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On Brazil and national reconstruction. In our first ever episode in Portuguese, Alex speaks to Orlando Lima (editor of Valete, in-house magazine of new right-wing party, Missão) about the party and how Orlando came to be a "right-wing Zizekian". Video with English subtitles and AI dubbing available at YouTube Are left and right still meaningful identifiers? Is Brazil actually "pre-modern"? What does modernization entail? What is patrimonialism and how can it ever be good? How can a War on Crime not lead to repression and gangsterism? What about inequality? How is Missão similar or different to radical-right parties in Europe or North America? Links: Can Anyone Save Brazil, Alex Hochuli, UnHerd The Duck-Billed Platypus, Chico de Oliveira, NLR The Brazilianization of the World, Alex Hochuli, American Affairs Valete magazine /461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams /532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet

On infrastructure – who owns and who controls it. Scholar Joscha Abels talks to Lee and Alex about global infrastructure, from satellites to cloud computing to undersea cables. --> For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast What, actually, is infrastructure How has public versus private provision of infrastructure changed? How much do tech oligarchs actually control the infrastructure we depend upon? Are we leaving neoliberalism behind? Have state and corporations fused into one? How vulnerable is global infrastructure to sabotage?

On migration, monarchy, and legitimacy. Merouan Mekouar, professor of development studies at York University in Toronto, gives Alex and Lee an in-depth view of a country at the centre of multiple tendencies. –> Subscribe for more like this, at patreon.com/bungacast What actually happened with the stream of migrants at the Moroccan border with Ceuta (Spain)? How much of a pressure valve does outward migration provide in Morocco? What does Moroccan neoliberalism look like? What is elite cooptation? How has Morocco avoided mass protest ,and what does the monarchy's legitimacy rest on? How it Morocco pursuing "polyalignment", between China, US, EU...? What's up with the massive infrastructure push ahead of the 2030 World Cup which Morocco will co-host? Links: Beyond the Model Reform Image: Morocco’s Politics of Elite Co-Optation, Merouan Mekouar, GIGA Doing Research as a Native: A Guide for Fieldwork in Illiberal and Non-Democratic States, Kira D. Jumet and Merouan Mekouar (eds), OUP

On dead ends and new beginnings. Socialist writers, teachers and podcasters, Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn, talk to Alex and George about their pamphlet, The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, which came out this year. Is left populism not dead and buried? What's wrong with trying to unite people against the elite? What is the 'populist method' of class analysis? Are professionals and managers a class, and are its interests always opposed to the working class? Where did post-Marxists go wrong? Links: The People Are Not One: Socialist Strategy After Left Populism, Revol Press, 2026 Varn Vlog Emancipations podcast

On sovereignty and Brazil's election. Juliano Fiori, Alameda Institute director, talks to Alex about Lula versus (Flávio) Bolsonaro through the lens of internal and external threats to sovereignty. Is this an election about nothing? What is at stake? How did the Left reappropriate the defence of Brazilian interests? What's behind US interference in Brazil? Is it economic or political? How does the state reflect social fragmentation? Does Brazilian territory suffer from a deficit or an excess of sovereignty? For the full episode, subscribe: patreon.com/bungacast Links: Sovereigns of Brazil, Juliano Fiori, Alameda Soberanos de um Brasil fragmentado, Juliano Fiori, piauí At the UN, Brazil's Lula warns against foreign interference in upcoming election, Reuters

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part four, we finish off by digging into New York itself to look at the great contradictions of modernism. We conclude by asking what the capital of the 21st century is, and who, if anyone, is planning it. This fourth episode features: Catherine Liu, Professor of Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine Damage summit participants Nick Burns, writer, editor Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part three, we explore the political economy of place: what produces the city, and what the city produces. We also ask whether place-based cultural scenes are still possible. This third episode features: Christie Offenbacher, psychologist Greg Gabrellas, psychiatrist Damage summit participants Pierre d'Alancaisez, critic and curator Matthew Gasda, playwright This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. In part two, we explore "non-places", and ask whether their proliferation presents a challenge to the development of democratic politics. We also inquire into junk spaces and hyper-places. And ask what kind of politics and ideologies a digital life throws up. This second episode features: Amber Trotter, psychologist Damage Summit participants Alex Gendler, writer Joshua Citarella, artist, writer, host, Doomscroll This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

