Books – Aufhebunga Bunga

Excerpt: /301/ Reading Club: Neo-Feudalism

by Alex__1789November 4, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-wgsgy-1305e1f On Joel Kotkin's The Coming of Neo-Feudalism We start off by discussing your points on the last RC, on conspiracy theory. Then we delve into Kotkin's book, asking whether he has an adequate understanding of feudalism, and whether this…

Excerpt: /294/ Reading Club: Conspiracy Theory

by Alex__1789October 5, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-enc8u-12de667 On Empire of Conspiracy and agency panics. [Patreon Exclusive - Tiers II & III] We focus our discussion on the notion of 'agency panic' that is at the centre of Timothy Melley's account of conspiracy theories in…

/286/ What Was Communism? ft. Branko Milanovic

by Alex__1789September 6, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pgv57-12b743a On Communism's historic role. We talk to renowned Serbian-American economist Branko Milanovic about growing up in Yugoslavia and how, in much of the world, History never ended. We then dedicate much of the episode to discussing Branko's claim…

Excerpt: /283/ Reading Club: Trust & Mistrust

by Alex__1789August 31, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-q4pqh-12b0d6e On Anthony Giddens' The Consequences of Modernity (ch.3) [Patreon Tier 2&3 Exclusive] In the second episode of the Cynical Ideology section of the 2022 Reading Club, we look at what trust is and why it has declined so precipitously…

Excerpt: /278/ Reading Club: Cynicism & Ideology

by Alex__1789July 29, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-z34ya-1286a6d [Patreon Tier 2&3 Exclusive] On Zizek's "How Marx Invented the Symptom" from The Sublime Object of Ideology. We kick off the second phase of the 2022 Reading Club, on Cynical Ideology, with this selection from Slavoj Zizek's…

Excerpt: /275/ Our Reply to Critics: Review of Reviews

by Alex__1789July 19, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-tubr9-1277e76 On reviews of our book, The End of the End of History A year since the book came out, and two years since we finished writing it, we take a look at published reviews the book has received…

Excerpt: /266/ Reading Club: Foucault & Biopolitics

by Alex__1789May 26, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-eb5j2-123600d [Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive] On neoliberalism and biopolitics. In the fifth session of the "Emergency Politics & Control" theme of the 2022 Reading Club, we take on The Birth of Biopolitics, Michel Foucault's 1978-9 lectures…

Excerpt: /260/ Reading Club: Fear II – Furedi

by Alex__1789April 29, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-wzs9c-12137f8 [Patreon Tier 2 Exclusive] On Frank Furedi's How Fear Works. Following on from last month's discussion of Corey Robin's Fear, we examine a differing attempt to demystify the politics and culture of fear. To join a local Reading Club where you…

/258/ Conformist Rebellion ft. Elena Lange & Joshua Pickett-Depaolis

by Alex__1789April 26, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-wgbss-120e7ad On Marxism & the Left. We talk to Elena & Joshua about their new edited collection, The Conformist Rebellion: Marxist Critiques of the Contemporary Left. Who or what is "the Left" today – merely the left wing of Capital?…

Excerpt: /255/ Reading Club: Fear I – Robin

by Alex__1789April 14, 2022Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7xn2m-11fd5b1 [Patreon Tier 2 Exclusive] On Corey Robin's Fear: The History of a Political Idea. This is March's Reading Club, the third in the Emergency Politics section of the 2022 Syllabus.