Jacobin Radio Folgen

Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. MAGA and its far-right populist siblings around the world aren’t just a backlash to neoliberalism. The far-right has also long been animated by extremist mutant neoliberal, anarcho-capitalist, and paleo-libertarian strains that in the 1980s and ’90s built a new New Fusionist politics of capitalist extremism — a politics that promoted IQ as the measure of individual and racial value; hard borders for humans with free trade for capital; and gold as the only true currency. Support The Dig at patreon.com/TheDig Register for the Socialism Conference at socialismconference.org Register for “Our Collective Is the Prize” at comrades.education before May 31 The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

For many years, Palestine had one of the strongest left-wing movements in the Arab world, represented by prominent figures such as Emile Habibi, Leila Khaled, and Ghassan Kanafani. At the beginning of the First Intifada in the 1980s, Palestinian left groups were still the main challengers to the hegemony of Fatah, although the Left has lost much of its influence in the period since then. Red Star Over Palestine: Histories of the Palestinian Left is a six-part series from Long Reads exploring radical movements and progressive organizations of the region. We examine the experience of Palestinian communism and the left-wing currents inside the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. We also look at the outsized impact of the Left on Palestinian cultural life. Our fourth episode focuses on the movement’s turn to Lebanon, where Palestinian radicals found a new base and hoped to launch a wider Arab revolution. Red Star Over Palestine is hosted by Daniel Finn and produced by Conor Gillies. Music provided by Fadi Tabbal.

Emil Draitser — Soviet satirist turned American memoirist — joins Suzi to talk about his new book, Laughing All the Way to Freedom: The Americanization of a Russian Émigré. It's a sharp, funny, and moving account of his journey from censorship and conformity in the USSR to the chaotic freedoms of the 1970s United States. We explore how satire served as both survival and resistance in the Soviet Union, and how his identity was reshaped — culturally, politically, and personally — through the messy process of becoming American. Emil reflects on the welcome once extended to Cold War refugees like himself, and the stark contrast with today's hostile climate for immigrants. We also touch on the uneasy “friendship” between Putin and Trump, imperialists determined to redefine the character of politics. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.