Jacobin Radio

The “professional managerial class” has become a staple of political debate on the Left.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber explains why the “PMC” is better understood as a heterogeneous layer within capitalism rather than a distinct class, how and why the middle strata have expanded, and what has pushed so many professionals toward anti-capitalist politics. While skeptical of the PMC as a precise analytical c...

Jodi Dean, author of a recent article about the “classism of defeat,” makes a case for why going anti-woke is very wrong. Emily Jashinsky analyzes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s use of the word “genocide” and other curious developments on the Right.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbus...

Gaza is experiencing a man-made famine as Israel blocks the supply of almost all humanitarian aid. By the start of August, Israeli soldiers had killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians as they were looking for food. Most of the killings happened near sites managed by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the GHF. The GHF was sponsored by the Trump administration earlier this year to replace legitimate aid organizations with a track r...

Featuring Alex Han, Asha Ransby-Sporn, and alderwoman Jeanette Taylor on Chicago’s left political experiment. In the wake of Zohran’s remarkable victory in New York, organizers all over the country are taking a close look at Chicago under Mayor Brandon Johnson. A Chicago Teachers Union leader elected in 2023, Johnson’s win was the culmination of years of militant labor and social movement struggle. But while much has been achieved,...

Suzi speaks to Yoav Peled of Tel Aviv University about the accelerating crisis in Israel and Gaza. Though there is a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s war, the relentless and devastating destruction of Gaza grinds on with staggering human costs. Gazans are starving and the world is taking notice.

Netanyahu faces growing international condemnation and internal anger. Along with Israeli spokesmen and far right cabinet members, he deni...

Democratic voters are enraged by their party’s spineless “resistance” to the Trump administration’s draconian agenda. But the party’s dysfunction goes far deeper than just cowardly, uninspiring leaders.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber speaks with Philip Rocco about how the Democrats’ abandonment of organized labor has resulted in a party that is ineffective at fighting the right or putting forward a compell...

Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute looks at US relations with the world under the Trump regime, specifically Russia–Ukraine, Israel–Palestine, and US self-evisceration. Samuel Moyn, author of an article for Boston Review, talks about democracy, checks and balances, and the need for “better elites.”

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local ...

Back in 2023, Long Reads spoke with Ramaa Vasudevan of Colorado State University for an episode about the development of crypto capitalism. Since then, the crypto industry has launched a concerted effort to establish itself at the heart of the global economic system. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump gave his approval for a major bill designed to boost the sector.

Ramaa Vasudevan spoke to Long Reads again about the mainstreaming of...

Featuring Isabella Weber, Malcolm Harris, and Paul Williams on Abundance. A debate and discussion of: the book; the discourse; the underlying economic and political questions of how we make the affordable housing, green energy, and fast trains we need; and how actual capitalist social relations appear to us in mystified form as “supply” and “demand.”

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Adam Gaffney, co-author of a recent article for the New York Review of Books, looks at Trump & Co.’s dismantling of health care and research. Also on the podcast, Alan Beattie of the Financial Times tries to make sense of Trump’s nonsensical trade policy.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: ht...

At the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, Suzi moderated a panel about political prisoners in Russia and brings it now to Jacobin Radio.

We hear from Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, founder of the Freedom Zone campaign that organizes festivals around the world in support of political prisoners and their families. She plays a recorded message from her father, imprisoned Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky in Penal Colony No. 4. Historian Simo...

US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month were a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict with Iran. But while a ceasefire has remained in place, there’s good reason to believe that Iranian regime change isn’t off the table just yet.

On this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber looks back on how the US pursued regime change in Iraq and why that disastrous invasion may wind up being the playbook again in Iran.

C...

Juliet Schor, author of the book Four Days a Week, looks at experiments in reducing the workweek. Katherine Moos and Noé Martin Wiener, authors of a paper for the The Economic and Labour Relations Review, discuss the issue of overwork among teachers.

Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www....

Featuring Aslı Bâli and Gabriel Winant on the emerging conjuncture: the Trump regime’s fascist and authoritarian second coming; the giant vacuum created by the Democratic establishment’s inability to act like an opposition party; and the resurgent dynamism and energy now coming so powerfully from our political forces on the socialist left. Conducted before a live audience at the Socialism 2025 conference.

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It’s now ten years since the people of Greece voted in a referendum on the austerity program of the European Union. The referendum was called by the government of Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party after months of negotiations with the EU. It brought the attention of the world media to what was happening in Greece after years of economic crisis.

To the surprise of many, there was a decisive 61 percent majority for the “n...

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, just stunned the political establishment — defeating Andrew Cuomo to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. If elected, he’ll be NYC’s first Muslim mayor and the first democratic socialist to lead a major US city in generations, one that is both the epicenter of world finance and marked by extreme economic inequality. Mamdani’s campaign, powered by DSA activists and 50,0...

Featuring NYC DSA co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser on how Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary. NYC DSA spent years building an electoral juggernaut that has now made history and offers a model for the left everywhere across the United States. A behind-the-scenes look at how NYC DSA and the Zohran campaign did it!

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Check out the Summer 2025 issue of Social Research: An I...