Jacobin Radio

Gabriel Hetland has just published his study of populist experiments in Venezuela and Bolivia, Democracy on the Ground, showing the complexity of implementing participatory democracy at the grassroots level. Suzi talks to him about his findings. He examines the possibilities, limits, and concrete cases of participatory democracy, including participatory budgeting at the local level during the highpoint of Latin America’s Left Turn in the 2010s. Hetland's study immediately begs the question: what kind of democracy? It’s a pertinent question here in the US, where democracy is under threat.Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Featuring Ussama Makdisi on the late Ottoman Empire's Arab culture of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish coexistence—an ecumenical frame that was interrupted by European colonialism and Zionism, which exacerbated and exploited sectarianism. This is the first of a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com Shop Haymarket's ALL 40% off Holiday sale at haymarketbooks.org   Buy Let Them Eat Crypto at plutobooks.com

If society outlawed emotions, could we stop all war and conflict? This is the very, very stupid question at the heart of EQUILIBRIUM (2002), the dystopian extravaganza that introduced the world to the art of "gun kata."Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Environmental journalist Tina Gerhardt analyzes the recently concluded COP28 environmental summit, where limited good intentions were uttered and oil contracts were signed. Historian Forrest Hylton talks about Javier Milei, the new libertarian, authoritarian president of Argentina.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

If anyone thinks about medieval Flanders today, it’s most likely because they have an interest in the art of painters like Bruegel and Rubens. But Flanders also pioneered the art of class warfare. There was nowhere else in Europe during the Middle Ages where the popular classes posed such an effective challenge to aristocratic power. At its high point during the early fourteenth century, this wave of popular mobilization defeated some of Europe’s most powerful armies.Jan Dumolyn, professor of history at Ghent University, joins Long Reads to talk about the social conditions behind this wave of uprisings.You can read Jan's piece for Jacobin, "Flanders Was the Epicenter of Class Conflict in Medieval Europe," here: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/flanders-class-conflict-medieval-europe-feudalismLong Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music

Joel Schalit, editor of The Battleground, discusses what it is in Israeli politics and society that’s behind the carnage in Gaza. Amy Schiller, author of The Price of Humanity, looks at what’s wrong with philanthropy and how to fix it.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

The French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte have inspired a lot of takes... so, of course, you can depend on Ridley Scott to find the least imaginative one. We discuss his lugubrious NAPOLEON (2023). PLUS: An update on Canadian politics, and some thoughts on the man who may be Prime Minsiter, Pierre Poilievre.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Featuring Shaul Magid on post-1948 Jewish Zionism and Jewish anti-Zionism—including today's new generation of young, militant, left-wing, anti-Zionist American Jews and the Jewish establishment's quixotic efforts to deny and disavow them. PART TWO of a two-part interview.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigJoin Jewish Voice for Peace jewishvoiceforpeace.org/join-usBuy The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation at Versobooks.comBuy Let Them Eat Crypto at plutobooks.com

In the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq War, HBO made a movie about the lead-up to the first Gulf War, from the perspective of its most important factor: CNN. In LIVE FROM BAGHDAD (2002), Michael Keaton and his team of CNN reporters are Davids against the Goliaths that are establishment media... and the Iraqi security state. We discuss a mind-bogglingly awful piece of American propaganda from the Bush era. Richard Seymour on CNN and Iraq - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrGcK6XInE&ab_channel=TeleSUREnglish Luke's interview with Tantoo Cardinal - https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/youve-got-to-crash-a-door-and-fail-and-get-back-up-canadas-most-recognizable/article_729f94ea-8ec2-11ee-843c-733c6d38c787.html Luke's review of Werner Herzog's memoir - https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/werner-herzogs-new-memoir-is-as-complicated-and-fascinating-as-the-filmmaker-himself/article_92daad66-8ed7-11ee-9628-9345052d7cc2.html Will's new zine, "The Journal of Stoogeological Studies" - https://www.a

