CommonSpace journalist Caitlin Logan sits down with Scottish Women's Rights Centre solicitor Sarah Crawford, clinical psychologist and domestic abuse expert Dr Mairead Tagg, and SNP councillor Julie McKenzie who was the victim in two domestic abuse cases which saw her former partner convicted.

We ask, is the Scottish justice system working for suvivors of domestic abuse, and what can happen to ensure it does?

Beyond the Noise with David Jamieson is a new weekly podcast with CommonSpace journalist David Jamieson, where he gets behind the 24/7 outrage-driven social media news circus and gets to heart of issues, trying to finding the substance behind the headlines.

In this first episode, Jamieson looks at Labour's anti-Semitism crisis, which has hit its apex this week with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intervention.

Jamieson explains why he considers the claims to be "nonsense" and "mainly just wrong", a smear campaign which has morphed and mutated to the point of absurd claims about Jeremy Corbyn "without any reference to evidence".

Key issues Jamieson explores in the podcast are:

- How 'the smear campaign' has become increasingly unhinged and blatantly anti-Palestinian, including Margaret Hodge's latest comments on Sky News.

- Netanyahu's role in this affair, including his controversial comments about the holocaust and his alliance with Hungarian ruler Viktor Orban.

- Jewish opposition to the anti-Semitism claims in Labour

- The historical development of anti-Semitism and racism in Europe on the right and the left from the early 20th century up to the present

- How the crisis has played out in Scottish politics

- The apparent inability of the Left to be able to be able to respond effectively to the crisis, and what that says about contemporary left politics

School student Doaa Shabbir published an article on CommonSpace last month questioning whether a school system based around a competitive attainment culture is really educational progress, and outlining a vision for education based on the uplifting of a whole generation. Read here: https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/12925/doaa-shabbir-if-educational-progress-not-about-uplifting-whole-generation-then-it-not

In this podcast, CommonSpace editor Ben Wray talks to Doaa, teacher Keri McGachy and college lecturer, journalist and education campaigner James McEnaney about what is school actually for, whether we value the right things and what education for the common good would look like.

Specific areas discussed include:

- Doaa's experience of the school system and her critique of it

- Examples internationally of countries that have ostensibly high levels of attainment but also high levels of stress and anxiety partly due to the competitive schooling culture.

- What does educational progress actually mean and how to achieve it

- The structural and cultural barriers in Scotland to having an education system that works for the common good.

- Attempts to close the 'attainment gap' in Scotland and whether this is the right focus with the right policies to achieve it.

- What difference could technological change such as automation make to school education.

CommonSpace editor Ben Wray spoke to Chris Bambery, co-author of newly released 'Catalonia Reborn - How Catalonia took on the corrupt Spanish State and the Legacy of Franco' with George Kerevan.

Wray and Bambery have an in-depth discussion about all things Catalan politics, including:

- Why were the leadership of the independence movement seemingly not prepared when establishing a Catalan Republic after the 1 October 2017 referendum and how does this compare with previous attempts to establish new state's, such as in Ireland?

- The relationship between the left and the independence movement in Catalonia.

- The authoritarian character of Spanish nationalism at the top of the Spanish state and its attitude towards Catalonia and the Basque Country

- The motivating factors behind Catalan and Scottish independence movements and the similarities and differences between them.

- What can be learned from the Catalan independence movement, and what could the Catalans learn from its Scottish equivalent.

- What's the future of Catalan and Spanish politics after the repression of the referendum and implementation of direct rule from Madrid

Catalonia Reborn can be purchased from Luath Press here: https://www.luath.co.uk/productsc/catalonia-reborn-gmwn9

CommonSpace reporter Sean Bell sat down with the Ferret's Layla-Roxanne Hill and OpenDemocracy UK's Adam Ramsay at the Democracy21 conference (in a cupboard) to discuss democracy, neoliberalism, representation and the future of journalism.

CommonSpace had a wideranging discussion with journalist and author of PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future Paul Mason at the Democracy21 conference in Glasgow [23 June]. Issues discussed include:

- The future of the global economy in the age of info-tech

- How the collaborative economy can challenge the tech giants

- Is the revolutionary subject the self, or the collective?

- Scottish independence, Labour and how to get progressive change across the UK

CommonSpace editor sits down with SNP MSP and Scottish Government minister Keith Brown, fresh from his election victory as the new SNP depute leader.

Economy expert Katherine Trebeck discusses her ideas for Scotland's post-growth future with the economist and former SNP MP George Kerevan and CommonSpace editor Ben Wray.

CommonSpace editor Ben Wray is joined by the journalist and former SNP MP George Kerevan, Common Weal think-tank director Robin McAlpine and economy expert Katherine Trebeck to discuss the SNP's Growth Commission report released Friday 25 May 2018

Part 2: https://soundcloud.com/user-108524024/podcast-katherine-trebeck-discusses-her-ideas-for-scotlands-post-growth-future