People Just Do Something

The team from Life of the Party join us for a live recording in conjunction with our friends at Bristol Transformed. In this episode, Jonas and Joe tell us what really went wrong with Your Party, reflect on the historical moment of Momentum, and explain why the Green Party might be a limited project. We also discuss the differences between Zack Polanski and Jeremy Corbyn, and how no party can keep everyone happy. Plus, Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval reflect on how the team fared in their election predictions. 

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

Journalist and author Sarah Jaffe joins us for a live recording at Jikoni East Africa where we chat about commodified connection, manufactured isolation, and how we create true relational care under capitalism’s intimacy-crushing yoke. In this episode, Sarah Jaffe answers our live audience’s questions on everything from how can we make straight men better, how to tell your partner they’re bad at sex, and the art of declining rather than rejection. 

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

Activist scholar and lecturer at the University of Essex, Nicholas Buret joins us for a live podcast recording at the Cube. With a focus on justice labour rights and ecological politics, Nicholas tells us why the green transition was doomed from the start and how unions have a contradictory relationship with it. Nicholas tells us how there’s been a shift away from the power of disruptive action, what really goes on at climate camps, and how policy documents are often just a substitute for politics. 

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

Special guest Mathilda Mallinson discusses her time on board the historic Global Sumud Flotilla where she was reporting for Middle East Eye. The 42-strong pro-Palestinian flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces between October 1-3 while attempting to break Israel’s siege on Gaza. We hear about the psychology training Mathilda underwent ahead of departure, how the boat dealt with everything from drone attacks to bed bugs, and how her journey was cut short when the boat was sabotaged in an attack. But most of all, Mathilda shares how a fleet of people from all over the world were united by a shared sense of justice for Gaza.  

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

As co-director of Adfree cities, Veronica Wignall and her team campaign to reclaim public spaces from corporate advertising. During a live podcast recording at the Cube, Veronica tells us how our brains subconsciously register advertising, why billboards are often placed in the poorest parts of the city, and how the companies which can afford to advertise are often the ones that only widen issues like health inequalities. Veronica argues how corporate advertising is entangled in so many parts of life and that it’s time to stop promoting overconsumption. 

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

Award‑winning playwright, poet, and artist Ros Martin shares stories from a lifetime of resistance. From her London childhood, to her work as a social worker and how she ended up taking on one of the world’s largest toymakers, LEGO! Since moving to Bristol, Ros tells us how she draws on her Quaker roots to speak out on injustice, from anti-racism work, to responding to the Colston statue toppling and recently launching Raising the Red, a public art project highlighting violence against women and girls. 

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

Isaac finds himself at the Green Party conference in Brighton. The main interview is with the co-founder of Greens Organise, Steve Jackson. GO are organising the left within the Greens at a moment when the party is surging in the polls under the left populist leadership of Zack Polanski, whose leadership campaign Steve was part of.

The interview discusses the dangers of being a jaded ex-Corbynista and the unsettling quality of organising within a party that actually wants you to be there. Our hosts discuss the good, the bad and the cringe of Green politics and whether they actually stand any chance of becoming a mass force in British politics.

The Bristol Cable is one of the UK’s only independent, investigative local papers. Become a co-owner of the cooperative. 

As Pride becomes more visible each year, it risks leaving behind the very people who helped build it. Too often, Pride ignores the deep inequalities within its own institutions and sidelines the queer voices of the Global Majority. Mose-Issie, Lisa Inneh, and Teena Lashmore discuss the intersection of being a member of the Global Majority and queer, being capable of speaking truth to power, and challenging the status quo, and they explore the institutional racism still embedded in Pride organisations; the lack of funding and recognition for Global Majority-led queer events; and what true inclusion and solidarity actually look like.

So, this is a bit of a break from the usual, but we figured the lessons we can learn from radicals 200 years ago are every bit as relevant as those from today. Isaac is back out exploring, and this time he's in a Hotwells building that was once ground zero for radical science and politics in England: The Pneumatic Institute. This place was a hotbed in the late 1700s, right around the time of The French Revolution. Joining Isaac is cultural historian Mike Jay, author of Free Radicals, who gets stuck into this history and the psychedelic science it sparked. The conversation revolves around Nitrous Oxide (NOS) - re-criminalised in 2023 but still wildly popular - and the experiments a motley crew of renegades conducted with it. They were essentially getting high, but these weren't just parties; they sparked revolutionary thinking across medicine, chemistry, and the arts, ultimately forging groundbreaking ideas about public health.

The cast:
Thomas Beddoes
Humphrey Davy
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
James Watt

People Just Do Something (PJDS) is the podcast for people who want to change the world. It is for those who act, instead of waiting for others. It is for those who understand the impact of local change. If you’ve found this episode, then you’re not far from action.

From The Bristol Cable's award-winning newsroom, hosts Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval, along with producer George Colwey, bring you relaxing and possibly enraging conversations with activists, organisers, and change-makers tackling everything from local Bristol struggles to global movements.

The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom—fiercely independent journalism that puts people before profit. Since 2014, we've been holding power to account through investigative reporting, community campaigns, and democratic media ownership. Because when journalism serves the community, not shareholders, real change becomes possible.

Support independent journalism and help us bring more vital conversations to Bristol: become a Bristol Cable member.

[TRIGGER WARNING: Communism]

This episode comes from our last live show where we had international super comrade, professor Jodi Dean, blessing us with a discussion focussed on Communism in the modern age. As an outwardly left wing academic residing in the U.S.A, Jodi is often at the sharp end of the discourse, and she eloquently describes the importance of building a solidarity movement in tough times. Jodi is clearly wedded to the old guard of revolutionary thought, and this chat dives into some of the sticky stuff in framing those ideas for a contemporary audience. Questions like; is Comrade a cringe word? [obviously it is but Jodi and Isaac don’t think so.. c’est la vie].

People Just Do Something (PJDS) is the podcast for people who want to change the world. It is for those who act, instead of waiting for others. It is for those who understand the impact of local change. If you’ve found this episode, then you’re not far from action.

From The Bristol Cable's award-winning newsroom, hosts Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval, along with producer George Colwey, bring you relaxing and possibly enraging conversations with activists, organisers, and change-makers tackling everything from local Bristol struggles to global movements.

The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom—fiercely independent journalism that puts people before profit. Since 2014, we've been holding power to account through investigative reporting, community campaigns, and democratic media ownership. Because when journalism serves the community, not shareholders, real change becomes possible.

Support independent journalism and help us bring more vital conversations to Bristol: become a Bristol Cable member.