The Verso Podcast

Verso Books
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The Verso Podcast

Podcasts, readings, lectures and events: big ideas and radical discussion from authors and collaborators with Verso Books

  1. 13 NOV

    Overshoot | Andreas Malm & Wim Carton

    On this week’s episode of The Verso Podcast we’re back to our typical format - our host, Eleanor Penny, is joined by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm to discuss their new book Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown (BUY HERE: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3131-overshoot). We’re still working on bringing you more of these roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation with two of key thinkers on the politics of climate breakdown. And don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for more inter-season programming in the run up to season 4! We’re well into the third decade of the twenty-first century and we have still failed to save the world. Twenty-eight COP conferences on climate change have been and gone - and whilst there’s been plenty of mud wrestling over tipping points and temperatures rises, nothing ever really happens. In fact, the further we creep towards unliveable global temperature rises, the more fossil fuels get burned. In response, an attitude has taken hold in some parts of climate politics that the fight to keep temperature rises below 1.5 degrees is a lost cause. Some people claim that instead of mitigating emissions now, we should instead be looking at strategies to tactically ‘overshoot’ warming targets, before using carbon capture and removal to turn the heat back down again. If you’ve just invested in a new oil pipeline, that attitude might look very appealing. Less so if you are living in parts of the world already burning, starving or drowning in a new age of heatwaves. In this in-depth discussion, Wim Carton and Andreas Malm chart the embrace of this ‘overshoot’ thinking in environmental circles, in business, and in politics - asking what it means for the delicate life systems on this planet, and what we might be able to do about it. Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over twenty academic articles and book chapters on climate politics. His work has appeared in top journals such as Nature Climate Change, WIRES Climate Change and Antipode. Andreas Malm teaches human ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of, among other books, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire. And don’t forget - be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

    1h 14m

  2. 29 OCT

    Fascism, Marxism and Israel | Enzo Traverso

    This week we have a special episode for you as part of our inter-season programming - an interview with Enzo Traverso. Of course, we’re still working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast, but until then we have some exciting interim episodes coming up for you. Enzo Traverso is a writer, political scientist, and professor of humanities at Cornell University. His previous books include Fire and Blood: The European Civil War, 1914 to 1945, The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right, The Origins of Nazi Violence, and The End of Jewish Modernity. He sat down with verso editor Sebastian Budgen to explore his life, his work and his latest book, Revolution: An Intellectual History - released in a new paperback edition earlier this year. The book charts a new history of the revolutionary movements of the 19th and 20th centuries - from Alexandra Kollontai’s cries for sexual liberation in Russia, to Louis Auguste Blanqui’s barricades in France, to Ho Chi Minh’s independence proclamation in Vietnam. In drawing these examples together, the book seeks answers to the fundamental question of how to unmake and then remake the world - of what revolution means and what it demands from us. In this interview, Enzo talks about his intellectual beginnings, about the new global far right, the Frankfurt School, left wing melancholia, and Israel's war against Gaza. If you'd like to read more about how people down the ages have tried to change the world - and sometimes even succeeded - then Enzo’s book, Revolution: An Intellectual History is available now from Verso Books: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution And don’t forget - be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

    1h 40m

  3. 15 OCT

    Macrodose: Cyberboss | Craig Gent

    This week we’ve got something a little different for you. Whilst we’re still technically between seasons - and working hard to bring you more roundtable discussions with our wonderful Verso authors in our upcoming fourth series of The Verso Podcast - we wanted to share a great episode we’ve been collaborating on with our friends over at Macrodose. Macrodose is a podcast from Planet B Productions that brings you a weekly briefing on the economy, and takes a look behind the media headlines to work out what’s really going on. You can listen to the podcast and support the show at patreon.com/macrodose In this episode you’ll be hearing from Craig Gent, author of Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work - published recently by Verso Books. As well as being a writer Craig is also a researcher and the North of England Editor at Novara Media. In this bonus show, Craig will be exploring the role of algorithms in the workplace. He’ll be covering the big questions - such as, what’s at stake as algorithms are slowly, quietly integrated into our everyday lives? Is it just an inevitable fact of the long march toward progress? Or does it open a new frontier of class struggle that we need to take seriously and think about strategically? In other words what happens when your boss is a robot, and what do we do about it? You can find Craig's book "Cyberboss: The Rise of Algorithmic Management and the New Struggle for Control at Work" here: www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2958-cyberboss Be sure to subscribe to the show so you can be the first to know when season four drops - and so that you don’t miss any of the bonus content coming your way between now and then. If you enjoy The Verso Podcast please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts - it really helps us out!

    19 min
  4. [LIVE] The Future of Global Politics w/ Jeremy Corbyn, Laleh Khalili & Daniel Denvir

    5 AUG

    [LIVE] The Future of Global Politics w/ Jeremy Corbyn, Laleh Khalili & Daniel Denvir

    Today we're publishing part two of our sell-out live event recorded at London's Union Chapel on July 26th. For this discussion we teamed up with our friends over at The Dig for a podcast extravaganza. Eleanor Penny of the Verso Podcast and Dig host Daniel Denvir sat down with writer and academic Laleh Khalili and the freshly re-elected, newly independent, MP Jeremy Corbyn, to talk about the past present and most importantly the future of Internationalism. We talked about Palestine, Congo and Iran, about the Labour Party, the welfare state, the climate crisis and the economics of global trade. The event opened up with a live recording of Macrodose podcast which is already up on your feed if you want to take a dive into that. Thank you so much to everyone who came down sold out the event and brought such an incredible energy to the evening. If you don't already do subscribe to The Dig wherever you get your podcasts, and support them over at patreon.com/thedig

    1h 28m
  5. [LIVE] The Future of Global Capitalism w/ Macrodose Podcast

    5 AUG

    [LIVE] The Future of Global Capitalism w/ Macrodose Podcast

    Today we're publishing part one of our sell-out live event recorded at London's Union Chapel on July 26th. For our first show of the evening we were joined by our friends at MACRODOSE podcast for a recording of their highly-recommended show on the future of global capitalism. This discussion was hosted by writer and academic Dalia Gabriel, and featured political scientist Thea Riofrancos, climate justice activist Asad Rehman and economist James Meadway. Subscribe to MACRODOSE at linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or wherever you get podcasts. And please do support the project over at patreon.com/Macrodose

    49 min
  6. Verso Book Club Podcast | Jules Gill-Peterson

    20 JUN

    Verso Book Club Podcast | Jules Gill-Peterson

    In this second episode of the newly launched Verso Book Club Podcast, Jules Gill-Peterson sits down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to discuss her new book A Short History of Trans Misogyny. In this incisive account of the invention of trans panic, A Short History of Trans Misogyny challenges the notion of transmisogyny as simply an attempt to mock or undermine a trans woman’s femininity - instead situating its origin in the violence of the colonial state, and it’s attempts to consolidate its control over the populations it subjugated. Sign up to the Verso Book Club here tinyurl.com/5n67t9tr

    41 min
  7. Abolition Is Now | Leah Cowan & Lola Olufemi

    13 JUN

    Abolition Is Now | Leah Cowan & Lola Olufemi

    This week on The Verso Podcast we’re going to be thinking about the relationship between feminism and the carceral system. For a growing number of people the prospect of an abolitionist future - in which police and prisons are obsolete, and are not seen as the answer to all social ills - is an obviously desirable one. But to others, the notion of an abolitionist society is not only unworkable, but deeply irresponsible. Leah Cowan and Lola Olufemi sat down with our host, Eleanor Penny, to address our preconceptions about where violence comes from, what we think it looks like, and how we might tell the difference between protection and liberation - covering topics ranging from the history of feminist movements, to transphobia, police violence, the NGO sector, borders, and biological destiny. You can find Leah's new book "Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?: A tangled history of resistance and complicity" here: tinyurl.com/yc6spv52

    1h 11m
  8. Building the Ark: The Life and Legacy of Mike Davis | Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Owen Hatherley

    30 MAY

    Building the Ark: The Life and Legacy of Mike Davis | Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Owen Hatherley

    This week on The Verso Podcast Eleanor Penny is joined by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Owen Hatherley to look at the unflinching work of writer, urban theorist and historian Mike Davis. Verso x The Dig LIVE Podcast in London with Jeremy Corbyn, Laleh Khalili: tinyurl.com/bj2zx265 You can find Mike Davis' works here: tinyurl.com/3pse83y3

    1h 24m
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About

Podcasts, readings, lectures and events: big ideas and radical discussion from authors and collaborators with Verso Books

Information

  • Creator
    Verso Books
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2024
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Verso Podcast

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