Can we speak freely? (Patreon)

Welcome to the new fortnightly (twice-monthly) Bungacast newsletter. This one's big, because it actually covers the last month. Next ones will be shorter, promise. It's also available on Substack, if you're on there too.

We strive to speak freely on the podcast but the internet as a libertarian paradise is long-gone. Increasingly, authorities the world over are getting itchy trigger fingers when it comes to censoring speech online. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been arrested in France in an attempt to make the network accountable for communications on its network, while a top Brazilian judge has subpoena’d Elon Musk (see below for more).

Good time, then, to dig up our conversation with Glenn Greenwald from 2019 on disinformation and fake news.

CONTEST: Name that airport!

Last month, Milan named their airport after our boy Silvio Berlusconi. Bunga VIP lounge, anyone? That got us thinking: what if we could name or rename other international airports for polarizing politicians or interesting/controversial figures? Better yet, we’d like you to help brainstorm some ideas.

We’re giving away a half-dozen Bungacast T-shirts to the listeners who submit the best entries! Be as cheeky as you want to be: Ted Cruz Not-From-Texas International Airport, Calgary or Mohammed Atta Intl Airport in Cairo? Or it could just be a way to honor someone undersung who deserves more recognition.

Keep in mind that we only have T-shirts in Small and XS sizes, so tiny people, please move to the front of the line (or if you have a small significant other or friend).

Send us a message here or email info [at] bungacast.com. We’ll announce our winners on September 11th. Come fly with us!

Here's what we're serving up in early September:

Who actually won the Second World War? General Zhukov, that’s who. In this month’s Reading Club we discuss Stalin’s General.

Also, we’ve got historian Andrew Hartman on to talk about culture wars, old and new, and continuing our exploration of emerging multipolarity, we check in on Slovakia, which is playing both sides and whose PM Robert Fico says Ukraine joining NATO would “guarantee WW3”.

ICYMI - August on Bungacast

Welcome to the Tourist Age

Has tourism jumped the shark? Renowned Italian journalist Marco d'Eramo joined us to discuss his book, The World in a Selfie. Why is hating tourists the main characteristic of being a tourist?

The Myth of Monolithic China

Is China a seamlessly organised economy? A monolithic, integrated state? NOPE. Lee Jones & Shahar Hameiri tell us why.

The First Poaster (Vice) President?

Ryan Zickgraf joins us to talk about the Netflix adaptation of the vice-presidential nominee memoir Hillbilly Elegy, what it tells us about J.D. Vance, the direction of Trump and MAGA, and Ryan’s own ‘anti-Hillbilly Elegy’.

Median Left Thought And Its Monsters

Ben Burgis talked to Alex and George about his review of Naomi Klein's Doppelgangers in Damage. We also discussed what's wrong with the contemporary left idea of "settlers" and "indigenous.”

Bodiless Bodies

Civil society used to be able to stand up to the state and the market. Now it is withered, and NGOs have colonised that space.

In the Reading Club…

…we reviewed Julien Benda’s classic 1927 The Treason of the Intellectuals. What should we expect from intellectuals today, in a time of conformity and the bureaucratization and commodification of thought?

And we responded to your questions and criticisms in Aufhebonus Bonus + much more.

Remember, to get all episodes in full, you'll need to subscribe.

Elsewhere in the Bungaverse

Alex makes the case that in Brazil’s tit-for-tat lawfare, free speech is the loser.

George argues that the ‘suffering of others’ disavows the individual acting in their own interests in Café americain

Alex also talked to Joshua Citarella about the End of History and to Derick Varn about the failure of the Millennial Left.

Leigh Phillips argued in Jacobin that anti-nuclear positions have hindered climate progress and energy reliability, and for the Breakthrough Institute made the point that recognition of the Anthropocene as event unavoidably entails an explicitly humanist environmentalism.

Catherine Liu had her own thoughts about Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger.

From the Archives:

Internet getting you down? That’s because it’s enshittified.