Bungacast

On saving society from the antisocial-ists. In partnership with Damage magazine.   [Patreon Exclusive]   Trade unionist and researcher Dustin "Dino" Guastella joins us to talk about the deficiencies of a libertarian or antinomian approach to social problems. We start off with Dino telling us about the Teamsters union, before moving on to: How have American cities developed such problems? What are the pros and cons of the 'Portuguese Model' of drug decriminalization? What is the problem with harm reduction, and how does it connect to notions of 'bare life'? How are insecurity and precarity changing people's political demands and expectations? Is there something to be learned from the Christian tradition? Should we all be reading Alasdair MacIntyre? How do we build a politics of human flourishing? Links: Making the Present the Enemy of the Future, Dino Guastella, Damage Anti-Social Socialism Club, Dino Guastella, Damage Christianity, Morality, and Socialism, Dino Guastella, Jacobin The left must embrace law and order, Slavoj Zizek, New Statesman After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Alasdair MacIntyre

On Euro censorship + your comments and criticisms.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We discuss censorship in Brussels and Berlin, and put it in the context of the incorporation of right-populism. How will European politics come to look as national-conservatives become part of the establishment? What's up with these "sovereigntists" who are unserious about sovereignty?   Also we discuss your comments: If cultural production is already monopolistic, can it be democratically planned? Should we problematise "mental health"? Is love a dangerous political emotion? What happens if you leave the left? How do we kill the ghosts of the 20th century? Is a generational analysis of left-populism wrong? How do we get beyond a world of media and images? Links: NatCon: are centrists the real threat to free speech?, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd

On the Big Hard Dick industry.   [Patreon Exclusive]   Clinicians and Damage authors & editors, Christie and Benjamin, tell us why the market for penis enlargement and hardness has exploded. What is the "penis anxiety industry" How does it serve individual, cultural and unconscious demands? How does 'Big Hard Dick' provide a brittle solution to a deep social problem? Is the Freudian analysis passé? Is it phallus-obsessed? Does a making your penis bigger and harder help deal with imposter syndrome? Does neoliberal capitalism make us feel "small"? Does the liberal elite want you to accept your smallness? How might we be big – make ambitious, large-scale change – without falling for fake solutions? Links: Size Queen Nation, Christie Offenbacher & Benjamin Fife, Damage /215/ Organize the Incels?! ft. Alex Gendler The New Superfluous Men, Alex Gendler, American Affairs On masquerade vs imposture: How Should a Woman Look?: Scopic Strategies for Sexuated Subjects, Jennifer Friedlander Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday Life, Mari Ruti, Columbia UP

On melodrama and the bourgeois subject.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We're back with the next installment of our series on the "emotional turn". Alex talks to Catherine Liu about whether politics is staged in a "melodramatic" fashion today. What is the bourgeois subject, why was it good, and where did it go? What is melodrama? Does public crying make us feel connected? Is it all Oprah's fault? Why is psychoanalysis the solution to, not the cause of, therapy culture? How is indignation used today? Is the political scene just villains and victims? Links: Emotion Sickness I ft. Nina Power Emotion Sickness II ft. Ashley Frawley Emotion Sickness III ft. Alex Hochuli Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery, Eva Illouz Interview with Christine Gledhill, from the book Melodrama After the Tears 

On President AMLO and the rebuilding the working class.   [Patreon Exclusive]   We continue our discussion with anthropologist Roger Lancaster who has lived and researched in Mexico for decades, on the past and present of Mexican radicalism. How has popular conservatism served as a boost for radicalism and revolution  Is there any basis for a 'romantic' anti-capitalism, in Mexico, or in the Global North? Is President AMLO synthesising a new politics?  Has he “ended neoliberalism” or on the way to it? How socially conservative is AMLO really?

