John Lanchester, Tom Crewe and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite join James Butler to dissect Keir Starmer's victory and the historic collapse of the Conservative Party. They discuss what the result tells us about the needs and frustrations of the country, the ways in which the new Labour government might achieve some of the things it’s promised and why compari ... Show More
Oct 29
How Prediction Markets Work
According to their boosters, prediction markets such as Polymarket or Kalshi are ‘global truth machines’; their detractors say they’re just a glorified form of gambling. Either way, they’re zero-sum games with, as Geoff Mann put it recently in the LRB, ‘few winners and many loser ... Show More
1 h
Oct 24
Ulysses: James Joyce's properly obscene book
Tom McCarthy, writing in the LRB, described James Joyce's Ulysses as a ‘heavy book, a book full of weight, a fallen book’; a ‘properly obscene book’; ‘a book in which the central stake is the coming into being of the book itself’; a book for which ‘people should desist, once and ... Show More
53m 35s
Oct 22
How Fredric Jameson became Fredric Jameson
Perry Anderson once wrote that in Fredric Jameson’s account of postmodernism, ‘the vocation of Western Marxism has reached its most complete consummation.’ Praising the ‘spacious rhythms’ of his ‘complex, yet supple syntax’ and ‘sudden bursts of metaphoric intensity’, Anderson al ... Show More
53m 25s
Jul 2024
Victory and visions: Labour’s approach to the EU
<p>After 14 years of Conservative government in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party is back. Dissatisfaction with economic and tax policies, various political scandals, and a growing distrust in the Conservative leadership have all contributed to a Labour majority in the UK parl ... Show More
31m 37s
Aug 2024
#496 | Labour Won The Election. Now What?
⚡️ "The British Comedy Challenge" starts Monday, 9th Nov: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/challenges/the-british-comedy-challenge--The UK has a new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Labour is back in power. We discuss what this means for Britain, including Starmer's background, h ... Show More
20m 14s