A docu-series from Bungacast. This sequence of interviews, conversations and meetings were recorded mostly in New York – the capital of the 20th century – in order to ask what the future of place is in the 21st century. Over this multi-part documentary, we examine public space and non-places; privatisation, gentrification and digitalisation; the role of rent and of local scenes. The ultimate question is, is politics possible without a sense of place? This first episode features: Richard J Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures, University of Edinburgh Miodrag Mitrašinović, Professor of Urbanism and Architecture, The New School This documentary was made with the collaboration of our friends at Damage magazine.

On oligarchy and the end of reform. Vedi Hadiz is back on to talk to Lee and Alex about Indonesia, amidst severe economic instability in the country. What does the ascendancy of Prabowo Subianto represent? What is going on with the erratic economic policymaking? How is Prabowo bullying other oligarchs, and is it working? What similarities are there between Prabowo and Putin, or even Trump? – For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Oligarchy and the End of Reformasi in Indonesia: Power Reorganised, Vedi Hadiz & Richard Robison Prabowo’s Clampdown on Indonesian Tycoons Fuels Capital Flight, Bloomberg /391/ The Biggest Country No One Talks About ft. Vedi Hadiz

On the complex connections between globalisation and political Islam. The OG Bunga Boys reflect on the quarter-century since that spectacular terrorist attack, and talk about Phil's recent essay on the waning of Islamism. Whatever happened to 'solving' Islamic radicalism through moderate conservatism? Is the end of globalisation also the end of global jihad? Why? Why did Islamism fail in pursuit of state power? Will the Left back 'Islamopopulism'? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: The Man Who Was Friday: Global Islamism after Unipolarity, Philip Cunliffe, American Affairs The Interventionist Future of the DSA, Philip Cunliffe, Compact NOW UNLOCKED: /355/ F***ing and shooting are not the same

On Zohran Mamdani. Writer Ross Barkan, author of The Revolutionary on the New York mayor, talks to Ryan Zickgraf and Alex Hochuli about what Mamdani means for the Left. How did Mamdani mute cultural progressivism to focus concentrate on rent, transport, childcare and food? Is municipal socialism part of a strategy to rebuild national power, or is it a retreat to the cities after the failure of Bernie? Is the New York strategy replicable elsewhere in the US? How is Mamdani different from AOC? Is Mamdani a populist, not a socialist? Is the rentier, rather than the worker, the subject of politics? Links: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics, Ross Barkan Ross Barkan on Mamdani and where DSA goes from here, Current Affairs The New Socialist Revolution, Ross Barkan NYC-DSA endorsement and platform overview How Mamdani used social media to build a movement, The Washington Post Brandon Johnson: Sewer Bill socialist, Ryan Zickgraf

We deal with your questions, comments and criticisms from the past month. Key issues: How big a deal, historically, is the US's failure in Iran? Is populism rooted in resentment and/or cynicism? Why is fascism not the right label for Trump? How to debate immigration? Are NGOs and international organisations actually relevant? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: /152/ I Can't Believe It's Not Weimar ft. David Broder Debating the F-Word, Bunk History The National Interest in Women’s Freedom, The Northern Star The Civic Foundations of Fascism in Europe, Dylan Riley

Taking a short break – back in late August.

On politics and football. Alex is joined by Karl Sharro, Juan David Rojas, Tim Abrahams, and Euan Marshall to pick over the stories of this World Cup. If the World Cup is a branding exercise for the hosts, what exactly is the USA selling here? And Mexico? Canada? Are conspiracy theories good, actually? Is Argentina evil? Should you support the global South against the colonisers? Are evangelicals responsible for Brazilian failure? Do you need central planning to become good at football? When 23% of players at the WC are foreign born, how can globalisation be ending? >> For more like this, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: Football won’t rescue the nation, Alex Hochuli, Africa Is a Country Note to Leftists, Do Not Squander The World Cup!, Juan Rojas, Substack Blood ties and opportunity: Why more World Cup players than ever are not representing their birth nations, BBC