On A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics   [Patreon Tier III & IV Exclusive]   Continuing our theme of "the intelligentsia & the public," we discuss German critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's 2023 book, asking what sort of political culture is required for democracy. What role do the institutions of the public sphere and the media have in producing, sustaining or undermining this culture? How does Habermas' account contrast with B. Anderson on print capitalism? Is 'deliberative' democracy a trap? Who sets the rules of deliberation? Is a good media structure a 'constitutional imperative'? How do interests fit into Habermas' model? Do we need to leave our interests at the door?   Links: A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics, Jurgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas is a major public intellectual. What are his key ideas?, Duncan Ivison, The Conversation /362/ Life Doesn’t Have to Zuck ft. Cory Doctorow - on social media

On Mexico, class, and sexuality.    We welcome anthropologist Roger Lancaster onto the pod to talk about his new book, The Struggle to Be Gay – in Mexico, for Example.     We discuss: How much is being gay tied to being modern? And conversely, how much of globalized culture is itself "gay"? Do you need to be middle class to be gay? Why did neoliberalism provide more sexual freedom than corporatism in Mexico?  How was Mexico ahead of the US in introducing ‘progressive neoliberalism’? Is now a time of freedom, or should we think of it differently? In part two, we discuss AMLO's "synthetic" presidency, and the way peasant conservatism in central America has traditionally provided a boost to radicalism – and ask whether this is still the case.   Only available at patreon.com/bungacast.   See also: /180/ Bunga Bunga (but Gay) ft. Mark Simpson & River Page

On Portugal's elections, 50 years since the revolution   Catarina Príncipe, a long-time activist on the Portuguese left and a doctoral student of political economy, is back on the podcast to talk through what happened as Portugal went to the polls. How does Portugal see itself, with regard to Europe, and its own history? How did the right-populist Chega party break through amid high turnout? What kind of anti-politics did Chega bring to the table? Is there nostalgia for the dictatorship? How did immigration become an issue in a country where emigration is the big problem? What is going on with Portugal's huge housing crisis? Why has the EU disappeared as a political issue, 10 years on from the peak of the crisis? Bungacast is expanding, with new regular contributors, partnership with Damage magazine and more. Read about it here or see the video. Links: In Portugal’s Election, the Center Left Struggles to Hold On, João Murta & Guilherme Rodrigues Europe After Brexit, Bungacast live event, ft. Catarina Principe + others

On what comes next: in politics, ideas, economy, subjectivity   To commemorate seven years of the podcast and four-hundred episodes, we got all our new Contributors in to examine the oppositions and tensions that we think will characterise the next decade. We say hello to Amber A'Lee Frost, Alex Gourevitch, Catherine Liu, and Leigh Phillips.   For all Bungacast shows, including our Contributors, the Damage magazine episode, Reading Club and more, go to patreon.com/bungacast     Politics Right-populism: insurgency or incorporation The Left: engagement or reclusion Multipolarity: opportunity or restriction War: inertia or action Industry & Economy Work: precarity or militancy Green Capitalism: industry or austerity Tech: exhaustion or enchantment Ideas & Art Truth: the image or the word Belief: reason or romanticism Individual & Society Subjectivity: vulnerability or resilience Sex: liberation or puritanism Sociability: virtuality or embodiment

On the withdrawal from hyperpolitics and hypermodernity.   [Patreon Exclusive]   What comes after a decade of populism? Alex Hochuli talks through his new essay in Damage, issue 2. This is episode is the third part of our Emotion Sickness series on the politics of feelings. Click here for part 1 and part 2. If we are disengaging from politics, what is the associated feeling - resentment or resignation? Why are our times "hypermodern" – and why is this exhausting? What can the examples of the 'great resignation', 15-minute cities, and postliberalism all tell us about the ways people are withdrawing from modernity? Why do we need to decelerate to save modernity? How might we gain control of time? This episode is in partnership with Damage. Bungacast subscribers ($7+) automatically get a digital subscription to the magazine. Go to patreon.com/bungacast.   Links: From ADHD to Let Me Be: Taking Control of Time, Alex Hochuli, Damage Damage issue 2: "Deinstitutionalized" (subscribe for Alex's essay + more) /365/ It’s So Over (Again) ft. Ryan Zickgraf (see also the links in show notes) Hypermodern Times, Gilles Lipovetsky Social Acceleration, Hartmut Rosa Scorched Earth, Jonathan Crary