Excerpt: /212/ Three Articles: Middle-Class Anxieties

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ba6dn-10c96c9 On net-zero, CCP nanny state, and optimised dating.   We start off discussing the HBO series "The White Lotus" before tackling three articles on middle-class anxieties: climate change and pressures on UK living standards; the Chinese state's crackdown on…

/211/ Unlocking the Lockdown Left ft. @galexybrane

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-sgbhg-10c07b0 On lockdowns, education, and the left. California middle-school teacher and social critic Alex Gutentag (@galexybrane) joins us to talk about the depredations of lockdown in California and the wider world. How has lockdown affected different segments of society, and…

/210/ Reading Club: Psychoanalysis & Spirit of Capitalism

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7uize-10bd914 We discuss Eli Zaretsky's essay, "Psychoanalysis and the Spirit of Capitalism" (also available as a chapter in his book Political Freud).   How convincing is Zaretsky’s idea that, as capitalism was becoming more organized and systematic, it also liberated…

Excerpt: /209/ Aufhebonus Bonus + Kabul Falls

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vky7r-10b7634 On the Fall of Kabul, plus responding to your questions & comments. On this Aufhebonus Bonus, we take your critical comments on 'positive biopolitics' and authoritarian responses to Covid. Plus, whether neoliberalism is really ending, the usefulness of using…

/204/ Three Articles: People’s Republic of Fleeing

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7xbrq-109384d On Chinese investment, Swiss democracy, and fleeing from Afghanistan. In this Three Articles, we discuss flight or departure in various ways: China opening the gates for its huge savings to spill onto world markets; Switzerland leaving (or remaining outside)…