’ war sprang. In particular, they’ll be considering the role played by a socially radical preacher named Thomas Müntzer - a rival to the more well known Martin Luther - and why exactly the historical record has cast him in such an unfavourable light.

Grab a copy of Andrew's book, The Dreadful History and Judgement of God on Thomas Müntzer: The Life and Times of an Early German Revolutionary, here: tinyurl.com/3373pvkh

Dastardly Theology | Andrew Drummond & Eleanor Janega

On this episode of The Verso Podcast we’re going on a deep dive into the work of the psychiatrist, political theorist, and philosopher Frantz Fanon. Our wonderful host, Eleanor Penny, sat down with Matthew Beaumont and Annie Olaloku-Teriba to discuss Fanon’s expansive legacy - touching on everything from night walkers and revolutionaries, to radical humanism and afropessimism, to decolonial psychiatry and the spatial politics of urban life.

Grab a copy of Matthew's new book "How We Walk: Frantz Fanon and the Politics of the Body" here tinyurl.com/43yptmm5

Unruly Bodies | Matthew Beaumont & Annie Olaloku-Teriba

This week on The Verso Podcast we’re putting landlordism under the microscope - how it turns peoples’ homes into poker chips, and the housing market into a casino. Nick Bano and Beth Stratford join our host, Eleanor Penny to discuss the depth and breadth of the housing crisis.

Grab a copy of Nick's new book "Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis" here tinyurl.com/yc5au7nz

A Land Without Landlords | Nick Bano & Beth Stratford

This week’s episode of The Verso Podcast centres on the gruelling work of making change happen in an often pitiless world - and the mental toll this can take on people. Along with our host, Eleanor Penny, Hannah Proctor and Ajay Singh Chaudhary discuss how revolutionary movements have balanced the grief of political defeat and lost hope, with the imminent needs of organising and continued resistance.

Grab a copy of Hannah's book "Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat" here tinyurl.com/2bb5fjma

With or Without Hope | Hannah Proctor & Ajay Singh Chaudhary

This week on The Verso Podcast we’ll be taking a close look at the political economy of climate breakdown. Along with our host, Eleanor Penny, Ann Pettifor and Hamza Hamouchene discuss climate justice, private equity, degrowth, and the false promise of techno-fixes.

Grab Ann's Verso releases here: tinyurl.com/3n3nc6jn

Sign up to the Verso Book Club to get involved with our new Book Club Podcast: tinyurl.com/fda34bzb. All book club members will receive a regular email with links to submit questions to our authors which will be answered on the show.

Climate Colonialism | Ann Pettifor & Hamza Hamouchene

This week on The Verso Podcast we’re taking a deep dive into the relationship between blackness and modern visual culture in the digital age. Our host, Eleanor Penny, will be joined by Legacy Russell and Fred Moten to delve into complicated relationship between philosophy, music, virality, and critical fabulation - in order to elucidate the fundamental way in which the history of modernity is inextricably bound up with images of blackness.

You can find Legacy's new book "Black Meme: A History of the Images that Make Us" here tinyurl.com/yckcuhd2

Spectators and Witnesses | Legacy Russell & Fred Moten

This week on The Verso Podcast we’re taking a deep dive on the labour theory of value. From David Ricardo, to Adam Smith, to Karl Marx, it's a topic that economists have been fighting over for hundreds of years - and it's high time The Verso Podcast joined the fray. Our host, Eleanor Penny, sat down with Beverley Best and Aaron Benanav to discuss AI, surplus population, and the relationship between the concept of value and commodity fetishism.

Grab Aaron's book "Automation and the Future of Work" here: tinyurl.com/mr8tv48u

Pre-order Beverley's book "The Automatic Fetish: The Law of Value in Marx's Capital" here: tinyurl.com/4h47mh6v (release: 21/05/24)

Value In Motion | Beverley Best & Aaron Benanav

In this debut episode of the Verso Book Club Podcast, Brett Christophers sits down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to discuss his new book, The Price is Wrong, which challenges conventional wisdom by proposing a fresh perspective on the intersection of markets and the environment. Christophers argues that the slow progress toward sustainability isn't due to the cost of renewable energy, but rather the lack of profitability in environmental preservation. As renewable technologies become more affordable, private investment hesitates to embrace green initiatives.

Imagine being able to ask an author about their book: what motivated them, what hurdles they faced, and what's next on their agenda. With the Verso Book Club Podcast, this becomes a reality. Each month, Eleanor will facilitate conversations with a Verso Book Club author, who will be joining the show to answer listener questions about their work. Your questions will be read out on the show, bringing us one step closer to the books we love.

Sign up to the Verso Book Club here tinyurl.com/5n67t9tr

Verso Book Club Podcast | Brett Christophers

This week on The Verso Podcast Eleanor Penny is joined by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Owen Hatherley to look at the unflinching work of writer, urban theorist and historian Mike Davis. 

