The Verso Podcast

The Verso Podcast episodes:

• 04.18.2024

  Climate Colonialism | Ann Pettifor & Hamza Hamouchene

  This week on The Verso Podcast we’ll be taking a close look at the political economy of climate breakdown. Along with our host, Eleanor Penny, Ann Pettifor and Hamza Hamouchene discuss climate justice, private equity, degrowth, and the false promise...

  
• 04.04.2024

  With or Without Hope | Hannah Proctor & Ajay Singh Chaudhary

  This week’s episode of The Verso Podcast centres on the gruelling work of making change happen in an often pitiless world - and the mental toll this can take on people. Along with our host, Eleanor Penny, Hannah Proctor and...

  
• 03.21.2024

  A Land Without Landlords | Nick Bano & Beth Stratford

  This week on The Verso Podcast we’re putting landlordism under the microscope - how it turns peoples’ homes into poker chips, and the housing market into a casino. Nick Bano and Beth Stratford join our host, Eleanor Penny to discuss...

  
• 03.14.2024

  Unruly Bodies | Matthew Beaumont & Annie Olaloku-Teriba

  On this episode of The Verso Podcast we’re going on a deep dive into the work of the psychiatrist, political theorist, and philosopher Frantz Fanon. Our wonderful host, Eleanor Penny, sat down with Matthew Beaumont and Annie Olaloku-Teriba to discuss...

  
• 02.22.2024

  Dastardly Theology | Andrew Drummond & Eleanor Janega

  Welcome back to the third season of The Verso Podcast! To kick off this run of shiny new episodes we’re taking a bit of a detour into the past, to have a closer look at the protestant reformation. This was...

  
• 01.11.2024

  2010-2020: The Decade of Discontent | Anton Jäger & Vincent Bevins

  In this bonus episode of the Verso Podcast, authors Anton Jäger and Vincent Bevins reflect on the previous decade, the mass political movements that took place, and the ultimate failure of these movements to produce meaningful political change. They consider...

  
• 12.14.2023

  The Kindness of Strangers | Lynne Segal & Loree Erickson

  On the last episode The Verso Podcast before the new year, Eleanor Penny is joined by Lynne Segal and Loree Erickson to discuss the myth of total independence, disability as a social construct, and the politics of care. In a...

  
• 11.30.2023

  Love and Money, Sex and Death | McKenzie Wark & Toshio Meronek

  This week on The Verso Podcast Eleanor Penny is joined by McKenzie Wark and Toshio Meronek to talk trans narratives, the politics of desire, and queer family. Together they take a critical look at the medical model of transition, its...

  
• 11.16.2023

  Breaking Britain | Danny Dorling & Chantelle Lewis

  This week on The Verso Podcast we’re bringing you a deep dive on how Britain’s institutions, infrastructure, and social fabric are faring - and the prognosis doesn’t look good. For this episode Chantelle Lewis and Danny Dorling join our host,...

  
• 11.02.2023

  Cryptocracy | Rachel O’Dwyer & Edward Ongweso

  On this week’s episode of The Verso Podcast we’ll be taking a close look at the history of tokens across time, and the cultures that have grown up around them in the digital age. Rachel O’Dwyer and Edward Ongweso join...

  
• 10.19.2023

  Arming Apartheid | Ghada Karmi & Antony Loewenstein

  This week we were planning to bring you an episode about money in the digital age, but with everything that is currently unfolding in occupied Palestine we felt that this conversation between two leading thinkers on the subject was an...

  
• 10.05.2023

  C. L. R. James | Brett St Louis & Arun Kundnani

  After a short end-of-summer break we’re happy to bring you season two of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast. This week Brett St Louis and Arun Kundnani join our host Eleanor Penny to discuss the near foundational figure in the domains...

  
• 09.21.2023

  Walter Benjamin: The Storyteller | Esther Leslie & Stuart Jeffries

  In this bonus episode of The Verso Podcast, Esther Leslie and Stuart Jeffries discuss the life and legacy of Walter Benjamin. Join them for this fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of one of Western Marxism's most important philosophers. The Storyteller: Tales out...

