Radicals in Conversation

By Pluto Press

What's Radicals in Conversation about?

Radicals in Conversation is a monthly podcast from Pluto Press, one of the world’s leading independent, radical publishers. Every month we sit down with leading campaigners, authors and academics to bring you in-depth conversations and radical perspectives on the issues that matter the most.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Radicals in Conversation episodes:

04.08.2024
Enough: Why It's Time to Abolish the Super-Rich
Forbes' annual rich list reveals that 2,781 people in the world have fortunes in excess of $1 billion. 141 people joined the list in 2023, with a combined wealth of around $14 trillion - a $2 trillion collective increase on...
02.08.2024
On Abolition Feminism with H.L.T. Quan
We’re excited to have H.L.T. Quan on the pod this month, as we publish her new book Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living. Joined by Professors Barbara Ransby and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, the conversation circles the themes of...
01.08.2024
Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism
In our first episode of 2024 we speak to Robert Chapman, author of Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism. Awareness around and diagnoses of neurodiversity have exploded in recent years, but as Robert argues, we are still missing a wider understanding...
12.06.2023
On Palestine with Ghada Karmi
Almost two months have passed since Hamas’s October 7th attack, in which it killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians. The retaliatory campaign that has been waged since then by the Israeli state against the Palestinian population—predominantly in Gaza, but also in...
11.20.2023
A People’s History of Football
From England, France and Germany to Palestine, South Africa and Brazil, the 'beautiful game' has been a powerful instrument of emancipation for workers, feminists, young people and protesters around the world. Football has often found itself at the heart of...
10.03.2023
Let Them Eat Crypto: The Blockchain Scam That’s Ruining the World
The subject of immense hope, hype and confusion, crypto has amassed countless headlines in recent years. Right now, one of crypto’s biggest names, Sam Bankman-Fried, is set to go on trial in New York, accused of having defrauded millions of...
09.01.2023
Family Abolition with M. E. O’Brien
For many of us on the left, it would probably be uncontroversial to say that seek a political horizon in which class society, and all of its manifold expressions, has been overcome - wage labour, private property, the capitalist state,...
08.09.2023
RIC in-haus: Space Crone: Ursula K. Le Guin on Feminism and Gender
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published...
07.25.2023
Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health
Mental health is a political issue, even though we often discuss it as a personal one. So how is the current mental health crisis connected to capitalism, racism and other social issues? And in a different world, how might we...
07.04.2023
RIC in-haus: Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Italian Fascism in 2023
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published...
06.20.2023
Locating Legacies: ’Abolition in the UK’ with Ruth Wilson Gilmore
In the sixth and final episode of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Often dismissed or set aside as a US-based movement, Gracie and Ruth sit down together to explore how we can think...
06.16.2023
RIC in-haus: Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being published...
06.06.2023
Locating Legacies: ’Queer Class Politics’ with Sita Balani
In episode 5 of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Sita Balani. They explore the legacies of queer liberation struggles on contemporary class politics, and the ways in which queer radicalism has expanded notions of liberatory politics...
05.30.2023
Queer Footprints: LGBTQIA+ Solidarity, Protest and Pride
In May 2023, Pluto published Queer Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Fierce History, by Dan Glass. The book is a groundbreaking guide that takes you through the city streets to uncover the scandalous, hilarious and empowering events of London's...
05.23.2023
Locating Legacies: ’The Cold War’ with Vijay Prashad
In episode 4 of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Vijay Prashad. They discuss the legacies of the Cold War from the vantage point of the Global South, to contextualise the global economic, ecological and political crises...
05.09.2023
Locating Legacies: ’Identity Politics’ with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
In episode 3 of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. They discuss how politics moves between the world of ideas and the material world, the process by which radical ideas are co-opted by elite...
05.03.2023
Private Worlds: Growing up Gay in Post-War Britain
In 1950s suburban England, a friendship bloomed between Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O'Neill - both gay men coming of age during a time when homosexuality was still a crime. Their relationship was inflected by secrecy and fear, and when the...
04.25.2023
Locating Legacies: ’The Politics of Decolonisation’ with Françoise Vergès
In episode 2 of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Françoise Vergès. They explore the connections and disparities between the anticolonial politics of the 1950s and 1960s in relation to today's movements to decolonise educational, arts and heritage...
04.11.2023
Locating Legacies: ’On Stuart Hall’ with Kojo Koram
In episode 1 of Locating Legacies, series host Gracie Mae Bradley speaks to Kojo Koram about Stuart Hall's contributions to radical thought and their relevance to present-day politics. Gracie and Kojo discuss some of the themes in Stuart Hall’s work pertaining...
04.04.2023
Announcing the ’Locating Legacies’ Podcast: In Partnership with the Stuart Hall Foundation
We are excited to announce the Locating Legacies series - a fortnightly podcast created by the Stuart Hall Foundation and co-produced by Pluto Press. The series is dedicated to tracing the reverberations of history to contextualise present-day politics, deepen our...
03.13.2023
RIC in-haus: The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it)
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical...
03.03.2023
Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel
Since the election of Narendra Modi in 2014, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with its trajectory towards authoritarianism and ethnonationalism, little attention has been paid to the linkages between Modi's India and the governments from...
01.30.2023
Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life
In a context in which abolitionist discourse is reaching an ever-wider audience, and people’s trust in the state, as a vehicle through which we can hope to achieve meaningful political change, continues to ebb away, we are seeing a renewed...
12.16.2022
RIC in-haus: Expressionism and the Myth of the Western with Robin McLean
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical fiction...
12.02.2022
