Novara Media

Novara Media episodes:

• 04.25.2024

  Novara FM: Read Some Effing Jameson! w/ Sianne Ngai and Matthew Beaumont

  The exhortation to “read some effing Orwell!” is an old chestnut of the online left, whether ironic or sincere, or somewhere in between. But if we’re looking for a writer whose body of work truly anticipates the world we live...

  
• 04.22.2024

  Downstream: This Is How Israel Controls Palestinians w/ Eyal Weizman

  It’s not what you know; it’s what you can prove. For years, Forensic Architecture has exposed state crimes against civilians, nature, and humanity. This week on Downstream, Ash Sarkar meets its director Eyal Weizman to discuss Israel’s settler colonial project,...

  
• 04.21.2024

  ACFM Trip 42: Fascism

  A lot of people are saying that fascism is on the rise. But what are we pointing to when we call a system, or a person, fascist? On this Trip, Nadia, Keir and Jem map out a complicated ideology, from...

  
• 04.18.2024

  Novara FM: London’s Endless Appetite w/ Jonathan Nunn and Amardeep Singh Dhillon

  London is a foodie metropolis: undoubtedly one of the best places to eat in the world. But eating in London is also, like everything else in the city, shaped by its history as the capital of a globe-spanning empire. How...

  
• 04.15.2024

  Downstream: The West is Poor, Africa is Rich w/ George The Poet

  George The Poet is a poet and author best known for his acclaimed BBC audio series, Have You Heard George’s Podcast? He joins Ash for an expansive conversation about his journey from grime MC to poet to academic, how Black...

  
• 04.11.2024

  Novara FM: Colonial Capitalism Has Made Us Sick w/ Rupa Marya & Raj Patel

  Centuries of colonial capitalism have reordered life on the planet and inside our bodies, from industrial farming and the uneven advances of modern medicine, to night shifts, chronic stress and inflammation. Has the system made us sick? That’s the concern...

  
• 04.08.2024

  Downstream: Israelis Want Genocide w/ Abby Martin

  Abby Martin is an American journalist and activist, host of the interview series The Empire Files, and a co-founder of the citizen journalism website Media Roots. She joins Ash Sarkar to discuss her political journey after 9/11, working for the...

  
• 04.04.2024

  Novara FM: What’s Really Causing the Housing Crisis? w/ Nick Bano

  Why is it so expensive to rent in the UK? In a divisive new book, barrister Nick Bano places the blame squarely on price-gouging landlords, rejecting the conventional wisdom that calls for more new housing as a solution to the...

  
• 04.01.2024

  Downstream IRL: This Ideology Threatens Our Fundamental Freedoms w/ Judith Butler

  For a special edition of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar is joined by philosopher, author, and one of the world’s most cited academics, Judith Butler. Their new book, ‘Who’s Afraid of Gender’ charts how a transphobic moral panic morphed into an...

  
• 03.25.2024

  Downstream: We Are Getting Foreign Policy Very Wrong w/ Steve Coll

  With hindsight, the wars waged by the US and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq look like terrible failures, both strategically and politically: the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and living standards are worse in Iraq than they were...

  
• 03.21.2024

  Novara FM: Critical Theorists Hate This One Weird Trick w/ Anna Kornbluh

  We’re living in a world of hurry and shortcuts, of intimacy on tap and just-in-time production. Immediacy, according to Anna Kornbluh, is the link between flow-states and Fleabag, between food delivery apps and a mistrust of political systems. She joins...

  
• 03.18.2024

  Downstream: On Gaza, Grammar Schools and British War Crimes w/ Peter Hitchens

  Peter Hitchens is an author and journalist whose contrarian takes on drug policy, education and foreign policy have found him occupying a singular place in the British media – with his brand of conservatism often angering audiences who would consider...

  
• 03.17.2024

  ACFM Trip 41: Trust Your Gut

  From fecal transplants to the yoghurt-industrial complex, we’ve never been more absorbed in the workings of our gut. But can we trust it? Nadia, Jem and Keir investigate the mysterious connections between mind and body, reason and instinct. How did...

  
• 03.13.2024

  Novara FM: The Untold Histories of Black Gay Britain w/ Jason Okundaye

  Researching Black British history “often feels like a rescue effort, a race against time,” writes Jason Okundaye. In his first book, he narrates the mingled histories of seven astonishing lives in the Black gay community of South London during the...

  
• 03.11.2024

  Downstream: Retired Major-General on Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan w/ Charlie Herbert

  Major General Charlie Herbert has stood out in recent months for his vociferous condemnation of Israel’s war on Palestinians. His media appearances have proven vital in synthesising a moral and strategic critique of war in which civilians are treated in...

  
• 03.07.2024

  Novara FM: Not Westminster’s Whipping Boys w/ Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram

  Less than 20% of the promised levelling-up projects for England have been completed. The problem lies not only with the current government, but with the whole way the UK’s political system is set up, with its whips and Lords and...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Downstream: Britain’s Economy Will Only Get Worse Forever w/ Gary Stevenson

  Gary Stevenson went from being Citibank’s most profitable trader to one of the world’s most incisive critics of the financial system. Gary sat down with Aaron to discuss the lightbulb moment that led him away from trading, why economists can’t...

