The Verso Podcast

Do family abolitionists want to get rid of your Gran? Do they hate love? Are they all killjoys looking to rip the roots of working class resistance apart? Find out all this and more in this episode of the Verso podcast with author Sophie Lewis in conversation with Ben Smoke.

Sophie Lewis is the author of Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation https://www.versobooks.com/books/4075-abolish-the-family?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=abolish-the-family-videos

Ben Smoke is the commissioning editor of Huck Magazine

How did we come to live in a world dominated by big tech and finance? In this video, Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams explore how these forces have shaped the direction of politics and government as well as the neoliberal economy to benefit their own interests.

They discuss the concept of hegemony—the importance of passive consent; the complexity of political interests; and the structural force of technology—and why we need an updated theory of power for the twenty-first century.

Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams are the authors of Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back) https://www.versobooks.com/books/4015-hegemony-now?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=hegemony-now-videos

Since the 1980s police have been allowed to suppress protests by using aggressive tactics—from batons to horse charges to kettling. New military-style tactics were sanctioned by the Thatcher government, in secret. Over the next forty years those protesting against racism, unfair job losses, draconian laws, or for environmental protection were subject to brutal tactics. As the UK government tries to suppress all forms of dissent, how do the police manage crowds, provoke violence and even break the law?

Ben Smoke talks to Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone about their new book Charged: How the Police Try to Suppress Protest. Out 24th May: https://bit.ly/3LxPHy1

What is ecofeminism, and why is it necessary in the fight for climate justice? by Verso Books

In 'Daring to Hope', Sheila Rowbotham looks back at her life as a participant in the women’s liberation movement, left politics and the creative radical culture of a decade in which freedom and equality seemed possible. She reveals the tremendous efforts that were made to transform attitudes and feelings, as well as daily life. In this podcast episode she discusses her latest work with Gary Younge.

Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s by Sheila Rowbotham is out now: https://bit.ly/3FC1mZV

Who owns these resources, who builds and controls renewable energy infrastructures and ultimately who will access and benefit from them, are key questions to address if we want to understand what is at stake when we speak about the energy transition.  In this discussion David Hughes, Mika Minio-Paluello and Thea Riofrancos focus on the question of wind and how this endless resource can be appropriated to generate a socially profitable energy transformation.

What could direct action look like in the context of COP26? Our second episode, recorded in Glasgow at COP26, is hosted by Kate Aronoff, staff writer at The New Republic, author of Overheated and co-author of A Planet To Win: Why We Need A Green New Deal. Kate is joined by Andreas Malm, author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and White Skin, Black Fuel with the Zetkin Collective, and Sabrina Fernandes, Brazilian eco-socialist organiser, communicator and fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Climate Crisis: Time for a New Society: Writers and activists discuss radical ideas to move beyond the doom of climate breakdown. A collaboration between the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels and Verso Books.

How can the left build power in times of crisis? Our first episode, recorded by the beach in Brighton at The World Transformed festival, is hosted by writer and journalist Dalia Gebrial. Dalia is joined by Mathew Lawrence, co-author of Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown, and Harpreet Kaur Paul, human rights lawyer and co-founder of Tipping Point UK.

Climate Crisis: Time for a New Society: Writers and activists discuss radical ideas to move beyond the doom of climate breakdown. A collaboration between the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels and Verso Books.

Growing up in the Bronx amongst communists and socialists, Vivian Gornick became a legendary writer for Village Voice, chronicling the emergence of the feminist movement in the 1970s. For nearly fifty years, her essays - written with her characteristic clarity of perception and vibrant prose - have explored feminism and writing, literature and culture, politics and personal experience. In this podcast episode she discusses her latest work with her Verso editor, Jessie Kindig.

Taking A Long Look: Essays on Culture, Literature, and Feminism in Our Time by Vivian Gornick out now: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3770-taking-a-long-look

This episode is introduced by Caitlín Doherty, Verso Books. Read a transcript of this interview here: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/5034-an-interview-with-vivian-gornick

What is care and who is paying for it? In her new book, The Care Crisis, Emma Dowling charts the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world, from the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties, to the state of the social care system. She examines the relations of power that play profitability and care off in against one another in a myriad of ways, exposing the devastating impact of financialisation and austerity. In this podcast she discusses care in its many forms with Rachel Holmes before a reading from the book by Amelia Horgan.

The Care Crisis is out now: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3667-the-care-crisis