Aufhebunga Bunga

On political decline and realignment.

The editor of American Affairs joins us to discuss the decay of conservatism and we ask whether this decay doesn't apply to other parts of the political spectrum too. Is today's 'class struggle' really just between the upper-middle class and the elite? And we discuss the 'late-Soviet' USA - the sense of decline embodied in the gerontocracy of the ruling class. 

Readings:

• The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs
• America’s Unhealthy Gerontocracy, Julius Krein, American Affairs
• Conservatism Is A Collection Of Losers. It Doesn’t Have To Be. Julius Krein, The American Conservative

• Conservatives’ grip on ‘red wall’ holding firm, Sebastian Payne, FT
• Lawmakers ‘Alarmed’ by Reports U.S. Envoy Told Brazil It Could Help Re-elect Trump, Ernesto Londoño, Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado, NYT
• “Imagine the damage a president could cause”: What would happen if Trump refused defeat?, Emily Tamkin, New Statesman

• The Triumph of Black Lives Matter and Neoliberal Redemption, Cedric Johnson, NonSite
• ‘As soon as I saw the slaveowner’s statue being toppled in Bristol, I knew the real anti-racism protest was OVER’, Lisa McKenzie, RT
• The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage
• Alex's additional notes on his blog

On the left case for freedom.  

We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic. 

Reading:

• What People Power Looks Like in a Pandemic Democracy, Corey Robin, NYRB
• Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats: Freedom Now, Corey Robin & Alex Gourevitch, Polity
• If authoritarianism is looming in the US, how come Donald Trump looks so weak?, Corey Robin, Guardian

This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast 

Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126). 

Why did Bernie Sanders fail?

In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead?

And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip?

Reading:

• First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Collapse of the Sanders Campaign and the "Fusionist" Left, Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey, American Affairs

In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store?

Readings:

• Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
• The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin
• ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico
• The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin

In the first of an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nick Frayn, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New England. How have things gone on the campaign trail? What is next for the Democratic primaries delayed by the corona outbreak? Can Bernie regain ground in the primaries against Joe Biden? How will the corona crisis impact the Democratic primaries?

Readings:

• How the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the US Democratic primary calendar, FT
• Biden Wins Coronavirus Primary, The Atlantic
• Joe Biden sweeps key primaries and moves closer to nomination, The Guardian

In this latest Three Articles, we discuss American democracy and those who pretend to save it or undermine it. 

Sign up for access to the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast

Readings:

• It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president, Julia Azari, WaPo
• Michael Bloomberg: Smirking Id Of America’s Elites, Matt Purple, The American Conservative
• Bernie Sanders Was Right to Talk About Wage Slavery. We Should Talk About It, Too., Alex Gourevitch, Jacobin

On drugs and mental health. 

In part two, we chat about recreational drugs and mental states in a Hollywood bar with friends of the podcast, Amber A'Lee Frost and Alex Gendler. But mostly, we delve deeper into capitalism and depression with the 'States of Wellness' group at UC Irvine (Catherine Liu, Thomas Williams, Michael Mahoney, Benjamin Kruger-Robins).

#CaliBunga is a special multipart series on the Californian Ideology: the seemingly paradoxical hybrid of New Left and New Right ideas - the synthesis of hippies with yuppies, all tied together with the promise that technology might liberate us.

Thanks to UC Irvine School of Humanities for sponsoring this series.

On the 30 years since 1989.

For our 100th episode, we invited our favourite guests to reflect on the question: “What one event, personal or political, most captures for you the past thirty years, since 1989?” 

Are we still living in the death throes of the 20th century, or is something new emerging?

Guests:

• (00:07:42) - Maren Thom
• (00:14:14) - David Broder
• (00:21:33) - Ashley Frawley
• (00:26:11) - Catherine Liu
• (00:33:05) - Angela Nagle
• (00:40:49) - Benjamin Fogel
• (00:46:25) - Alex Gourevitch 
• (00:51:31) - BungaCast hosts
• (00:59:22) - David Adler
• (01:04:05) - Amber A’Lee Frost
• (01:08:48) - James Heartfield
• (01:16:17) - Anton Jaeger
• (01:23:24) - Leigh Phillips
• (01:30:25) - Lee Jones
• (01:36:03) - Karl Sharro

Subscribe: patreon.com/BungaCast

On working class pain and politics.

We talk to Jennifer Silva about her most recent book, and working class Americans' experience of and perspectives on pain. We discuss racial, gender and class identities and sense of relative losses and gains. If the American Dream has been 'stolen', how can the working class dream again? What are the prospects for socialist politics when distrust of politics predominates?