Novara Media

Novara Media is an independent media organisation addressing the issues—from a crisis of capitalism to racism and climate change—that are set to define the 21st century.

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301 episodes
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Episodes301

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Dec 24, 2023 · 1 hr 3 min
Downstream: 2023 Year in Review
For this end-of-year edition of Downstream, the Novara Media team look back on the biggest stories of the year. Ash Sarkar is joined by Moya Lothian-McLean, Michael Walker and Owen Jones to talk about the Labour Party, the climate crisis, the rise of AI and the war on Gaza. From clouds brightening to prospects dimming, it’s a conversation with a surprisingly high level of off-brand festive cheer. This conversation was recorded live in London on 7th December. * A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support
Dec 22, 2023 · 56 min
ACFM Microdose: A Festive 50 For 2023
The ACFM gang get together for the last time this year to deliver a Festive 50. Keir, Jem and Nadia select the best bits of culture and politics from 2023, from music, films, books to games, strikes and actions. Unwrap to find sci-fi blaxploitation, comedy history, gobby glam-punk, Judge Dredd analysis, a fresh angle on Silicon Valley billionaires and much more. Thanks for listening to the show and for all your support this year – we couldn’t do it without you. https://novara.media/support Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Find our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”. Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481
Dec 21, 2023 · 1 hr 11 min
Novara FM: It’s A Wonderful Life w/ James Butler
Released in 1946, Frank Capra’s fable of Christmas despair in small town America has become – rather improbably – a staple of festive television. Starring Jimmy Stewart as virtuous everyman George Bailey, It’s A Wonderful Life is not just a feelgood tale of moral redemption, but a clue to the shifting social terrain of post-war America. Is it a film about capitalism? Angels? Individual liberty? The subversion of community values? The trauma of the second world war? James Butler, co-founder of Novara Media and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books, and host Eleanor Penny reflect on their very first viewing (!) of the movie. * A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support
Dec 18, 2023 · 1 hr 19 min
Downstream: The Plan To Privatise Everything w/ Brett Christophers
Asset management companies like Blackrock, Vanguard and Macquarie have avoided real scrutiny for decades, but their secretive activities are starting to attract attention from political researchers and academics. What do these companies do, and what risk do they pose to society? Author and academic Brett Christophers sets out to answer this question in his new book, Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World. He sat down with Aaron for a crash course in the world of asset management, discussing the dangers of financialisation, how UK infrastructure has been gutted by privatisation, and what we can learn from the case of the City of Chicago vs. Morgan Stanley. * A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support
Dec 17, 2023 · 1 hr 44 min
ACFM Trip 39: Protest
Millions have protested against the bombing of Gaza by taking part in marches, boycotts, sit-ins and other demonstrations. But what difference does it make, either to the world or to ourselves? The gang confront a contentious topic in this Trip. Do “A to B” marches ever achieve anything? What about joining hands around an RAF base? Digging up roads? Refusing to pay your taxes? Is squatting a form of direct action? They discuss Irish hunger strikers, Montgomery bus boycotters, Greenham Common women and the people that Suella Braverman calls “hate marchers”, with music from Lowkey, the Plastic Ono Band, Steel Pulse and more. Find our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Music: Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man / Dylan – Masters of War / Samba extract / Public Enemy – 911 is a Joke / Lowkey – Ghosts of Grenfell / Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution / The Plastic Ono Band – Give Peace A Chance / John Lennon – Working Class Hero Book: Charles Tilly – Social Movements: 1768-2004 Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481
Dec 15, 2023 · 54 min
Novara FM: Palestine 2048 w/ Basma Ghalayini
Science fiction isn’t a mode usually associated with Palestinian literature, perhaps because dreams of the future seem like a luxury when you can barely hold onto your past, or even present. In 2019, translator and editor Basma Ghalayini asked 12 Palestinian authors to imagine their world in 2048 – a century after the Nakba that violently dispossessed them of their land and rights – for a collection of sci-fi short stories. Some of the dystopias imagined by these authors proved gravely prescient this year. Ghalayini, who grew up in the Gaza Strip and now lives in Manchester, joined Eleanor for a conversation about literature, symbolism, land and memory in the days after the collapse of the ceasefire. She talked about survivors’ guilt, why disability crops up so frequently in the stories, her experiences at a peace camp in the ’90s and her vision for a peaceful future. Palestine +100 is available from Comma Press. * A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support
