Aufhebunga Bunga

On Zone of Interest and Holocaust film.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We discuss the winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film – one that split opinion, among critics and on the pod too! How does the film fit in the pantheon of Holocaust films? Is it a Holocaust film? How well does it deal with its obvious subject matter: the banality of evil? Is the film neutral and detached or preachy, condescending, moralising? What to make of the commentary around the film, including director Jonathan Glazer's statements? How does it relate to Israel/Palestine? What to make of present-day Auschwitz? Should it be preserved? Link: The Zone of Interest is an extreme form of 'Holokitsch', Richard Brody, New Yorker Is The Zone of Interest simply uninteresting? Toby Marshall, Substack The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities – including in Gaza, Naomi Klein, The Guardian The Zone of Interest Reminds Us How Easy It Is to Ignore a Genocide on Your Doorstep, Juliet Jacques, Novara

On Mexico's elections.   [Full episode at patreon.com/bungacast]   Mexico goes to the polls this Sunday with the ruling centre-left MORENA party holding a commanding lead. Anthropologist Roger Lancaster joins us to preview the election and look at outgoing President AMLO's record. What are the stakes in this election? Has Mexico bucked the trend of class realignment? Where is the 'Brahmin Left'? What is "republican austerity" and has this actually combatted corruption? What do make of AMLO's use of the military? Militarising public life or domesticating the military? What has AMLO done for the working class? And what might it do for itself? What is AMLO's populism and has he rekindled class consciousness? Links: The AMLO Project, Edwin Ackerman, Sidecar The Mexican Question, Ramon Centeno, Sidecar The Struggle to Be Gay—in Mexico, for Example, Roger Lancaster

On Futuromania and closing and opening of musical horizons.   We talk to renowned music critic Simon Reynolds about his new book. A counterpart of sorts to his famous Retromania (2011), Futuromania looks at the exciting futuristic music of the past and present. We discuss its themes to try understand whether the culture is still about to throw up something new. Is talk about popular music stuck between the poles of “rockism” and “poptimism”? How did Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder invent "electronic dance music"? Why is "future music" good? What are its pitfalls? How did Daft Punk run out of futurity? Why is Auto-Tune actually not the worst invention? How are genres like trap technically exciting but thematically glum? Is there any way of bringing the future back? Links: Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines, and Tomorrow's Music Today, Simon Reynolds blissblog, Simon Reynolds blog Futuromania companion playlist with Reynolds' introductions, on NTS: https://www.nts.live/show

On Alex Garland’s new film, Civil War.   [Patreon Exclusive]   The boys discuss a film that seems designed to say something in the context of a US election year. But what? We ask: What kind of film is this: a dystopian fantasy, a war movie, a road movie? Why the focus on the media? Does the film celebrate or satirise journalists? Does Garland’s dystopia tell us anything about the landscape of US politics today? Why is political polarisation between liberals and populists seen in terms of civil war?  What would a civil war look like in geopolitical terms, along the lines Garland suggests? What side would you choose? Links: Where will America's Civil War be fought?, Michael Lind, UnHerd The Civil War Will Not Be Mediated, Nina Power, Compact Civil War is a terrifying film, but Trump: The Sequel will be a real-life horror show, Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

On Isaac Deutscher's classic Stalin: A Political Biography.   [Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive]   We start off dealing with your questions from the first two Reading Clubs of the year, before Phil takes us through the famous biography of the Soviet leader. We discuss: Deutscher's work in historical context Stalin’s parents' experience as serfs and the significance of his boyhood education in an Orthodox seminary How the oppression of the Russian Empire and the promises of Soviet industrialisation shaped young Stalin's lifecourse Whether, compared to other Bolshevik leaders, Stalin would have succeeded anytime, anywhere Was Stalin honest in his commitment to the revolution? Was Trotsky right that Stalin was just a cynic? How did Stalin compare to the other leaders at Yalta, such as the aristocratic Churchill? How do we compare Stalin to Cromwell or Napoleon? And what's behind cheeky internet Stalinism today? Links: Message of the Non-Jewish Jew, Isaac Deutscher, Marxists.org On Orwel

On US campus protest, the brutalisation of Gaza, and whether this is an age of war.   Join us: patreon.com/bungacast   Bunga boys Alex, George and Phil debate the matter of the day. We ask: Is the police repression and associated censorship (the anti-semitism bill) a reflection of the fact the content of the protest unsettles the establishment? Why? Why is the Left breaking with Biden and the Dems over this and not before? How do these student protests compare to BLM? And how do they compare to those of the late 60s and Vietnam? What should those in Western countries do in response to Israel’s war? Is the Palestinian struggle dead? What are the risks of regional war? And does Israel's assault on Gaza presage a new era of warfare?   Links: The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage Like it or not, the politics of war is upon us, David Jamieson, Conter Express Train to Nowhere: Class and the Crisis of the Modern Jewish Soul, Samuel Biagetti, American Affairs  Is this How We Can

