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Joe Biden’s Tech Adviser (2020-2) Tim Wu joins us for a deep dive into the ‘Age of Extraction’. Wu is a Columbia Law Professor who writes regularly for the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Economist. He’s published an array of literature that focuses on big tech, monopolies and how the attention economy has restructured modern economic life.

In this episode, we discuss what went wrong with the Biden administration, how big tech giants are extracting value from our economic system and what Progressives must do to win.

Too often, our discussions centre on everything going wrong with the world. Yes, there are myriad critiques we could make about our system based on the evidence available. But if there’s one thing we need to be better at, it’s coming up with a vision to fix things. What is our alternative?

And it’s at this juncture that the Left splinters into a kaleidoscope of political imagination. We believe there is space to unite factions that have been economically disempowered, perhaps with a more agnostic form of liberal social politics that respects different groups’ competing rights. An anti-polarisation, pro-economic populism politics without all the purity tests. A boy can dream.

Tim's latest book, 'The Age of Extraction' contributes greatly to this discussion, diagnosing a new strain of crony capitalism and prescribing a return of political power to the people not corporate interests. We want real democracy. And most of us want the same things.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:28 Starmer + Biden Parallels

13:28 Why We’re Living In The ‘Age of Extraction’

24:15 The Corrupting Power of Billionaires

33:45 Are We Returning To Feudalism

44:06 Is This Capitalism?

59:15 Europe Needs Sovereignty

1:10:04 How The Democrats Lost Their Way

1:21:50 Big Tech Is Too Powerful

1:25:30 Democrat Nominee For 2028

1:30:52 We’re Living Through A Revolution

1:38:01 The Death Of Neoliberalism

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Dr. Andrew Lownie has been vindicated. After putting his reputation on the line with his investigations into rogue members of the British Royal family, Lownie faced a barrage of criticism aimed at discrediting him. A well-respected academic historian, he trusted the veracity of his sources and stood by their claims with regards to the disgraced royal, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Lownie's latest book, 'Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York', has been flying off the shelves. It documents arguably the greatest crisis to grip the British Royal Family, following claims of corruption, criminal associations and cover ups.

In this interview, we explore the wider ramifications of the Epste1n files on the state of liberal democracy. When elites are not held to the same accountability as the rest of society, what happens to the legitimacy of our systems? Where are the checks and balances? What can be done to regain trust?

This really feels like a moral reckoning, where justice must be meted out for the victims and accountability must be returned to public life. Our leaders must be beyond being bought.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:55 Lownie's Investigations Into The Royals

07:12 Shocking Allegations Against Prince Andrew

11:15 Russian or Israeli Assets?

16:30 Royals Are Above The Law

21:27 Elites and Societal Breakdown

25:50 Royal Narcissism and Psychological Disorders

30:23 Globalisation and Elite Corruption

35:05 Are We Tending Toward Revolution?

39:15 How To Save Liberal Democracy

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Steve Tsang is a political scientist, Director of the SOAS China Institute and the author of 'Xi Jingping's Political Thought'. On Tuesday 27th January, We sat down with Steve as Keir Starmer landed in Beijing for the first visit of a British Prime Minister in China since 2018.

With the Davos consensus of globalisation and free seamless trade becoming a relic of modern history, how should Britain hedge its strategic bets in a bipolar world of Chinese and American competition? Does a third way even exist between these two undeniable superpowers?

In the UK and the West more broadly, we suffer from a paucity of understanding when it comes to the world's second largest economy. China is enormous, deeply complex and hidden behind a veil of propaganda and posturing from the ruling Communist Party.

Over the past decade, China's president Xi Jinping has consolidated absolute power in the executive, undoing many of the consultative reforms under previous regimes. But has this move, while making Xi omnipotent, actually made China vulnerable?

On the day before Starmer set off to Beijing, it was reported that General Zhang Youxia, one of Xi's most loyal acolytes, had been purged. The official story from the CCP was that he had passed on state secrets about China's nuclear deterrent to the United States. What seems more likely is that Zhang had a base of power that would not be tolerated by the supreme leader...

