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In this actual emergency podcast, Alan and Jem  give way to overwhelming public pressure to respond to a recent decision taken by Labour’s National Executive Committee. The NEC have voted to block popular Mayor of Manchester (and former cabinet minister and MP) Andy Burnham from even having a chance of being selected by the local party to […]

In this episode, Alan and Jem go deep and long on the concept of nationalism and its implications for UK politics, at a time when nationalist parties are making significant gains across the country. Where do ideas of nation and nationalism come from? Is the break-up of Britain inevitable or desirable? Is England an incorrigibly […]

Why was One Battle After Another the biggest film of 2025? What does it have to do with Zohran and Trump? How can Anna Kornbluh’s concept of ‘immediacy’, Raymond Williams’ idea ‘structures of feeling’ and Lawrence Grossberg’s analysis of Trump’s chaotic politics help us understand these signs of our times? Jem tackles all this single-handed, […]

Alan Finlayson is back to discuss with Jem the key developments in UK politics since the last time they talked about it. Covering the Labour deputy leadership, the politics of the Budget and of immigration, the origins of Britain’s bargain-hunting austerity mindset, Starmer on Tik-Tok, the Green Party surge, whether Blue Labour actually exists, whether […]

This is actually an episode of the Compass podcast, ‘It’s Bloody Complicated’, that featured me (Jeremy Gilbert) and Alan Finlayson being interviewed by Compass director, Neal Lawson. I’ve recorded a ten-minute introduction explaining who and what Compass is. Most of the recording is an excellent discussion of the history of factionalism in the Labour Party, […]

In this seminar we will talk with Yves Citton about his books Mythocracy: How Stories Shape Our World, Mediarchy, and Spinoza et les Social Sciences: De la Puissance de la multitude à l’économie des affects (co-edited with Frédéric Lordon), and about the myths that dominate contemporary thought, how they are disseminated, and how and understanding of the intersection […]

A recording of our online seminar with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Mark Perryman, Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert, recorded October 8th 2025 We ask: How has it all gone so wrong for a government elected with one of the largest peacetime majorities on record?  How have we got here?  Do Starmer and his political allies even want […]

So, yeah, a listener pointed out that Jem had got some details about Andy Burnham’s career wrong, and he thought it was best to set the record straight, as well as follow up on a couple of other questions left open by the September 2025 Emergency Podcast. So here we are!

Rayner resigned! Mandelson sacked! ‘Mainstream’ launched! Your Party Chaos! Fascists on the Streets! Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert bring you all the analysis they can fit into two hours of this truly momentous couple of weeks in UK politics… For more information about Culture, Power and Politics see https://culturepowerpolitics.org To book free tickets for ‘The Starmer […]

In this episode, Jem offers a critical response to Adam Curtis’ oeuvre: an extraordinary series of fascinating, yet never-fully-satisfying, films about culture, power and politics in the epoch of advanced capitalism. This is something that friends of the show have been requesting for years, so here it finally is! For more information about Culture, Power […]

Professor Alan Finlayson is back to discuss the latest developments in UK politics: the suspension of several Labour MPs and the announcement of a new left party to be led by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn (maybe). We also discuss the vexed questions of why Starmer’s government is so unpopular after its first year in […]

‘Blue Labour’, an explicitly conservative tendency within the politics of the UK’s Labour Party, is said to be one of the few intellectual influences on the government of Keir Starmer.So in this episode, Jeremy is joined by Alex Worrad-Andrews to answer the question on everyone’s lips: what is ‘Blue Labour’?  We discuss the history of the term […]

Jem is joined by medieval historian, comrade and friend of the show Eleanor Janega, to talk about what exactly is ‘feudal’ about ‘techno-feudalism’ or ‘neo-feudalism’. Several prominent theorists and commentators have recently claimed that somehow, we’ve left the age of capitalism behind and entered a new epoch of…some kind of ‘feudalism’. But what even is […]

Are we entering the world of ‘Techno-feudalism’, or ‘Neofeudalism’? Or are there better ways to understand our present situation, such as the concept of ‘Platform Capitalism’ ? In this episode Jeremy Gilbert, discusses these issues and lays out what’s at stake in defining terms like ‘capitalism’ ‘technofeudalism’ and ‘mode of production’. To find out more […]

Alan Finlayson returns for an in-depth discussion of the crisis of liberalism as an effective and legitimate philosophy of government, as exemplified by the success of the right-wing populist Reform party at the May 2025 UK local elections. If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here. If you’d like to […]