There are some new (and old) faces on the left of British politics hoping to challenge Keir Starmer’s struggling Labour government, but could a party to the left of Labour ever win power?

His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn has setup a new party with another former Labour MP, Zarah Sultana, who has declared that “Labour is dead”.

And the Green Party of England and Wales has elected eco-populist Zack Polanski, who is urging left-leaning voters to back him rather than waiting around for Corbyn’s party to get off the ground.

The journalist and political commentator Ash Sarkar has written a book called ‘Minority Rule’, which argues that the Left has become bogged down in identity politics and needs to stop fighting the culture wars so it can focus on building a broad coalition of support.

A contributing editor at left-wing media organisation Novara Media, Ash discusses the radical potential for a Marxist approach to contemporary British politics and why she thinks Karl Marx would’ve loved Twitter.

She also talks to Amol about why she can’t think of a ‘dumber group of people’ than Keir Starmer’s cabinet and what lies behind the recent success of Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Grace Reeve and Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike Regaard and Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Artificial intelligence is arguably the single biggest force shaping our world today.

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic which created AI chatbot Claude, says that this technology has the potential to revolutionise our lives but could also cause us significant harm if we don’t regulate it properly.

Amol and Dario discuss how quickly large language models (LLMs) like Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are developing, the threat they could pose to white-collar jobs and how his company’s chatbot helped his sister through a difficult pregnancy.

They also talk about how AI could be used to carry out cyberattacks and why there is a “fundamental difficulty of control” at the centre of these models.

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today podcast. If you enjoy this (and you've read this far so hopefully you do), then we think you’ll also like another podcast from Today. It’s called Political Thinking with Nick Robinson and you can listen to Nick’s interviews here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p04z203l

This episode of Radical with Amol Rajan was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Rohan Madison. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Could finding religion allow Gen Z to better find their place in the world? That is the assessment made by Jordan Schwarzenberger, the manager of Europe’s biggest YouTube group Sidemen and advisor to Downing Street’s Small Business Council. He converted to Catholicism in 2020 after being a devout atheist all his life.

He now argues that we're too obsessed with pleasure and that in turning our backs on the Catholic Church we have become a less moral society.

Jordan tells Amol about how he came to Christianity at a Kanye West album launch party, how his new-found faith has impacted his life and why he wants more people to follow in his footsteps.

This is part two of Amol’s Jordan Schwarzenberger interview. Look back in your feed for the first part, where Jordan explains how to build a successful brand on social media.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today podcast. If you enjoy this (and you've read this far so hopefully you do), then we think you’ll also like another podcast from Today. It’s called Political Thinking with Nick Robinson and you can listen to Nick’s interviews here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p04z203l

This episode of Radical with Amol Rajan was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Phil Bull. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

With audiences increasingly turning to echo-chambers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for their entertainment and away from traditional mass-media, is there anything that can bring communities together again?

Jordan Schwarzenberger manages Sidemen, Europe’s most popular YouTube collective – and recently went viral with a thesis over what he described as “the death of monoculture”.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur and member of Downing Street’s Small Business Council tells Amol why he thinks Gen Z are withdrawing into micro-communities.

But he has some radical suggestions for how to survive and thrive in an era where unique social content can count for far more than being part of an established media brand.

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Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today podcast. If you enjoy this (and you've read this far so hopefully you do), then we think you’ll also like another podcast from Today. It’s called Political Thinking with Nick Robinson and you can listen to Nick’s interviews here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p04z203l

This episode of Radical with Amol Rajan was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Phil Bull. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Homelessness is on the rise in Britian with record numbers of people living in emergency accommodation.

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, spent time sleeping rough on the streets of Newport in Wales as a teenager.

Now, she is working to end homelessness and stop people getting stuck in poverty.

Amol and Sabrina discuss what can be done in schools to prevent homelessness, the stigma facing homeless people and how to stop professions from being dominated by the elites.

They also talk about Sabrina’s work with Prince William's charity, Homewards, and how poverty becomes a trap.

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Conspiracy theories have flooded the internet in recent years and a growing number of people are avoiding mainstream news.

Eliot Higgins, founder of the open source investigative organisation Bellingcat, thinks this is partly down to a lack of trust in institutions, which is leading to a crisis of democracy in Britain and elsewhere.

He discusses why we need to spend less time online, improve media literacy and how Bellingcat has built a community of open source investigators on Discord.

Eliot also explains how his team tracked down the Russian agents behind the Salisbury poisonings, took on Putin’s Kremlin and uncovered what really happened to Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

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Only one in three children in the UK enjoy reading in their spare time – the lowest rate recorded in 20 years, according to a survey for the National Literacy Trust.

Best-selling children’s author Katherine Rundell, whose books include Impossible Creatures and The Explorer, says that represents a crisis of reading which will make it harder to tackle disinformation.

She thinks every school should have a library that is subject to an Ofsted inspection and literacy should be included in teacher training programmes to try to tackle the decline in children reading for pleasure.

Amol and Katherine also discuss why Donald Trump’s re-election as US president led her to donate all the royalties from US sales of The Golden Mole (published under the title Vanishing Treasures in America) to climate charities.

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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by James Piper. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Ever since Labour won a landslide victory at the general election, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives have been fighting for the soul of the political right in Britain.

Now a new right-wing think tank is putting together a suite of potential policies for a future Reform government.

Dr James Orr, an associate professor of the philosophy of religion at Cambridge University and friend of US Vice President JD Vance, chairs the advisory board of that new think tank - the Centre for a Better Britain (CBB).

Amol asks him whether the CBB is modelled on American organisations like the Heritage Foundation, which wrote a policy wish list called ‘Project 2025’ that set out a vision for how Donald Trump might govern during his second term in the White House.

They also discuss who is funding the CBB, the politics of national preference, and how James was radicalised by Brexit and the culture wars.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

* Email: [email protected]

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast.

It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Rohan Madison. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Serious pollution incidents by water companies in England rose by 60% last year, but the best-selling author Robert Macfarlane says there is a way to save our rivers.

Days after a long-awaited review of the water sector in England and Wales was published, Amol sat down with Robert for a conversation about the state of rivers globally, why some are dying and how we can save them.

From President Donald Trump's dismantling of the Clean Water Act in the US to the dying River Wye, Robert takes us on a journey around the world and explains why he is optimistic about the future.

He says we can do things like give our rivers rights and mobilise citizen scientists to save them.

Robert also digs out Amol's report card from when he taught him at Cambridge University more than twenty years ago.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

* Email: [email protected]

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast.

It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Rohan Madison. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson recently warned that Britain’s declining birth rate could have “worrying repercussions for society.”

Demographer Paul Morland agrees. He says the trend towards an older society with fewer young people risks serious social and economic consequences.

The author of 'No One Left' tells Amol that he would change the tax system to benefit parents, subsidise childcare and rethink the way we teach sex education in our schools.

They also discuss immigration and the impact that a growing population has on the climate.

GET IN TOUCH

* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480

* Email: [email protected]

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dave O’Neill. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.