China's irrepressible rise to superpower status has been driven by its ruthless execution of long-term modernising policies. It's not merely a story of manufacturing dominance. Half a billion people have relocated from the countryside to the cities in 25 years. In 2025, they amassed a trade surplus over $1 trillion. And now they lead the world in electrification with giant leaps in solar technology, much to the chagrin of European counterparts who devised the 'Green New Deal'.

Indeed, there is much to admire about China, and with its economic dominance, much to fear. So what lessons should we learn from China's rise and what caveats must we bear in mind, when forging a path forward for Britain as a middle power in a world without rules...

Chapters

00:25 - Intro

01:16 - What Starmer Must Know About China

05:21 - Xi Jinping’s Total Control of China

16:36 - Have We Forgotten The Post-War Lessons?

24:42 - Is Freddie Chinese In The Eyes of Xi Jinping?

32:20 - The Two Tories Accused of Spying for China...

40:26 - What Western Narratives of China Get Wrong

51:05 - Xi's Purges + Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution

1:04:41 - Inequality From China's Economic Supremacy

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‘This could be the end for Starmer’. Pundits, sub-editors and political rivals have been drawn to this phrase more than any other over the past 18 months. Evidentially, it seems a spurious claim. The Prime Minister has trudged on, by all accounts unfazed, despite the merry-go-round of self-immolation (call it a self-destructive fireworks display) that’s dogged his premiership. Labour’s top-scorer, much like the PM’s beloved Arsenal, has been own goals. And yet with a soviet-style majority, Starmer still will think he is top of the league.

When Peter Mandelson, the ‘Prince of Darkness’ (I imagine he now calls this a ‘regrettable’ nickname), was chosen as US Ambassador there was consternation on many wings of the Labour Party.

In fact, over a year before he was made US Ambassador, the FT had uncovered a JP Morgan report from 2019 which found Epstein and Mandy had kept a ‘particularly close relationship’ - and that he had stayed at Epstein’s home in 2009, shortly after his conviction for ‘soliciting an underage girl’. One would think Mandelson’s close friendship with an astonishingly powerful convicted nonce would be enough to stave off his proximity to a party preparing for government. But clearly assurances were made.

The public were well aware of just how implicated Mandelson was in the Epstein affair. You don’t need to be a PR expert to realise that much more was to come. When faced with the treachery of the latest revelations in the Epstein files, it looks quite unforgivable that Mandelson was allowed to return to high office. Our own security services had briefed No 10 that he was compromised. Were they aware that Mandelson had been forwarding highly sensitive information to Epstein (sometimes within seconds) from his personal email account? That he had told JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon to ‘mildly threaten’ then-Chancellor Alistair Darling over a Bankers’ bonuses tax?

My gut feeling is that this is very very bad news for Starmer, who has never been much of a Mandelson whisperer, and his under-fire chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who has been accused of personally backing Mandelson’s appointment. Mandelson’s response to ‘own the narrative’ has revealed just how out of touch he is - a few posed magazine shots with your dog and grumbles about how ‘unfortunate’ the whole affair is, isn’t going to cut the mustard. You were best mates with the world’s most notorious nonce, allegedly took money from him and leaked sensitive information against your own country’s interests. You’re a disgrace.

This has really cut through and solidified the distrust many feel towards a faction of the Labour Party obsessed with power. As Anoosh Chakelian put it in the New Statesman, voters are fed up with “the dark triad of New Labour’s Third Way: a distant political class; rule by political spin; amoral liberal pragmatism”. We shouldn’t be making decisions just for the sake of saying ‘we got to make them’. There must be morality in our mission.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

00:33 - How Dan Neidle Broke the Mandelson Affair

01:55 - The Financial Crash and Mandelson's Correspondence w Epstein

10:22 - Is This Treason?

19:54 - Did Mandelson Know the Epstein Leaks Were Coming?

26:05 - The Legal Ramifications of Reporting on Epstein/Mandelson

32:00 - The Consequences for the Labour Government

37:54 - Will Mandelson Face Criminal Proceedings?

43:24 - Have the Conspiracy Theorists Been Vindicated?

51:28 - What did Dan find out about Ghislaine Maxwell and Mandelson?

