Best Ajay Shah Podcasts (2024)

1
Novara FM: Where Will Labour Invade This Time? w/ David Wearing 1:23:11

23d ago1:23:11

1:23:11

Was the Iraq War the exception or the rule? Throughout the twentieth century, Labour governments have been involved in some of Britain’s most disastrous colonial acts: the partition of India, the counter-insurgency in Malaya, and the Nakba. So, what can we expect this time? Eleanor Penny asks David Wearing, author of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Ma…

1
Pro Revolution Soccer 2.2: Can Football Explain the Far-Right Resurgence in Europe? 51:45

25d ago51:45

51:45

As Euro 2024 gets underway, election results show a surge of support for the far-right across Europe. Can football help us make sense of it? This week on Pro Revolution Soccer, Juliet Jacques and Tom Williams look at the connections between football and fascism, and explain how the same forces that allowed a tiny elite to take over the game are now…

1
Novara FM: Whatever Happened to the Israeli Left? w/ Noam Shuster-Eliassi and Haggai Matar 1:32:04

1M ago1:32:04

1:32:04

What’s it like to be left-wing in an aspiring ethnostate? Israel has swung hard to the right in the last few decades, with self-described fascists now in government. But a left remains, calling not just for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, but for the end to the apartheid regime as a whole. What power do they have? Comedian and activist Noam Shuster…

1
Pro Revolution Soccer 2.1: Euro 2024 Reboot 44:25

1M ago44:25

44:25

Novara Media’s football podcast returns for another crack at the silverware! Every Wednesday until the Euro 2024 final, Juliet Jacques and Tom Williams provide political and tactical analysis of the tournament in an episode of two halves. This week: the strange spectacle of politicians pretending to like football, the changing status of women and L…

1
ACFM Microdose: Notes on Camp 1:29:03

1M ago1:29:03

1:29:03

After investigating the politics of cool on the last Trip episode, the crew turn their attention to another distinctly modern sensibility: camp. Digging into Susan Sontag’s formative 1964 essay on the camp aesthetic, Nadia, Keir and Jem think about how elements of the artificial, the theatrical and the sentimental come together in camp objects, fro…

1
Downstream: Everything You’re Told About Green Capitalism is Wrong w/ Brett Christophers 1:33:20

1M ago1:33:20

1:33:20

Renewable energy technology is only getting cheaper. And yet it hasn’t increased its share of the energy mix for two decades. So what explains this paradox: cheap green energy with incredibly slow adoption? According to Brett Christophers, there is a straightforward explanation for this seeming paradox: the capitalist need for profits. And green en…

1
Novara FM: The Right Is Getting Real On Climate. Can We? w/ Ajay Singh Chaudhary 1:04:08

2M ago1:04:08

1:04:08

The right have ditched climate denial and found something worse. They’re doubling down on the exhaustion of people and planet alike, making us run ever-faster just to stay in place. Can we turn our collective exhaustion into a climate politics of rest and recuperation? That’s the urgent question Ajay Singh Chaudhary asks in The Exhausted of the Ear…

1
Downstream: Is India Really a Democracy? w/ Alpa Shah 1:14:58

2M ago1:14:58

1:14:58

The Indian election will be one of the largest the world has ever seen, with almost 1 billion people eligible to vote. It’s often said that India is the world’s biggest democracy. But what if that isn’t quite true? What if Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister for the last decade, has undermined the very building blocks of what we consider a democr…

1
ACFM Trip 43: Cool 1:38:42

2M ago1:38:42

1:38:42

What exactly is cool? Well, if it was that easy to describe, it obviously wouldn’t be cool. In this Trip, Keir, Jem and Nadia wonder if cool can ever be politically useful, and what happens when cool is used as a disciplining force. With ideas from Pierre Bourdieu, Norman Mailer and Paul Gilroy, and music from OutKast, Gwen Stefani and Miles Davis,…

1
Novara FM: How Trans Misogyny Works w/ Jules Gill-Peterson 1:21:38

2M ago1:21:38

1:21:38

The difference between sex and gender is fundamental to how we talk about trans people. But what if it obscures the richness of life outside of gender norms? There is so much more to gender non-conforming people than this academic, middle-class, distinction – so says Jules Gill-Peterson, a historian at Johns Hopkins University and the author of A S…

