Current Affairs

🌹 Use the code "ZOMBIES" for a 20% discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Jon Greenaway is a writer, critic, and co-host of the podcast Horror Vanguard. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson, along with editors Emily Topping and Alex Skopic, to discuss his new article “Zombie Simpsons and the Cultural Undead,” which appears in the upcoming print issue of Current Affairs.

🧟 Buy Jon Greenaway's book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/740011/capitalism-a-horror-story-by-jon-greenaway/

🧟 Jon Greenaway's article on Obsession: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/obsession-and-the-horror-of-treating-people-as-products

🧟 Jon Greenaway's article on Backrooms: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/backrooms-shows-the-vast-meaningless-maze-of-capitalism

0:00 Monopoly Go and the Death of Culture

6:05 How Culture Becomes Intellectual Property

12:28 “Zombie Simpsons” and Capitalist Realism

24:14 Why the Left Needs a Critique of Culture

31:39 The Pointless Harry Potter Reboot

38:09 The Hollowness of Jimmy Fallon

44:48 Horror Movies You Should Watch

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

We urgently need to protect human thought and creativity. Our magazine is committing itself to remaining handmade. Ensure every publication you support does the same.

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-were-banning-ai

🌹 Read our full union contract: https://846b2cdd-82e3-4b3b-845b-e8a090468421.filesusr.com/ugd/942719_5a7419ea2cbd45fbb225d6f3f67c7d46.pdf

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "KRYSTALKYLE" for a 20% discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Kyle Kulinski is the host of The Kyle Kulinski Show, co-host of Krystal Kyle & Friends, and a co-founder of Justice Democrats. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss his new article on Bill Maher, which will appear in the next print issue of Current Affairs!

🔥 Subscribe to the Kyle on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SecularTalk

0:00–4:38 Why Bill Maher Used to Matter

4:38–10:49 How Bill Maher Moved Right

10:49–16:37 “Progressive Except for Palestine”

16:37–21:20 Abdul El-Sayed

21:20–26:04 Idiocracy

26:04–27:42 When “Skepticism” Becomes Anti-Science

27:42–31:04 Apocalypse

31:04–37:18 The U.S. the World’s Biggest Terrorist

37:18–40:55 “Centrism” Isn’t Actually Moderate

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Will McCaffery is a leftist content creator focused on anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, and anti-capitalism, and the author of a new Current Affairs article on Israel’s upcoming election.

He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss what Israel’s elections reveal about the limits of liberal democracy, the political consensus behind apartheid and occupation, and what those same dynamics can teach us about elections and empire in the United States.

🔥 Read Will's Current Affairs article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/israels-elections-like-ours-show-how-much-the-parties-agree-on

🔥 Follow Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willz.talks/?hl=en

🔥 Subscribe to Will's Substack: https://willztalks.substack.com/

0:00–4:52 How Western Media Frames Israel’s Election

4:52–7:53 Can an Apartheid State Be a Democracy?

7:53–9:54 Why Have Arab Parties in an Ethnostate?

9:54–13:37 “Pragmatic” vs. “Evocative” Fascism

13:37–19:08 The Ethnic Supremacist Consensus in Israeli Politics

19:08–22:13 Why Israel’s Far Right Is More Honest About Zionism

22:13–29:28 Bringing the Critique Home to the American Empire

29:28–32:43 The Iran War and Whose Lives American Politics Values

32:43–37:54 The Victims of Empire Don’t Get a Vote

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Julian Andreone is a Capitol Hill reporter for Drop Site News, where he confronts lawmakers with tough questions they’re often unprepared to answer.

He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss his approach to journalism and why ordinary people can do this kind of accountability reporting too. Julian’s piece on his experiences reporting from Capitol Hill will appear in the next print issue of Current Affairs!

🎤 Read Drop Site News: https://www.dropsitenews.com/

🎤 Follow Julian Andreone: https://www.instagram.com/thejulianandreone/

0:00–7:57 What Julian Andreone Does on Capitol Hill

7:57–14:56 How He Prepares to Confront Politicians

14:56–17:48 Exposing How Little Politicians Actually Know

17:48–23:31 John Fetterman’s Hostility to Drop Site

23:31–26:21 Shri Thanedar Chooses Party Leadership Over His Voters

26:21–30:21 James Clyburn: “I Don’t Do Foreign Policy”

30:21–34:45 Shontel Brown’s Contempt for Her Constituents

34:45–40:45 Why Anyone Can Do This Kind of Journalism

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Shawn Gude is the former editor of Jacobin and author of American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss how Debs went from moderate railroad unionist to one of America’s most influential socialist leaders.

✊ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/American-Socialist/Shawn-Gude/9781668056738

0:00–3:51 Why Eugene Debs Still Matters

3:51–10:10 How Debs Became a Socialist

10:10–18:30 Debs’s Personality and Political Appeal

18:30–25:28 When Socialism Thrived in the Midwest

25:28–29:24 What Socialism Meant to Debs

29:24–35:31 The Defeat and Decline of Debs’s Movement

35:31–40:26 What Debs Can Teach the Left Today

40:26–43:28 What Shawn Learned About Debs While Writing the Book

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

In Michigan and Maine, a tale of two campaigns.

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-consultants-will-kill-you

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

If there’s a visual language that connotes credibility and authority, why not take advantage of it?

🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/in-praise-of-suit-socialism

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🔥 Subscribe to I've Had It: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ5cvDR2HhVUcdVoTvvQKLw

4:08 How Should Progressives Talk About Religion?

6:27 Can Bernie-Style Populism Win in Red States?

8:21 Kamala Harris in 2028?

10:41 Gaza and the Democratic Party’s Moral Failure

13:45 Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Democratic Leadership

16:46 Jennifer Welch’s Political Radicalization and Kamala’s Liz Cheney Strategy

24:59 Why Democrats Need to Offer a Real Alternative

29:28 Billionaire Influence, Money in Politics, and the Supreme Court

31:50 Should Progressives Embrace the Word “Socialism”?

34:51 JD Vance and the Future of MAGA

40:19 Rapid-Fire: Newsom, Buttigieg, AOC, and More

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

Jasper Nathaniel is an independent journalist who recently returned from reporting in the occupied West Bank, where he documented Israeli settler violence, land seizures, military raids, home demolitions, and the daily realities of life under occupation.

🇵🇸 Subscribe to Infinite Jaz: https://www.infinitejaz.com/

🇵🇸 Follow Jasper on Twitter: https://x.com/infinite_jaz

0:00-6:01 The escalating situation in the occupied West Bank

6:01-8:29 How Israeli politics enables settlement expansion

8:29-11:32 What the West Bank’s fragmented zones feel like on the ground

11:32-13:54 Why settler violence so often goes unpunished

13:54-18:52 How violence and displacement work together

18:52-26:55 The double standard on Palestinian self-defense

26:55-30:44 Western governments’ empty posturing on settlements

30:44-37:05 Palestinian resilience under occupation

🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership