Novara Media

After the summer of 2020, the liberal consensus was that in order to tackle racism, white people would have to look inside themselves and ‘do the work’. In 2023, this idea has spread from well-meaning allies on Twitter to the HR departments of corporate behemoths – all while the institutions that consolidate and expand systemic racism go largely unchecked. It’s almost as if the liberal answer to racism actively distracts from doing any real good.

To discuss the evolution of antiracism, Aaron is joined by writer Arun Kundnani, author of What is Antiracism: and Why it Means Anticapitalism. They talk about the linguistic roots of racism, the misunderstood legacy of Enoch Powell, and the challenges of bringing white people into a coalition against racism.

Several years ago, Jon Moses realised that the stunning nature he could see from his house in rural Herefordshire was inaccessible to him. From the nearby riverbanks to the local oak woodlands, the countryside revealed itself to be a private fortress.

Now, as an organiser of the Right To Roam campaign, he’s leading the call for free and fair access to land and water throughout England, via political advocacy and planned trespasses on private estates.

Jon tells Eleanor Penny about the traumatic history that separated commoners from the land, the dangers of a rural monoculture, and why the left needs to get comfortable with ideas about place and belonging.

Most people’s lives are defined by the exchange of labour for a wage. But what if the state gave us all a regular wage, with zero strings attached, to spend as we wish? That’s the core idea behind universal basic income, or UBI.

With England’s first UBI pilot programme now underway, Aaron talks to Will Stronge, director of research at the Autonomy think tank, about what UBI could achieve and how it might help us rethink the stories we tell ourselves about work.