Lockdown was one of the defining experiences of our lives, but it was far from unique in history.

From the plantation to the infirmary and from the leper colony to the stay at home order, contagion and confinement are inextricably intertwined.

In The History of the World in 6 Plagues, Edna Bonhomme investigates how fear, power, race science and colonial violence have shaped six of the most powerful plagues in history, and shaped our societies in turn.

In 1996 Samuel Huntington published ‘The Clash of Civilizations’. At the time its hypothesis was counter-intuitive. Despite the supremacy of the United States after the Cold War, the ascent of globalisation would not lead to the end of history, but a return to distinctive and competing civilisations. Rather than homogeneity we would see a growing emphasis on difference, rather than unhindered free markets we would see friction, and eventually rupture.

In 2025, with the continued rise of China to superpower status and a revanchist Russia, it’s tempting to think Huntington was right. Rather than a global civilisation – based on market competition and the rule of law – we are edging towards a world of multipolarity and civilisation-states. But what if civilisational thinking is itself mistaken? What if the idea of plural ‘civilisations’ is a product of the 19th century? Where does such civilisational thinking really come from? What even is a ‘civilisation’? And what, in particular, is ‘the West’?

Josephine Quinn is one of Britain’s most respected historians of antiquity. Chair of Ancient History at Cambridge, her most recent book, “How the World Made the West”, was a book of the year for The Economist, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. In this conversation Josephine and Aaron go from the very dawn of ancient European history, through the Bronze Age Collapse, to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. How similar were those people to us? And what lessons does the distant past hold for the challenges of the 21st century?

Read any of the mainstream press at the moment and you’ll hear the same thing: major things are happening in America.

But what if this sudden shift was an illusion?

David Adler is Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International, a group that brings together forces from across the progressive left.

He told Richard Hames that far from being radical change, Trumpism is the culmination of decades-long project called the Reactionary International.

For almost six centuries Europe has been at the centre of world affairs.

While the days of Empire are long gone, over the last several decades the importance and comparative wealth of Europe has declined at an extraordinary pace. Indeed for many countries, from Britain to Germany and Greece, living standards have stagnated or even declined.

Now, in what seem like the final months of the war in Ukraine, Europe can no longer rely on security guarantees made by the United States. Technologically dependent on a superpower across the Atlantic, the countries of Europe are economically, militarily and politically weaker than at any time in centuries. All while China ascends to the category of superpower, and Russia returns to the politics of expansionism.

So how bad are things for Europe? Has its entire political class just been discredited? If so, what will be the consequences? Could Russia target other states, like Lithuania or Estonia, if it succeeds in annexing large parts of Ukraine? Is there a model Europe can pursue beyond vassalage to Washington? And how might it relate to China in an increasingly multipolar world?

This part two of our discussion about a new left party. You can listen to part 1 here: https://novaramedia.com/2025/01/30/time-for-a-new-left-party/

James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former Director of Comms, argues for a new party. But who would it speak to? Would it be democratic and in what ways? And what could it actually achieve in the volatile terrain of British Politics?

Zack Polanski, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, says we don’t need anything new. There is, after all, a socialist party in the UK already: it’s the Greens. And, unlike a new party, it already has everything it needs.

They spoke to Richard Hames about democracy, the challenge of combatting Reform, and a radical left vision for our collective future.

Lots of this episode was formed by comments we received on the first episode. If you’d like to shape future episodes in this series, please email [email protected]

“I’m literally a communist, you idiot”. For almost a decade Ash Sarkar has been one of Britain’s most prominent left wing political journalists. She first met Aaron Bastani in 2010, and was later invited on to the Novara FM podcast. It wasn’t long before she was calling Piers Morgan an idiot on morning TV.

Now she has written her first book, ‘Minority Rule’. It chronicles the rise of identity politics – left and right – and how social attitudes changed as our economic model became ever more rigged over the 2010s. Has identity politics been damaging for progressive change? What does it get right? And what does left-wing politics look like in a moment when ‘woke capitalism’ has subsided?

Your death should be your own, as much as possible. That’s one of the principles behind the Assisted Dying Bill. It lets adults with less than 6 months to live end their lives.

But disability campaigners fear that people who don’t want to die might be pressured to let themselves be killed.

Ellen Clifford is the author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe. She spoke to Richard Hames about one of the most fraught debates of our era.

It’s official – we’re in the middle of an unprecedented vibe shift. Donald Trump’s second term in the White House tips the political balance across the world. So, what happens next? And what defines the era that we’re living in? Ash Sarkar is joined by Professor Will Davies, author of The Happiness Industry and Nervous States, to talk about ‘libertarian authoritarianism’, the end of experts, and the death of globalisation.

Love is supposed to be the most universal human experience after death and taxes. So why do so many people feel like they’re failing in it? Ash Sarkar is joined by Shon Faye, author of the bestselling book The Transgender Issue, to discuss her new book Love In Exile. They talk about how marriage has changed since their grandmothers’ day, the crisis of lonely young men, and whether secularism is to blame for relationship breakdown.

After last week’s ACFM on the meaning and morality of personal debt, Keir and Nadia zoom out to the macroeconomics of debt.

Joining them to make sense of concepts like sovereign debt, structural adjustment and international ratings agencies is Heidi Chow, executive director of Debt Justice. She explains how and why countries borrow money, why Global South countries end up mired in debt, and how the climate crisis will affect national borrowing.

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