On the earth-shaking events of the 20th century, through a personal lens.   Regular contributor Alex Gourevitch sits down with political scientist Peter Gourevitch to talk about their shared family history. Why did their grandparents/great-grandparents become Mensheviks? How did one half of the family leave the USSR and the other half remain? What was life like in exile in Berlin before the Nazis took power? And how did the family know to flee? What was distinctive about fascism and the terroristic assault on democracy? How was the escape from Paris just like the film Casablanca? What happened to those who remained in the Soviet Union and how did one member meet death via torture? What is the legacy of Menshevism – and what is the relationship between socialism and democracy? Links: Who Lived, Who Died? My Family's Struggle with Stalin and Hitler, Peter Gourevitch, Dio Press   Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast. Members who sign up for $7/mo get 4 original paywalled

On saving society from the antisocial-ists. In partnership with Damage magazine.   [Patreon Exclusive]   Trade unionist and researcher Dustin "Dino" Guastella joins us to talk about the deficiencies of a libertarian or antinomian approach to social problems. We start off with Dino telling us about the Teamsters union, before moving on to: How have American cities developed such problems? What are the pros and cons of the 'Portuguese Model' of drug decriminalization? What is the problem with harm reduction, and how does it connect to notions of 'bare life'? How are insecurity and precarity changing people's political demands and expectations? Is there something to be learned from the Christian tradition? Should we all be reading Alasdair MacIntyre? How do we build a politics of human flourishing? Links: Making the Present the Enemy of the Future, Dino Guastella, Damage Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dino Guastella, Damage Christianity, Morality, and Socialism, Dino Guastella, Jacobin The lef

On Euro censorship + your comments and criticisms.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We discuss censorship in Brussels and Berlin, and put it in the context of the incorporation of right-populism. How will European politics come to look as national-conservatives become part of the establishment? What's up with these "sovereigntists" who are unserious about sovereignty?   Also we discuss your comments: If cultural production is already monopolistic, can it be democratically planned? Should we problematise "mental health"? Is love a dangerous political emotion? What happens if you leave the left? How do we kill the ghosts of the 20th century? Is a generational analysis of left-populism wrong? How do we get beyond a world of media and images? Links: NatCon: are centrists the real threat to free speech?, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd  

On the Big Hard Dick industry.   [Patreon Exclusive]   Clinicians and Damage authors & editors, Christie and Benjamin, tell us why the market for penis enlargement and hardness has exploded. What is the "penis anxiety industry" How does it serve individual, cultural and unconscious demands? How does 'Big Hard Dick' provide a brittle solution to a deep social problem? Is the Freudian analysis passé? Is it phallus-obsessed? Does a making your penis bigger and harder help deal with imposter syndrome? Does neoliberal capitalism make us feel "small"? Does the liberal elite want you to accept your smallness? How might we be big – make ambitious, large-scale change – without falling for fake solutions? Links: Size Queen Nation, Christie Offenbacher & Benjamin Fife, Damage /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler The New Superfluous Men, Alex Gendler, American Affairs On masquerade vs imposture: How Should a Woman Look?: Scopic Strategies for Sexuated Subjects, Jennifer Friedlander Penis Envy and Other B

On melodrama and the bourgeois subject.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We're back with the next installment of our series on the "emotional turn". Alex talks to Catherine Liu about whether politics is staged in a "melodramatic" fashion today. What is the bourgeois subject, why was it good, and where did it go? What is melodrama? Does public crying make us feel connected? Is it all Oprah's fault? Why is psychoanalysis the solution to, not the cause of, therapy culture? How is indignation used today? Is the political scene just villains and victims? Links: Emotion Sickness I ft. Nina Power Emotion Sickness II ft. Ashley Frawley Emotion Sickness III ft. Alex Hochuli Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery, Eva Illouz Interview with Christine Gledhill, from the book Melodrama After the Tears 

On President AMLO and the rebuilding the working class.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We continue our discussion with anthropologist Roger Lancaster who has lived and researched in Mexico for decades, on the past and present of Mexican radicalism. How has popular conservatism served as a boost for radicalism and revolution  Is there any basis for a 'romantic' anti-capitalism, in Mexico, or in the Global North? Is President AMLO synthesising a new politics?  Has he “ended neoliberalism” or on the way to it? How socially conservative is AMLO really?

On A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics   [Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive]   Continuing our theme of "the intelligentsia & the public," we discuss German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's 2023 book, asking what sort of political culture is required for democracy. What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in producing, sustaining or undermining this culture? How does Habermas' account contrast with B. Anderson on print capitalism? Is 'deliberative' democracy a trap? Who sets the rules of deliberation? Is a good media structure a 'constitutional imperative'? How do interests fit into Habermas' model? Do we need to leave our interests at the door?   Links: A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics, Jurgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas is a major public intellectual. What are his key ideas?, Duncan Ivison, The Conversation /362/ Life Doesn’t Have to Zuck ft. Cory Doctorow - on social

