ACFM

Ghosts have already got their own festival: Halloween. So why do they spook us at Christmas too? Do they represent forces of goodness and charity, or some nameless demonic evil? And what gifts have they brought? Jeremy Gilbert shields his eyes from the ghostly apparitions of Jacques Derrida, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and M.R. James as he explores the connections between festive cheer and spectral fear in this Microdose, which accompanies the recent Trip episode on Gifts. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Books & articles: M.R. James – Collected Ghost Stories / Jacques Derrida – Specters of Marx / Plato – Phaedrus / Francis Fukuyama – The End of History and the Last Man / Mark Fisher – Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures / Raymond Williams – Border Country / Jeffrey Sconce – Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television / Steven Connor – ‘Angels in the architecture: the economy of the supernatural’ / David Toop – Haunted Weather: Music, Silence and Memory / Derek Johnston – Haunted Seasons: Television Ghost Stories for Christmas and Horror for Halloween / Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol Music: Pierre Schaeffer – ‘Etude aux chemins de fer’ / Brian Eno and David Byrne – ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ / Lee Perry (The Upsetters) – ‘Black Board Jungle’ / Burial – ‘Archangel’ / Rufige Kru – ‘Ghosts of My Life’ / The Sabres of Paradise – ‘Haunted Dancehall’

Adam Smith claimed that “the propensity to truck, barter and exchange… is common to all men”, but anthropologists know that this isn’t the case. In fact, humans tend towards the opposite. So why do we feel compelled to give away our wealth? Nadia, Jem and Keir unwrap the cultural and economic pressures on doing pressies in a loosely festive edition of ACFM. Talking about Santa’s workshop, energy price controls and the lavish tradition of potlatch, they bring in the works of Marcel Mauss and David Graeber plus music from The Velvet Underground and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Sign up to the ACFM mailing list via the shownotes on the Novara Media website. Looking for a gift for the ACFM fan in your life? Head to shop.novaramedia.com Books: Emmanuel Levinas – Totality and Infinity / E.P. Thompson – The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century / Bronislaw Malinowski – Argonauts of the Western Pacific / Georges Bataille – The Accursed Share / David Graeber – On Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit / Marcel Mauss – The Gift / Jacques Derrida – The Gift of Death Music: The Velvet Underground – ‘The Gift’ / Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – ‘Merry Christmas (Happy New Year)’ / El Vez – ‘Feliz Navidad’ / El Vez – ‘Feliz Navi-Nada’ / Fox The Fox – ‘Precious Little Diamond’ (Shep Pettibone Remix) / Patti Smith – ‘Free Money’ / Double Exposure – ‘My Love Is Free’ / The Dickies – ‘Silent Night’ Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

We don’t get enough of it. We take drugs all day to fend it off. We’ll do it when we’re dead. And it’s our last line of defence against 24/7 capitalism. Sleep, the main course in life’s feast! The ACFM crew rouse themselves from slumber to wokeness in this month’s Trip, exploring the political and cultural aspects of shut-eye. How has a biological necessity been manipulated by everything from mechanical clocks, electric lighting, screen addiction and the insatiable needs of capitalism? Nadia Idle lives up to her name and argues we should all be spending more time in bed, Keir Milburn worries about an insomniac culture obsessed with productivity, and – despite his sideline as a party organiser and DJ – Jeremy Gilbert rails against the culture of all-night dancing. Remember you can find the exciting multimedia version of this podcast on Novara Media’s SoundCloud. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Music: The Beatles – I’m Only Sleeping / Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night / Chumbawamba – I With That They’d Sack Me / John Coltrane – Russian Lullaby / Alex De Grassi – Luther’s Lullaby / Faithless – Insomnia / The Beatles – I’m So Tired / Flowered Up – Weekender / The Fall – Rowche Rumble Books & articles: E. P. Thompson – ‘Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism’ / Paul Lafargue – The Right to Be Lazy / Jonathan Crary – 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