  
• 03.01.2024

  Novara FM: Russia After Navalny w/ Tony Wood

  As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, the question of what Russia is really thinking remains as crucial, and mysterious, as ever. To paint a picture of the current political climate, Richard Hames talks to Tony Wood, author...

  
• 02.26.2024

  Downstream IRL: We Are in a New Cold War w/ Yanis Varoufakis

  Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and author who served as Greek Finance Minister in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crash. Since then, he has become one of the most sought after public speakers on the left. He joined...

  
• 02.25.2024

  ACFM Microdose: Aliens On Screen

  Last time on ACFM, the gang explored the impact of UFOs on politics, from deep-state conspiracies to the Posadists. But to really understand how aliens influence our thought – and what our belief in E.T. says about ourselves – we have...

  
• 02.22.2024

  Novara FM: The Nasty Noughties w/ Owen Hatherley & Ash Sarkar

  The 2000s in Britain was a decade of education, regeneration, falling inequality and Dizzee Rascal. But beneath the fleeting prosperity lurked a culture of cruelty. It was palpable in politicians’ disdain for single mothers, in the media’s vilification of chavs,...

  
• 02.20.2024

  The US Must Stop Funding Israel | Bernie Sanders meets Ash Sarkar

  Bernie Sanders needs no introduction. Ash caught up with the senator to talk about his new book ‘It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism’, the speed of political change and whether what is happening in Gaza constitutes a genocide.

  
• 02.19.2024

  Downstream: Israel Will Never Be Safe While Occupying Palestine w/ Yousef Alhelou

  Yousef Alhelou has spent the four or so months since October 7th covering the Israeli assault on Gaza through his Instagram account. In that time, his audience has grown by hundreds of thousands. Aaron sat down with Yousef to talk...

  
• 02.15.2024

  Novara FM: Can International Law Protect Gaza? w/ Rob Knox

  As Israel extends its bombardment of Gaza into Rafah – a supposed safe zone where 1.7 million Palestinians are seeking refuge – the limits of the “laws” of war seem horribly apparent. Following South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ...

  
• 02.08.2024

  Novara FM: How To Be Honest About Empire w/ Sathnam Sanghera

  Certain historians and politicians like to claim that the British Empire was “on balance” a good thing. Slavery was evil, they admit, but abolition was good. Racism was wrong, but free markets are desirable. In his new book Empireworld, journalist...

  
• 02.05.2024

  Downstream: Why No One Should Have More Than £10 Million w/ Ingrid Robeyns

  Should there be a cap on how much wealth one person can have? If we’re serious about tackling poverty, the answer can only be yes, says Ingrid Robeyns, author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Robeyns tells Ash Sarkar...

  
• 02.04.2024

  ACFM Trip 40: UFOs

  Should the left care about the existence of aliens? The ACFM gang explore the impact of UFOs on political thought in this Trip. Keir, Jem and Nadia discuss the connections between UFO conspiracies and right-wing thought, why some communists think...

  
• 01.29.2024

  Downstream: Would the World Be Better Without Religion? w/ Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar

  Twenty years ago, it was taken for granted that on average, people globally were shrugging off the shackles of organised religion. The world was destined for secularism. But with demographics trends in many countries pointing towards a growing religious population...

  
• 01.25.2024

  Novara FM: Who Dares To Rewrite 40,000 Years of History? w/ David Wengrow

  This episode was first released in November 2021. In the bestselling book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, archaeologist David Wengrow and the late anthropologist David Graeber offer a radically different story of our social evolution. Drawing...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Downstream: Everything You Know About The Global Economy is Wrong w/ Philip Pilkington

  We are in a drastically different world from the one most of us grew up in. This has been proven by the rapid escalation in the events in the Middle East over the last six weeks. No longer are we...

  
• 01.21.2024

  ACFM Microdose: Plugged-in Protest w/ Jeremy Gilbert

  Music has the uncanny power to stir up big feelings, which makes it an obvious vehicle for political statements of hope, anger, despair, or how to cast your vote. In this Microdose episode to accompany ACFM’s recent Trip on Protest,...

  
• 01.19.2024

  Netanyahu Says Israel Must Rule “From the River to the Sea”

  After Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel should rule “from the river to the sea”, will western leaders finally wake-up to his intentions? Plus: barrister Hashi Mohamed calls out the tories on their approach to small boats crossings....

  
• 01.19.2024

  Novara FM: The Novels That Inspired Class War w/ Mark Steven

  What role does literature play in revolution? If the question seems bizarre to you and the answer obvious, you’re not alone. Yet some of the most important revolutionaries in history have turned to literature in times of crisis. Mao Zedong...

