Bungacast

By Bungacast

The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. Politics is back but it’s stranger than ever: join us as we chart a course beyond the age of ’bunga bunga’. Interviews, long-form discussi... more

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FAQs about Bungacast:

How many episodes does Bungacast have?

The podcast currently has 655 episodes available.

Bungacast episodes:

February 23, 2021Excerpt: /177/ AufheBonus Bonus ft. Catherine Liu
We respond to your questions and comments from the past two months. Plus a continuation of our chat with Catherine Liu (from 55mins onwards) - on PMC unions, PMC child-rearing and the culture industry.

This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

Readings:
The PMC Gets Organized, Dominic King, Damage
Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional-Managerial Class, Catherine Liu, University of Minnesota Press, 2021
...more
10min
February 16, 2021/176/ The Worst Class ft. Catherine Liu
On the Professional-Managerial Class.

Catherine Liu joins us to talk about the worst class in history (the PMC), and how and why they hoard all forms of secularised value. We discuss the development of the PMC as a class, figure out when it stopped being "heroic", and debate who the PMC'S leader might be. We conclude by asking whether the Left needs the PMC (or vice versa?).

The discussion will continue next week – focusing on recent unionising in professional workplaces, how the PMC brings up its children, and whether the "culture industry" is still a thing – in a subscriber-only episode on our patreon.

Readings:
Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional-Managerial Class, Catherine Liu, University of Minnesota Press, 2021
Moral Minoritarianism from the Ashes of Left Populism, George Hoare, Damage
Saving Britain's Universities report, Lee Jones & Phillip Cunliffe, Cieo
...more
56min
February 09, 2021Excerpt: /175/ Psychoanalysis Against Adaptation ft. Benjamin Fong
On the relevance of psychoanalysis.

In a continuation of our talk with Benjamin Fong, editor of Damage Magazine, we discuss the relevance of psychoanalysis today. What happened to the marriage of Marx and Freud – and what does the decline of both say about our times? We criticise social media as the latest instance of the culture industry as well as the growth of the US as a 'drugged society'. How can psychoanalysis be wielded against therapy culture, against a psychology that just helps us adapt to the world, and in favour one that makes us more free?

This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

Readings:
The Method and Function of Analytic Social Psychology, Erich Fromm (pdf attached on Patreon)
Adorno’s critique of the revisionist psychoanalysis: An introduction to ‘The Revisionist Psychoanalysis’, Nan-Nan Lee, Discussion and translation of Adorno (attached as pdf on Patreon)
Therapy Without Therapists, Briana Last, Damage
...more
4min
February 02, 2021/174/ Social Ungluing ft. Benjamin Fong
On American breakdown.

Editor of Damage Magazine, Benjamin Fong, joins us to talk about the lack of shared narratives in contemporary America. We discuss QAnon and conspiracy theories, Biden's authoritarian liberalism, and "pro-worker" conservatives.

We also interrogate the use of psychological analyses of politics and reaffirm the value of psychoanalysis, in a preview of a more detailed forthcoming discussion on our patreon.

Readings:
The Siren Song of “Pro-Worker” Conservatism, Benjamin Fong & Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
Unpacking the Left's Culture Baggage, Benjamin Fong, Damage
Therapy Without Therapists, Briana Last, Damage
...more
1h 7min
January 26, 2021Excerpt: /172/ Three Articles: Elite Production
On Uber, class war among the rich, and its political consequences
Articles:
The real class war is within the rich, Janan Ganesh, FT
Uber pays to get rid of its self-driving cars, Pluralistic, Cory Doctorow
The radical Left is now extinct, Oliver Bateman & Malcolm Kyeyune, Unherd
...more
6min
January 19, 2021 Excerpt: /171/ Fukuyama & the End of History ft. Daniel Bessner
This episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast

If liberal democracy has been dethroned, what next?

Francis Fukuyama famously declared the "end of history" in 1989. Has he been misunderstood? Should we understand the declaration in a geopolitical sense - liberal democracy triumphant - or in a more philosophical sense? We discuss what capital-H History means and what Fukuyama's career trajectory can tell us about our times. Is it capitalism realism or the end of history?
...more
9min
January 15, 2021 Excerpt: /170/ Reading Club: Streeck's Critical Encounters
This is a sample. Reading Clubs are for patrons $10+. Sign up now at patreon.com/bungacast

This month we discuss a book by leading German sociologist and public intellectual, Wolfgang Streeck. Critical Encounters is a compilation of book reviews, discussing neoliberal ideas, politics and economy.

We start off by discussing the value of reading books in today's noisy, social media-filled, locked-down climate, as well as what makes a good book review. Then we address five themes: the coming of post-industrial society; popular misconceptions about neoliberalism; German hegemony in Europe; Cosmopolitan delusions; and the future of capitalism.

Our interview with Wolfgang Streeck from November 2020 can be found here.
...more
8min
January 12, 2021/169/ Authoritarian Liberalism and Its Discontents ft. Amber A'Lee Frost & Daniel Bessner
On the Biden administration and Trumpist reaction.
We discuss the riot at the US Capitol and why it was not a (failed) coup attempt. How serious was the event, and what next for Trumpist reaction - will it lead to a split in the Republican Party?
Our guests - journalist Amber Frost and political science academic Daniel Bessner - help us preview what the Biden administration has in store for the US. With Democratic control of both houses, it should be able to pass legislation - but does it have any substantial plans to do so? In foreign policy, we can expect more foreign adventurism and at home, an ominous anti-domestic terrorism bill. Does the alliance of the Democrats with an increasingly domineering Silicon Valley signal the coming-out moment of authoritarian liberalism?

Readings:
Riot on the Hill, Mike Davis, NLR Sidecar blog
Render unto Ourselves, What is Ours—or Caesar Will Seize It, Alex Hochuli, Damage
What Experts on Extremism Want From the Biden Administration, James D Walsh, NYMag
Morbid Symptoms Can Persist for a Long Time, Barry Eidlin, Jacobin
Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath, Glenn Greenwald, Substack
The revenge of the blob, Alex Ward, Vox
...more
1h 7min
January 05, 2021/168/ Corona, Climate, Communism ft. Andreas Malm
On the 'war communism' solution

As we enter the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant turmoil, suffering and lockdown, inevitably the search for systemic causes and systemic responses grows more intense. Swedish ecologist and social theorist Andreas Malm joins us to discuss one possible response - a crisis communism modelled on the War Communism of early Soviet rule, as discussed in his new book ‘Corona, Climate Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty First Century.’ We discuss the nature of our contemporary crises, and how far the left needs its own distinctive form of emergency politics.

Readings:
“To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism”, Jacobin interview with Andreas Malm
Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century, Andreas Malm, Verso
Nature Defends Itself, Dayton Martindale, Boston Review
...more
1h 7min
December 21, 2020/167/ The Kingdom of God Is on Main Street ft. Todd McGowan
On freedom, authority and responsibility.

Theorist Todd McGowan joins us to talk about the End of History, what Hegel can teach us about emancipation, and why Slavoj Zizek’s reinterpretation of Hegel is so important. If contradiction is the basis of modern politics, what is its link to freedom? And what is the connection between freedom and authority? Are stable sources of authority even possible in modernity? We also put some listener questions to Todd, as we learn that the Right, just as much as the Left, evades authority and is unwilling to take responsibility.

Readings:
Emancipation After Hegel: Achieving a Contradictory Revolution
Review of book in Marx & Philosophy
...more
56min

FAQs about Bungacast:

How many episodes does Bungacast have?

The podcast currently has 655 episodes available.

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