Novara Media

Around the world, far-right movements are mobilising support by placing the blame for real catastrophes – Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, their own riots and insurrections – on entirely made-up enemies, among them Muslims, immigrants and feminists.

This is what Richard Seymour, a writer, theorist and founding editor of Salvage magazine, calls disaster nationalism. He joins Richard Hames to discuss the current irruption of riots, pogroms and genocide, the global south’s incipient fascism, the far-right impulse towards a ‘heroic death’, and why the left must to harness popular resentments to bring about a ‘sober class hatred’.

His new book, Disaster Nationalism, is published on 29 October by Verso.

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From pollinating crops to managing organic waste on a continental scale, insects are vital to life on Earth. They are also disappearing.

Dave Goulson is an entomologist and ecologist whose books communicate the majesty of insects and arthropods – along with a grave warning about their demise.

He talks to Aaron to Bastani talk about the critical lack of scientific expertise in government, the allure of dung beetles, and how to make your garden a haven for insect life.

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What does Israel hope to achieve this time, nearly 20 years after its last failed ground offensive in Lebanon? And how should we understand its adversary, a political party that also functions as a fighting force, a historical movement, and a regional power?

Richard Hames is joined by Elia Ayoub, a Lebanese-Palestinian researcher and writer based in the UK, to sketch the political roots and strategic goals of Hezbollah.

He explains the group’s complex links with Iran and Syria, why the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah was a PR win, and how Hezbollah became Israel’s ‘best enemy’.

Elia is the author of the Hauntologies newsletter, the founder of The Fire These Times podcast and a co-founder of the From the Periphery media collective.

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Stephanie Kelton is an author and economist, and subject of the new film ‘Finding The Money’. Her work as a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory and as an advisor to Bernie Sanders has put her front and center of the debate around government debt, taxation and the potential green industrial revolution.

She sat down for a remote conversation with Ash to discuss debt, Liz Truss and whether you really need to tax the rich.

You can watch the trailer for ‘Finding The Money’ here.

And you can learn more about the film and watch it in it’s entirety here. 

Of all the unseen forces that shape human society, could death be the most powerful? The ACFM crew take a leftwing look at mortality in this Trip, asking how capitalism has altered our approach to the inevitable.

Jem, Nadia and Keir think about how industrialised workers were taught to prepare for death, why powerful men are obsessed with their legacies, why we failed to ritualise or remember the Covid dead, and their fear of being desensitised to killing.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm

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The English language is full of pejoratives for large groups of people: mob mentality. Herd behaviour. Crowd contagion.

Much of this apprehension stems from one of the most influential works of psychology ever written, Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Unfortunately, Le Bon’s big idea – that crowds produce derangement and violence in even the most rational subject – was not based on any actual research.

So why the lingering suspicion? In his new book, Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World, journalist and author Dan Hancox traces our fear and attraction to mass gatherings.

He talks to Eleanor Penny about how mass crowds take shape – from Nazi rallies and student protests to urban riots and insurrections – and how the state tries to stamp them out.

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Xi Jinping is possibly the most powerful person in the world, but what do we know about his origins, ways of thinking and goals for China and the human race in general?

To answer these questions and more, Aaron is joined by Olivia Cheung, author of “The Political Thought of Xi Jinping”. They discuss his early difficulties with the CCP, his treatment of the Uyghurs and how China is manoeuvring it’s soft power in Africa.

You can buy Olivia’s book here: https://novara.media/BuyCheung

The Palestine solidarity movement is the largest movement in British politics for a century. Yet has been vilified and policed as if it were a tiny group of extremists.

In this investigative episode of Novara FM, series producer Richard Hames is joined by Simon Childs, commissioning editor at Novara Media, to expose the authoritarian turn inside the British state that is driving the crackdown on Palestine solidarity.

From Suella Braverman’s demonisation of “hate marchers” to Michael Gove’s attempts to redefine extremism, from Britain’s collusion with Israeli arms manufacturers to its special treatment for probable war criminals, this is a story about how the supposedly neutral institutions of the state have been used to silence a movement.

Featuring Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Kevin Blowe from police monitoring organisation Netpol, and Tim Crosland from the Defend Our Juries campaign.

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The Silk Road has dominated the way we imagine the trading relationship between Europe and Asia to have worked in antiquity.

In his new book, The Golden Road, William Dalrymple busts that myth. He sat down with Ash to talk about the origins of algebra, Indian gems in Anglo-Saxon Britain and why Genghis Khan was scared of India.

How can we resist exploitation when the boss has been replaced by a computer? That’s the premise of Cyberboss, a new book by Craig Gent, North of England editor for Novara Media, which explains how “algorithmic management” is being rolled out in the workplace, starting with Amazon packers, Deliveroo drivers and online supermarket shoppers.

He talks to NM’s head of audio Chal Ravens about the strange forms of resistance that emerge when even your boss has no idea how the system actually works. Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work is available now through Verso Books.

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