Workers Can Win: On Strike in 2022
In 2022, workers have taken strike action on a massive scale, and many more are in the process of balloting to take strike action. In Britain, NHS workers, postal workers, criminal barristers, rail workers, university lecturers and many more have...
11.24.2022
RIC in-haus: Is Socialism Possible in Britain?
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being...
11.15.2022
Hope in Hopeless Times: Fighting the Hydra of Money
Amidst the global pandemic, war, environmental catastrophe, the cost of living crisis, and where victories for anti-capitalist forces are few and far between, it can feel like we are living in well and truly hopeless times. But as Marxist philosopher...
10.18.2022
RIC in-haus: Against Borders
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being...
09.29.2022
Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy
Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, or Brothers of Italy, emerged from the Italian general election earlier this week with around 26% of the vote. Although it has been a junior partner in previous coalition governments, this is the first time that...
09.12.2022
RIC in-haus: Neither Vertical nor Horizontal
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction being...
08.23.2022
The U.S. Constitution v. Democracy
Recently, U.S. politics has appeared to be very much in a state of crisis. The last president was impeached by Congress, and stands accused of inciting an attempted coup in the January 2021 assault on the Capitol. What's more, in...
07.22.2022
RIC in-haus: Reclaiming Antiracism
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop’s ‘in-haus’ events programme features authors of some of the most exciting radical nonfiction...
07.12.2022
From Carcerality to Abolitionism
This month we are joined on the panel by Françoise Vergès, author of A Feminist Theory of Violence and A Decolonial Feminism, and Aviah Sarah Day and Shanice Octavia McBean, co-authors of the forthcoming book, Abolition Revolution. Our discussion focuses on...
06.16.2022
RIC in-haus: The Ethical Stripper
Radicals in Conversation in-haus is a new podcast series collaboration between Pluto Press and Bookhaus, an independent bookshop in Bristol. RIC in-haus is recorded on location at Bookhaus. The bookshop's 'in-haus' events programme features authors of some of the most exciting...
04.07.2022
Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia
Islamophobia is everywhere. It is a narrative and history woven so deeply into our everyday lives that we don't even notice it – in our education, how we travel, our healthcare, legal system and at work. Behind the scenes it...
03.17.2022
Trespass, the Commons and the Right to Roam
In England today there exist nearly 120,000 miles of public footpath - half what it was 100 years ago and amounting to just 8% of the land in the country. Of England’s 42,000 miles of rivers, we have access to...
02.02.2022
Black History Month: Curated Highlights
To celebrate Black History Month in the US, we've gone through the Radicals in Conversation archive and curated a series of extracts in which our panellists discuss different aspects of Black history in America. Extract 1: Episode 26 (December 2019)...
01.20.2022
Public Health After Covid: A New Radical Blueprint
Almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and the limits of a neoliberal public health orthodoxy have been well and truly exposed. But instead of pushing for radical change, the left in Britain finds itself stuck in a rearguard action...
12.16.2021
Black Anarchism Across the Generations
In October 2021, Pluto published the definitive edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. The book first connected Black radical thought to anarchist theory in 1979, and now amidst a rising tide of Black political organising,...
11.26.2021
Repealed: Ireland‘s Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights
Content warning: rape, suicide On 25 May 2018, the Irish people voted to remove the Eighth Amendment from the constitution. This amendment, which had been introduced in 1983, not only made abortion illegal in Ireland, but equated the life of a...
10.29.2021
Join the Union!
The trade union movement in Britain has existed for nearly two centuries: from the Tolpuddle Martyrs, to the 1888 Matchgirls’ strike, to the militant action of Women machinists at the Ford plant in Dagenham in 1968 - organised labour has...
09.27.2021
Fighting for Climate Justice and a People‘s Green New Deal
Throughout 2021 we have witnessed a number of devastating and deeply disturbing extreme weather events across the globe. From flooding and forest fires, to soaring temperatures, it is abundantly clear that global warming is accelerating faster than anticipated, and our...
08.31.2021
Transgender Marxism
In May 2021, Pluto published a new edited collection from Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O’Rourke, titled Transgender Marxism. The book offers a groundbreaking synthesis of transgender studies and Marxist theory. Exploring trans lives and movements, the collection’s contributors delve...
07.27.2021
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: The Policing Bill and Institutional Racism
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a far-reaching piece of legislation that would, if passed into law, result in an enormous and unprecedented extension of policing powers, severely curtailing the right to peaceful protest. Over the summer, many people...
06.23.2021
Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism
'Work hard, get paid.' It's simple. Self-evident. But it's also a lie - at least for most of us. For people today, the old assumptions are crumbling; hard work in school no longer guarantees a secure, well-paying job in the...
06.09.2021
Dark Academia: How Universities Die
Content warning: suicide Academia was once thought of as the best job in the world - a career that fosters autonomy, craft, intrinsic job satisfaction and vocational zeal. And yet you would be hard-pressed to find a lecturer who believes that...
05.13.2021
'Border Nation' and the Case for Abolition
Borders are more than geographical lines - they impact all our lives, whether it's the inhumanity of deportations, or a rise in racist attacks in the wake of the EU referendum. Border Nation, the new book by Leah Cowan, shows how...
03.23.2021
Empire's Endgame: Racism and the British State
We are in a moment of profound overlapping crises. The landscape of politics and entitlement is being rapidly remade. As movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with the rise of authoritarian regimes, it is the lens of racism,...
02.22.2021
Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb
In the early hours of the morning of the 12th October 1984, a bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Five people were killed and many more were injured. The bombing was an attempt by the Provisional IRA to...
01.27.2021
The Truth About Modern Slavery
In 2019, over 10,000 possible victims of slavery were found in the UK. From men working in Sports Direct warehouses for barely any pay, to teenaged Vietnamese girls trafficked into small town nail bars, we're told that modern slavery is...