1
Novara Live: Rishi Sunak Announces July General Election 1:02:20

2M ago1:02:20

1:02:20

In the pouring rain and 20 points behind in the polls, Rishi Sunak has announced that a UK general election will take place on 4 July. Michael Walker and Moya Lothian-McLean report. Plus: Ireland, Spain and Norway have announced their intention to recognise Palestine as a state. Follow our election coverage on Novara Live every […]…

1
Downstream: The Truth About Incels w/ William Costello 1:42:45

2M ago1:42:45

1:42:45

The involuntary celibate community (aka ‘incels’) are often thought to be rightwing, white supremacist, and prone to violence. But how much of that is true? Ash Sarkar is joined by William Costello – a researcher whose work focuses on the psychology of incels – to discuss what we get wrong about incels, what incels get […]…

1
Novara FM: Living Through the Chinese Miracle w/ Yuan Yang 1:08:58

2M ago1:08:58

1:08:58

No country has ever changed so fast as China. From the west, we see only the dazzling headline figures – 15% growth in some years. But it’s on the ground, in the huge shifts in the patterns of daily life, where the story comes alive. Journalist Yuan Yang’s first book Private Revolutions provides just that insight, […]…

1
Downstream: Individualism is Destroying Our Freedom w/ Grace Blakeley 1:09:23

3M ago1:09:23

1:09:23

Common sense tells us that free-market economies maximise freedom and that planned economies, typically found under socialist governments, curtail it. But what if this is completely the wrong way around? On this episode of Downstream, Aaron is joined by economist and author Grace Blakeley to discuss Henry Ford, Boeing and the nature of democracy. Y…

1
Novara FM: Know Your Enemies w/ Matthew Sitman & Sam Adler-Bell 1:28:30

3M ago1:28:30

1:28:30

George Bernard Shaw once joked that the US and the UK are “two countries divided by a common language.” Can the same be said of their conservatives? As we brace for a joint election year, Eleanor Penny talks to Sam Adler-Bell and Matthew Sitman, two expert guides to US conservatism via their podcast Know Your […]…

1
Downstream: George Galloway’s Plan to Destroy the Labour Party 1:25:44

3M ago1:25:44

1:25:44

George Galloway has been elected as a member of parliament for four separate constituencies – with only Winston Churchill beating him. Perhaps more remarkably still, he won on three of those occasions while not being a member of a major political party. Most recently, he became the MP for Rochdale in the north of England. […]…

1
ACFM Microdose: Reactionary Democracy w/ Aaron Winter & Aurelien Mondon 1:06:48

3M ago1:06:48

1:06:48

How do mainstream politicians and pundits contribute to the normalisation of far-right ideas, even as they claim to reject racism and populism? That’s one of many vital questions asked by Aaron Winter and Aurelien Mondon in their book, Reactionary Democracy. Following ACFM’s recent Trip about Fascism, Keir and Jem speak to Aaron and Aurelien about …

1
Novara FM: Your Neighbour Kills Puppies w/ Tom Harris 1:25:17

3M ago1:25:17

1:25:17

In the ’00s, animal rights protestors nearly won their battle to ban vivisection in the UK, shutting down multiple breeding farms that were supplying laboratories with cats, dogs and guinea pigs. But at the last moment, the government made a dramatic U-turn, blocking their attempt to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences and throwing activists in […]…

1
Downstream: How Austerity Harms Britain’s Most Vulnerable Children w/ Teresa Thornhill 1:31:41

3M ago1:31:41

1:31:41

Teresa Thornhill is an author and former child protection lawyer. Throughout her long career, working for both local authorities and advocating on behalf of parents, she has been a first hand witness to how the system fails parents, social workers and, most importantly, children. Teresa sat down with Aaron to talk about the untrained volunteers […]…

