James Meadway joins PTO to talk about his forthcoming article for Open Democracy on the end of neoliberalism. We talked about why James believes that we're witnessing a transition away from neoliberalism and towards what some are calling authoritarian capitalism, why the left needs to focus more on the high point of globalisation of the early 2000s when thinking about neoliberal forms of governance rather than the late 1970s and 1980s, and we also talked about how the platform tech giants may have been nurtured within the neoliberal system but that their revenue models point to a quite different regime of capital accumulation.

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After neoliberalism w/ James Meadway

Benjamin Bratton joins PTO to discuss his new book, The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World. We talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic could transform our sense of human subjectivity, how to think about planning at a planetary scale - in a way that neither falls prey to techno utopianism, nor retreats into a romantic localism. We also talked about what the pandemic means for populism, and why taking an epidemiological view of society will aid us in dealing with future crises. And finally we also discussed the unfortunate response of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben to the pandemic and why the dominance of the baby boomers in academia has led to an overemphasis on what Benjamin describes as a "negative biopolitics" that can only see governance and systems of mapping and planning in sinister, authoritarian terms.

The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World w/ Benjamin Bratton

Margret Grebowicz joins PTO to talk about her new book, 'Mountains and Desire: Climbing vs. The End of the World'. We talked about how the notion of the boho climbing rat, who forgoes a normal life and conventional ideas of success has given way to the idea of the modern climber as emblematic of entrepreneurial achievement and heteronormativity. We also talked about Free Solo, the 2018 documentary on Alex Honnold's attempt to free climb the vertical rock face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, and how the documentary illuminates the themes of Margret's book.

Late capitalism at 20,000 ft. w/ Margret Grebowicz

Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to respond to listener questions on our recent discussion about the Labour Party. We talked about whether Jeremy holds a "stagist" approach to political consciousness and social change, what the far more positive public discussion around migration in Scotland suggests about possibilities elsewhere in the UK, and what - if anything - Labour can do to win over the support of home owning retirees. Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52563776

Teaser - PTO Extra! - Jeremy Gilbert responds to listener questions on Labour and left strategy

Owen Hatherley joins PTO to discuss a new career spanning collection of his writings, Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances. We talked about the early 2000s blogging scene as a reaction to New Labour, Owen's writings on music and how Black Box Recorder's work seemed to anticipate the world of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. And finally, we talked about Owen's review of K-Punk - the collected writings of Mark Fisher - and the strange phenomenon of American leftists seeing Fisher as a "class first" social democrat, shorn of his theoretical touchstones.

Clean living under difficult circumstances w/ Owen Hatherley

With the prospect of another potential Labour by-election defeat in Batley and Spen next month, Jeremy Gilbert joins PTO to talk about the prospect of the Labour Party facing further erosion in its support and whether the Keir Starmer project is even about winning elections or if the goal is simply to defeat and marginalise the Labour left.

Does Labour face terminal decline? w/ Jeremy Gilbert

Jacqueline Rose joins PTO to talk about her new book, On Violence and on Violence against Women. We discussed how psychoanalysis can help us grasp the mental states that make male violence possible, where Jacqueline parts company with the radical feminist perspectives of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, and how the experience of trans women illuminates more broadly the nature of male violence against women. Finally, we talked about the violent history of South Africa - from the the colonial and apartheid eras up to the present day.

On violence and on violence against women w/ Jacqueline Rose

Rana Barakat joins PTO from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to talk about the current humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the significance of the recent general strike and the protests amongst Palestinians within the 1948 borders, and what Israel's escalation of violence may mean for Netanyahu's efforts at normalising Israel's relations with Arab states in the region.

PTO Extra! Palestine - a new era of resistance? w/ Rana Barakat

At the end of the 1980s, China's leaders came close to implementing the kind of economic shock therapy reforms that a few years later caused a social and economic catastrophe in the former Soviet Union and much of eastern Europe. A moment of enormous significance for Chinese and world history, Isabella Weber explains how and why China came to the brink of initiating an economic "big bang", and why ultimately the leadership chose to pursue a gradualist process of market reform instead. Later this month Isabella will be taking part in the book's official launch, along with James Galbraith, Branko Milanović and Bin Wong. You can register here if you would like to attend: https://tinyurl.com/4ybec9z2

How China escaped shock therapy w/ Isabella Weber

Alex De Waal joins PTO to talk about his new book, New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease. We discussed the history of pandemic disease control, from the cholera outbreaks of the 19th century to HIV/AIDS and the Covid19 crisis. We chatted why the war on disease narrative is so unhelpful, how colonial era vaccination programmes spread HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and why the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 is so little discussed and written about, despite its extraordinary death toll.

New Pandemics, Old Politics w/ Alex De Waal

Earlier this month rioting broke out in loyalist communities in several towns and cities in Northern Ireland - the worst such violence for years. PTO spoke to Daniel Finn about his recent article for the London Review of Books on the causes of the disturbances. Become a £5 PTO supporter to get access to this episode and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50112410

Teaser - PTO Extra! Daniel Finn on Northern Ireland and the DUP's dilemma

Robbie Shilliam joins PTO to talk about his article, 'Enoch Powell: Britain’s First Neoliberal Politician' which appeared in the New Political Economy Journal. We spoke about how Enoch Powell, far from being a political throwback was in fact a key figure in the emergence of neoliberalism and Thatcherism, and how his politics presaged the Brexit project. We also chatted about how Powell, in contrast to many conservatives became hostile to nostalgia for the British Empire and how he believed that an independent Britain, neither ruling an empire, nor becoming part of the embryonic European Union would find its proper place in the world.

Enoch Powell: Britain's first neoliberal politician w/ Robbie Shilliam

Earlier this month the UK government published the latest defence review, titled 'Global Britain in a Competitive Age'. PTO spoke to international security analyst Paul Rogers about the defence review, and the government's move to increase the UK's nuclear stockpile by 40%. We also talked what the review tells us about the UK in a post-Brexit world and finally what the review means for the government's relations with China.

Teaser - PTO Extra! "Global Britain" and the UK defence review w/ Paul Rogers

Owen Hatherley, Juliet Jacques, and Alberto Toscano join PTO to talk about Adam Curtis's new BBC series Can't Get You Out of My Head. We chatted about Curtis' politics, the changes in his documentary style since the early 1990s, and why he avoids talking about neoliberalism.

HyperCurtisisation w/ Owen Hatherley, Juliet Jacques, and Alberto Toscano

A podcast from Tribune magazine on radical politics, critical theory, and culture. Hosted by Alex Doherty. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother Contact: politicstheoryother@gmail.com Tribune Radio: https://www.blubrry.com/tribuneradio/

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