Dec 11, 2023 · 1 hr 6 min
Downstream: This Damage Cannot Be Reversed w/ Daniel Levy
Daniel Levy has had a front row seat at some of the most consequential peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine in the last two decades, as president of the U.S./Middle East Peace Project and as an adviser to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. He sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the failure of the Oslo Accords, the central role of Gulf monarchies in negotiations, and how Israel responds to being labelled as an apartheid state. * We need 1,500 more people to become monthly supporters in order to hit our fundraising target. Can you help? Become a supporter from as little as £1 a month: https://novara.media/support
Dec 7, 2023 · 56 min
Novara Live Extra: Israel’s Illegal War w/ Norman Finkelstein
On Novara Live this week, Michael Walker spoke to renowned political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein about Israel’s assault on Gaza and the collapse of the ceasefire. In this extended interview, they discuss the relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah, the use of human shields, and whether US pressure can restrain Israel’s “high-tech massacre”. Subscribe to the Novara Live podcast for news and analysis five times a week: https://novara.media/live * We need 1,500 more people to become monthly supporters in order to hit our fundraising target. Can you help? Become a supporter from as little as £1 a month: https://novara.media/support
Dec 5, 2023 · 1 hr 18 min
Downstream: We Don’t Understand History w/ Blindboy
Blindboy Boatclub is the Irish broadcaster, author and musician behind The Blindboy Podcast, a massively popular podcast mixing short fiction, comedy and interviews. His new short story collection, Topographia Hibernica, is inspired by the human, animal and emotional geography of Ireland. Blindboy sat down with Ash for a freewheeling discussion about everything from Eminem’s ’90s style and the situation in Palestine to why cats are magical. * We need just 1,500 more people to become monthly supporters in order to hit our fundraising target. Can you help? Become a supporter from as little as £1 a month: https://novara.media/support
Dec 1, 2023 · 1 hr 9 min
Novara FM: Fascism Is Not The Exception w/ Alberto Toscano
In recent years we’ve spent a lot of time arguing about fascism – what it means, what it looks like, and how we would know if it had returned. That typically brings us back to the European fascism of ’30s and ’40s, with its uniforms, symbols, marches and camps. But the philosopher Alberto Toscano, currently teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, wants us to look beyond historical comparisons to think of fascism not as an aberration, but as an aspect of a much longer process of colonial domination. He talks to Richard Hames about the uncomfortable connections between liberalism and fascism, drawing on ideas from Angela Davis, W. E. B. Du Bois and Theodor Adorno and thinking about racial fascism, conspiracy theory, climate denialism and the far-right in Israel. Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis is available from Verso. * We’re up against huge power and influence, but Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 27, 2023 · 53 min
Downstream: The History of Israel’s War on Palestine w/ Rashid Khalidi
To really understand what’s going in Israel, you need to get your history straight. Rashid Khalidi is one of the foremost historians of the Middle East and the author of several books on the region’s history, including The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine. On the day of the ceasefire in Gaza, he guides Ash through the history of the Zionist project that created Israel and the basic facts of the 75-year struggle for Palestinian independence. * We’re up against huge power and influence, but Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 23, 2023 · 1 hr 19 min
Novara FM: New Cities, Old Scams w/ Quinn Slobodian
Business is booming for architects and property investors right now, with masterplans being unveiled for dozens of new cities around the world. The hi-tech promise of NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s proposed new desert metropolis, is only the most discussed of these visions – others are being drawn up in Indonesia, China and Senegal. What sets these new cities apart from the skyscrapers and sprawling settlements that defined the 20th century? Quite a lot, as Richard Hames finds out with Canadian historian Quinn Slobodian. The author of Crack-Up Capitalism puts on his ‘They Live’ sunglasses to explore the history of special economic zones, Dubai’s ‘legal bubble domes’, and the appeal of these new cities to a global libertarian elite. * We’re up against huge power and influence, but Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 20, 2023 · 56 min
Downstream: Does the Labour Party Care About Palestine? w/ Zarah Sultana
Zarah Sultana is one of the youngest MPs in Parliament and has faced intense hostility from the right of the Labour Party since Keir Starmer’s ascent to leader. The MP for Coventry South sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the reality of being a Muslim woman in the Labour Party, her interactions with Starmer’s office, the Islamophobia she faces in the public sphere, and why the majority of her Labour colleagues voted against a ceasefire in Gaza.
