Locating Legacies: ’Queer Class Politics’ with Sita Balani

With Eric Shonkwiler. Amidst intensifying climate change, the re-emergence of fascism, and the approach of economic and environmental collapse, 'prepping' has truly emerged from the margins into the mainstream. For the political right, prepping often begins and ends at home – with buckets of freeze-dried food and a wall of guns. But what about for those of us on the left? As Eric Shonkwiler argues in his new book, Red Prepper: Building Collective Resilience in an Age of Collapse, it's not the end of the world we're prepping for. It's the beginning of a better one. Eric joins us on the podcast this month to discuss how prepping is the foundation stone on which we can build networks of mutual aid, and movements to challenge the forces of capital and the state. Our conversation takes us from 'Prepping 101' to building counterpower. Along the way, we talk about community gardens, the necessity of air conditioning and armed community defense, and why everything starts with saying hello to your neighbors. Podcast viewers can get 40% off Red Prepper on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Russell Warfield. The election of Zack Polanski to the leadership of the Green Party of England and Wales in 2025 caused a political earthquake. Polanski's first year of leadership transcended the wildest expectations of his supporters: quadrupling the party membership, doubling its polling, winning its first ever parliamentary by-election to return a fifth MP, and delivering the Greens' strongest ever set of local election results. In the context of one of the most right-wing Labour governments of all time there were acres of political space to its left to occupy. But what are the threats and opportunities now that Keir Starmer has given way to Andy Burnham? Joining us on the show to make sense of this turbulent political moment is Russell Warfield, author of The Green Socialist: Zack Polanski and the Battle for Britain's Future. Russell puts the Green party's recent successes into context and considers its prospects for the future. We talk about the unlikely similarities between Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage, why electoral reform is more urgently needed than ever, and consider the possibility of a Polanski victory in October's Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Podcast listeners can get 40% off The Green Socialist on plutobooks.com. You just have to use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Over the last three years Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza's healthcare, education and agricultural infrastructure. It has deliberately targeted medical workers, journalists, academics and children, in its effort to erase the past, and destroy the future of the Palestinian people. Israel's genocide in Gaza could have been prevented, but our political leaders chose to participate instead. The Gaza Tribunal brings together testimony from survivors, witnesses and whistleblowers to uncover the devastating scope of Israel's crimes against humanity and the truth of Britain's involvement. In this episode of the podcast we are joined by the Tribunal's conveners and co-authors: Jeremy Corbyn, Neve Gordon and Shahd Hammouri. We talk about how the status quo of the post-Second World War international order is predicated on colonial erasure; what third party states' obligations are under international humanitarian law when there is deemed to be a plausible risk of genocide; and how these obligations have been utterly disregarded. We also discuss Britain's military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and continued arms sales to Israel, the diplomatic cover it has provided, and the government's criminalisation of the pro-Palestine movement at home. The Gaza Tribunal: Britain’s Complicity in Genocide is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Lara Sheehi. This month, we are joined on the podcast by Lara Sheehi, author of From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures. As Sophie Lewis writes, “this book embodies a despecialized psychoanalytic praxis of revolutionary anticolonialism that is genuinely worthy of the name ‘Fanon.’ ... Lara Sheehi lays her finger directly on the myriad ‘intrusions’ designed to thwart, confuse, pacify, and derail internationalist resistance to imperial barbarism at the level of our very interiority.” In our conversation today, we talk about some of the key ideas underpinning Lara's book. We discuss 'psychic intrusions' and 'psychic militancy'; the complicity of the psychoanalytic profession in upholding systems of domination; and how we might seize psychoanalysis for revolutionary ends. We also talk about Frantz Fanon, Ghassan Kanafani and Malcolm X, how we should embrace extremism, and why Palestine is a harbinger of psychoanalytical meltdown. From the Clinic to the Streets is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

With Julio Linares. To change the world, we need a money revolution. Yet the debate over money has been dominated by two perspectives: those free-market capitalists who want money to rule everything, and those who want to use the state to harness money's power. In his new book, Decolonizing Money: The Promise of Abolishing the US Dollar, Julio Linares presents a bold, democratic theory of money which sets out strategies for collective liberation beyond state and capital. Drawing on economic anthropology, as well as anarchist, abolitionist and anti-colonial traditions, he argues for the cancellation of debt and establishing a worldwide basic income as necessary first steps on the road to reparatory justice. Julio joins us on the podcast for a conversation about how money is created and destroyed, what we can learn from pre-colonial social currencies like Cacao, and why there is nothing democratic about crypto. We discuss Modern Monetary Theory, the petro-dollar system, and why David Graeber once referred to Donald Trump as an "anti-imperialist". Decolonizing Money is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.