54:54 - Will This Change the Media's Relationship with Powerful People?

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Now this is cricket.

Horatio Gould, comedian + podcast virtuoso (and OG fan of What's Left), joins us in the studio with author James Bloodworth (Hired, Lost Boys) guest-hosting.

Post Davos, Western elites are checking their bank accounts and stock portfolios, considering the premium paid for their unerring loyalty to the market. Their rationale is clear: follow the wind and back the military 'might-is-right' agenda of Donald Trump, or argue with the sails and be blown off course. They don't need any invitation to make hay while the sun shines.

But amongst the more seaworthy, there was cause for reflection. Mark Carney, the Canadian PM, had done the unthinkable: made a relatively memorable Davos speech. That's harsh. It was actually a very good speech – a candid indictment of the hypocrisy of the Western liberal 'rules-based' order, who better to tell it than one of the lead hypocrites. Accepting that the US and its allies had told the world a useful fiction to advance its interests, Carney argued that such a narrative can no longer stand up to scrutiny.

The 'new' rules are dead. Long live the old rules: bully and win.

Of course, there is a rejoinder. Cowering to bullies keeps their fiction alive. But standing up to them, collectively, offers another path. Carney made it clear to the elites, deep into their thus-far profitable hedge, that a choice remains on the table. Middle powers must stand side by side if they are to have any collective bargaining power.

We've been making this argument since September (please see our episode with Hassan Damluji). And we should be clear, the costs are real: decoupling from the US and taking on a world of hard power alone will be very dangerous. But what is at stake is bigger than us as individuals. It's about Britain being in charge of her own destiny. It's about sovereignty; the power to choose at all.

And it's at this juncture that every Brit should be considering what makes us British and how we stand stronger together. Yes, it's incredibly trite to talk about how divided our society is. But I think it's a edifying to be anti-polarisation. We're on an island, wouldn't it be better if we all got along?

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro

00:30 - Politics and comedy

22:55 - Most right-wing views as a leftie

35:29 - What is masculinity?

39:56 - Do other world leaders have Trump's charisma?

50:41 - Who would join Trump's Board of Peace?

60:22 - Tories defecting to Reform and Trumpism in the UK

74:02 - Britain is a heritage trail for tourists 86:58 - What is the guiding light for left-wing politics?

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Hey What’s-Leftists, We’re back for season 2 and finally doing paid content so we can keep the lights on. So, if you’re a fan of the show and want early access to ad-free extended cuts and much more, THIS is the product for you.

We had planned to take some more time to recharge before season 2, but the amount of mental sh*t that’s happened recently made this virtually impossible. So here we are with a rapid 30 min catch up on Trump dictating an emerging multipolar world order and a 1hr interview with the contrarian British political commentator Lin Mei.

As you know, we’re passionate about being a home for debate from across the political spectrum and thought it was time to host a someone from a minority community who is interested in voting for Nigel Farage. Yes, they do exist.

Lin is a fascinating character, often reposted by the UK BAME Culture gossip pages on Instagram as a minority conservative voice, who is never shy to critique issues or people regardless of their popularity. So is she just another tabloid ragebaiter or is there a discernible and consistent politics that underlines her views? And how does it contrast with our own?

While the conversation was limited to an hour, we managed to cover various topics from the diversity of politics within the Black British community, to the state of community decline and the appeal of landlordism for aspirational wealth creation. We also address Lin’s beef with popular IG influencer Bouncer, and why she “looks down” on some members of the Black culture podcasting community. It’s juicy.

We were so busy talking about these broader topics that we forgot to discuss the spate of defections to Reform UK, including one Robert Jenrick. As the dust settles this week after some punchy comms from the Tories, it appears the commentariat are waking up to the old wisdom that defections (it’s not exactly a sacking) tend to be a sign of party weakness, rather than strength.

Naturally, the evidence is piling up of Reform being a retirement home for failed Tories. But as Ailbhe Rea of the New Statesman pointed out: you can’t really attack Reform for being an ‘unprecedented new threat’ while also claiming they are made up of ‘the same old Tories’...