  
• 01.15.2024

  Downstream: We Are in the Post-Climate Change World w/ Gaia Vince

  Discussion of climate change mainly focuses on mitigating rising temperatures, de-carbonising and getting to ‘net zero’. Author and broadcaster Gaia Vince argues that we also need to focus on how we’ll deal with with’s already happening and about to get...

  
• 01.11.2024

  Novara FM: Escaping the Tourism Trap w/ Dean MacCannell

  January is historically the busiest month of the year for holiday bookings. But if you’ve ever felt uncomfortable with the idea of being a tourist, you’re not the first. Back in 1976, anthropologist Dean MacCannell theorised both our drive to...

  
• 01.08.2024

  Horrors in Gaza Revealed As World Prepares for Israel Court Hearing

  As Israel faces the International Court of Justice later this week, more evidence is emerging of genocide being committed in Gaza. Plus: the scandal that has been described as the largest miscarriage of justice in British history; and Rishi Sunak...

  
• 01.01.2024

  Downstream: White Holes and Radical Politics w/ Carlo Rovelli

  From his radical youth in 1970s Italy to his research as one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli is as comfortable talking politics as he is explaining quantum theory. He sat down with Aaron to talk about the...

  
• 12.28.2023

  Novara FM: The People Vs Football w/ Juliet Jacques & Tom Williams

  Is football the place for political struggle? Is there a limit to the success of fan-owned clubs? How disappointed can we be when pundits and players turn out not to be comrades? Cultural critic Juliet Jacques and Pro Revolution Soccer...

  
• 12.24.2023

  Downstream: 2023 Year in Review

  For this end-of-year edition of Downstream, the Novara Media team look back on the biggest stories of the year. Ash Sarkar is joined by Moya Lothian-McLean, Michael Walker and Owen Jones to talk about the Labour Party, the climate crisis,...

  
• 12.22.2023

  ACFM Microdose: A Festive 50 For 2023

  The ACFM gang get together for the last time this year to deliver a Festive 50. Keir, Jem and Nadia select the best bits of culture and politics from 2023, from music, films, books to games, strikes and actions. Unwrap to...

  
• 12.21.2023

  Novara FM: It’s A Wonderful Life w/ James Butler

  Released in 1946, Frank Capra’s fable of Christmas despair in small town America has become – rather improbably – a staple of festive television. Starring Jimmy Stewart as virtuous everyman George Bailey, It’s A Wonderful Life is not just a feelgood tale...

  
• 12.18.2023

  Downstream: The Plan To Privatise Everything w/ Brett Christophers

  Asset management companies like Blackrock, Vanguard and Macquarie have avoided real scrutiny for decades, but their secretive activities are starting to attract attention from political researchers and academics. What do these companies do, and what risk do they pose to...

  
• 12.17.2023

  ACFM Trip 39: Protest

  Millions have protested against the bombing of Gaza by taking part in marches, boycotts, sit-ins and other demonstrations. But what difference does it make, either to the world or to ourselves? The gang confront a contentious topic in this Trip....

  
• 12.15.2023

  Novara FM: Palestine 2048 w/ Basma Ghalayini

  Science fiction isn’t a mode usually associated with Palestinian literature, perhaps because dreams of the future seem like a luxury when you can barely hold onto your past, or even present. In 2019, translator and editor Basma Ghalayini asked 12...

  
• 12.11.2023

  Downstream: This Damage Cannot Be Reversed w/ Daniel Levy

  Daniel Levy has had a front row seat at some of the most consequential peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine in the last two decades, as president of the U.S./Middle East Peace Project and as an adviser to former Israeli...

  
• 12.07.2023

  Novara Live Extra: Israel’s Illegal War w/ Norman Finkelstein

  On Novara Live this week, Michael Walker spoke to renowned political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein about Israel’s assault on Gaza and the collapse of the ceasefire. In this extended interview, they discuss the relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah, the...

  
• 12.05.2023

  Downstream: We Don’t Understand History w/ Blindboy

  Blindboy Boatclub is the Irish broadcaster, author and musician behind The Blindboy Podcast, a massively popular podcast mixing short fiction, comedy and interviews. His new short story collection, Topographia Hibernica, is inspired by the human, animal and emotional geography of...

  
• 12.04.2023

  Downstream: We Don’t Understand History w/ Blindboy

  Blindboy Boatclub is the Irish broadcaster, author and musician behind The Blindboy Podcast, a massively popular podcast mixing short fiction, comedy and interviews. His new short story collection, Topographia Hibernica, is inspired by the human, animal and emotional geography of...

  
• 12.01.2023

  Novara FM: Fascism Is Not The Exception w/ Alberto Toscano

  In recent years we’ve spent a lot of time arguing about fascism – what it means, what it looks like, and how we would know if it had returned. That typically brings us back to the European fascism of ’30s and...

  
• 11.27.2023

  Downstream: The History of Israel’s War on Palestine w/ Rashid Khalidi

  To really understand what’s going in Israel, you need to get your history straight. Rashid Khalidi is one of the foremost historians of the Middle East and the author of several books on the region’s history, including The Hundred Years’...