In today's episode Cecilia Rikap - an expert in the political economy of science and technology - speaks with Paris Marx (host of the excellent Tech Won't Save Us podcast). Cecilia and Paris discussed the subservient approach that Keir Starmer's Labour government has taken to tech policy and how willing Starmer has been to give tech companies wh...
2025-08-06 04:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Expert on China-Iran relations William Figueroa joins PTO to talk about the relationship between China and Iran in the wake of the twelve day war between Iran and Israel. We chatted about why China's backing for Iran has been - and is likely to continue to be - relatively limited as China balances support for Iran with its other interest in West...
2025-07-25 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostOwen Hatherley returns to respond to the excellent questions sent in by listeners. Topics included the prospect of a new left party in the UK, housing policy under Keir Starmer's Labour government, and Ian MacDonald's 1994 book Revolution in the Head. Owen also responded to a couple of questions following up on our 2025-07-16 05:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1998 Leigh Claire La Berge was hired by a major communications conglomerate, where she worked alongside employees of the soon to be disgraced Arther Anderson (the auditor of companies involved in high profile corporate fraud such as WorldCom and Enron). Leigh Clare and her colleagues were tasked with working on the problem of Y2K - also known...
2025-07-10 05:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali joins PTO to talk about the aftermath of the Israel-Iran war. We chatted about where the cessation of hostilities leaves the two states militarily, and whether Iran's strategy of reliance on ballistic missiles and a loose regional alliance was wholly misbegotten or just poorly implemented. And we talked about why t...
2025-07-01 05:10:02 +0000 UTC View Post
In the latest episode of Interregnum, PTO's show within a show with Richard Seymour - we talked about the US strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. We discussed whether the Israelis may be disappointed that the strikes were not more expansive in scope, and whether or not Donald Trump has revealed himself to be a Neocon foreign policy hawk in...
2025-06-23 15:20:13 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing our recent episode on the Manic Street Preachers, Owen Hatherley will be returning to answer your questions. You may like to ask Owen something specifically on the Manics, pop culture more broadly, the recent Pulp reunion (Owen is the author of an excellent...
2025-06-20 10:50:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the New Left Review on Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran. Eskandar explained why he sees Israel's goals as not being confined to destroying Iran's nuclear programme, but a...
2025-06-19 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Owen Hatherley returns to discuss his New Left Review article on the Welsh guitar band, the Manic Street Preachers. We talked about the particular appeal the group seemed to hold for working class kids from non-metropolitan backgrounds in the 19...
2025-06-11 05:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post
In the latest episode of Interregnum, Richard Seymour discusses the abrupt increase in Western criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza and why we're finally seeing that heightened opprobrium in this moment. We went on to talk about how to understand the Trump administration's tariff policy and whether there's more rationality at play than is commo...
2025-05-22 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Radhika Desai returns to PTO to talk about the latest round of violence between India and Pakistan, following the terrorist attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian administered Kashmir on April 22nd. We discussed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019, when the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi revoked the territory's special...
2025-05-20 05:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Natasha Lennard returns to answer your questions on - amongst other topics - the escalation of the Gaza genocide, the prospects for a federal ban on abortion in the United States, and whether we are seeing the emergence of a distinctly liberal brand of transphobia in the US.
Thanks as ever to everyone who sent in a question and for your c...
Next week recent guest Natasha Lennard will be returning to answer your questions. You may like to ask something regarding the conversation we had on the Democrats under Trump 2.0. Natasha has also recently been writing on the US administration's 2025-04-30 10:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Jake Werner on US-China relations in the context of the trade war. We discussed why Donald Trump has dialled down his rhetoric over tariffs, and why the term "decoupling" hardly captures the severity of what a breakdown of the economic relations between the US and China will look like. We also talked about the prospects of increased military ten...
