Jacobin Radio

Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, editors of the new collection Mastery and Drift, discuss professional-class liberalism. Plus: a brief reprise of a 2019 interview with Gabriel Winant about the PMC. 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Last year, Narendra Modi celebrated a decade in office as India’s prime minister. Modi was aiming for a third consecutive election victory and a parliamentary landslide that would give him a free hand to advance his right-wing, Hindu nationalist agenda. But the election proved to be a disappointment for Modi and his allies, who lost their majority in parliament. Modi had to form a coalition to maintain his grip on power. Long Reads is joined by one of Modi’s leading journalistic opponents to discuss the rise and rule of the Hindu right wing. Siddhartha Deb is the author of several novels, and his non-fiction work has exposed the dark side of contemporary India. Haymarket Books published a collection of his writings last year, Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Fall of India. Long 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 Gilli

Featuring Ilias Alami and Tim Sahay on a global conjuncture defined by Washington’s shredding of the liberal international order’s legitimacy amid a panic over decline: the escalating Cold War with China; Gaza genocide; Trump’s tariff wars and militarism, and his pivot toward Putin on Ukraine; European defense buildup and fiscal revolution; what this all means for the poor majority of the Global South, and more. Part one of a two-part series. Subscribe to The Polycrisis newsletter phenomenalworld.org/series/the-polycrisis Download a free copy of The Spectre of State Capitalism by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon: academic.oup.com/book/57552 Transnational Institute reports: The New Frontline: The US-China Battle for Control of Global Networks: tni.org/en/article/the-new-frontline Geopolitics of Capitalism: State of Power 2025: tni.org/en/publication/geopolitics-of-capitalism The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir

Vanessa Wills, author of the book Marx’s Ethical Vision, speaks about the morality behind Marxian science. Mathis Ebbinghaus discusses the recent paper he co-wrote about the effects of the summer 2020 anti-cop protests on police budgets. 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged about the world today, but the labor movement is giving us real cause for hope. Across industries and regions, workers are organizing on a scale we haven’t seen in decades — and they’re winning. What sets this new wave of labor activism apart from the usual staff-driven campaigns is that workers themselves are leading the way. Important challenges remain. Organizing is up, but nowhere near the scale needed to reverse labor’s trajectory. And with the Trump–Musk attack on workers’ rights and MAGA’s onslaught on democracy writ large, labor organizing is more important than ever. Eric Blanc, labor activist and teacher, joins Barry Eidlin to discuss his new book, We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Based on in-depth research and his own on-the-ground organizing experience, Blanc lays out what is driving the organizing upsurge, and how it provides a model for reversing labor’s fortunes. Blanc sets out a vision of work

Featuring Eric Blanc on We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big. Interview conducted by guest host Gabriel Winant. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Defend federal workers and federal services: actionnetwork.org/forms/let-us-work/ Contact the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) for help organizing your workplace: workerorganizing.org Contact Workers Organizing Workers (WOW) if you are interested in taking a job in a strategic industry to unionize it: form.jotform.com/250337473301045 Buy All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence at Haymarketbooks.com Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Donald Trump has made restoring American industry a priority across his administrations. But rather than continue Biden’s efforts to bolster domestic manufacturing through subsidies, Trump has instituted a series of tariffs intended to reshore former pillar industries and improve US trade balance. In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber and Jacobin contributor Melissa Naschek explore the promises and limits of a state-led industrial growth strategy. While industrial policy has led to success stories around the globe, implementation is often easier said than done when capitalists oppose it. Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Ben Tarnoff talks tech worker militancy and the bosses’ reaction: a crackdown and hard turn to the right. Jodi Dean, author of Capital’s Grave, discusses the concept of “neofeudalism.” 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Featuring TrueAnon hosts Brace Belden and Liz Franczak on our freakish and reactionary tech oligarchy. Musk and friends built a technological infrastructure that has warped everyone’s minds, including their own. Now they’re seizing the state. The hideous AI “art” we discuss: https://bit.ly/4ksG1aM http://bit.ly/3DmDfTD Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Register for the Socialism Conference at Socialismconference.org before April 25th for an early bird discount! Use code “DIG” for 30% off a subscription to The-Syllabus.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Eric Blanc, author of We Are the Union, talks about worker-led organizing at Amazon, Starbucks, and beyond. Molly O'Neal, Quincy Institute fellow, analyzes the recent German election. 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Jacobin Radio presents a webinar, moderated by Suzi and sponsored by Haymarket Books and the Ukraine Solidarity Network, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just days after this discussion, the Trump administration laid out a deal that trades an end to the fighting for U.S. economic control over Ukraine’s minerals without providing security guarantees. This is no peace plan but a surrender, a betrayal of Ukraine’s fight for self-determination. Denys Pilash, Grusha Gilaeva, and Howie Hawkins unpack Trump’s blackmail, the consequences of a more Putin-friendly policy, what’s at stake for Ukraine, and what it will mean for political prisoners and the left in Russia. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Featuring Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Mike McCarthy on the MAGA and DOGE war on woke, the complicity of bankrupt liberal identity politics, and the centrality of various oppressions to the class domination of capital and struggles against it. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Read Mike’s article “The Problem of Class Abstractionism” epublications.marquette.edu/socs_fac/356 Buy Enemy Feminisms at Haymarketbooks.com Buy Solidarity Betrayed at Plutobooks.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Among the many government agencies facing cuts from President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, USAID has garnered wide support in the media. But for whatever humanitarian good it’s done in the world, the agency has played a role in US imperialism. In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber examines the true history of USAID and breaks down the false dichotomy between soft and hard US power. Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

