Night School

Sharaad is back! This time, we critically review and unpack the different notions of happiness that pervade popular discourse. We eventually discuss how all of that is related to love. It gets quite deep, needless to say.

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This week, Khairil Izamin Ahmad, one of Malaysia's most promising young scholars makes his Night School debut. He shares his thoughts on "Hegemony and Socialist Strategy", a classic text in political theory, and why we still have a long way to overcome liberalism.

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...or rather a sociology of 90s music. What makes it still so special? Ethnomusicologist and musician Adil Johan and city councillor/kickboxer/rocker Syerleena Rashid join the show this week to reflect on the socio-political dimensions of 90s rock and roll and its impact on our shores.

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We preview this year's annual Socialism conference by discussing what equality in a world led by Donald Trump might mean. What were the causes of his rise? Where might Socialism fit into all this? Additionally, we look at all the panels and discussions featured at Socialism 2016. Sivarajan Arumugam of Parti Sosialis Malaysia and Alex Bainbridge of Socialist Alliance in Australia lead the way.

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This week, we are joined by Emelia Ong, art historian and senior lecturer at the Universiti of Malaya. She shares her research on Malayan art during the Independence period, with particular focus on the discourse of hybrid identity that appealed to key artists at the time. We reflect on the challenges of nationalism and what lessons art may offer for alternative political imaginations.

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We rediscover Friedrich Nietzsche's conception of ressentiment for our contemporary era of SJWs, moral panics and global catastrophe. Can we take the horrors of the world seriously while still finding joy in life?

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What is the connection between film, music and politics? This week Adil Johan, an ethnomusicologist based in UKM, offers us insights into the cultural and political significance of the Golden Age of Malay cinema.

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Nicholas Chan of Iman Research Institute joins us this week to talk about the different ways we can understand terrorism. We get an overview of 'terrorism studies' and the methodological changes therein, among other things.

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This week, Dr. Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera explains the relevance of gold and the possible pathways for an alternative and more just economic system.

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For legendary French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the gaze unsettles any assumption of visual autonomy. We are, rather, always already being looked at. What might the implications be for understanding our identity? Also, Sharaad joins us again after a long hiatus.

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