Downstream: The West is Over. Here’s Why w/ Pankaj Mishra

Downstream: The West is Over. Here’s Why w/ Pankaj Mishra

In the years since October 7th, the world has been bitterly polarised over how to make sense of the violence. While polling shows that a majority of people do believe Israel’s actions amount to genocide – having witnessed it with their own eyes via their smartphones – it has been woefully hard to find mainstream media outlets in the West prepared to use this language. On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani sat down with Indian essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra. His most recent book, ‘The World After Gaza’ takes stock of a world order shattered by the genocide, and a media class unprepared to recognise the truth. In response to these crises, Mishra and colleagues have just launched Equator magazine, pulling together leading writers from across the globe who are unafraid to tell the truth. When did the so-called West first begin to lose standing in the eyes of the rest of the world? Why is the British media class positioned so uniquely close to power, so delusional, and so compromised over Gaza? Will China replace America, in the coming century, as the new hegemonic power? Has it already?

Do Your Own Research: Is This Podcast the Problem? w/ Joshua Citarella

Joshua Citarella built his reputation by mapping synthetic e-deologies of terminally online politics, expressed in memes, micro-disputes and merch drops. Now the artist, Doomscroll host and Do Not Research founder has come to a blunter conclusion: it’s time to lock in. Behind the seeming diversity of online politics, one ideology has already won: the technolibertarianism of the platforms and supply chains that actually make it all run. So maybe it’s time to get serious, tune out the noise, and get back to basics: workers versus capital. This episode is the finale of Do Your Own Research Series 1. We’ll be back soon. Get the map: novaramedia.com/dyor [http://novaramedia.com/dyor] Music by Iglooghost.

Burnham Vows To Tackle Youth Unemployment

Andy Burnham has said he is “on a mission” to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), but has stopped short of pledging a concrete target. Plus: The number of millionaires in Britain is falling, Reform UK appears to be having a complete meltdown,  With Aaron Bastani & Michael Walker.

Downstream: Who Profits From Genocide? w/ Andrew Feinstein

A new consensus has emerged in Westminster, seemingly overnight: we need more defence spending, and we need it now. But the Ministry of Defence has a record for waste that would put Tony Soprano to shame. £13 billion down the drain, since 2010, at the very least. Aircraft carriers that come in late, overbudget, and beset by mechanical failures. IT systems that cost millions, and are wildly out of date. No other government department could get away with it. But the arms trade spends billions of dollars on greasing the wheels of political consent. They employ armies of lobbyists, print reams of analysis, and bribe politicians the world over to keep the war machine funded. The result isn’t just a crisis of corruption. It’s a threat to our survival as a species. Andrew Feinstein is a former-minister in the South African government, turned investigative reporter. He is the executive director of Shadow World Investigations, and serves on the board of Declassified UK. And in 2024, he stood against Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras. He joins Ash Sarkar on Downstream to lift the lid on how the arms industry really works, and tell us about his political journey.

Do Your Own Research: What JD Vance and Tucker Carlson Actually Believe w/ James Pogue

The American empire is in crisis – and there is a new generation of more vocal critics coming from the right. So what do JD Vance and Tucker Carlson actually believe about American power? James Pogue has reported on empires and their decline for years, from West and Central Africa, where Wagner Group picked over the corpse of French neo-colonialism, to California’s secessionist fringe and the absurdities of Washington. He also happens to be one of the closest observers of JD Vance, who is just a heartbeat from one of the most powerful positions in the world. The president’s real job is keeping the machine running: asset prices up, markets juiced, the war economy fed. Can anyone actually change that? And would we even want them to try, if it’s as ideologically peculiar and dangerous as Vance? Get the map: novaramedia.com/dyor [https://novaramedia.com/dyor] Music by Iglooghost.