Savage Minds

Savage Minds
  • 4.8 (17)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

Investigative reporting and social commentary on public culture, the arts, science, and politics. www.savageminds.co

  1. Elena Poniatowska

    16 hrs ago

    Elena Poniatowska

    Elena Poniatowska, Mexico’s most celebrated journalist and one of the most significant literary voices in the Spanish-speaking world, argues in this conversation that the crisis of contemporary journalism is inseparable from the collapse of critical reading—and that both are symptoms of a deeper cultural abandonment. Born in Paris in 1932 to a French-Polish father and Mexican mother, Poniatowska contends that her formation as a writer was shaped by displacement, by learning to listen to those rendered voiceless by history, and by understanding that journalism must be an act of solidarity before it is anything else. Widely credited with helping to establish the genre of testimonio in Latin American letters, she transformed the voices of the marginalised into literature that forced an entire nation to confront its own silence. She maintains that her landmark work La Noche de Tlatelolco was not a journalistic achievement but a moral obligation, and reflects on her decision to refuse the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, asking who would award the dead. Poniatowska insists that the greatest threat to literature and journalism today is not artificial intelligence but the disappearance of patience—the willingness to sit with a text, a story, or a life long enough for meaning to emerge. At 94, she affirms her belief in the innate goodness of human beings as not a sentiment but a necessity. Elena Poniatowska, la periodista más célebre de México y una de las voces literarias más significativas del mundo hispanohablante, sostiene en esta conversación que la crisis del periodismo contemporáneo es inseparable del colapso de la lectura crítica—y que ambos son síntomas de un abandono cultural más profundo. Nacida en París en 1932 de padre franco-polaco y madre mexicana, Poniatowska afirma que su formación como escritora estuvo marcada por el desplazamiento, por aprender a escuchar a quienes la historia había silenciado, y por comprender que el periodismo debe ser ante todo un acto de solidaridad. Ampliamente reconocida por haber contribuido a establecer el género del testimonio en las letras latinoamericanas, transformó las voces de los marginados en literatura que obligó a una nación entera a confrontar su propio silencio. Sostiene que su obra emblemática La Noche de Tlatelolco no fue un logro periodístico sino una obligación moral, y reflexiona sobre su decisión de rechazar el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, preguntando quién iba a premiar a los muertos. Poniatowska insiste en que la mayor amenaza para la literatura y el periodismo hoy no es la inteligencia artificial sino la desaparición de la paciencia—la disposición a permanecer con un texto, una historia o una vida el tiempo suficiente para que emerja el significado. A los 94 años, reafirma su creencia en la bondad innata de los seres humanos no como un sentimiento sino como una necesidad. English transcript: SAVAGE MINDS — Elena Poniatowska Julian Vigo (00:00:15): Welcome to Savage Minds. Julian Vigo (00:00:26): I am your host, Julian Vigo. Julian Vigo (00:00:30): Today’s guest is Elena Poniatowska Amor, Julian Vigo (00:00:33): daughter of a French father of Polish origin, Jean E. Julian Vigo (00:00:37): Poniatowski, and Mexican mother Paula Amor. Julian Vigo (00:00:41): She was born in Paris in 1932. Julian Vigo (00:00:46): She has practiced journalism since 1953 at the newspapers El Día, Excélsior, Novedades, and La Jornada. Julian Vigo (00:00:57): She is the first woman to receive the National Journalism Prize. Julian Vigo (00:01:02): Among her works is La Noche de Tlatelolco, Julian Vigo (00:01:05): a classic since its publication, for which she was awarded the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, Julian Vigo (00:01:12): which she refused, asking who was going to award the dead. Julian Vigo (00:01:17): Her novels and stories include La Flor de Lis, Julian Vigo (00:01:20): De Noche Vienes and Tlapalería, Julian Vigo (00:01:24): Paseo de la Reforma, Julian Vigo (00:01:26): Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío, Julian Vigo (00:01:28): The Life of a Mexican Soldadera, Julian Vigo (00:01:31): Querido Diego Te Abraza Quiela, Tinísima, winner of the Mazatlán Prize in 1992, La Piel del Cielo, Julian Vigo (00:01:40): winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2001, and El Tren Pasa Primero, Julian Vigo (00:01:48): about the lives of Mexican railway workers, Julian Vigo (00:01:52): winner of the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize in 2007. Leonora won the Premio Biblioteca Breve Seix Barral in 2011. El Universo o Nada (2013) is the biography of Julian Vigo (00:02:07): astrophysicist Guillermo Haro. Ondas de la Niña Mala is her first poetry collection, and Julian Vigo (00:02:14): her children’s books include Boda en Chimalistac, La Vendedora de Nubes, Julian Vigo (00:02:20): El Burro que Metió la Pata, Sansimonsi, illustrated by Rafael Barajas el Fisgón, and El Julian Vigo (00:02:27): Niño Estrellero by Fernando Robles, and El Charito Cantor by Osvaldo Hernández. Julian Vigo (00:02:34): Her most recent novel, El Amante Polaco, portrays the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Julian Vigo (00:02:41): Poniatowski. Translated into 20 languages. Gabi Brimmer and Las Mil y Una, the story of Julian Vigo (00:02:48): Paulina, Julian Vigo (00:02:49): address social issues. Julian Vigo (00:02:52): After receiving honorary doctorates from UNAM and UAM, Julian Vigo (00:02:57): she was awarded them from the University of Puebla, Julian Vigo (00:03:01): Sonora, Estado de México, Julian Vigo (00:03:04): Guerrero, Julian Vigo (00:03:06): Chiapas, and Puerto Rico. Julian Vigo (00:03:09): She also received honorary degrees from the New School for Social Research in New York, Julian Vigo (00:03:13): Manhattanville College, and Florida Atlantic University in the United States, and from Julian Vigo (00:03:19): Paris 8, Julian Vigo (00:03:19): La Sorbonne, and Pau-Pyrénées, as well as the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism at Julian Vigo (00:03:27): Columbia University, New York, in 2004, and from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, in Julian Vigo (00:03:32): 2015. Julian Vigo (00:03:34): She received the French Legion of Honour at the rank of Officer, the Gabriela Mistral Prize from Chile, and in Julian Vigo (00:03:41): 2006, the Courage Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation. Julian Vigo (00:03:43): In 2013 she was awarded Julian Vigo (00:03:49): the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for literature in the Spanish language, and she received the Julian Vigo (00:03:55): Belisario Domínguez Medal in 2022. Julian Vigo (00:03:58): This is the highest honour granted by the Senate of the Mexican Republic, along with the Julian Vigo (00:04:05): Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language in 2023. (00:04:12): I welcome Elena Poniatowska to Savage Minds. Julian Vigo (00:04:19): I wanted to begin with a memory I have of you. Julian Vigo (00:04:22): In 1993, Julian Vigo (00:04:25): I think, Julian Vigo (00:04:27): or 94 — Julian Vigo (00:04:28): one of those two years — Julian Vigo (00:04:29): I was in Puebla, Julian Vigo (00:04:31): Cholula, Julian Vigo (00:04:32): teaching at the Universidad de las Américas. Julian Vigo (00:04:35): Yes. Julian Vigo (00:04:36): And you came to give a talk at an observatory — I believe it was Tonantzintla. Elena Poniatowska (00:04:44): Yes, of course. Elena Poniatowska (00:04:46): Yes, I remember it, and Julian Vigo (00:04:49): you made a great impression on me that day. But I must confess that your entire life’s work made a great impression on me — not only on me. I wanted to begin with your formation, your life, because you were born in France and Julian Vigo (00:05:12): how do you remember your childhood in France, and what elements of that world did you bring with you when you arrived in Mexico in 1942? Elena Poniatowska (00:05:21): Well, thank you very much for your interest. Elena Poniatowska (00:05:29): I can tell you that I was born in 1932 in Paris, France, because my mother Paula Amor married Elena Poniatowska (00:05:42): Juan Poniatowski, who held a noble title — that of prince — Elena Poniatowska (00:05:54): because the last king of Poland was Stanisław Poniatowski, who was, I believe, one of Elena Poniatowska (00:06:07): the lovers — Elena Poniatowska (00:06:09): one of the younger lovers of the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great. Elena Poniatowska (00:06:21): My mother was a woman born also in Paris, of Mexican origin, who left Elena Poniatowska (00:06:32): France because of the Mexican Revolution Elena Poniatowska (00:06:36): and went to live with her parents — Pablo Amor and Elena Iturbe de Amor — in Elena Poniatowska (00:06:49): Biarritz, and they later moved to Paris. My mother always spoke Spanish with a French accent. She had two sisters who also lived in France for a long time, Elena Poniatowska (00:07:07): and they were rather Frenchified. She met my father Juan Poniatowski in Paris and Elena Poniatowska (00:07:20): married him, and I was born in 1932 in Paris. Elena Poniatowska (00:07:25): I would like to know Julian Vigo (00:07:31): more about this experience, because as you probably know — especially Americans and Canadians — they think everyone wants to come to their countries. But something they don’t know until they travel is that in Mexico, Honduras, and all of Latin America there is a great deal of immigration, people from every country in the world. Why not? Elena Poniatowska (00:08:01): Her mother was in France; my mother was Mexican, born in France. Her family — she had a grandmother, my mother’s great-grandmother, who was Russian, and in general her father was educated in England, so they were Elena Poniatowska (00:08:29): Mexicans — Amor is a Mexican surname — but they were very closely tied to Europe. For my mother, living in Europe was very natural because Elena Poniatowska (00:08:49): she first attended a boardi

    1h 13m
  2. Chris Kaspar de Ploeg

    2d ago

    Chris Kaspar de Ploeg

    Journalist, grassroots organiser, and author Chris Kaspar de Ploeg pulls back the curtain on how Western legacy media operates to manufacture consent for imperialist, neocolonial, and xenophobic narratives. Moving beyond surface-level partisan bickering, de Ploeg utilizes a rigorous socioeconomic and class-based analysis to dissect the structural mechanisms that dictate modern news coverage. The discussion explores how Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Propaganda Model manifests today, examining a media ecosystem where the audience is treated as the product rather than the client. De Ploeg shares his firsthand experience with media blackouts following the release of his book, Ukraine in the Crossfire, illustrating the real-world boundaries of acceptable discourse. His analysis then expands to the broader political economy of news—including corporate monopolies, advertising reliance, and state subsidies—before delivering a critical evaluation of the media’s disparate framing of state violence, civilian casualties, and ideological weaponisation in the Gaza crisis. Finally, the conversation tackles the illusion of choice in the digital age, analysing how algorithmic shadow-banning and digital oligopolies bottleneck dissent to provide an essential, uncompromising look at the forces shaping our perception of global conflict. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    2h 23m
  3. Angeliki Lysimachou

    May 30

    Angeliki Lysimachou

    Dr Angeliki Lysimachou, Head of Science and Policy at Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, examines systemic failures in EU pesticide risk assessment that prioritise industry data over independent science. With a background in environmental toxicology, she scrutinises how regulatory loopholes—such as selective dismissal of genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, microbiome disruption, and low-dose carcinogenicity studies—enable the continued authorisation of hazardous substances like glyphosate despite IARC’s probable carcinogen classification and alarming findings from the Ramazzini Institute’s full-life-cycle trials showing increased leukaemia and tumours at supposedly safe exposure levels. Lysimachou highlights how corporate influence, ghostwriting, revelations from the Monsanto Papers, and statistical manoeuvering by conflicted experts undermine the precautionary principle embedded in EU law, resulting in “glyphosate deserts,” biodiversity collapse, and persistent PFAS metabolites like TFA contaminating groundwater for decades. Her analysis reveals a deeper structural bias where economic dependencies on pesticide fees, political pressures from member states, and industry lobbying trump public health protections, as evidenced by repeated 5- and 10-year renewals amid abstentions and U-turns like Germany’s. By mounting court challenges and pushing for agroecological transitions under the Farm to Fork strategy, she exposes how the current framework shields profitable broad-spectrum herbicides while externalising long-term costs of soil degradation, farmer health burdens (e.g. elevated lymphoma risks), and irreversible environmental damage onto society. Lysimachou’s critique underscores the tension between regulatory rhetoric and implementation, calling for genuine accountability and faster phase-outs of forever chemicals. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    1h 23m
  4. Biljana Vankovska

    May 26

    Biljana Vankovska

    Biljana Vankovska, a Macedonian professor of political science, international relations and peace studies at Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, delivers a sharp systemic critique of declining Western hegemony in this wide-ranging conversation. She interprets the recent conflicts in the Middle East, particularly the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz events, alongside the situation in Ukraine as structural turning points signaling the shift toward a multipolar global order. Rooted in her experience growing up in former Yugoslavia and the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement, Vankovska rejects mainstream narratives that reduce global crises to the personal failings of leaders like Donald Trump or simple kakistocracy. Instead, she argues that the world is witnessing the violent death throes of hyper-imperialism and a declining global capitalist system. She deconstructs the so-called rules-based international order as a euphemism for arbitrary US diktat that masks ongoing neo-colonialism while whitewashing historical atrocities. Vankovska contrasts the media-driven fear, paralysis and moral bankruptcy prevalent in the US and EU with the historical optimism and strategic stamina of the Global South. Evoking Antonio Gramsci, she balances a pessimism of the intellect with an optimism of the will, defending legitimate resistance against the military-industrial-media-academic complex. Ultimately, she views the tragedies in Gaza and Iran not as isolated failures but as painful birth pangs of a new cooperative world order grounded in mutual sovereignty, trust, and emancipation from empire. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    2h 5m
  5. Alex Taek-Gwang Lee

    May 21

    Alex Taek-Gwang Lee

    Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, professor of philosophy and cultural studies at Kyung Hee University in South Korea, examines the deep tensions between Western Marxism, Stalinist orthodoxy, and the possibilities for communist thought today. In a powerful critique of Gabriel Rockhill’s work, Lee argues that reducing Western Marxism to mere CIA manipulation is historically reductive and ultimately serves as a gift to right-wing anti-communists. He traces the vital lineage from Georg Lukács’ theory of reification and class consciousness through the Frankfurt School’s critique of the culture industry, defending cultural and philosophical analysis as a necessary extension of Marxism rather than a betrayal of it. Lee develops his own original concepts of “weak technologies” and “planetary cybernetics” to diagnose how late capitalism has reified technology, desire, and subjectivity itself, while rejecting both nostalgic defences of actually existing socialism and liberal accelerationist fantasies. Drawing on Deleuze and his earlier works such as Communism After Deleuze and Made in Nowhere, he insists that communism remains a living, transformative idea—an ontological openness that demands we invent new people and new modes of existence against the current master signifier of capital. This dense, philosophically rich conversation reframes longstanding debates on the left and offers sharp conceptual tools for understanding AI-driven capitalism and the future of radical politics in the 21st century. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    2h 8m
  6. Jillian Spencer

    May 19

    Jillian Spencer

    Jillian Spencer, child and adolescent psychiatrist, examines the ideological transformation of modern medicine through her experience challenging paediatric gender treatment protocols and the institutional backlash by Queensland Health that followed. The interview evolves into a broader indictment of how liberal democracies increasingly discipline dissent behind the language of compassion, inclusion, and professional ethics. Spencer describes a medical culture where questioning the rapid expansion of gender-affirming interventions for minors became professionally dangerous, not because evidence had been conclusively settled, but because institutional consensus had already hardened into moral doctrine. The discussion repeatedly returns to the atmosphere of fear shaping hospitals, universities, and regulatory bodies, where clinicians privately express concerns yet remain publicly silent to avoid reputational destruction, accusations of bigotry or career ruin. What emerges is less a narrow debate over healthcare policy than a portrait of bureaucratic systems that reward ideological conformity while marginalising independent inquiry. Spencer depicts whistleblowing mechanisms as hollow structures incapable of functioning once institutions themselves become invested in preserving political narratives. The transcript also situates the controversy within a wider cultural shift across Western societies, where disagreement is increasingly pathologised and scientific uncertainty treated as social harm. Through Spencer’s account, medicine appears transformed from a field grounded in skepticism and evidence into one governed by managerial orthodoxy, emotional language, and activist pressure. Beneath the clinical specifics lies a darker warning about the shrinking capacity of public institutions to tolerate ambiguity, contested evidence and moral independence without resorting to professional punishment or social exclusion. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    1h 42m
  7. Ida Susser

    May 11

    Ida Susser

    EJRkJKXYJbDiJ69cKu3ZIda Susser, distinguished professor of anthropology at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, examines the Gilets jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement in France as a volatile yet transformative response to the deepening crises of neoliberalism, democratic erosion, and social fragmentation across the West. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork in Paris, Saint-Denis, and provincial France, Susser argues that the movement disrupted conventional political binaries by creating forms of solidarity that exceeded traditional distinctions between left and right. Through concepts such as “commoning” and “thresholding,” she describes how precarious workers, retirees, migrants, and politically disillusioned citizens forged provisional alliances grounded less in ideology than in shared experiences of dispossession, police violence, economic exclusion, and social abandonment. Susser situates the movement within a broader historical trajectory of grassroots resistance, linking the Yellow Vests to Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados, Black Lives Matter, and earlier traditions of horizontalist organizing. She explores how the protests exposed the consequences of gentrification, rural decline, and the hollowing out of public life, while simultaneously generating new forms of mutual aid, including food collectives and neighborhood support networks during lockdown. The conversation also confronts the contradictions embedded within contemporary progressive politics, including disputes surrounding feminism, immigration, populism, and state authority, as Susser reflects on the increasingly unstable boundaries between emancipatory and reactionary movements. Framing the present moment as one marked by the resurgence of authoritarian tendencies and the normalization of state repression, she argues for the urgent construction of a new “historic bloc” capable of defending democratic space through collective struggle, civic participation, and radically inclusive visions of social justice. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    1h 9m
  8. Abby Martin

    May 9

    Abby Martin

    Abby Martin, an investigative journalist and advocacy filmmaker, exposes the catastrophic environmental and human costs of US militarism, arguing that the Department of Defense represents a singular, yet intentionally obscured, force of global ecological destruction. Drawing on her reporting for The Empire Files and her latest film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, Martin discusses the institutional mechanisms that allow the military to remain exempt from international climate agreements, effectively functioning as a “blind spot” in mainstream environmental discourse while operating as the world’s largest institutional polluter. She challenges the “bipartisan consensus” for US imperialism, criticizing a “media blackout” orchestrated by corporate journalists—or “empire babies”—who normalize systemic violence while placing the burden of environmental responsibility on individual consumers. Extending the discussion beyond carbon emissions, Martin examines the toxic legacy of military operations, from the generational radioactive contamination caused by depleted uranium to the domestic betrayal of service members at Camp Lejeune. She contends that the current global atmosphere of “manufactured amnesia” masks the reality of an empire in its “waning” stages, which increasingly relies on emergency powers and state-sponsored censorship to maintain its grip amid growing public dissent. Reflecting on the ongoing crisis in Gaza and the historical precedents of US interventionism, Martin suggests that anti-imperialism and climate justice are naturally interlinked, viewing her work as a “tool in the arsenal” for movement building aimed at reclaiming transparency and justice within a crumbling global order. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

    40 min
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4.8
out of 5
17 Ratings

About

Investigative reporting and social commentary on public culture, the arts, science, and politics. www.savageminds.co

Information

  • Creator
    Savage Minds
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    231
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Savage Minds
  • Show Website
    Savage Minds

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