Jacobin Radio

From Madrid to Paris, tenants and teenagers are forcing their crises onto the agenda. Suzi talks to Agustín Santos Maraver, Spain’s former UN ambassador and Sumar MP, who explains how the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal ignited a national housing uprising, why the Catalan right sank the government’s rent decrees, and why a general strike on the eve of the November 29 snap election is a first for Spain. Then Verso’s European editor Sebastian Budgen explains why France’s high-school revolt began in the banlieues rather than the city centers, why the government has doubled down on police violence, and what it means for a presidential race that could come down to leftist Mélenchon against the far right’s Le Pen. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Sam Stein, author of A Right to Housing?, investigates that proposition skeptically. Natasha Lennard, author of On Un/Certainty, talks about how doubt can be a mask for certainty. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global.

Featuring Chris Brooks on labor’s crisis and the strategic, militant class struggle that can turn it all around. Brooks, former chief of staff to UAW President Shawn Fain, urges organizers to be flexible in their methodology, explains the federal monitor’s anti-left lawfare against the UAW over Gaza—and why labor must build for 2028. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Read more: “Is Labor at the Point of No Return?” by Chris Brooks in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/is-labor-at-the-point-of-no-return “Is Labor at the Point of No Return?” by Chris Brooks in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/is-labor-at-the-point-of-no-return “Shawn Fain’s UAW Is Facing Strong Headwinds” by Nelson Lichtenstein in New Labor Forum newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2026/05/15/shawn-fains-uaw-is-facing-strong-headwinds “The War on the UAW” by Ella Fanger in The Nation thenation.com/article/economy/uaw-elections-monitor-gaza Find Bad Energy and Songs My Mother Taught Me at Haymarketbooks.org The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Featuring Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian on their book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. What the world’s bizarre richest man reveals about our financially fabulist, hard tech, far-right political-economic era. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Find Against Tech Oligarchy at Haymarketbooks.org Learn more about Hate Speech at UCPress.edu The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser joins Suzi to discuss his new book, Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History, which recovers a century of Jewish opposition to Zionism, told through twelve lives, from an assassinated Dutch dissident to Hannah Arendt to the photographer Nan Goldin. Moser opens with his own grandfather’s copy of Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State — the one object the family carried out of Nazi Germany — and traces his break with an unexamined liberal Zionism to a 2016 trip to Hebron: “It’s not that Israel is doing things that are wrong,” he said. “It’s that Israel itself is wrong.” Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Over the past few weeks, Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, has launched a major offensive. The offensive could have major implications for the world economy, as it involves one of its most important trade routes through the Red Sea. It certainly has major implications for Saudi Arabia. Long Reads is joined by Helen Lackner, an expert on the politics of Yemen and the author of several books about the country. This is the third time Helen has joined us on the podcast. In this week’s episode, we’re going to cover events since the last time Helen spoke to us more than two years ago. 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.

Featuring Ben Shanahan, the architect of socialist David Morales’ victorious campaign to be the Democratic nominee for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. The Providence left ran a slate of left-wing candidates that not only elected Morales but also swept every single contested city council seat on a platform of capping the rent and building social housing. Read Dennis Hogan’s essays on the Providence win in n+1 and Dissent: nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-hi-neighbor-mayor/ dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/david-morales-providence-municipal-socialism/ Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Listen to Death in Westminster on any podcast platform. Get 20% off an annual print subscription to The Break—Down at break-down.org/dig/ The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

A prisoner is held, in theory, for something they did. The people inside America’s roughly 250 immigration detention camps are held for who they are, or where they’re from. That distinction anchors journalist John Washington’s new book, How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention. He joins Suzi to trace the bipartisan machinery behind ICE detention — from the reservation system to today's $240 billion buildout — and the local permits, contracts, and licenses that make these camps more vulnerable than they look. In Surprise, Arizona, a thousand residents showed up to block a $70 million warehouse conversion. “The opposite of a camp is community,” Washington argues — and closing one, keeping it closed, depends on exactly that. Plus: Meleiza Figueroa remembers David Cobb, who died on Labor Day. Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

The US Federal Reserve appointed a new chair earlier this year. Kevin Warsh replaced Jerome Powell, who had been under constant fire from the Trump administration. For many, Warsh’s appointment represented a turn towards the overt politicization of monetary policy. Is the age of central bank independence coming to an end? And is it something that the Left should mourn or celebrate? Martijn Konings, professor of political economy at the University of Sydney and author of The Bailout State: Why Governments Rescue Banks, Not People, joins Long Reads to discuss the state of central banking. 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.