  
• 08.17.2023

  How Can the Left Solve the Climate Crisis? | Benjamin Kunkel & Lola Seaton

  In this bonus episode of The Verso Podcast, Benjamin Kunkel and Lola Seaton delve into debates on how to decarbonise the world economy and build a brighter future. Who Will Build the Ark, edited by Benjamin Kunkel and Lola Seaton is...

  
• 07.27.2023

  On Cannibals and Capitalists | Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharyya

  In the latest episode of The Verso Podcast, Nancy Fraser & Gargi Bhattacharyya join our host Eleanor Penny to discuss exploitation, expropriation, and racial capitalism. Together they probe the very edges of capitalism - examining what lies beyond, what's holding...

  
• 07.13.2023

  Labours of Love | Helen Hester & Sarah Jaffe

  On this week's episode of The Verso Podcast, Helen Hester and Sarah Jaffe join Eleanor Penny to discuss the care crisis, and how we might organise care differently for a more equitable and free future. You can find Helen's book "After...

  
• 06.29.2023

  Bodies Under Siege | Sian Norris & Edna Bonhomme

  This week on The Verso Podcast, Sian Norris and Edna Bonhomme delve into the tactics and goals of fascist ideologies across the globe. They explore how far right movements organise themselves transnationally with the aim of exerting control over individuals'...

  
• 06.15.2023

  Walter Rodney: Guerilla Intellectual | Robin D.G. Kelley & Kevin Ochieng Okoth

  In this fourth episode of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast, Kevin Ochieng Okoth and Robin D.G. Kelley join Eleanor Penny to discuss the radical life and groundbreaking work of Guyanese historian, revolutionary, and guerrilla intellectual, Walter Rodney, who was assassinated...

  
• 06.01.2023

  Inventing Sexuality | Ben Miller & Amardeep Singh Dhillon

  In this fourth episode of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast, Ben Miller and Amardeep Singh Dhillon join Eleanor Penny for a deep dive on the historical construction and ordering of sexualities into the categories we are familiar with today. You can...

  
• 05.18.2023

  Abolition Geography | Ruth Wilson Gilmore & Dalia Gebrial

  In this third episode of the newly relaunched Verso Podcast, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Dalia Gebrial join Eleanor Penny to discuss prison abolitionism, racial capitalism, and critical geography. You can find Ruthie's book "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation" on our website...

  
• 05.04.2023

  The Cult of Churchill | Tariq Ali & Priyamvada Gopal

  On the second episode of our new season of the Verso Podcast, host Eleanor Penny is joined by writer and film maker Tariq Ali, and academic and author Priyamvada Gopal to discuss the cult of Winston Churchill and the insidious...

  
• 04.20.2023

  Against Nature | Raj Patel & Tina Ngata

  On the first episode of our new season of the Verso Podcast, host Eleanor Penny is joined by author Raj Patel and human rights advocate Tina Ngata to discuss the historical roots that tie together the exploitation of nature and people,...

  
• 03.15.2023

  The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it)

  The response to the inflation surge by the UK government has been disastrous for working people. Pushing up interest rates, attempting to keep pay rises down, and trying to cut pensions and other benefits, has exacerbated the devastating cost-of-living crisis. The...

  
• 11.29.2022

  What comes after we abolish borders? Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke De Noronha

  In this bumper edition of the Verso podcast we talk to authors Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke De Noronha about their new book Against Borders: The Case for Abolition. In it we explore what a world without borders might look...

  
• 10.13.2022

  Abolish the Family | Sophie Lewis speaks to Ben Smoke

  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...

  
• 10.12.2022

  The rules of politics have broken | Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams

  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...

  
• 05.20.2022

  Who do the police protect? | Ben Smoke speaks to Matt Foot and Morag Livingstone

  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,...

  
• 02.18.2022

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

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

  
• 11.22.2021

  Daring to Hope: Sheila Rowbotham speaks to Gary Younge

  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...

  
• 11.22.2021

  Owning the Transition: David Hughes, Mika Minio-Paluello & Thea Riofrancos

  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...

  
• 11.15.2021

  Underneath COP26, The Beach! Andreas Malm, Kate Aronoff & Sabrina Fernandes

  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...

  
• 10.04.2021

  Climate justice: from narrative to action. Dalia Gebrial, Mathew Lawrence and Harpreet Kaur Paul

  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...

  
• 04.07.2021

  Vivian Gornick: Taking A Long Look

  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...

