ACFM

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert return to talk about the power and potential of crowds – from mobs and marches to mesmeric leaders and terrace anthems, with music from the Joubert Singers, Sham 69 and more.

Music: The Polyphonic Spree – Light and Day / The Joubert Singers – Stand On The Word / Pink Floyd – Fearless / Sham 69 – The Kids are United / The Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith (as sung by Hibernian F.C. fans)

Books: Jeremy Gilbert – Common Ground / Nadia Idle & Alex Nunns – Tweets from Tahrir / / Elias Canetti – Crowds and Power / JS McClelland – The Crowd and the Mob / Gustav Le Bon – The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind / Freud – Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego /

Look out for the accompanying Microdose interview with Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran, who talks to Nadia Idle about the joy inherent in a protest and why raves are more infantilising than inspiring.

Nadia Idle speaks to Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran about the potency of crowds. Reflecting on their experiences in Tahrir Square and Gezi Park, they talk about feeling powerful in political demonstrations, why raves might be infantilising rather than inspiring, and how Covid-19 has put an end to free assembly.

Ece, twice named Turkey’s “most read political columnist”, has published several novels as well as 2019’s How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, chronicling the rise of right-wing populism in Turkey and the west. She was awarded the Human Rights Association of Turkey’s Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought Award in 2008.

Books: Ece Temelkuran – How to Lose a Country: The 7 steps from Democracy to Dictatorship / Nadia Idle and Alex Nunns – Tweets from Tahrir / Elias Canetti – Crowds and Power

You can read more of Ece’s work on her website: https://ecetemelkuran.com

Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

#ACFM is a podcast about left-wing politics, culture, music and experiences of collective joy, brought to you by Novara Media.

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn present a new Trip just about once a month, as well as Microdose interviews with special guests.

Search for “ACFM Music” on Spotify to find a playlist of music discussed on the show and join the mailing list to keep up with everything #ACFM: http://novara.media/acfmlist

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert are back to discuss the recent rise of conspiratorial thinking within New Age, spiritual and ‘wellness’ communities, and what implications this has for the Left, with music by David Bowie, Mark Stewart and Coki.

Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys and Matt Huxley.

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Music: Black Sabbath – Paranoid / Mark Stewart + Maffia – None Dare Call It Conspiracy / David Bowie – Moonage Daydream / The Stooges – TV Eye / Coki – Mood Dub / David Bowie – Rock’n’Roll Suicide.

Books: Frederic Jameson – The Postmodern Condition / Jean-Francois Lyotard – The Condition of Postmodernity / Thomas Pynchon – The Crying of Lot 49 / Dan Hind – The Return of the Public: Democracy, Power and the Case for Media Reform / Clare Birchall – Knowledge Goes Pop: From Conspiracy Theory to Gossip / Jack Bratich – Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture / Alan Piper – Strange Drugs Makes For Strange Bedfellows: Ernst Junger, Albert Hofmann and the Politics of Psychedelics.

Listen to our Microdose with Erik Davis here. Erik is the author of TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica, and High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. You can also sign up for his excellent Substack.

Psymposia are an organisation making sense of the complex connections between drugs, science, capitalism, policy and culture.

You can also read an interview with the Zizek Stardust.

We’ve compiled an ever-expanding playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify.

Want to up your dose? Join the mailing list to find out first about new developments from the #ACFM crew.

https://novaramedia.com/?p=24304

Jeremy Gilbert talks to Erik Davis, scholar of weird culture, mysticism, and the fertile crossover between esoterica and politics. From gnostic revivals to conspiracy theories, the JFK assassination to QAnon – why does there seem to be a sudden resurgence in conspiracy theories, sometimes in the most unexpected corners? Is there a connection between conspiracy theory and the ‘California Ideology’? And does rationalism always triumph in politics? Erik’s latest book, High Weirdness, is out now. https://novaramedia.com/?p=24214

Keir Milburn, Nadia Idle and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the history and theory of friendship, from Aristotle to Elland Road, while reflecting on how the podcast has impacted their relationship as a group, with music by Minutemen and Carole King.

Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull.

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Music: Babylon Circus – My Friend / Christopher Martin – Mi Friend Dem / Carole King – You Gotta Friend / Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends / Henri Garat – Avoir Un Bon Copain / Minutemen – History Lessons Part 2 / Dinosaur L – Go Bang (original and François K mixes) / The Jungle Book – That’s What Friends Are For.

Texts: Jacques Derrida – The Politics of Friendship / Jodi Dean – Comrade / Ben Morea – Black Mask & Up Against The Wall Motherfucker / Andrew Cornell – Oppose and Propose: Lessons from the Movement for a New Society

We’ve compiled an ever-expanding playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify.

Special thanks to Ilyanna Kerr for the beautiful new visuals for the show. View more of her work at her website.

We want to be your friend. Join our mailing list to find out first about new developments from the #ACFM crew.

https://novaramedia.com/?p=22727

Nadia, Jeremy and Keir search for the feeling of freedom, moving from Nina Simone to Buddhist House via Jeremy Clarkson.

Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull.

Texts: Isaiah Berlin – Two Concepts of Liberty / Simone de Beauvoir – Second Sex / Wendy Brown – Undoing the Demos / Adam Kotsko – Why We Love Sociopaths / Richard Sennett – The Corrosion of Character.

To celebrate our 10th Trip, we’ve compiled a playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Wv61PS6qItwCBUluNcSFx

#ACFM Trip 10: How It Feels to Be Free

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn discuss Utopias, including the Paris Commune, analogue dreamlands and kettle logic.

Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull.

PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Tracklist: Goldfrapp – Utopia / John Lennon – Imagine / Nairobi Sisters – Promised Land / Harry McClintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain / Joe Meek – I Hear A New World / Noel Brass Jr – Cortex Overflow / Liverpool Cathedral Ringers and Cleo Evans – Imagine.

Texts: George Orwell  – Homage to Catalonia / P.M. – Bolo Bolo / Thomas More – Utopia / Fredric Jameson – Archaeologies of the Future / Kristin Ross – Communal Luxury / Jodi Dean – The Communist Horizon / Raymond Willians – Marxism and Literature.

#ACFM Trip 9: Utopia

The #ACFM crew discuss life in lockdown including cheese care packs, the moral economy, and the crisis of liberalism.

Texts:

Nadia Idle- This Too Shall Pass https://notaloneintheworld.com/2020/03/22/this-too-shall-pass/ / Craig Gent – When Logistics Run Out Of Time https://novaramedia.com/2020/03/23/when-logistics-run-out-of-time / / Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer – How Corona Virus Hijacks Your Cells https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/11/science/how-coronavirus-hijacks-your-cells.html / Kropotkin – Mutual Aid / Hobbes – Leviathan / E.P. Thompson – The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century.

#ACFM Microdose: Acid Lockdown