Verso x The Dig LIVE Podcast in London with Jeremy Corbyn, Laleh Khalili: tinyurl.com/bj2zx265

You can find Mike Davis' works here: tinyurl.com/3pse83y3

Building the Ark: The Life and Legacy of Mike Davis | Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Owen Hatherley

This week on The Verso Podcast we’re going to be thinking about the relationship between feminism and the carceral system. For a growing number of people the prospect of an abolitionist future - in which police and prisons are obsolete, and are not seen as the answer to all social ills - is an obviously desirable one. But to others, the notion of an abolitionist society is not only unworkable, but deeply irresponsible. Leah Cowan and Lola Olufemi sat down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to address our preconceptions about where violence comes from, what we think it looks like, and how we might tell the difference between protection and liberation - covering topics ranging from the history of feminist movements, to transphobia, police violence, the NGO sector, borders, and biological destiny.

You can find Leah's new book "Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?: A tangled history of resistance and complicity" here: tinyurl.com/yc6spv52

Abolition Is Now | Leah Cowan & Lola Olufemi

In this second episode of the newly launched Verso Book Club Podcast, Jules Gill-Peterson sits down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to discuss her new book A Short History of Trans Misogyny. 

In this incisive account of the invention of trans panic, A Short History of Trans Misogyny challenges the notion of transmisogyny as simply an attempt to mock or undermine a trans woman’s femininity - instead situating its origin in the violence of the colonial state, and it’s attempts to consolidate its control over the populations it subjugated.

Sign up to the Verso Book Club here tinyurl.com/5n67t9tr

Verso Book Club Podcast | Jules Gill-Peterson

Today we're publishing part two of our sell-out live event recorded at London's Union Chapel on July 26th. 

For this discussion we teamed up with our friends over at The Dig for a podcast extravaganza. Eleanor Penny of the Verso Podcast and Dig host Daniel Denvir sat down with writer and academic Laleh Khalili and the freshly re-elected, newly independent, MP Jeremy Corbyn, to talk about the past present and most importantly the future of Internationalism. 

We talked about Palestine, Congo and Iran, about the Labour Party, the welfare state, the climate crisis and the economics of global trade. The event opened up with a live recording of Macrodose podcast which is already up on your feed if you want to take a dive into that. 

Thank you so much to everyone who came down sold out the event and brought such an incredible energy to the evening. 

If you don't already do subscribe to The Dig wherever you get your podcasts, and support them over at patreon.com/thedig

[LIVE] The Future of Global Politics w/ Jeremy Corbyn, Laleh Khalili & Daniel Denvir

Today we're publishing part one of our sell-out live event recorded at London's Union Chapel on July 26th.

For our first show of the evening we were joined by our friends at MACRODOSE podcast for a recording of their highly-recommended show on the future of global capitalism. 

This discussion was hosted by writer and academic Dalia Gabriel, and featured political scientist Thea Riofrancos, climate justice activist Asad Rehman and economist James Meadway. 

Subscribe to MACRODOSE at linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or wherever you get podcasts.

And please do support the project over at patreon.com/Macrodose

[LIVE] The Future of Global Capitalism w/ Macrodose Podcast

This week we’ve got something a little different for you. Whilst we’re still technically between seasons - and working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast - we wanted to share a great episode we’ve been collaborating on with our friends over at Macrodose. 

Macrodose is a podcast from Planet B Productions that brings you a weekly briefing on the economy, and takes a look behind the media headlines to work out what’s really going on. You can listen to the podcast and support the show at patreon.com/macrodose

In this episode you’ll be hearing from Craig Gent, author of Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work - published recently by Verso Books. As well as being a writer Craig is also a researcher and the North of England Editor at Novara Media.

In this bonus show, Craig will be exploring the role of algorithms in the workplace. He’ll be covering the big questions - such as, what’s at stake as algorithms are slowly, quietly integrated into our everyday lives? Is it just an inevitable fact of the long march toward progress? Or does it open a new frontier of class struggle that we need to take seriously and think about strategically? In other words what happens when your boss is a robot, and what do we do about it?

You can find Craig's book "Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work" here: www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2958-cyberboss

Be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. 

If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

Macrodose: Cyberboss | Craig Gent

This week we have a special episode for you as part of our inter-season programming - an interview with Enzo Traverso. Of course, we’re still working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast, but until then we have some exciting interim episodes coming up for you.

Enzo Traverso is a writer, political scientist, and professor of humanities at Cornell University. His previous books include Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914 to 1945, The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right, The Origins of Nazi Violence, and The End of Jewish Modernity. He sat down with verso editor Sebastian Budgen to explore his life, his work and his latest book, Revolution: An Intellectual History - released in a new paperback edition earlier this year.

The book charts a new history of the revolutionary movements of the 19th and 20th centuries - from Alexandra Kollontai’s cries for sexual liberation in Russia, to Louis Auguste Blanqui’s barricades in France, to Ho Chi Minh’s independence proclamation in Vietnam. In drawing these examples together, the book seeks answers to the fundamental question of how to unmake and then remake the world - of what revolution means and what it demands from us.