Trita Parsi discusses the global context of the Gaza war. James Bamford, author of a recent article for The Nation, investigates how Israel spies on US campuses. And Alberto Toscano, author of Late Fascism, talks about the latest iteration of the rough beast.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, spoke with Israeli historian and Genocide Studies scholar Omer Bartov at a public forum this week about the Israel/Gaza crisis. Bartov published two widely read pieces in November: "What I Believe as a Historian of Genocide,"New York Times, November 10, and "A political stalemate led to the bloodshed in the Middle East. Only a political settlement can truly end it," published in the Guardian November 29. Their conversation focuses on the necessity of relaunching serious negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a just, long-term, political solution to the 75-year conflict in Israel/Palestine, a demand they insist activists and the left in general should foreground immediately. Professor Bartov puts forward his proposal for a political solution that Alan Minsky describes as a “Confederated State Solution, neither a one-state nor a two-state solution, but something in-between.” Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features co

Featuring Shaul Magid on the long history of Jewish Zionism and its antagonist, Jewish anti-Zionism. Defenders of Israel defame anti-Zionists as antisemites. In fact, today's growing ranks of anti-Zionist Jews draw on a powerful and diverse tradition.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigBuy Ireland, Colonialism, and the Unfinished Revolution at haymarketbooks.org/books/2111-ireland-colonialism-and-the-unfinished-revolutionUse code DIG2023 for 50% off a subscription to Jewish Currents at secure.jewishcurrents.org/forms/subscribe

The estimated number of Palestinians killed or missing in the occupied territories since this war began is now 24,000 people — twenty times as many Israelis as were killed on October 7th. US government officials claim to have privately told Israel that it “must do more to limit civilian casualties” as the focus of the operation moves south. However, there is no evidence of any change in Israel's approach as the focus shifts from northern to southern Gaza and the relentless bombardment of civilian targets continues.Palestinian academic Bashir Abu-Manneh joins for another special episode of Long Reads to discuss the latest developments in Israel's war on Gaza. Bashir is a reader in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Kent and the author of The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present. He’s also a contributing editor at Jacobin who’s written many articles for us about Palestinian politics, including, most recently, "Israel Can’t Win Peace Militarily. Palestinian Democracy Is the Solution." https://ja

Ed Harris is a senator with presidential ambitions. Diane Keaton is the love of his life, but uncomfortable in politics. And with the White House in his grasp, his campaign is about to be rattled by a very, very stupid revelation from her past. We discuss Michael Lindsay-Hogg's RUNNING MATES (1992), a movie that emerged straight from the primordial ooze of the 1992 election cycle.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Leigh Claire La Berge, author of Marx for Cats, talks about political economy and the human–feline relationship. Then an interview with Michael Zweig, author of Class, Race, and Gender, on understanding capitalism in order to transform it. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online.

The old saying goes that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." But it helps if the men are very, very stupid. We discuss Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, in which the architect of a Native American genocide finds an easy pawn in one of the lowest-IQ protagonists in movie history.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

Featuring Mohammed el-Kurd on Palestine. A short but expansive interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our newsletters and vast archives at thedigradio.com Shop Haymarket's ALL 40% off Holiday sale at haymarketbooks.org   Take the Bookmatch quiz nplusonemag.com

Featuring Richard Seymour on the global politics of the Palestinian struggle and Israel’s war on Gaza. The *second* of a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com  Buy Going for Broke haymarketbooks.org/books/2097-going-for-broke Take the Bookmatch quiz nplusonemag.com

Christopher Ketcham, author of this Harper's article, gives us a look inside the mind of an “ecoterrorist”. Neve Gordon discusses what dynamics in Israeli society have led to the acceptance of bombing hospitals. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive here.

For centuries, the English Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 only appeared in the historical record through bitterly hostile sources. Medieval chroniclers like Froissart presented it as a terrifying eruption of savagery from the lower classes. But the rise of modern social movements organizing workers and farmers encouraged historians to take a fresh look at this early challenge to aristocratic power.Dominic Alexander, historian and the author of Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages, joins Long Reads to discuss this revolt and a much earlier one, in the twelfth century, led by a man called William Longbeard. While Longbeard was defeated, he has a strong claim to be recognized as England’s first social revolutionary.Find Dominic's articles, "William Longbeard Was England’s First Revolutionary Leader" and "The English Peasants’ Revolt Gave Birth to a Revolutionary Tradition," on the Jacobin website.Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with