Nov 16, 2023 · 1 hr 13 min
Novara FM: Why Posh People Have Bad Taste w/ Nathalie Olah
Dolly Parton was right, as usual, when she revealed that “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap”. But who decided rhinestones were tacky in the first place? Style is a matter of taste, yet taste itself is a a matter of money, morality and identity, as the writer and critic Nathalie Olah reveals. Olah’s new book, Bad Taste: The Politics of Ugliness, is an expose of the industries of taste-making in an image-obsessed world, as well as a critique of the impact that taste has on our sense of self-image and belonging. In this episode she talks to Eleanor Penny about the allure of minimalism, why posh people don’t care about style, the evolving meaning of the hoodie and our right to eat supermarket pizza. * We’re up against huge power and influence, but Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 13, 2023 · 1 hr 28 min
Downstream: The Future of Money w/ Brett Scott
We’re heading towards a cashless society. With the dominion of Visa and Mastercard showing no sign of shrinking, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to scrutinise what this shift towards virtual money really means. Brett Scott is an author and former banker who is deeply committed to evaluating the dangers of removing cash as a payment system. He sat down with Aaron to talk about Bitcoin, gold and the central paradox at the heart of modern libertarianism. His new book, Cloudmoney: Why the War on Cash Endangers Our Freedom, is available from Penguin. * Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Become a supporter: https://novara.media/support
Nov 10, 2023 · 1 hr 7 min
Novara FM: Engine of Immortality w/ Jeff Jarvis
For 500 years, societies have been shaped by the authority and permanence of the printed word. What do we have to lose – or gain – when the internet renders print culture obsolete? Jeff Jarvis thinks we should look to the early print era, when Johannes Gutenberg’s invention caused a moral panic across Europe, for clues to our current predicament. A media journalist and associate professor at the City University of New York, Jarvis recently published The Gutenberg Parenthesis, an inquiry into the spread of print in the 1500s and the bureaucracy, censorship and mass politics that followed. He talks to Aaron about the connection between the early print era and the ’90s dotcom bubble, whether the book was the first commodity, how journalism fails in its mission to inform society, and what civil war will mean in the age of digital media. * We’re up against huge power and influence, but Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 6, 2023 · 1 hr 34 min
Downstream: We Must Get Ready For An Emergency w/ Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is perhaps the most famous living Marxist philosopher. This year he will publish three books on topics ranging from the nature of freedom to his deeply pessimistic view of the future. Slavoj sat down with Aaron for a typically provocative, freewheeling and humorous conversation spanning ideas from Stalinism to Zionism to Eurocentrism. He explains why he’s a “law and order leftist”, why popular movements like the Arab Spring don’t excite him, and what he thinks of the deepening stalemate between Russia and Ukraine. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Nov 5, 2023 · 1 hr 51 min
ACFM Trip 38: Movement and Stillness
Ever feel like there’s too much change these days? Don’t worry, you’re not (necessarily) becoming more conservative. On this Trip, Nadia, Jem and Keir think about the ebb and flow of political currents, social movements and our inner lives. What’s the difference between being still and being stuck? When does a campaign turn into a movement? Why do we talk about feminism coming in waves? How can you tell you’re approaching a tipping point? The gang turn such abstract questions into concrete history, with examples from punk to Corbyn, and from Daoism to degrowth. Find our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching “ACFM”. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Books: David Easton – A Systems Analysis of Political Life / The Free Association – Moments of Excess / Aristide Zolberg – Moments of Madness / Gilles Deleuze – Difference and Repetition / Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari – Anti-Oedipus; A Thousand Plateaus / Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine Music: Curtis Mayfield – Move on Up / Hiroshi Yoshimura – Urban Snow / Gang of Four – At Home He’s A Tourist / Moor Mother – Meditation Rag / Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet / Tony Scott – Za Zen / The Raincoats – The Dance of Hopping Mad Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481   
Nov 2, 2023 · 1 hr 19 min
Novara FM: In Search of Red Africa w/ Kevin Okoth
In the second half of the 20th century, revolutionaries across Africa were striving towards a decolonised future that never fully materialised. Folding together Marxism and Black radicalism, the global project of Third Worldism envisaged complete liberation, not only from colonial powers but from every kind of oppression. Kevin Okoth, a political theorist who grew up between Kenya and Germany, believes it’s time to reacquaint ourselves with the revolutionary politics of ‘Red Africa’ – the title of his first book. Rivkah Brown talks to him about the unfinished business of writers and activists like Amílcar Cabral, Walter Rodney and Andrée Blouin, and asks if the nation-state can still be a vehicle for a liberation. They also explore the legacy of decolonial studies on Black America, whether Beyoncé is a vehicle for Afropessimism, and what historical parallels might be found in the concept of ‘Judeopessimism’. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support
Oct 30, 2023 · 1 hr 20 min
Downstream: How Protest Movements Fall Apart w/ Vincent Bevins
The 2010s were a time of mass protest, from the Arab Spring uprisings to Occupy Wall Street, Euromaidan and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. Many of these movements shared a ‘horizontalist’ or leaderless approach, and most of them ended in failure. Why? American journalist Vincent Bevins talks to Ash about the pitfalls of protest and what lessons we can learn from these movements, several of which he experienced up close while working as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and the Financial Times. Vincent’s new book If We Burn is the follow-up to The Jakarta Method, a political history of America’s role in Indonesia’s mass killings. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support