Radicals in Conversation

Zack Polanski and the Battle for Britain's Future

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.

The Gaza Tribunal: with Jeremy Corbyn, Neve Gordon & Shahd Hammouri

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.

Seizing Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures

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.

Decolonizing Money: The Promise of Abolishing the US Dollar

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.

Money in the Mountains: The Cultural Trauma of Appalachia

With Rayelle Davis. If the United States is in a state of decline, then at the thin end of the wedge sits Appalachia, one of the country’s most deprived regions, mythologized by outsiders and misunderstood the world over. Embedded as a therapist within this community, Rayelle Davis frames the addiction, suicide, and “diseases of despair” that plague the region as a consequence of cultural trauma, exploitation, and systemic neglect. In this month’s episode, we talk with Rayelle about her new book, Money in the Mountains: The Cultural Trauma of Appalachia. We discuss how Appalachia functions as an internal colony, where everything of value is extracted by a distant elite. We also look at the opioid crisis, the relationship between whiteness and the ‘hillbilly’, the psychological abuse of the American Dream, and how deeply ingrained cultural values of hard work and self-reliance perpetuate harm and prevent healing. Money in the Mountains is 40% off for podcast listeners through plutobooks.com. Just use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

With Adam Johnson. As bombs rained down on Gaza in October 2023, images of mass death and destruction gripped the world, and openly genocidal statements from Israeli leaders foretold the magnitude of horrors to come. But mainstream media was quick to downplay, obscure, and repackage an emerging campaign of extermination into a slick “war on terror” framework. We're joined on show this month by Adam Johnson, author of How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. We discuss the US media’s role in enabling one of the most devastating campaigns of mass killing in modern memory. Adam unpacks how major outlets like The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC systematically sanitized Israel’s war crimes, hid the US’s central role, and dehumanized the Palestinian people. We also discuss the ways in which liberal media continues to provide cover in the context of the US-Israeli war against Iran. How to Sell a Genocide is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Dismantling the Master's House: Radical Justice and the Law

Economic inequality is rampant, the climate crisis is at its tipping point. Fascists are poised to take power, or already hold it. It feels like the amount of work needed to overcome these injustices is too much to handle. But what if there is a way to lower the threshold to action? We are joined on the show by Nani Jansen Reventlow, author of Radical Justice: Building the World We Need, who argues that we all have our own spheres of influence and expertise, and each of us can be the revolutionaries we need; after all, no one else is coming to save us. In this episode, Nani and Chris have a wide-ranging conversation exploring some of the major interconnected issues of our day, and the tapestry of activism required to bring about systemic change: from strategic litigation, digital rights and technology, to the ways in which climate and racial justice dovetail in the movement for reparations. Radical Justice is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women

Growing up, journalist Shahed Ezaydi was often asked how she could call herself a feminist and still practise her faith. It’s a question that reveals a deeper issue that Muslim women often face: being ignored in feminist spaces entirely, or cast as passive victims in need of being saved. Shahed joins us on the show for a conversation about her new book The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women. We discuss the white saviourism and white supremacy that are at the core of white feminism, and how feminist arguments have been used to justify Western colonialism and military intervention. We talk about the politics of the veil, and the ways in Muslim women’s oppression, wherever in the world, is usually deemed to be as a result of their religion, and the unique misogyny of Muslim men. The Othered Woman is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Just use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Lessons from the Margins: How Migrants are Redefining Mental Health

With Dr Sohail Jannesari. In this episode we look at the intersecting worlds of sanctuary-seeking and mental health. We consider how refugees, asylum seekers and other people on the move don’t just survive displacement, but rather build strength, community, and new ways of coping that challenge everything we know about mental health. We talk about the global apartheid of borders, how histories of colonialism have shaped mental health services today, and what a more pluralistic ‘marginal psychology’ can offer us instead. We discuss the concept of sumud, trauma as interrupted movement, and why joy, play and the erotic can all help to inform a new, decolonial approach to mental health. The Migrant Art of Coping is 40% off for podcast listeners through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Can a River Take Us to Court? Exploring the Rights of Nature

