Radicals in Conversation

With Dr Sohail Jannesari. In this episode we look at the intersecting worlds of sanctuary-seeking and mental health. We consider how refugees, asylum seekers and other people on the move don’t just survive displacement, but rather build strength, community, and new ways of coping that challenge everything we know about mental health.  We talk about the global apartheid of borders, how histories of colonialism have shaped mental health services today, and what a more pluralistic ‘marginal psychology’ can offer us instead. We discuss the concept of sumud, trauma as interrupted movement, and why joy, play and the erotic can all help to inform a new, decolonial approach to mental health. The Migrant Art of Coping is 40% off for podcast listeners through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Jessica den Outer.  For centuries, our legal systems have treated nature as something to be owned and exploited, for human gain. In recent decades, the tenor of conversation may have shifted towards conservation and protection, but nature remains an object. The environmental laws, treaties and international agreements we enact have little impact; ecosystems continue to collapse, global temperatures continue to rise. But a bold new movement is challenging this paradigm, calling time on inadequate, anthropocentric lawmaking, and ushering in an exciting new ecocentric approach based around the rights of nature. Jessica den Outer joins us on the show to talk about the history of this new legal movement, and dive into some of the challenges it is facing, and opportunities it is creating, around the world. We discuss the legal personality of the Whanganui River in Aotearoa / New Zealand, the enshrining of the rights of nature in the National Constitution of Ecuador, and the strength of grassroots movements for the Mar Menor in Spain and the River Ouse in Sussex, England. The Forest Fights Back: A Global Movement for the Rights of Nature is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Christopher Zeichmann, historian and author of Radical Antiquity, explores outlawed communities in the Greco‑Roman world. He discusses pirates who ran democratic, solidarity‑based seafaring communes. He outlines slave revolts like Spartacus, radical religious movements, experiments in anti‑patriarchy, and how imperial collapse sometimes improved everyday life.

With Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell.  Capitalism has created a world of bullsh*t abundance and artificial scarcity, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. The system’s pursuit of profits has put us on a collision course with social and ecological limits that can no longer be ignored. It’s clear we need an alternative, and liberal visions of green capitalism just won't cut it. We need 'radical abundance'—a world of human and non-human flourishing made possible by democratically planned production. Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell join us on the show to talk about the big ideas in their new book Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future. We discuss why the left needs to laser-focused on the question of ecosocialist transition, and why the patient work of institution building is a necessary response to a world on fire. We look at the Public-Common Partnership model, and explore the housing, pharmaceutical and food sectors as three areas in which new institutions and forms of social property might be developed. Find out more about Abundance: https://www.in-abundance.org/

Laura C. Forster, a researcher focused on social movements, and Joel White, an anthropologist and organizer, dive into the revolutionary potential of friendship. They explore how personal connections fuel political activism, from early organizing efforts to the concept of 'hevalti' in Kurdish culture. The duo critiques traditional views of friendship, linking it to social reproduction and solidarity in the face of repression. They also discuss the relationship between friendship and far-right movements, questioning if it serves as a sustaining force for them as well.

With Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels. In this episode we talk about the new book Drax of Drax Hall: How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery, and the growing international movement for reparations. Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels discuss the journalistic investigation into the Drax family’s extensive landholdings and wealth, in Britain and Barbados; the economic, political and cultural legacies of colonialism and slavery; and why the call for reparatory justice resonates more loudly now than ever before. Podcast listeners can get 40% off Drax of Drax Hall through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. --- Paul Lashmar is an investigative journalist and Reader in Journalism at City St George's, University of London. He is the author of Drax of Drax Hall. Luke Daniels is the President of Caribbean Labour Solidarity.

In this engaging conversation, counterculture icon Stewart Home delves into his provocative new book, unlocking unsettling links between yoga, fascism, and wellness. Joined by industry veteran Patrick Hughes, they explore the punk scene's fight against racism, the emergence of far-right ideologies, and how misogyny creeps into the yoga community. With sharp wit, they critique the commercialization of spirituality and the dangers of incel culture, all while inviting listeners to reconsider the intersection of wellness and politics.

With Alana Lentin. In this episode we discuss the ways in which racial capitalism reproduces itself. Beyond the distracting framings of culture wars and moral panics, Alana Lentin shows how, from Australia to the USA, the attacks on Black, Indigenous and anticolonial thought and praxis reveal the processes through which racial colonial rule is ideologically resecured.  We discuss the 'whitelash' against the teaching of histories of slavery and colonialism; the counterinsurgent capture and institutionalisation of antiracism, Indigeneity and decoloniality in the service of Zionism and settler colonialism; and how the 'war on antisemitism' re-forms white supremacism at an acute time of genocide. The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy is out now from Pluto Press. Use the coupon 'PODCAST' for 40% off the book on plutobooks.com.

With Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon. The USA locks up more migrants in its immigration detention facilities than any other country in the world. Already operating over capacity, the Trump administration has ramped up its campaign of immigration raids, allegedly instructing ICE to hit quotas of 3,000 arrests a day. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ will, if approved by the Senate, appropriate tens of billions of extra dollars for ICE, and immigration and border law enforcement more broadly.  Without the facilities to house these detainees, thousands now face the imminent possibility of being removed to Guantanamo, or else held in new ‘soft-sided facilities’ where the already inadequate guidelines for detainee welfare will be watered down further, in order to expedite their creation. We are joined on the show by Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon, authors of Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants. We discuss the ways immigration detention generates huge profits for some, while those detained are starved, sickened, and exploited as a matter of routine. We also talk about how immigration detention has expanded in 2025 under Trump, and the ways in which it can be resisted and dismantled.

With H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez. This is the final installment of our three-part mini series, 'Beyond the Ballot Box', which explores some of the major political currents in US politics today. Chris Browne and James Kelly are joined by H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez for a conversation about life in times of fascism. We explore concepts such as state addiction, anti-democracy, ungovernability and democratic living. We also touch on the work of Cedric Robinson, and what we can learn from Black abolition feminist praxis. Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living is out now. Podcast listeners can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com using the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. --- H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. She is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World and editor of Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance. Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator based at the University of California-Riverside, where he works in the Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of a number of books including White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.