On Mexico, class, and sexuality.    We welcome anthropologist Roger Lancaster onto the pod to talk about his new book, The Struggle to Be Gay – in Mexico, for Example.     We discuss: How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"? Do you need to be middle class to be gay? Why did neoliberalism provide more sexual freedom than corporatism in Mexico?  How was Mexico ahead of the US in introducing ‘progressive neoliberalism’? Is now a time of freedom, or should we think of it differently? In part two, we discuss AMLO's "synthetic" presidency, and the way peasant conservatism in central America has traditionally provided a boost to radicalism – and ask whether this is still the case.   Only available at patreon.com/bungacast.   See also: /180/ Bunga Bunga (but Gay) ft. Mark Simpson & River Page

On Portugal's elections, 50 years since the revolution   Catarina Príncipe, a long-time activist on the Portuguese left and a doctoral student of political economy, is back on the podcast to talk through what happened as Portugal went to the polls. How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own history? How did the right-populist Chega party break through amid high turnout? What kind of anti-politics did Chega bring to the table? Is there nostalgia for the dictatorship? How did immigration become an issue in a country where emigration is the big problem? What is going on with Portugal's huge housing crisis? Why has the EU disappeared as a political issue, 10 years on from the peak of the crisis? Bungacast is expanding, with new regular contributors, partnership with Damage magazine and more. Read about it here or see the video. Links: In Portugal’s Election, the Center Left Struggles to Hold On, João Murta & Guilherme Rodrigues Europe After Brexit, Bungacast live event, ft. Catarina P

On what comes next: in politics, ideas, economy, subjectivity   To commemorate seven years of the podcast and four-hundred episodes, we got all our new Contributors in to examine the oppositions and tensions that we think will characterise the next decade. We say hello to Amber A'Lee Frost, Alex Gourevitch, Catherine Liu, and Leigh Phillips.   For all Bungacast shows, including our Contributors, the Damage magazine episode, Reading Club and more, go to patreon.com/bungacast     Politics Right-populism: insurgency or incorporation The Left: engagement or reclusion Multipolarity: opportunity or restriction War: inertia or action Industry & Economy Work: precarity or militancy Green Capitalism: industry or austerity Tech: exhaustion or enchantment Ideas & Art Truth: the image or the word Belief: reason or romanticism Individual & Society Subjectivity: vulnerability or resilience Sex: liberation or puritanism Sociability: virtuality or embodiment

On the withdrawal from hyperpolitics and hypermodernity.   [Patreon Exclusive]   What comes after a decade of populism? Alex Hochuli talks through his new essay in Damage, issue 2. This is episode is the third part of our Emotion Sickness series on the politics of feelings. Click here for part 1 and part 2. If we are disengaging from politics, what is the associated feeling - resentment or resignation? Why are our times "hypermodern" – and why is this exhausting? What can the examples of the 'great resignation', 15-minute cities, and postliberalism all tell us about the ways people are withdrawing from modernity? Why do we need to decelerate to save modernity? How might we gain control of time? This episode is in partnership with Damage. Bungacast subscribers ($7+) automatically get a digital subscription to the magazine. Go to patreon.com/bungacast.   Links: From ADHD to Let Me Be: Taking Control of Time, Alex Hochuli, Damage Damage issue 2: "Deinstitutionalized" (subscribe for Alex's essay +

Part II of the series: on therapy and vulnerability.   [Patreon Exclusive: subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]   Sociologist Ashley Frawley (and COO of Sublation Press) is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, Significant Emotions. What is behind the seeming rise of public emotionalism and the focus on mental health? How was “happiness” a policy concern – and when did it disappear and why? What’s going on with universities and their focus on the mental health of students? Is there much emotion about, in a romantic sense of deep feeling? Or is it emotion ersatz, instrumentalised, superficial, sentimentalised? How does affect polarise politically Left and Right? Can we solve the crisis of subjectivity by focusing on the self? And who is the Big-Ass Subject? Links: Significant Emotions: Rhetoric and Social Problems in a Vulnerable Age, Ashley Frawley, Bloomsbury Sublation Media Ashley's YouTube channel

On Benedict Anderson's classic Imagined Communities.   [Patreon Exclusive. Subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast]   Originally published in 1983, Anderson's account of the origins of nations is one of the most cited books in English in the humanities. In what ways does this diverse and inventive book still explain the world? How is imagined different from imaginary? Did nations emerge first in Latin America? Does Anderson's account of print capitalism still apply – and is it more valid than ever? Are we really in a post-national era? Does Anderson underestimate the political side – the project of achieving your 'own' state? Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (pdf)   The Reading Club this year is dedicated to three themes: the rise and fall of nations; intellectuals and the public; Russia: past and present.

Turbulent times, ideological confusion. Politics is back, but it's stranger than ever. All the more reason for unflinching critique of the current moment. That's why Bungacast is expanding. Regular contributors are coming on-board: Catherine Liu, Amber Frost, Alex Gourevitch, and Leigh Phillips   We're partnering up with Damage Magazine   There'll be many more exclusive episodes – see patreon.com/bungacast   And a new Reading Club, with new themes!