With Jessica den Outer. For centuries, our legal systems have treated nature as something to be owned and exploited, for human gain. In recent decades, the tenor of conversation may have shifted towards conservation and protection, but nature remains an object. The environmental laws, treaties and international agreements we enact have little impact; ecosystems continue to collapse, global temperatures continue to rise. But a bold new movement is challenging this paradigm, calling time on inadequate, anthropocentric lawmaking, and ushering in an exciting new ecocentric approach based around the rights of nature. Jessica den Outer joins us on the show to talk about the history of this new legal movement, and dive into some of the challenges it is facing, and opportunities it is creating, around the world. We discuss the legal personality of the Whanganui River in Aotearoa / New Zealand, the enshrining of the rights of nature in the National Constitution of Ecuador, and the strength of grassroots movements for the Mar Menor in Spain and the River Ouse in Sussex, England. The Forest Fights Back: A Global Movement for the Rights of Nature is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Did Ancient Pirates Invent Democracy?: Exploring Radical Antiquity

With Christopher Zeichmann. In his new book, Radical Antiquity: Free Love Zoroastrians, Farming Pirates, and Ancient Uprisings, Christopher Zeichmann takes us on a unique journey in search of anarchy, statelessness, and social experimentation in the Graeco-Roman world. We meet communities of escaped slaves, pirates, and religious sects—all of whom sought a more egalitarian way of life that avoided the coercion, hierarchy, and exploitation of the state. Chris joins us on the podcast to talk about all the ways in which people in the ancient world rejected the systems of domination that prevailed and sought to create something different. We discuss Spartacus and the Slave Revolt at Thurii; how ancient pirates practiced mutual aid and solidarity at sea; the radicalism of Jesus; how different Jewish and Zoroastrian groups contended with patriarchy; and why the collapse of the Roman Empire was no bad thing for ordinary people in Britannia. Radical Antiquity is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Why Liberal Abundance is Bullsh*t

With Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell. Capitalism has created a world of bullsh*t abundance and artificial scarcity, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. The system’s pursuit of profits has put us on a collision course with social and ecological limits that can no longer be ignored. It’s clear we need an alternative, and liberal visions of green capitalism just won't cut it. We need 'radical abundance'—a world of human and non-human flourishing made possible by democratically planned production. Kai Heron, Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell join us on the show to talk about the big ideas in their new book Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future. We discuss why the left needs to laser-focused on the question of ecosocialist transition, and why the patient work of institution building is a necessary response to a world on fire. We look at the Public-Common Partnership model, and explore the housing, pharmaceutical and food sectors as three areas in which new institutions and forms of social property might be developed. Find out more about Abundance: https://www.in-abundance.org/

Radical Friendship: Reimagining the World and Fighting the Far Right

With Laura C. Forster and Joel White. What draws people into political movements? And what sustains us, in the face of defeat, infiltration and state repression? For the authors of Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities, friendship is an undertheorised, but vital piece of the puzzle, and full of revolutionary potential. In this episode we are joined by Laura C. Forster and Joel White for a conversation about the generative and prefigurative possibilities of friendship. We discuss family abolition and comradeship, the Kurdish idea of Hevalti, friendship as a form of social reproduction, and how the state simultaneously dismisses friendship and reads it as a threat. We talk about friendship in relation to solidarity, and whether far right movements are sustained by friendship too. Friends in Common is 40% off for podcast listeners on plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Empire, Slavery, and Reparations

With Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels. In this episode we talk about the new book Drax of Drax Hall: How One British Family Got Rich (and Stayed Rich) from Sugar and Slavery, and the growing international movement for reparations. Paul Lashmar and Luke Daniels discuss the journalistic investigation into the Drax family’s extensive landholdings and wealth, in Britain and Barbados; the economic, political and cultural legacies of colonialism and slavery; and why the call for reparatory justice resonates more loudly now than ever before. Podcast listeners can get 40% off Drax of Drax Hall through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. --- Paul Lashmar is an investigative journalist and Reader in Journalism at City St George's, University of London. He is the author of Drax of Drax Hall. Luke Daniels is the President of Caribbean Labour Solidarity.

Fascist Yoga!

With Stewart Home. Legend of counterculture, Stewart Home, joins us on the podcast to talk about his new book, Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness. Stewart is in conversation with Pluto's Patrick Hughes. Patrick is a veteran of the book trade who helped establish AK Press in the United States in the early 1990s. He has published and engaged with Stewart’s work for more than 30 years. In this episode, they talk about Rock Against Racism, the National Front and the punk scene of the 1970s and ‘80s; as well as the theoretical explorations of anarchism and fascism present in some of Stewart’s early novels. They also discuss the origins and psychology of fascism, and the way fascist thinking and white supremacism infiltrates yoga and wellness spaces. Podcast listeners can get 40% off Fascist Yoga through plutobooks.com. Use the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy

With Alana Lentin. In this episode we discuss the ways in which racial capitalism reproduces itself. Beyond the distracting framings of culture wars and moral panics, Alana Lentin shows how, from Australia to the USA, the attacks on Black, Indigenous and anticolonial thought and praxis reveal the processes through which racial colonial rule is ideologically resecured. We discuss the 'whitelash' against the teaching of histories of slavery and colonialism; the counterinsurgent capture and institutionalisation of antiracism, Indigeneity and decoloniality in the service of Zionism and settler colonialism; and how the 'war on antisemitism' re-forms white supremacism at an acute time of genocide. The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy is out now from Pluto Press. Use the coupon 'PODCAST' for 40% off the book on plutobooks.com.

Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants

With Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon. The USA locks up more migrants in its immigration detention facilities than any other country in the world. Already operating over capacity, the Trump administration has ramped up its campaign of immigration raids, allegedly instructing ICE to hit quotas of 3,000 arrests a day. The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ will, if approved by the Senate, appropriate tens of billions of extra dollars for ICE, and immigration and border law enforcement more broadly. Without the facilities to house these detainees, thousands now face the imminent possibility of being removed to Guantanamo, or else held in new ‘soft-sided facilities’ where the already inadequate guidelines for detainee welfare will be watered down further, in order to expedite their creation. We are joined on the show by Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon, authors of Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking up Migrants. We discuss the ways immigration detention generates huge profits for some, while those detained are starved, sickened, and exploited as a matter of routine. We also talk about how immigration detention has expanded in 2025 under Trump, and the ways in which it can be resisted and dismantled.

Democratic Living in Times of Fascism

With H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez. This is the final installment of our three-part mini series, 'Beyond the Ballot Box', which explores some of the major political currents in US politics today. Chris Browne and James Kelly are joined by H. L. T. Quan and Dylan Rodríguez for a conversation about life in times of fascism. We explore concepts such as state addiction, anti-democracy, ungovernability and democratic living. We also touch on the work of Cedric Robinson, and what we can learn from Black abolition feminist praxis. Become Ungovernable: An Abolition Feminist Ethic for Democratic Living is out now. Podcast listeners can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com using the coupon PODCAST at the checkout. --- H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. She is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Quan is the author of Growth Against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World and editor of Cedric J. Robinson: On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance. Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator based at the University of California-Riverside, where he works in the Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of a number of books including White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide, which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Tenant Unions Fighting the Housing Crisis

With Jacob Stringer. We are joined on the show by Jacob Stringer, a housing and social movements researcher and organiser, and the author of Renters Unite: How Tenant Unions Are Fighting the Housing Crisis. We discuss the many local and international dimensions to housing crisis in countries across the Global North. We talk about why simply building more houses isn’t enough, and explore some of the injustices experienced by renters and those in temporary accommodation. We also talk about the new wave of tenant unions, and the ways in which their tactical and strategic orientations overlap and diverge, as a result of the context in which they’re organising. Listeners of Radicals in Conversation can get 40% off the book on plutobooks.com. Enter the coupon PODCAST at the checkout.

Billionaires and Guillotines: The Board Game

With Max Haiven. In this special episode of Radicals in Conversation, we take a first look at the new board game, Billionaires & Guillotines, in which players take on the role of 2-5 rival plutocrats vying to grab the wealth of the world before their actions trigger a revolution where they all lose … a lot more than their assets. Chris Browne is joined on the show by Max Haiven, the game's designer, for a conversation about its origins, development and gameplay. We also discuss the ways in which board games can play an important role in political education, and provide a much-needed space for connection and conviviality. Back the project on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plutopress/billionaires-and-guillotines

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