Helen Charman describes some of the many political and historical struggles over the meaning and status of motherhood, by way of thinkers such as Denise Riley and Jacqueline Rose, as well as figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Helen Charman is a Fellow and College Teaching Officer in English at Clare College, University of Cambridge. Her critical writing has been published in the Guardian, The White Review, Another Gaze, and The Stinging Fly among others. As a...

Richard Seymour analyses the global far-right, asking how movements across the world have managed to capitalize on the resentment produced by the capitalist system to generate a form of violent rebellion that leaves that same system fully in-tact. Richard Seymour is a writer and broadcaster from Northern Ireland and the author of numerous books about politics including Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics and The Twittering Machine. His writing appears in the The New York Times,...

Sasha Warren explores the history of psychiatry in relationship to the development of capitalism. We discuss how best to frame the different movements that have emerged with the intention of transforming or abolishing psychiatry. We then spend some time talking about figures such as Foucault, Fanon, and R. D Laing that may be familiar to listeners as well as some lesser-known figures such as Sylvia Marcos, and Marie Langer. Sasha Warren is a writer based in Minneapolis publishing work on...

This episode features a recording of live discussion with Richard Seymour and Helen Charman about the medical imaginaries of the far right. This recording is from illness (3), the third in the event series that runs alongside the podcast. We discuss why the far-right has so many paranoid fantasies about medicine, from race science and eugenics, to attacks on trans and reproductive healthcare. Helen Charman is a Fellow and College Teaching Officer in English at Clare College, University of...

Dayna Tortorici and Lisa Borst discuss The Intellectual Situation, a new anthology of writing from the literary magazine n+1. The anthology brings together writing from the period of 20014-2024, including contributions from people such as Gabriel Winant, Alyssa Battistoni, Tabi Haslet, Nikil Saval, and many others. In this conversation Lisa and Dayna discuss putting the collection together, how it feels to read back essays written during different political struggles from the last decade, and...

Melinda Cooper describes the combination of austerity and extravagance that characterizes neoliberal monetary policy and how these ideas emerged from the crises of the 1970s. Melinda Cooper is Professor in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University. She is the author of Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism and Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. EVENT: bit.ly/3ShrqCi SUPPORT:...

Leah Cowan explains the long and complex relationship between British feminism and British policing. From women's suffrage, through the Women's Liberation movement of the 1970s, to recent conflicts over the murder of Sarah Everard by a London Metropolitan Police officer. Leah Cowan is a writer, editor and previously the political editor of Gal-dem magazine. She is the author of two books Border Nation: A Story of Migration (Pluto Books, 2021) and Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?...

Ruth Pearce explains the many problems surrounding the recently published Cass Review into trans healthcare for young people. Ruth Pearce is a Lecturer in Community Development at the University of Glasgow and a researcher specializing in trans healthcare. She has edited two books (The Emergence of Trans and TERF Wars) as well as special issues of the International Journal of Transgender Health (Fertility, reproduction and body autonomy) and Sexualities (Trans Genealogies). She is also the...

Michael Hardt analyses the revolutionary political movements of the 1970s and what they might teach us about political struggle, social transformation, and liberation. Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the Empire trilogy and, most recently, Assembly. He is co-director with Sandro Mezzadra of The Social Movements Lab. His most recent book is The Subversive Seventies (Oxford University Press.)

Hannah Proctor explains why it’s important to understand the messy, emotional, and interpersonal aspects of political struggle. Hannah Proctor is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, interested in histories and theories of radical psychiatry. She is a member of the editorial collective behind Radical Philosophy, and has been published in Jacobin, Tribune, The New Inquiry and elsewhere. Her most recent book is Burnout: The Emotional Experience of...

Nick Bano explains how landlords and the state collaborate to produce the housing crisis, generating harm and violence in the process of wealth accumulation. Nick Bano is an author and Barrister who specializes in representing homeless people, residential occupiers, and destitute and migrant households. He has written for Tribune, the New Socialist, and Jacobin. He is the author of Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicine Soundtrack by...

Adam Elliott-Cooper discusses histories of Black resistance to British policing, specifically how figures such as Claudia Jones, Darcus Howe, and Stuart Hall have theorized and resisted Policing’s role in upholding British Imperialism, racial capitalism, and neoliberalism. Adam Elliott-Cooper is Lecturer in Public and Social Policy at Queen Mary and the author of Black Resistance to British Policing and co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State. Adam also sits on the board...

Gabriel Winant and Taj Ali discuss the surge of labor organising that has taken place in British and American healthcare over the last few years. Gabriel Winant is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. His writing has been published in Dissent, n+1, Jacobin, The New York Review of Books. Taj Ali is the co-editor of Tribune Magazine and has been writing about...

Julian Go explains the 200 year history of police militarization in Britain and the U.S. He highlights the relationships between race, moral panics, and criminalization before describing how these connections shed light on the struggles against colonialism, imperialism, and policing. Julian Go is Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture and the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago. He is the author...

Jules Gill-Peterson explains what trans misogyny is, why the state cultivates and enlists it, and how this shapes our current political moment. Jules Gill-Peterson is writer, academic, and author based in the US. She is a tenured associate professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and a General Editor of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. Her writing has appeared in publications such as New Inquiry, Jewish Currents, the Baffler, Parapraxis, and many others. She is the author of...

Writer Adam Shatz discusses the life and work of the revolutionary, psychiatrist, and philosopher Frantz Fanon Adam Shatz is the US editor of The London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is also a visiting professor at Bard College, and the host of the podcast “Myself with Others." He is the author of two books: Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination (Verso); and The...

Jess Thorne updates us on the struggle Health Care Assistants in the Wirral face to win adequate wages. Jess Thorne is a writer, historian and trade union organiser. She works as a local organiser for UNISON in the North West region, where she has been assisting healthcare assistants on the Wirral in a re-banding dispute.

Ramsey McGlazer discusses the work of radical psychoanalyst Elvio Fachinelli. Specifically, he traces the history of an anti-authoritarian kindergarten which Fachinelli founded, how this informed his broader engagement with psychoanalysis, and how that work might inform our own understanding of authority, adulthood and freedom. How to Touch Grass by Ramsey McGlazer: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/how-to-touch-grass/ SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicine Soundtrack...

Lara Sheehi, Stephen Sheehi and James Schneider discuss events currently unfolding in Palestine and the strategies used media to stifle support for Palestinian liberation and normalize settler colonialism. Lara Sheehi is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University Professional Psychology program. Co-editor of Studies in Gender & Sexuality and of Counterspace in Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. Stephen Sheehi is the Sultan Qaboos Professor of...

Craig, Adam and Will from Acid Horizon discuss their book Anti-Oculus: A Philosophy of Escape, including reflections on cybernetics, police, paranoia, disability, and Ocularity. Acid Horizon is a podcasting collective of artists, musicians, and philosophers formed in 2020 with a focus on Marxist, post-structuralist, and anarchist philosophy. They also run seminars on philosophers such as Deleuze, Foucault, and George Bataille and run a sub-imprint, Zer0 Horizonz, over on Zer0...

Erica Borg and Amedeo Policante provide a marxist analysis of gene editing technology, CRISPR, and genetic engineering as they relate to eugenics, capital accumulation and ecology. Erica Borg is a geographer and political ecologist based at King's College, London. Their research focuses on the relations between capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and ecological crisis. Amedeo Policante is a Researcher at the Nova University of Lisbon. His writings interrogate the nexus of extraction,...

Orisanmi Burton discusses the criminalized and incarcerated Black radical tradition through the lens of a series of prison rebellions in the New York prison system throughout the 1970s. Orisanmi Burton is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at American University and the author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicine Soundtrack by Mark Pilkington www.redmedicine.xyz

Waithera Sebatindira explores how it feels to live as an addict under capitalism and asks how addiction and recovery could remake the world. Waithera Sebatindira is a Kenyan writer based in London. Their previous writing and research interests have included food imperialism, drag kings and gender transformation. They are a co-author of A FLY Girl’s Guide to University and the author of Through an Addict’s Looking-Glass (Hajar Press) SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicine Soundtrack...

Johnbosco Nwogbo from We Own It discusses the future of the NHS, to what degree it can still be considered publicity owned, and what we could expect from a Labour government. Johnbosco Nwogbo is Lead Campaigner at We Own It. For the three years before joining We Own It, he has been a campaigner for renters and community rights as part of ACORN the community union. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicine Soundtrack by Mark Pilkington www.redmedicine.xyz