Episodes

Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
TRUMP STEALS GAZA - "THIS IS THE WORLD NAKED" - INTERESTING TIMES 87
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
Tuesday Feb 11, 2025
In this podcast, I interpret Francesca Albanese's exclamation, on hearing Donald Trump call for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza in order that it might be reconstructed as desirable real estate, that "this is the world naked". I discuss the proposed annexation of Canada, Panama, and Greenland alongside the psychology of delusions of omnipotence and the MAGA cult. [Free. 29 minutes.]

Monday Feb 03, 2025
EXTREME WEALTH, PROPERTY & POWER
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
In this podcast, I examine the relationship between accumulations of extreme wealth and notions of property and their connection to power. I suggest how these might be re-configured so as to eliminate their current malignant threat to general human flourishing. [Free. 29 minutes.]

Thursday Jan 16, 2025
STICKING IT TO THE MAN, UBI & DENIAL - INTERESTING TIMES 86
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
Thursday Jan 16, 2025
Join me on my constitutional. In this podcast, I examine how wide-spread and justifiable resentment at conditions of life under current power arrangements is channelled by the very agencies causing that resentment into serving their project of concentrating concentrate wealth and power in a very few hands. The result here is that a good many people believe passionately that they are sticking it to the man by cleaving to beliefs, action and politics which that same man devised and paid to propagate. I use the example of some recent debate around the viability of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and the role of the state. [Free. 27 minutes.]

Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
BILLIONAIRES: WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
Join me on my constitutional. I enquire into the matter of the extreme concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of a small number of billionaires and take issue with a couple of the regular justifications for this status quo. The first of these is the notion that if people can't get hyper-rich without restriction that that would be an affront to liberty. The second is the notion that the ability to accumulate vast amounts of wealth and power by a few somehow makes for dynamism and innovation which benefits everybody via trickle down. Beware! Contains utopian speculation. [Free. 31 minutes.]

Friday Jan 03, 2025
LOOKING BACK OVER 2024 AND FORWARD TO 2025 - INTERESTING TIMES 85
Friday Jan 03, 2025
Friday Jan 03, 2025
In this podcast, I reflect on events of the past year, particularly with respect to ecological, economic, and cultural systems. I compare my forward speculations of January 24 with events of the year itself. I also speculate on how the trends I identify might develop as 2025 unfolds. I ask if there are any hopeful signs and question what we can and should do. [Free. 69 minutes.]

Friday Aug 16, 2024
RIOTS IN THE UK BECOME ANTI-RACIST TRIUMPH - INTERESTING TIMES 82
Friday Aug 16, 2024
Friday Aug 16, 2024
In this podcast, I reflect on the recent riots in the UK and the various responses to them. [Free. 51 minutes.]

Wednesday May 22, 2024
OPTIMISM OF THE WILL, PESSIMISM OF THE INTELLECT - INTERESTING TIMES 80
Wednesday May 22, 2024
Wednesday May 22, 2024
In this podcast, I apply Gramsci's concepts of optimism of the will and pessimism of the intellect to some recent news items in order to expose the propaganda nature of their reporting by the BBC and other MSM, to expose the "common sense" and natural seeming language of the broadcasters, which however obscures reality whilst pretending to illluminate it. [Free. 31 minutes.]

Friday Apr 26, 2024
Friday Apr 26, 2024
In this podcast, I take issue with Professor Steven Pinker's take on the campus protests now spreading through the student body in the USA as revealed by an interview he did with the Radio 4 Today Programme this morning. I also tease out historical resonances with the student unrest that was, like the current protests, also initiated at Columbia University in 1968 and which subsequently spread across the world and signalled the demise of the Vietnam War. For what it's worth, I offer encouragement and advice to students participating in the protests and sketch the argument for their absolute necessity. [Free. 28 minutes.]

Friday Apr 12, 2024
THE DIN OF RATTLING SABRES - INTERESTING TIMES 76
Friday Apr 12, 2024
Friday Apr 12, 2024
In this podcast, I reflect on growing geo-political tensions around Iran's intent to retaliate against Israel's attack on its Damascus embassy in which several prominent members of Iran's military were assassinated. I include in my considerations some of the cultural effects of these developments in the UK, particularly the calls for conscription, Labour's intent to increase spending on the military should it gain power, and its full embrace of nukes. Throughout, I use some previous considerations developed on this channel of the several crucial features of historical fascism as a lens with which to gain purchase on these matters. [Free. 17 minutes.]

Friday Feb 09, 2024
THOUGHT FOR TODAY - INTERESTING TIMES 75
Friday Feb 09, 2024
Friday Feb 09, 2024
In this podcast we take a critical look at the output of BBC Radio 4's Today Programme which has an influential position in the distribution of news to the UK. We take a couple of examples for closer scrutiny, the daily homiletic Thought for Today slot, and a particular interview with opposition shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, on her back-peddling on green issues. [Free. 28 minutes. Strong language.]