1
Novara FM: Read Some Effing Jameson! w/ Sianne Ngai and Matthew Beaumont 1:20:02

3M ago1:20:02

1:20:02

The exhortation to “read some effing Orwell!” is an old chestnut of the online left, whether ironic or sincere, or somewhere in between. But if we’re looking for a writer whose body of work truly anticipates the world we live in now – globalised, postcolonial, postmodern – we might instead turn to the American Marxist […]…

1
Downstream: This Is How Israel Controls Palestinians w/ Eyal Weizman 1:10:40

3M ago1:10:40

1:10:40

It’s not what you know; it’s what you can prove. For years, Forensic Architecture has exposed state crimes against civilians, nature, and humanity. This week on Downstream, Ash Sarkar meets its director Eyal Weizman to discuss Israel’s settler colonial project, the police killing of Mark Duggan, and how the testimony of blindfolded torture victims …

1
ACFM Trip 42: Fascism 1:52:49

3M ago1:52:49

1:52:49

A lot of people are saying that fascism is on the rise. But what are we pointing to when we call a system, or a person, fascist? On this Trip, Nadia, Keir and Jem map out a complicated ideology, from its roots in 19th century industrialisation to its resurgence in ethnonationalism and eco-apartheid. Exploring how […]…

1
Novara FM: London’s Endless Appetite w/ Jonathan Nunn and Amardeep Singh Dhillon 1:14:08

3M ago1:14:08

1:14:08

London is a foodie metropolis: undoubtedly one of the best places to eat in the world. But eating in London is also, like everything else in the city, shaped by its history as the capital of a globe-spanning empire. How did the contraction of this formal empire change infamously terrible British cuisine? How did multiculturalism […]…

1
Novara FM: Colonial Capitalism Has Made Us Sick w/ Rupa Marya & Raj Patel 1:15:10

4M ago1:15:10

1:15:10

Centuries of colonial capitalism have reordered life on the planet and inside our bodies, from industrial farming and the uneven advances of modern medicine, to night shifts, chronic stress and inflammation. Has the system made us sick? That’s the concern of Rupa Marya and Raj Patel, who join Eleanor Penny to talk about the history […]…

1
Downstream: Israelis Want Genocide w/ Abby Martin 1:01:36

4M ago1:01:36

1:01:36

Abby Martin is an American journalist and activist, host of the interview series The Empire Files, and a co-founder of the citizen journalism website Media Roots. She joins Ash Sarkar to discuss her political journey after 9/11, working for the state broadcaster Russia Today, how Israelis really talk about Palestinians, and why she believes the […]…

1
Novara FM: What’s Really Causing the Housing Crisis? w/ Nick Bano 1:06:03

4M ago1:06:03

1:06:03

Why is it so expensive to rent in the UK? In a divisive new book, barrister Nick Bano places the blame squarely on price-gouging landlords, rejecting the conventional wisdom that calls for more new housing as a solution to the crisis. He goes head to head with Novara Live’s Michael Walker to explain the thinking […]…

1
Downstream IRL: This Ideology Threatens Our Fundamental Freedoms w/ Judith Butler 55:08

4M ago55:08

55:08

For a special edition of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar is joined by philosopher, author, and one of the world’s most cited academics, Judith Butler. Their new book, ‘Who’s Afraid of Gender’ charts how a transphobic moral panic morphed into an all-our war on so-called ‘gender ideology’. Together, Ash and Judith explore how Britain became TERF […]…

1
Downstream: We Are Getting Foreign Policy Very Wrong w/ Steve Coll 1:05:48

4M ago1:05:48

1:05:48

With hindsight, the wars waged by the US and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq look like terrible failures, both strategically and politically: the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and living standards are worse in Iraq than they were before Saddam Hussein. In his new book The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States […]…

1
Novara FM: Critical Theorists Hate This One Weird Trick w/ Anna Kornbluh 1:11:58

4M ago1:11:58

1:11:58

We’re living in a world of hurry and shortcuts, of intimacy on tap and just-in-time production. Immediacy, according to Anna Kornbluh, is the link between flow-states and Fleabag, between food delivery apps and a mistrust of political systems. She joins Richard Hames to explain the thinking behind her new book – Immediacy: Or, The Style […]…

1
Downstream: On Gaza, Grammar Schools and British War Crimes w/ Peter Hitchens 1:34:19

4M ago1:34:19

1:34:19

Peter Hitchens is an author and journalist whose contrarian takes on drug policy, education and foreign policy have found him occupying a singular place in the British media – with his brand of conservatism often angering audiences who would consider themselves staunchly conservative. He sat down with Aaron to discuss grammar schools, Gaza and Brit…

1
ACFM Trip 41: Trust Your Gut 1:20:22

4M ago1:20:22

1:20:22

From fecal transplants to the yoghurt-industrial complex, we’ve never been more absorbed in the workings of our gut. But can we trust it? Nadia, Jem and Keir investigate the mysterious connections between mind and body, reason and instinct. How did capitalism separate our minds from our bodies? Is a belief in intuition filling the gap […]…

1
Novara FM: The Untold Histories of Black Gay Britain w/ Jason Okundaye 1:12:21

5M ago1:12:21

1:12:21

Researching Black British history “often feels like a rescue effort, a race against time,” writes Jason Okundaye. In his first book, he narrates the mingled histories of seven astonishing lives in the Black gay community of South London during the 1980s. The narrative he pieces together from oral history, archival research and even gossip (a […]…

1
Downstream: Retired Major-General on Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan w/ Charlie Herbert 1:17:56

5M ago1:17:56

1:17:56

Major General Charlie Herbert has stood out in recent months for his vociferous condemnation of Israel’s war on Palestinians. His media appearances have proven vital in synthesising a moral and strategic critique of war in which civilians are treated in a manner he characterises as unprecedented. He sat down with Ash to talk about serving […]…

1
Novara FM: Not Westminster’s Whipping Boys w/ Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram 56:24

5M ago56:24

56:24

Less than 20% of the promised levelling-up projects for England have been completed. The problem lies not only with the current government, but with the whole way the UK’s political system is set up, with its whips and Lords and not a constitution in sight. So say Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, the mayors of […]…

1
Downstream: Britain’s Economy Will Only Get Worse Forever w/ Gary Stevenson 1:57:50

5M ago1:57:50

1:57:50

Gary Stevenson went from being Citibank’s most profitable trader to one of the world’s most incisive critics of the financial system. Gary sat down with Aaron to discuss the lightbulb moment that led him away from trading, why economists can’t predict anything and why the UK middle class is doomed.By Novara Media

1
Novara FM: Russia After Navalny w/ Tony Wood 1:11:12

5M ago1:11:12

1:11:12

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, the question of what Russia is really thinking remains as crucial, and mysterious, as ever. To paint a picture of the current political climate, Richard Hames talks to Tony Wood, author of Russia Without Putin and an assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado […]…

1
Downstream IRL: We Are in a New Cold War w/ Yanis Varoufakis 1:10:04

5M ago1:10:04

1:10:04

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and author who served as Greek Finance Minister in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crash. Since then, he has become one of the most sought after public speakers on the left. He joined Aaron Bastani for an IRL edition of Downstream at EartH in Hackney, North-East London to […]…

1
ACFM Microdose: Aliens On Screen 1:42:06

5M ago1:42:06

1:42:06

Last time on ACFM, the gang explored the impact of UFOs on politics, from deep-state conspiracies to the Posadists. But to really understand how aliens influence our thought – and what our belief in E.T. says about ourselves – we have to go to the movies. In this Microdose, Keir, Jem and Nadia sweep through a […]…

1
Novara FM: The Nasty Noughties w/ Owen Hatherley & Ash Sarkar 59:09

5M ago59:09

59:09

The 2000s in Britain was a decade of education, regeneration, falling inequality and Dizzee Rascal. But beneath the fleeting prosperity lurked a culture of cruelty. It was palpable in politicians’ disdain for single mothers, in the media’s vilification of chavs, and in TV producers’ obsession with pointing and laughing at just about everyone – but …

1
The US Must Stop Funding Israel | Bernie Sanders meets Ash Sarkar 17:54

5M ago17:54

17:54

Bernie Sanders needs no introduction. Ash caught up with the senator to talk about his new book ‘It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism’, the speed of political change and whether what is happening in Gaza constitutes a genocide.By Novara Media