In this interview, Enzo talks about his intellectual beginnings, about the new global far right, the Frankfurt School, left wing melancholia, and Israel's war against Gaza. 

If you'd like to read more about how people down the ages have tried to change the world - and sometimes even succeeded - then Enzo’s book, Revolution: An Intellectual History is available now from Verso Books: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution

And don’t forget - be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. 

If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

Fascism, Marxism and Israel | Enzo Traverso

On this week’s episode of The Verso Podcast we’re back to our typical format - our host, Eleanor Penny, is joined by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm to discuss their new book Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown (BUY HERE: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3131-overshoot). We’re still working on bringing you more of these roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation with two of key thinkers on the politics of climate breakdown. And don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for more inter-season programming in the run up to season 4!

We’re well into the third decade of the twenty-first century and we have still failed to save the world. Twenty-eight COP conferences on climate change have been and gone - and whilst there’s been plenty of mud wrestling over tipping points and temperatures rises, nothing ever really happens. In fact, the further we creep towards unliveable global temperature rises, the more fossil fuels get burned.

In response, an attitude has taken hold in some parts of climate politics that the fight to keep temperature rises below 1.5 degrees is a lost cause. Some people claim that instead of mitigating emissions now, we should instead be looking at strategies to tactically ‘overshoot’ warming targets, before using carbon capture and removal to turn the heat back down again. If you’ve just invested in a new oil pipeline, that attitude might look very appealing. Less so if you are living in parts of the world already burning, starving or drowning in a new age of heatwaves.

In this in-depth discussion, Wim Carton and Andreas Malm chart the embrace of this ‘overshoot’ thinking in environmental circles, in business, and in politics - asking what it means for the delicate life systems on this planet, and what we might be able to do about it.

Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over twenty academic articles and book chapters on climate politics. His work has appeared in top journals such as Nature Climate Change, WIRES Climate Change and Antipode. 

Andreas Malm teaches human ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of, among other books, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire.

And don’t forget - be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. 

If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!


Overshoot | Andreas Malm & Wim Carton

This week we have a special episode for you as part of our inter-season programming - an interview with Matteo Pasquinelli. Of course, we’re still working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast, but until then we hope you’ll enjoy the exciting interim episodes we have in store for you.

Matteo Pasquinelli is an associate professor in Philosophy of Science at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. His writing has appeared in AI and Society, e-flux, Multitudes, Radical Philosophy, the South Atlantic Quarterly, and many other places besides. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence - out now with Verso Books (https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/735-the-eye-of-the-master).

Matteo sat down with Richard Hames to explore some of the ideas laid out in his latest text - cutting against popular understandings of artificial intelligence that have come to increasingly dominate our cultural imaginaries, our workplaces, our digital lives, and our visions of the future. Pasquinelli argues that whilst many may claim that artificial intelligence imitates biological intelligence, the reality is that AI does not amount to a digital proxy of the neural pathways of individual human beings. Instead, he advances the opinion that AI imitates the intelligence of labor and social relations - framing it as a social and political creature, whose problems demand social and political responses. 

In this interview Matteo talks algorithms, IQ tests, and why AI will ultimately lead to us working more, not less.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. 

If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

AI, Automation, and Algorithms | Matteo Pasquinelli

In our last episode of The Verso Podcast before the winter break, our host Eleanor Penny is joined by Israeli historian, and activist Ilan Pappé, to discuss the false histories upon which the modern state of Israel is founded. We are of course still working on bringing you more of these in depth discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this vitally relevant discussion with such an outspoken and incisive Israeli political dissident.

At the start of Israel’s current assault on Gaza, the media was rife with misinformation about the nature of Hamas’ incursion, the events immediately leading up to it, the supposed justifications of Israel’s bombardments, and the histories that set the stage for the devastation we are witnessing now. In the 14 months since, Israel has quietly rolled back on some of these claims, whilst continuing to stand by other convenient mythologies. 

This pattern is nothing new. As Ilan has been highlighting for decades myth and misinformation was always foundational to the modern state of Israel, and its false histories have been used to whitewash, distract from, or justify not just land grabs - but apartheid and an active genocide. Together with Eleanor Penny, Ilan spoke about settler colonialism, liberal zionism, and the role of historians cutting through the media noise - as well as Lord Balfour’s anti-semitism and the pitfalls of the Two State Solution.

Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian, writer and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, and lastly Ten Myths About Israel, which has recently been reissued and updated by Verso Books (https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/370-ten-myths-about-israel). 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops!

If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!


Myths about Israel | Ilan Pappé

What is care and who is paying for it? In her new book, The Care Crisis, Emma Dowling charts the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world, from the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties, to the state of the social care system. She examines the relations of power that play profitability and care off in against one another in a myriad of ways, exposing the devastating impact of financialisation and austerity. In this podcast she discusses care in its many forms with Rachel Holmes before a reading from the book by Amelia Horgan.

The Care Crisis is out now: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3667-the-care-crisis

The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It?

Podcasts, readings, lectures and events: big ideas and radical discussion from authors and collaborators with Verso Books

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