Jacobin Radio

Unions have more public support than just about anything else in the US, and yet, their membership has cratered. This poses an immense challenge to left-wing politicians, who won't be able to enact lasting change without a robust labor movement beside them. On this latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber addresses the age-old question of whether unions are inherently political, the importance (and limits) of internal democracy within unions, and why socialists have always been at the heart of the labor movement. 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: [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Featuring David Wallace-Wells, Madison Condon, and Moira Birss on how insurance companies profit off climate catastrophe — and, in doing so, ensure that people and the planet suffer the consequences. Guest hosted by Astra Taylor. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read “National Disaster Insurance for All: Single-Payer Disaster Insurance and Community Resilience Investments for Safer and More Affordable Housing”: climateandcommunity.org/research/national-disaster-insurance-for-all-single-payer-disaster-insurance-and-community-resilience-investments-for-safer-and-more-affordable-housing/ Find out more about the Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World reading group here: equator.org/events/late-victorian-holocausts Find When We Are Kin and The Veiled Prophet at Haymarketbooks.org The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Mike Davis died in 2022, but his work is more urgent than ever. As record temperatures, fires, floods, El Niño, and megadroughts threaten the planet, we hear his prescient 1995 talk, “Reconceptualizing the Environment.” Mike challenged the idea of “natural disaster,” showing how market-driven development put Los Angeles in harm’s way while shifting costs onto the public and the poor. Our sponsor Equator magazine is running an online reading group of Mike’s Late Victorian Holocausts, his landmark study of how climate shocks, empire, and the world market combined to produce mass famine and deepen global inequality. Check it out at equator.org/events Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Advanced capitalist countries have recently rediscovered the role of industrial policy to build out key economic sectors like semiconductors and AI. But what happens if business is the one calling all the shots? On this latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, we’re sharing Vivek Chibber’s keynote address from the 2026 IFAR Consortium Conference, hosted by the Indonesian International Islamic University. He discusses how developing countries used industrial policy in the past, why the US and Europe are now turning to greater state intervention, and how one could build a new social-democratic alliance between the state and labor. 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: [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Featuring Molly Crabapple on her book Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. The second in a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Decolonizing Money at Plutobooks.com Buy Femmephilia at Haymarketbooks.org The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

“Men in hard hats were once the heart of America’s working class. Now it is women in scrubs,” says historian Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift, who joins Suzi to explain how deindustrialization made health care the country’s largest employer, but the jobs are lower paid, understaffed, and more precarious. That’s playing out now at UVM Medical Center, where Vermont's own regulator found the nonprofit hospital was over-earning. Its response? Cut union jobs while nineteen top executives split $3 million in bonuses. Three union leaders — Melissa LaVallee, Teagan Cook, and Emma Galvin — from AFT Vermont, a branch of the American Federation of Teachers, describe the fight from inside for safe staffing and common-good demands. Their contract expires midnight on August 13th. The stakes are national. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Featuring Molly Crabapple on her book Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. The first episode of a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig. Buy Unions of Our Own and Femmephilia at Haymarketbooks.org. The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

The eighth and final 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 last installment picks up with the 2014 election of Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, to the presidency. That promise was soon betrayed, laying the groundwork for the rise of Prabowo Subianto, a scion of Suharto who represents nearly everything repugnant about the New Order regime. And yet Prabowo’s rule remains beset by contradiction and controversy — and Indonesia’s political future remains uncertain. Featuring Rianne Subijanto, Made Supriatma, Iqra Anugrah, and Farabi Fakih. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out IndoPROGRESS promotion of Nusantara in Bahasa Indonesia: instagram.com/reel/DafhG9-qdPW/ Watch Pig Feast: Colonialism in Our Time: youtube.com/watch?v=A-pPemC8m_M Buy The Extended Universe at Haymarketbooks.org Find Money In The Mountains at Plutobooks.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

In a jam-packed final installment of The People’s Game on Jacobin Radio, Mel and Alan speak with five distinguished guests. The feature interview is with Jules Boykoff, author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine. Boykoff, speaking on the day before the final between Spain and Argentina, reflects on what has defied, met, or exceeded his expectations about this year’s men’s World Cup soccer tournament. What lasting impact might the most profitable, largest, and longest major soccer tournament in history have on the global game? What does a 39-day carnival of soccer staged during a time of global and national crisis reveal about 21st-century society? We also ask One Fair Wage organizer Saru Jayaramen, political scientist Vanessa Tyson (who played varsity soccer at Princeton), and left progressive congressional candidates Chris Rabb (PA-3) and Randy Villegas (CA-22) for their take on the tournament. Meanwhile, former UK Member of Parliament George Galloway says the corruption has gone too far, and promises to expose the depths of FIFA’s mendacity to the world. Finally, the People’s Game’s co-hosts and co-producers — Alan Minsky, Meleiza Figueroa, and Fernando Romero — summarize their thoughts and feelings about the North American World Cup. An equal measure of triumph and disgrace? Did the excitement of so many great games once again earn FIFA a pass? Or was this the year that fans finally have had enough? Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

We try to cover a lot of topics on this show, and that inevitably leads to many more follow-up questions. Luckily for you, on this latest episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber answers YOUR questions! In particular, Vivek explains property under market socialism, assesses the effectiveness of salting in working-class jobs, and disentangles class locations and occupations. 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: [email protected] Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.