Café Academique

In this episode of Café Académique, host Panos Panayotu is joined by Marisa Holmes, a core organizer of Occupy Wall Street and author of ‘Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This Is Just Practice’. Together, they reflect on the legacy of OWS, 13 years after the movement began, and its continued relevance in today’s turbulent political landscape.

Marisa shares her insights on the early organizing process, the global influences that shaped the movement, and how Occupy sought to create a new kind of democracy. The discussion also explores the lessons learned, the challenges faced, and what today’s activists can take from OWS to build movements for the future.

In this episode of Café Academique, we delve into the tumultuous landscape of French politics as the country heads towards snap parliamentary elections. Our guest, Théo Aiolfi, a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at CY Cergy Paris University, shares his expertise on French politics. We discuss Macron's 'gamble' with the snap election, the normalisation of far-right ideas in France, as well as the prospects of the New Popular Front to counter Macron and the far-right.

In this episode of Café Academique, we explore the intriguing world of AI with a special focus on AI-driven political parties. Our guest, Asker Staunæs, founder of the Synthetic Party in Denmark, shares his unique insights from the world's first AI-driven political party. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on the potential of AI to reshape political engagement and democracy.

Following the AfD's record high in the recent European Parliament elections, this episode delves into the implications of their rise for German and European politics. We explore the historical roots and ideological foundations of the AfD as well as recent developments within the party with Lazaros Karavasilis, a researcher at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen.

Café Académique makes its debut on the 13th anniversary of the Aganaktismenoi movement. We revisit the Greek movement of the squares that emerged in 2011. I am joined by Marina Prentoulis, Professor Emerita in Politics & Media at the University of East Anglia, to explore the roots of the movement, its key demands for direct democracy and an end to austerity, and the vibrant community it created in Syntagma Square.