1
Downstream: Israel Will Never Be Safe While Occupying Palestine w/ Yousef Alhelou 1:31:31

5M ago1:31:31

1:31:31

Yousef Alhelou has spent the four or so months since October 7th covering the Israeli assault on Gaza through his Instagram account. In that time, his audience has grown by hundreds of thousands. Aaron sat down with Yousef to talk about international law, the genocide in Gaza and Britain’s complicity in it.…

1
Novara FM: Can International Law Protect Gaza? w/ Rob Knox 1:29:46

5M ago1:29:46

1:29:46

As Israel extends its bombardment of Gaza into Rafah – a supposed safe zone where 1.7 million Palestinians are seeking refuge – the limits of the “laws” of war seem horribly apparent. Following South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ last month, legal scholar Rob Knox joins Eleanor Penny to offer an urgent account of […]…

1
Novara FM: How To Be Honest About Empire w/ Sathnam Sanghera 57:13

6M ago57:13

57:13

Certain historians and politicians like to claim that the British Empire was “on balance” a good thing. Slavery was evil, they admit, but abolition was good. Racism was wrong, but free markets are desirable. In his new book Empireworld, journalist and historian Sathnam Sanghera rejects this “balance sheet” reading of history in order to wrestle […]…

1
Downstream: Why No One Should Have More Than £10 Million w/ Ingrid Robeyns 57:37

6M ago57:37

57:37

Should there be a cap on how much wealth one person can have? If we’re serious about tackling poverty, the answer can only be yes, says Ingrid Robeyns, author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Robeyns tells Ash Sarkar what a wealth cap could do for the world, how the global north is living […]…

1
ACFM Trip 40: UFOs 1:25:35

6M ago1:25:35

1:25:35

Should the left care about the existence of aliens? The ACFM gang explore the impact of UFOs on political thought in this Trip. Keir, Jem and Nadia discuss the connections between UFO conspiracies and right-wing thought, why some communists think aliens will bring about world revolution, and whether Fermi’s paradox means we’re not alone, with […]…

1
Downstream: Would the World Be Better Without Religion? w/ Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar 1:40:08

6M ago1:40:08

1:40:08

Twenty years ago, it was taken for granted that on average, people globally were shrugging off the shackles of organised religion. The world was destined for secularism. But with demographics trends in many countries pointing towards a growing religious population and with secular liberal politics failing to offer solace from falling living standar…

1
Novara FM: Who Dares To Rewrite 40,000 Years of History? w/ David Wengrow 1:24:42

6M ago1:24:42

1:24:42

This episode was first released in November 2021. In the bestselling book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, archaeologist David Wengrow and the late anthropologist David Graeber offer a radically different story of our social evolution. Drawing on groundbreaking research gathered over a decade of collaboration, the book challenges …

1
Downstream: Everything You Know About The Global Economy is Wrong w/ Philip Pilkington 1:28:38

6M ago1:28:38

1:28:38

We are in a drastically different world from the one most of us grew up in. This has been proven by the rapid escalation in the events in the Middle East over the last six weeks. No longer are we in a world where, essentially, the US run the show. And this has huge global […]By Novara Media

1
ACFM Microdose: Plugged-in Protest w/ Jeremy Gilbert 1:12:13

6M ago1:12:13

1:12:13

Music has the uncanny power to stir up big feelings, which makes it an obvious vehicle for political statements of hope, anger, despair, or how to cast your vote. In this Microdose episode to accompany ACFM’s recent Trip on Protest, Jem takes us through 60 years of plugged-in protest music – no strumming folkies or […]…

1
Novara FM: The Novels That Inspired Class War w/ Mark Steven 1:01:03

6M ago1:01:03

1:01:03

What role does literature play in revolution? If the question seems bizarre to you and the answer obvious, you’re not alone. Yet some of the most important revolutionaries in history have turned to literature in times of crisis. Mao Zedong started writing poetry during the Chinese Red Army’s retreat, adopting traditional Chinese forms to do […]…

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Ajay Shah Podcasts

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