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:27 Multipolar World Order

10:03 US Plans To Dismantle Europe

17:48 Iran Protests + US Intervention

34:15 Who is Lin Mei 38:05 Slavery, Reparations + Intergenerational Trauma

47:14 Left Wing vs Right Wing Politics

1:00:04 Bouncer + Black British Entertainment Culture

1:11:15 Should Minorities Be Capitalists?

1:20:15 Welfare + Future of Multiculturalism

Finale of SZN 1 w the donny herself, Grace Campbell ❤️!!!

This might be our funniest episode yet. Or maybe just the one where we all laughed the most.

Recently, I found out a listener had stopped engaging with the pod as he was finding the topics too depressing. I get it. Confronting our myriad crises has been hardly been reassuring. But I'm hoping that this ep could be the antidote that brings him back into the fold.

Why has there been no revival of the political comedy genius of 'The Thick Of It'? My thesis is that reality itself has become satire. What need is there for fiction, when each and every day of political life feels utterly script-written.

Chatting, or more accurately, creasing with Grace is a reminder that we just need to find the humour in the s**t things in life. While events and actions can hurt us, like muscular tears, we end up growing back stronger. And maybe it's a thicker skin we should all be wishing for from Santa this year.

In this convo we go all over the shop, from why many on the urban left have abandoned Labour to why young men and women feel so divided and what we can do to bring us back into connection.

There's also some bombshell exclusives...

It's the perfect way for us to wrap our first season of WTF is Left. 18 episodes, 50 million social views and 130k+ followers since taking a big old Kierkegaardian dive into the ether... Trying to make a podcast about progressive politics while the government falls to record lows. If you don't laugh you'll cry.

Big massive juicy thank you to each and every one of you who listened and supported the show this year. We're gonna be taking a bit of a break but will be back in 2026 for S2. Until then x

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:20 Are the Campbells Posh Elite?

11:52 Why Grace is Voting Green

19:50 Zack Polanski vs. The Rest is Politics

29:14 Has the Left Lost its Sense of Humour?

37:08 Embracing Dark Humour

43:06 Why are Young Men and Women Divided?

50:38 In Defence of Relationships, Connection + Empathy

1:02:01 Wanting to Have Kids

1:07:06 Beauty Trends + Hating the Daily Mail

1:14:21 Why Grace will NEVER write for the Guardian

1:21:35 How We Move Forward

George Gilbert, the Gen-Z Farage fan recently kicked off Big Brother, joins us for a chat on cancel culture, young men and the radical right, with guest host Jordan Stephens!

As you know, What’s Left aims to stick its head above the culture wars. But we can’t avoid the magnetic pull from controversial personalities that keep the digital news cycle churning. We’re just as human as you.

Following our interview with the Oxford Union’s George Abaraonye, it appears we’ve found a new theme: interviewing cancelled Georges. Indeed, George Gilbert is a very different phenomenon - a young Parish councillor, recently booted off one of the UK’s biggest reality TV shows for voicing contrarian and inflammatory views, which included an allegation of antisemitism which ITV decided not to broadcast.

When I asked Jordan Stephens to guest host, we agreed we wanted to make something fresh. How rare is it to see a healthy conversation of three lads with very different politics, discussing challenging topics?

George had already been on the circuit of right-wing anti-woke podcasts with Dan Wootton and Andrew Gold. We wanted to show that the Left are equally as up for these chats. Yep, some ‘Wokies’ are, in fact, against culture.

This is not to absolve George from the framing of his questions, but to show that civil society must explain to young people why some views and questions are considered beyond the pale. Just shutting down the conversation is clearly not working. If anything, it pushes some young people further down the rabbit hole.

Jordan and I believe that openness and dialogue is key to dissolving animosity and encouraging compassion in our politics. Hopefully this conversation is a step in the right direction.

Chapters

00:00 Intro, Waffle + Housekeeping

09:54 Greens vs. Labour

20:15 George Gilbert Arrives

25:50 Why George Got Kicked Off Big Brother

36:00 The Right-Wing Rabbit Hole

51:55 Tommy Robinson Is A Grifter

58:05 Stop and Search Racism Allegations

1:06:42 George’s Dating Challenges

1:15:13 Post-Christian West

1:22:15 How Social Media Creates Populists

1:35:20 Has Brexit Destroyed the UK?