  
• 03.02.2021

  The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It?

  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...

  
• 07.02.2020

  Reactionary Democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream

  Co-organised by the IPR, PoLIS, Verso and Surviving Society Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter speak to co-hosts of the Surviving Society podcast, Chantelle Lewis and Tissot Regis; chaired by Dr Fran Amery.

  
• 05.13.2020

  Sinews of War and Trade: Laleh Khalili speaks to Rafeef Ziadah

  Sinews of War and Trade: Laleh Khalili speaks to Rafeef Ziadah by Verso Books

  
• 07.08.2019

  The Socialist Manifesto: Bhaskar Sunkara in conversation with Dawn Foster

  In the current race to be Democratic presidential candidate, a socialist is in second place. Meanwhile, in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn’s left-led Labour Party has revived a political idea many had thought dead. But what, exactly, is socialism? And what would...

  
• 11.27.2018

  Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights

  Juno Mac and Molly Smith in conversation with Frankie Mullin about how the law harms sex workers—and what they want instead Do you have to think that prostitution is good to support sex worker rights? How do sex worker rights fit...

  
• 11.27.2018

  Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights

  Juno Mac and Molly Smith in conversation with Frankie Mullin about how the law harms sex workers—and what they want instead Do you have to think that prostitution is good to support sex worker rights? How do sex worker rights fit...

  
• 07.16.2018

  New Dark Age: James Bridle and Ben Vickers on Technology and the End of the Future

  What is technology trying to tell us in an emergency? James Bridle, in conversation with Serpentine Galleries CTO Ben Vickers, discusses 'New Dark Age' and the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime. As the world around...

  
• 07.16.2018

  New Dark Age: James Bridle and Ben Vickers on Technology and the End of the Future

  What is technology trying to tell us in an emergency? James Bridle, in conversation with Serpentine Galleries CTO Ben Vickers, discusses 'New Dark Age' and the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime. As the world around...

  
• 03.23.2018

  Tariq Ali discusses May '68 on BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking, February 2018

  1968 was one of the most seismic years in recent history -- Vietnam, the Prague spring, Black Power at the Olympics and protests on the streets of Paris and London. This interview is part commemoration, part reassessment. What remains of...

  
• 03.23.2018

  Tariq Ali discusses May '68 on BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking, February 2018

  1968 was one of the most seismic years in recent history -- Vietnam, the Prague spring, Black Power at the Olympics and protests on the streets of Paris and London. This interview is part commemoration, part reassessment. What remains of...

  
• 03.23.2018

  Tariq Ali discusses May '68 on BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking, February 2018

  1968 was one of the most seismic years in recent history -- Vietnam, the Prague spring, Black Power at the Olympics and protests on the streets of Paris and London. This interview is part commemoration, part reassessment. What remains of...

  
• 02.14.2018

  Anna Feigenbaum Discusses Tear Gas at Wooden Shoe Books

  Discussion with author Anna Feigenbaum about Tear Gas, which tells the story of how a chemical weapon went from the battlefield to the streets.

  
• 02.14.2018

  Anna Feigenbaum Discusses Tear Gas at Wooden Shoe Books

  Discussion with author Anna Feigenbaum about Tear Gas, which tells the story of how a chemical weapon went from the battlefield to the streets.

  
• 02.14.2018

  Anna Feigenbaum Discusses Tear Gas at Wooden Shoe Books

  Discussion with author Anna Feigenbaum about Tear Gas, which tells the story of how a chemical weapon went from the battlefield to the streets.

  
• 11.07.2017

  Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change by Ashley Dawson

  A conversation with writer and professor Ashley Dawson on his latest book, Extreme Cities. Here, he presents a disturbing survey of the necessarily ecological history of global urbanization and industrialization, as well as the unstable futures they are producing. As much...

  
• 11.07.2017

  Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change by Ashley Dawson

  A conversation with writer and professor Ashley Dawson on his latest book, Extreme Cities. Here, he presents a disturbing survey of the necessarily ecological history of global urbanization and industrialization, as well as the unstable futures they are producing. As much...

  
• 10.12.2017

  The End Of Policing: A conversation with Alex Vitale

  Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond to and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Policing is an institution whose primary function is the creation and reproduction of massive inequalities. In...