What's Radicals in Conversation about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Radicals in Conversation episodes:

Enough: Why It's Time to Abolish the Super-Rich

On Abolition Feminism with H.L.T. Quan

Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism

On Palestine with Ghada Karmi

A People’s History of Football

Let Them Eat Crypto: The Blockchain Scam That’s Ruining the World

Family Abolition with M. E. O’Brien

RIC in-haus: Space Crone: Ursula K. Le Guin on Feminism and Gender

Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health

RIC in-haus: Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Italian Fascism in 2023

Locating Legacies: ’Abolition in the UK’ with Ruth Wilson Gilmore

RIC in-haus: Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity

Locating Legacies: ’Queer Class Politics’ with Sita Balani

Queer Footprints: LGBTQIA+ Solidarity, Protest and Pride

Locating Legacies: ’The Cold War’ with Vijay Prashad

Locating Legacies: ’Identity Politics’ with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Private Worlds: Growing up Gay in Post-War Britain

Locating Legacies: ’The Politics of Decolonisation’ with Françoise Vergès

Locating Legacies: ’On Stuart Hall’ with Kojo Koram

Announcing the ’Locating Legacies’ Podcast: In Partnership with the Stuart Hall Foundation

RIC in-haus: The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it)

Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel

Practical Anarchism: A Guide for Daily Life

RIC in-haus: Expressionism and the Myth of the Western with Robin McLean

Workers Can Win: On Strike in 2022

RIC in-haus: Is Socialism Possible in Britain?

Hope in Hopeless Times: Fighting the Hydra of Money

RIC in-haus: Against Borders

Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy

RIC in-haus: Neither Vertical nor Horizontal

The U.S. Constitution v. Democracy

RIC in-haus: Reclaiming Antiracism

From Carcerality to Abolitionism

RIC in-haus: The Ethical Stripper

Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia

Trespass, the Commons and the Right to Roam

Black History Month: Curated Highlights

Public Health After Covid: A New Radical Blueprint

Black Anarchism Across the Generations

Repealed: Ireland‘s Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights

Join the Union!

Fighting for Climate Justice and a People‘s Green New Deal

Transgender Marxism

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: The Policing Bill and Institutional Racism

Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism

Dark Academia: How Universities Die

'Border Nation' and the Case for Abolition

Empire's Endgame: Racism and the British State

Where Grieving Begins: Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb

The Truth About Modern Slavery