1:42:13 Wealth Inequality Is Out of Control

1:50:41 George’s National Identity Mission

UK's biggest politics substacker, Sam Freedman, explains the deep rot at the heart of British politics. In this episode we address the big questions: why is Keir Starmer's Labour government failing and what would Reform do differently?

After winning a swathe of councils at the last local elections, Reform have struggled with the realities of governing. Indeed, a majority of Reform councils look set to raise council tax by the maximum after winning power by promising millions in cuts to spending.

Freedman argues that this is the result of the failure of state capacity, devolution and the brittle British economy which is at the mercy of foreign capital. With few levers to change the underlying fundamentals that incapacitate Britain, Freedman thinks that Reform would govern like chaotic populists - borrowing directly from Trump's MAGA playbook.

It's starting to look existential for the Labour Party. If the brutal budget and Welsh and Scottish elections in May go as badly as expected, pressure will inevitably mount to change leader. But what would a new boss actually do differently?

Is there really such a thing as 'not being in hock to the bond markets' without growth or a budget surplus? Or is this just 'good vibes' comms that will rub up against reality...

We are staring down a bleak future, where a politics of false promises and resentment could turbocharge Britain's malaise.

Progressives need to get real about our political project: what is the radical antithesis to nativist populism? We need a positive vision to unite the left and create a future worth fighting for.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

01:49 Dominic Cummings Lost The Plot

12:10 Reform Are Moving Further Right

20:28 Remigration vs. Integration

28:17 Will Farage Copy Trump’s Playbook?

49:42 Why Labour is Losing

1:01:20 Disaster of Privatisation and Zero Growth

1:15:30 Economic Populism vs. Bond Market

1:22:04 Labour’s Budget Dilemma

1:34:00 Should Labour Replace Starmer?

Jonathan Hall, the Independent Reviewer of Terror Legislation, was in the room when the UK Govt decided it would proscribe Palestine Action as a terror group, alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Since then, we’ve seen anti-war activists, including pacifist priests and grandmothers (even both!) arrested for carrying placards, as the police enforce the letter of the law. A recent Guardian article revealed that the home office was advised that proscribing Palestine Action could make the organisation more popular. Over a thousand arrests later, it appears the advisors have been proved right.

Simultaneously, Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom marches have taken place in the capital with far fewer arrests, despite now-viral footage of some attendees calling for racist violence (see Niko Omilana!). Moreover legal responses to the Southport Riots last year found swift convictions without one terror law invoked, despite the threshold seemingly being met.

So is there really two-tier policing going on or is it all just a game of optics and perspective… and has the government’s use of terror laws undermined trust in terror law itself?

National security expert Jonathan Hall addresses:

• Why the Home Office chose proscription of PA as a ‘terror group’ over other means
• 2-tier policing accusations + Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ marches
• Whether Elon Musk’s call for revolution in the UK is foreign interference
• Hall’s concerns about the government’s ineffective communication with the public
• Iranian, Chinese and Russian interference in the Culture Wars
• The threat of AI, deepfakes and tech deregulation
• How to protect democracy via a ‘Blitz’ resilience spirit
• Deep concerns re the far-right narrative against multiculturalism
• The likelihood of civil war or mass civil disobedience
• Prisons crisis and the threat of islamist violence vs far-right

In times of grievance politics, subversion and widespread cynicism about politics and government, how do we ensure the protection of our civil liberties? We hope this episode, discussing some of the most controversial issues of the day, helps elucidate the challenges in applying the law equally to all.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:13 Palestine Action Proscription

10:47 Is this Chilling Dissent in a Democracy?

19:45 Two-Tier Justice and the Far-Right

25:36 Failures in Political Communication

33:42 Undermining Democracy and Foreign Interference

44:21 Subversion, Culture Wars and Free Speech

51:42 Generative AI + Big Tech’s Deregulation Threat

1:02:28 Algorithms, Revolutions and Civil Unrest

1:14:11 Islamist Extremist vs Far-Right Threat