🎙️ Rebel Citizens: Ask Me Anything #2

00:00 - Q&A | A Future Where We Nap A Lot More

00:17 - Am I a fake feminist if I want to be told what to do by someone in power?

06:03 - Should we be exploring universal basic income or community rebuilding instead?

15:05 - Universal Basic Income Lab Network

19:59 - Is mental health is being weaponised against us into doing absolutely nothing?

23:26 - Should we take inspiration from Pepe Mujica and reject capitalist culture through food and gift economies?

27:44 - The cultural or the material?

30:09 - What is the gift economy? And the solidarity economy? And how do we scale them up?

34:10 - Decolonising Economics & The Good Ancestor Movement

📩 News Club: Newsletter (on Substack)

📰 News Club: Got News? Podcast (listen on your favourite platform)

🎙️ This week, we speak plainly: what's happening in Gaza is genocide.

Thousands of children in Gaza are dying of starvation under a brutal blockade. Hospitals are constantly bombed. Entire families are being (and have been) erased by the Israeli state. The 77th anniversary of the Nakba is marked not only in memory, but in the ongoing reality of ethnic cleansing. And yet, our media remains silent.

We sit with the horror and look to the people who are taking action – on the streets, in their workplaces, through divestment, disruption, and collective resistance. We talk about what you can do in the face of these violent institutions enabling this brutality, and how to build new ones rooted in care, justice, and humanity: ethical banks, democratic media systems, credit unions, co-operatives, and alternative economies.

00:00 - The Palestine Episode

07:54 - Gary Lineker's controversial post

09:33 - Wildcat Strikes – they work

19:43 - Racism, anti-semitism & the state

26:34 - Co-ops are cool

28:52 - Motion 13 & boycotts – they work

39:06 - There are over 7k co-operatives in the UK

42:55 - Nakba Week

Check out...

🍉 Action for Palestine: The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) | Palestine Action | The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)

🤝 Co-operatives to support & join: The Co-operative Bank | The Co-operative Group | Suma | Greencity Wholefoods | Triodos Bank | Unity Bank | workers.coop | Co-ops UK Case Studies

📩 Don't forget to read this week’s newsletter (on Substack) from the iconic Chivers (who, unfortunately, couldn't join us this episode, but is always with us in spirit).

🎙️ Rebel Citizens: Ask Me Anything

00:00 - Rebel Citizens: A Toby Jug Full of Piss

00:12 - Will Farage end the two party system?

06:36 - How do I effectively chair a meeting without sounding like a dictator or worse, a massive dick?

12:16 - Am I just collecting CV brownie points by joining a board of trustees?

19:02 - Can 'political' art actually count as activism if the artist is basically a recluse?

23:16 - How do we culturally organise as a take over of society?

34:50 - Is the such a thing as green migration targets?

📩 News Club: Newsletter (on Substack)

📰 News Club: Got News? Podcast (listen on your favourite platform)

🎙️ What if the BBC wasn’t just public in name, but actually shaped by the public? This week, we talk disability rights, proposed welfare cuts, and what it means to radically democratise our media and culture. From people's assemblies to mutualism, we explore what dignity, care, and creative freedom look like when built from the bottom up.

00:00 - What is it to be human?

00:38 - Welfare cuts: state-sanctioned suffering

08:37 - What you can do about it...

22:10 - The three kingdoms & DPAC

32:17 - Why give a shit about the BBC?

48:13 - A devolved and democratised BBC

57:53 - The state...

01:06:08 - B's 7 questions

01:21:07 – Building our own public media – tell us what you think!!

Check out...

✊ Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) – justice and human rights for all disabled people

📄 Our Mutual Friend: The BBC in the Digital Age – full report & briefing via Commonwealth.org

📩 Catch the full breakdown in this week’s newsletter (on Substack) from the News Club crew (specifically, Chivers).

May 05, 2025 | 🎙️ Everyone’s talking about change — but not all “change” is created equal. While Reform UK cosplays as anti-establishment (with billionaire backing and prep school flair), maybe (just maybe) the Green Party's leader-in-waiting — Zack Polanski — should elevate his suit game.

00:00 - So Shit Even Trump Can't Save 'Em

00:27 - Be the wind, not the weathervane

34:21 - Anti-woke barmcakes

48:17 - M discovers the wonders of football

📩 Catch the full breakdown in this week’s newsletter (on Substack) from the News Club crew.

Apr 28, 2025 | 🎙️ What if Google wasn’t a tech monopoly but a global commons? What if organising meant more than selling newspapers and referencing dead Russians? This week, we dig into the digital and political cartels we’re stuck with — from the enshittification of the internet to the Socialist Workers Party's long shadow over the UK left.

00:00 - Cartels & Commons

00:16 - Google: Natural Monopoly, Unnatural Owner

32:20 - Sneakcret: Media Bias 101 - Sourcing Bias

34:52 - All Roads Lead to the Paper Stall

Shoutout to these brilliant mentions keeping people safe and fed:

🖤 Green & Black Cross – for legal support & training

🍲 Food Not Bombs – who feed people, not profits

📩 Catch the full breakdown in this week’s newsletter (on Substack) from the News Club crew.

Apr 21, 2025 | 🎙️ In light of the Supreme Court’s nonsense ruling, solidarity with the queer and trans community has never been more crucial — Queer AF breaks it down further here. Meanwhile, behind the curtain, the BBC is on life support — but what if we actually got to control it? Oh, and the Pope is dead. Long live the Pope.

We talk solidarity, media collapse, and building something better. From dyke chat to transforming public infrastructure.

1. Hold onto your trans siblings

2. Kill all the woke baddies (interpret as you will)

3. And yes, we still need our bread and our roses

📩 Catch the full chaos in this week’s newsletter (on Substack) from the News Club crew.

Apr 14, 2025 |🎙️ What do overflowing bins, skyrocketing water bills, and 24/7 media chaos have in common? They’re all signs it’s time to stop coping and start organising (aka reaching out to your friends).

From collective non-payment campaigns pushing back against water privatisation, to the psychological warfare of media saturation, to the lessons learned from Birmingham’s bin strikes — this episode dives deep into the mess. We’re talking privatisation, information overload, and the power of collective action — all with a carne asada at the picket line, of course.

And don't forget to check out the fantastic campaigns and orgs mentioned @takeback.water @weownit_campaign @ boycottwaterbills.com @ thecanaryuk @ imapress @ Acorn the Union @ iwgbunion @ unitedvoicesoftheworld

Keep listening and catch up with this week's newsletter (on Substack) for even more from the News Club cru!

Apr 06, 2025 |🎙️Trump promised to drain the swamp — and now it looks like he might do it by blowing the whole thing up, with the rest of us in it. Closer to home, the Hillsborough Law has been quietly gutted by a Labour government intent on breaking its promise to tackle corruption. But don’t worry — we might still have a chance to drain the swamp in our own backyard… with a bit of Blue Steel.

Keep listening and catch up with this week's newsletter (on Substack) for even more from the News Club cru!

Mar 31, 2025 |🎙️We’re back with a long one this week. Not sure if you noticed, but a hell of a lot of news happened while we were away.

But we weren’t just twiddling our thumbs—we were in the lab, working on the perfect product. And now? We’re back. We’re here every week. No more month-long gaps, no more cramming a ton of stories into one episode.

This week, we’re tackling:

1. Is America a fascist state? And if so, what the hell do we do about it?

2. Why Chivers hates Adolescence.

3. The cost of being a pro-Palestine protester in the UK.

Let’s get into it.

Keep listening and catch up with this week's newsletter for even more from the News Club cru!