2025-04-29 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Amjad Iraqi returns to PTO to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza - following on from Israel's violation of the ceasefire in late March. We spoke about why the ceasefire was always likely to be violated, the eroding support for continuation of the war within Israel (as the war increasingly comes to be seen as a way of shielding Benjamin Netany...
2025-04-22 05:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
In today's episode, Quinn Slobodian returns to answer questions sent in by listeners in response to our recent episode on Quinn's new book, Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. Quinn responded to listeners regarding the elements of the Trump programme that can be characterised as being within the lineage of neol...
2025-04-13 06:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostQuinn Slobodian will be returning next week to answer your questions. You may like to ask something related to our recent episode. Alte...
2025-04-04 13:00:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Quinn Slobodian returns to PTO to talk about his new book Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. Whilst politicians and thinkers of the new right are typically characterised as fierce opponents of neoliberalism, Quinn explains how the emergence of the populist right developed through a split within the neoliberal ...
2025-04-01 05:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Natasha Lennard joins PTO to talk about her recent writing on how the Democrats are making sense of their electoral defeat in November and how the mainstream of the party is adopting conservative social policy while flirting with far-right activists and influencers. We also talked about the enduring and ever more bizarre democrat obsession with ...
2025-03-22 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
In the latest episode of Interregnum Richard comments on the the fallout from the calamitous meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and JD Vance. We discussed whether the Ukrainian president was the victim of a pre-meditated ambush at the White House, the extent of disjunctures and continuities between the second Trump presidency...
2025-03-02 21:55:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Hannah Proctor joins PTO to discuss her book Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat. Amongst other aspects of the book, we discussed the practice of Maoist self-criticism and its influence on the American and European New Left, the accounts of women involved in the 1984-85 miners strike following its defeat at ...
2025-02-26 06:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Richard responds to some more questions sent in by listeners. Topics include: The future of the US healthcare system, how the Gaza genocide will be remembered, and how the left should navigate questions of consumerism and over-consumption.
2025-02-21 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Adam Tooze returns to answer the many excellent questions sent in by listeners. Topics covered included the US tech sector's rapprochement with the Trump administration, Elon Musk's war on the the US administrative state, how the EU will respond to the threat of US tariffs, and what the prospects are for prosecuting a serious reforming social de...
2025-02-06 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostOn February 5th Adam Tooze will be returning to PTO to respond to listener questions. You may like to ask Adam about his most recent PTO episode on the likelihood of a US war with China, something else on the new Trump administration, or a quest...
2025-01-27 10:29:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Richard returns to answer more questions - including on the Gaza ceasefire, bible study in American schools, and what might be learned from Mexico's Morena party.
2025-01-25 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
PTO is joined by the Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada. In our conversation we talked about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after fifteen months of war and genocide. We also talked about the military capabilities of Hamas and why Israel was unable to inflict a total defeat on the group. We dicussed how the Trump administration w...
2025-01-20 06:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostFor the latest episode of Interregnum - PTO's show-within-a-show, Richard Seymour will be responding to more listeners' questions. You may like to ask Richard about the implications of the recently announced ceasefire in Gaza, the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump and the role of Elon Musk in the administration, or the devastating California...
2025-01-16 08:58:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Will Davies joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the London Review of Books on the UK government's economic agenda. We discussed the policies that Labour has adopted in its attempt to break out of the low growth and low productivity rates that have characterised the UK economy in recent years. We also chatted about the ext...
2025-01-11 06:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
In today’s episode Richard Seymour responds to listener questions on the overthrow of Assad in Syria, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the significance of widespread public sympathy for Luigi Mangione. We also talked about “normie socialism”, a Soviet counterfactual, and what books Richard has been reading this year. ...
2024-12-23 06:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs previously mentioned, I've been unwell so there won't be any regular PTO episodes for the rest of December but I did want to do something for PTO supporters so I will be recording a listeners' questions episode with Richard on the 18th. As usual, feel free to ask a question on the topic of your choosing - though you may like to ask something ...
2024-12-12 10:56:50 +0000 UTC View Post