Jacobin Radio

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire last week after the record-breaking IPO of his company SpaceX. Musk presents the firm’s economic take off as the necessary means to a wider end for humanity, to become a multi-planetary species.

“That’s what SpaceX is all about,” Musk recently said at the company’s headquarters. “To take the fiction out of science fiction.”

While Musk was looking to the stars, the people of Belfast were still reeling from several days of racist violence. The Belfast pogrom drew strength from the far-right ecosystem that Musk has nurtured with the money from SpaceX, Tesla, and other companies. Musk himself repeatedly called for anti-immigrant protests and boosted the messaging of Britain’s neofascist right. His social-media platform generated the atmosphere of a frenzied lynch mob.

Over two episodes, Long Reads will explore the two sides of Elon Musk and his impact on the world. Our guests are Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, authors of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. This interview was conducted a few days before the SpaceX IPO.

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.

The show’s co-producers Alan Minsky and Meleiza Figueroa fill in for Suzi with a special installment of their quadrennial podcast series, The People’s Game⁠, which covers the world's most popular spectacle from a socialist internationalist perspective.

Alan and Mel talk with their fellow People’s Game co-host Fernando Romero about, well, “everything” going on in the world. How surreal it feels to be passionate fans of the beloved global game when the political circumstances inside the World Cup’s primary host country are so fraught and dire for so many people inside and outside US borders.

Fernando Romero is beaming! We spoke with him on the eve of his journey to Mexico. First stop is Mexico City for the opening game, then onto Guadalajara and Monyterrey, all three World Cup cities in Mexico.

We then speak with Thomas Hanna from the Democracy Collaborative, a longtime fan and player, about the problems — and potential — for the people’s game as a vehicle for democracy rather than capitalism. As a fútbol fan, Thomas mirrors his work with the Democracy Collaborative, which advocates for worker ownership of businesses and industry, and assists worker-led efforts to own and control their workplaces. Thomas helps organize a growing global movement for fans to own their favorite clubs.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

J.W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, authors of the new book Against Money, explain that curious stuff and enumerate its problems. Moira Weigel, author of a recent article for the journal October, takes a look at why the right hates theory.

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

The fifth episode in a series on the history of Indonesia: a hinge in the world system where colonialism and revolution have decisively shaped the trajectory of global history. This installment traces the armed conflicts—civil wars and then confrontations with the Dutch and British — that propelled Indonesia into Sukarno’s authoritarian Guided Democracy system and cascading economic crisis. Both the military and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) became increasingly powerful forces on the eve of 1965–when the armed forces would slaughter the communists and inaugurate Suharto’s New Order. Featuring Rianne Subijanto, Made Supriatma, and Farabi Fakih.

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The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

In the midst of Graham Platner’s high-profile senate race in Maine, several media commentators jumped on whether he would fit within his own definition of the working class. Do we know how to pick out workers from other classes? And what bearing does this have for socialist politics?

On the latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber and Melissa Naschek offer a full definition of who’s in the working class, how to understand the modern US class structure, and why workers are central to left political strategy.

The latest issue of Catalyst is out, and you can subscribe for just $20 using the code CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM: https://catalyst-journal.com/subscribe/?code=CONFRONTINGCAPITALISM

Have a question for us? Write to us by email: confronting.capitalism@jacobin.com

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.