UNLOCKED: /497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh

On technology, transhumanism, and progress. James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips. What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL? Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now? What are the limits of bourgeois futurism? What is an alternative futurism? Has AI changed everything? Will it? Are we actually living in an age of rapid technological advance? Links: Conspiracy Theories, Left Futurism, and the Attack on TESCREAL, James Hughes & Eli Sennesh /306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power /335/ AI & the End of the End of History /446/ The Techno-Fantasy of Perfect Freedom ft. Amber Trotter /488/ Homo-Techno, Homo-Solo ...Post-Homo? ft. Alex Gendler The Obama-to-Yarvin Pipeline, Geoff Schullenberger, Compact Substack

On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation. Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist. Does it make sense to talk of "right-wing cancel culture"? Is it different from the left's? Is countercultural trolling in tension with "defending Western civilisation"? What does René Girard argue about mimesis and scapegoating? Why have his theories become popular? Is right-populism still politicising? How does it relate to libertarian anti-politics and hard-right militarisation? How has Silicon Valley libertarianism adapted to the new state-capitalist disposition? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Links: René Girard and the Rise of Victim Power, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession, Laura Bullard, Wired The Faith of Nick Land, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact

On places of ritual. Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly. For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast How has architecture lost its ritual dimension? Why are these "modern wonders" kitsch? And why are they found the world over, from Munich to Malaysia, South Dakota to Dakar? Do 'wonders' speak to a world where places remain distinct, and where conflicts and history seem to have returned? Are disillusioned and cynical postmodern subjects searching for wonder? Can architecture rebuild society? Links: Wonders of the Modern World, Arch+, issue 259 Wonders of the Modern World: Notes for a Research Programme, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Arch+ (pdf attached in patreon) What's wrong with the primitive hut?, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, San Rocco (pdf attached in patreon)  

On 20 years since the 2005 riots. Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – riots in the banlieues; 2015 – Islamist terror; 2025 – government collapse. For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast How were the riots normalised? And what was the state's response? Why did the riots prompt debates about "models of integration"? Why is there an "excess" of state in the banlieues, and an absence of state in left-behind smaller cities? How did France go from the Nuits Debouts protests to the Gillet Jaunes – and how did they differ? What about Bloquons Tout protests and the repeated fall of governments today? Links: The Peripherisation of France, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda Two, Three, or More Fractures in French Society?, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda Bonapartist Solutions, Dylan Riley, Sidecar Nuits Debout: Up All Night, Fred Lyra, Lavra Palavra

On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion. Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism. Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but is global? What does the rise of state capitalism tell us about the health of contemporary capitalism? How did globalisation and stagnation combine to give birth to it? Is this an extension of neoliberalism or something new and different? Does this represent a 're-politicisation' of the economy – and does it open up more hopeful political futures? Links: The Spectre of State Capitalism, Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, Oxford UP [OPEN ACCESS]  

On living with modernity. Richard J Williams talks to Alex and George about his new book, The Expressway World and how cities have adapted to the infrastructural legacies of the mid-20th century. We talk about New York, London, São Paulo, Madrid, Glasgow and Seoul. Why do people hate expressways – and who actually loves them? What are Big Man cities? How do expressways bring together populism, authoritarianism, and capital? Why is the antidote to 20th century car-centricity always gentrified and sanitised public space? What are the class struggles that emerge over the expressway world? Is there a basic lie behind many "ecological" infrastructure projects? Links: The Expressway World, Richard J Williams, Polity Intersections, Owen Hatherley, Sidecar /113/ Globoville ft. Richard Williams

On the Bolsonaros, Milei and MAGA. Alex talks to Guilherme Casarões, Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies at Florida International University, about Bolsonaro's sentencing, Trump's tariffs on Brazil, and the bailout of Milei. Is the motivation behind the tariffs on Brazil just partisan interest? How has Jair Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, become point-man for the Latin American radical right's connection to MAGA? Is Bolsonarismo the closest to MAGA among the global radical right? Will a "Populist International Order" follow the Liberal International Order? Why is the nationalist Trump bailing out the libertarian Milei? For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Then George, Alex and Ryan Zickgraf discuss the global radical right and whether Charlie Kirk's killing was its "George Floyd moment". Finally, the boys take listener questions & comments from the past month. (NB recorded 25 September)

On Göran Therborn's article, "Dreams and Nightmares of the World's Middle Classes". The penultimate episode of this block on the middle class, we discuss the differing fortunes and politics of the global North and South middle-classes – as well as ways they may be similar. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast Is the middle-class dream increasingly only a dream? Can the "ever-rising middle-class wave" in China and India sustain itself? Is being middle-class defined by one's consumption? By income? By something else? How have fears changed: from being politically "squeezed" between to proletariat and bourgeoisie, to being economically "squeezed" and fearing falling? What politics do the middle-classes generate? What kind of populism?

On the UK's working-class unrest. Sociologist Lisa McKenzie talks to Alex and contributing editor Lee Jones about why the country feels like a powder-keg. What's behind protests like Unite the Kingdom? How responsible are far-right agitators? Why are threats posed to women and children such an explosive issue? What is the type of nationalism that is behind the proliferation of English and British flags? What are Farage's Reform promising and will they deliver? What of the immigration question? How is Corbyn's "Your Party" going, and why can't the Left seem to speak for or to the working class? Links: Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain, Lisa McKenzie, Bristol UP Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class, Lisa McKenzie James Treadwell thread on raising of flags, X

On critiques of entertainment. New contributing editor Ryan Zickgraf joins Alex and George to talk about the history of media critique and contemporary cases. How does consensus-age comedy like King of the Hill deal with hyperpolitics today? Is the reliance on archetypes a problem, or inherent to all comedy? Why is Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death still relevant? Is the Gen X critique of 'couch potatoes' and TV-watching similar to today's techlash? Have we become insensible to contradiction? Links: We’re still distracting ourselves to death, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd  King of the Hill reboot is ill-suited to the Trump age, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd