UK Desk for Arts Express

Jack Clarke

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Arts
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A dedicated archive of Jack Clarke's segments from the acclaimed WBAI Radio - NYC show, Arts Express. Each 15-30 minute episode brings you in-depth coverage of film, arts news, and exclusive scoops, all delivered with a hard-core political edge. Dive into art alerts and Best Of The Net Hotspots, offering listeners the latest and greatest in the arts world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

11/06/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 11-05-25: David Lidz and the legacy of Baltimore

What is a co-operative? We throw the word around like it’s a trendy café or a startup with a conscience, but in Baltimore, David Lidz and his team at WaterBottle Co-op are proving it’s something far more radical, a way of reclaiming power from the few and putting it back in the hands of the people who actually graft. Worker-owners, not shareholders. Community control, not corporate spin. We talk about ownership, democracy, and what Baltimore can teach Britain about building from the ground up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

26 min
10/14/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 6-18-25: The Water Crisis in America

I sit down with Josh Cliffords, the founder of @freewater.io the startup giving away bottled spring water for free and somehow managing to tackle the global water crisis while they’re at it. It’s like Mad Men meets mutual aid: every bottle’s an ad, and every sip helps fund clean water projects in East Africa. We talk philanthropy, advertising, why FreeWater might be capitalism’s glitch in the matrix, and why, when 2 billion people still don’t have safe drinking water, innovation without ethics isn’t innovation at all. It's part tech vision, part moral reckoning, and somehow still makes room for hope. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 min
06/15/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 6-11-25: Birmingham Bin Strikes What's going on?

They said it was just about the bins. But if you’ve ever lived on an estate, you know better — it always starts with the bins. In this episode, I’m reporting from the streets of Birmingham, a city on its knees with a bankrupt council, a broken promise to workers, and rubbish piling up faster than excuses. I joined Unite the Union and the striking bin workers right outside the council house as they raised their voices (and a fair bit of hell) against a system that’s failing them — and us. This isn’t just about pay. It’s about dignity. About working-class people being pushed into a Victorian underclass while the powers that be hide behind buzzwords and balance sheets. You’ll hear from the frontlines — chants, chaos, and community — and we’ll trace how Brum got here, what it means, and why this fight matters beyond the Midlands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 min
05/25/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 5-7-25: All Hail the New Flesh

On this edition of the UK Desk for Arts Express, I take a close look at New Flesh, the debut novel by Adam Jones—a brutal, stylish piece of speculative fiction that fuses body horror with bureaucratic dread. Think Cronenberg meets Kafka, shot through with a very British kind of collapse. I dig into how the book speaks to our current moment: digital numbness, institutional violence, and the way desire gets twisted by systems meant to control us. It’s grotesque, sharp, and hard to look away from—just like the world it reflects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

7 min
05/18/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 4-23-25: Gothic Marxism and the ghosts of horror

Sitting down with Greenaway, aka The Lit Crit Guy, for a chat about his new book felt like pulling back the curtain on something we all live in but rarely name: a system so inescapable, so total, that it starts to feel like air — poisoned, pressurised, but invisible unless you stop to really look. And that’s what the book does: it doesn’t just point at late-stage capitalism and say “this is bad,” it opens the trapdoor and drags the whole thing down into the genre it belongs to. Not economics. Not politics. Horror. Because what is capitalism if not a haunted house? A slow-burn possession? A monster that feeds off every moment of rest you almost had, and every future you thought might still be possible. Greenaway maps it all — from the daily grind to the crisis of meaning, from wage labour to the endless content churn — and makes the case that the scariest part isn’t the chaos. It’s the order. The cold, systemic, spreadsheet-shaped order that knows your worth down to the last decimal and still says, “Not enough.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 min
03/19/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 3-19-25: The fate of Repeater Books

The independent publisher that’s been shaking up the literary scene with its bold, anti-establishment ethos. From philosophy to politics, music to subcultures, Repeater has carved out a space for radical thought and unflinching creativity. In this episode, we unpack the explosive whistleblowing that exposed the tech-capitalist ties behind the scenes, the role of AI in eroding independent publishing, and what this means for the future of leftist literature. Featuring voices from those on the front lines, we explore how corporate power is suffocating radical thought—and why the fight for Repeater and Zer0 is far from over. Free Palestine. Smash the machines. The struggle continues. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8 min
03/13/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 3-12-25: Can the UK Arts Survive?

For this weeks UK Desk, I reflect on my experiences in the UK film and creative scene and the current plight facing the industry at the moment which has left more then 70% out of work across the sector. Can the working class artists survive this war on culture? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8 min
03/04/2025

UK Desk for Arts Express 2-12-25: No Longer Human

And I wonder—if Dazai were alive today, would he even stand a chance? Would he be dismissed as “too bleak” for publishers? Would he be buried under a thousand AI-generated books designed to mimic his style but lacking his soul? Would an algorithm decide that his work was too risky, too unpredictable, too human? Art, when it’s real, doesn’t follow the rules. It doesn’t obey authority. It doesn’t ask permission to exist. And maybe that’s why Dazai still resonates today—because his work is a reminder of what art is supposed to be. It’s a slap in the face to a world that wants everything to be palatable, profitable, and safe. So maybe the real question isn’t whether Dazai would survive in today’s world. Maybe the question is—would today’s world even deserve him? I reflect on my relationship with the work of Dazai and crucially the impact 'No Longer Human' had on my personal since Lockdown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 min

A dedicated archive of Jack Clarke's segments from the acclaimed WBAI Radio - NYC show, Arts Express. Each 15-30 minute episode brings you in-depth coverage of film, arts news, and exclusive scoops, all delivered with a hard-core political edge. Dive into art alerts and Best Of The Net Hotspots, offering listeners the latest and greatest in the arts world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Creator

Jack Clarke
Years Active

2024 - 2025
Episodes

42
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Jack Clarke
Show Website

UK Desk for Arts Express