On February 21, Suzi talked to Zakhar Popóvych, a Ukrainian researcher and activist in Kyiv with roots in labor and socialist organizing, and Ilya Budraitskis, a Russian historian and political theorist now in exile, about Trump’s foreign policy moves regarding Ukraine on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The Trump administration has engaged in peace talks in Saudi Arabia that excluded Ukraine entirely. Trump has even embraced Putin’s revisionist narrative claiming Ukraine started the war. What does this mean for Ukraine’s survival, Europe’s stability, and the broader left struggle against imperialism and authoritarianism? Suzi asks Zakhar and Ilya to unpack the shifting geopolitical landscape, the implications of Trump’s concessions to Putin, the resilience of Ukraine, and the role of the internationalist left in an era of resurgent imperialism. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest mov

Anatol Lieven looks at the global dimensions of Trumpism. Quinn Slobodian, who wrote a recent article for the New York Review of Books, muses on whether Trump is a neoliberal and examines the three major strands of DOGE-ism. 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

For now, the ceasefire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government appears to be holding. However, Donald Trump has openly proposed the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Trump has used the destruction of Gaza with American-made bombs as a rationale for his plan. Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford and the author of many books, joins Long Reads for a conversation about Trump’s scheme and whether it can be stopped. Paul’s most recent work is The Insecurity Trap: A Short Guide to Transformation. Stay tuned for our series about histories of the Palestinian Left, which we postponed to address the current danger facing Palestinians. Long 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 with music by Knxwledge.

Featuring Danielle Carr on the history and present state of American unwellness and how that’s been shaped by psychiatry, prescription drugs, neuroscience, popular culture, smartphones and social media. We trace the rise of psychiatry as a Gilded Age human science, the disastrous contradictions of asylum deinstitutionalization, the invention of neuroscience and deep brain stimulation, Elon Musk’s Neuralink fraudulence, how Adderall made the Internet run, the liberal gospel of traumatic literalism recounted in The Body Keeps the Score, and the scientific Bonapartism of RFK Jr.’s medical freedom movement. Buy Empire of Normality at Plutobooks.com Buy Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal at Haymarketbooks.com Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our vast archives and newsletters at thedigradio.com

Our theme for today’s program is resistance in the time of monsters: resistance to the Trump/Musk wrecking ball that threatens the well-being of millions of people here and across the globe. Their actions are illegal, have provoked a constitutional crisis, and constitute a technical coup. At the same time, the Trump/Musk rampage has galvanized resistance in the courts and on the streets. Suzi talks to Geologist and IFPTE local president Colin Smalley, who is part of the Federal Unionists Network, or FUN. They have called for a national day of action, an SOS — Save our Services — for February 19. We then turn to Canada, where Trump’s across-the-board tariffs — though temporarily paused – threaten economic havoc with our largest trading partner, an unprecedented trade war. The promised tariffs have sparked a spontaneous national resistance across the country and across the political spectrum, uniting Canadians as never before. Canadians are fighting back against Trump's suggestion that Canada join the US as th

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò picks apart the contradictory strands of the DEI obsession. Sophia Rosenfeld, author of the book The Age of Choice, explores the history of that concept over the last few centuries. 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: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html

Within weeks of assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has instituted tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. Trump has touted protectionism as a way of supporting American workers. In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber and Jacobin contributor Melissa Naschek discuss how nineteenth and twentieth-century protectionist trade policies helped build domestic manufacturing bases around the world, but why Trump's twenty-first century tariffs are very different. While decades of global free trade have contributed to deindustrialization, workers are not likely to benefit from Trump’s tariffs. Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.