ACFM reunite for spooky season with one thing on their minds: the horror, the horror! Nadia, Jeremy and Keir embark on a historical, literary and cinematic exploration of scary stuff. Why do (some) humans love to be terrified? What can horror teach us about the nature of the universe? What do the latest crop of scary movies say about the fears plaguing our society? From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’, from H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror to Sigmund Freud’s idea of the uncanny, the gang discuss books and ideas spanning several centuries – along with music from Bauhaus, Gravediggaz and Metallica. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Remember you can find the version of this show on Novara Media’s SoundCloud. Books: Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness / Sigmund Freud – The Uncanny / Susan Hill – The Woman in Black / Stephen King – On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft / H.P. Lovecraft – Various / Paul Santilli – ‘Culture, Evil, and Horror’ / Mary Shelley – Frankenstein / Bram Stoker – Dracula / Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto / H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds Films: Everything Everywhere All At Once / Get Out / Halloween / Invasion of the Bodysnatchers / Night of the Living Dead / Poltergeist / Rosemary’s Baby / White Zombie Music: Dave Matthews Band – ‘Halloween’ / Bauhaus – ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ / Warren Zevon – ‘Werewolves of London’ / Jegsy Dodd – ‘A Scouse Werewolf in London’ / Metallica – ‘Enter Sandman’ / Ray Parker Jr – ‘Ghostbusters’ / Gravediggaz – ‘Diary of a Madman’ / Insane Clown Posse – ‘Hocus Pocus’ / Black Sabbath – ‘Paranoid’ Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

We live in irrational times. From the resurgence of interest in astrology, tarot and occultism to the deepening influence of conspiracy theories and positive thinking, culture is experiencing a turn towards the magical. What does that mean for those of us on the “weird left”? Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn gather round the cauldron for an episode that will challenge believers and rationalists alike, with music from Siouxsie, Queen and The KLF. Up for discussion: Sigmund Freud, the I Ching, modern macroeconomics, the Pendle Witches, the fake religion of Discordianism and much more. A playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify. Music: The KLF – ‘Justified & Ancient (Stand By The Jams)’ / The KLF – ‘3AM Eternal’ / A Guy Called Gerald – ‘Voodoo Ray’ / Miles Davis – ‘Miles Runs The Voodoo Down’ / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – ‘I Put A Spell On You’ / Queen – ‘It’s A Kind of Magic’ / Siouxsie & The Banshees – ‘Spellbound’ / MC 900ft Jesus – ‘Truth Is Out Of Style’ / Lisa King – ‘You’ve Got Magic’ Books and films: Sigmund Freud – The Unconscious / John Higgs – The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds / The KLF – The Manual: How to Have A Number 1 The Easy Way / K Foundation Burn a Million Quid / Ben Myers – The Perfect Golden Circle / Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus! Trilogy Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

In 1999, an anonymous Italian collective published a novel called Q. Imagined by its left-wing authors as an “operation manual for cultural disruption,” the book has had a bewildering political afterlife, with its story arc and the collective’s media pranks around Satanic ritual and paedophilia seemingly providing the basis for alt-right conspiracy theory QAnon. Did a ’90s literary prank foment an American insurrection? In a Microdose to accompany an ACFM Trip episode about magic, Keir Milburn speaks to Wu Ming 1, one of Q’s co-authors and a founding member of the Wu Ming collective, about the universal appeal of conspiracies. Books: Q – Luther Blissett / La Q di Qomplotto – Wu Ming 1 / The Tyranny of Algorithms – Miguel Benasayag / The Critique of Judgement – Immanuel Kant The stage magician mentioned by Wu Ming 1 is Mariano Tomatis and the walking tour of Leeds mentioned by Keir is a NovaraFM episode called Riots and the Red Flag.

How can we care for each other within a system that doesn’t care about us? In this episode, Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn get to grips with birth, death and all the social reproduction in between. When did we start putting our elders in care homes instead of our own homes? What happens when childcare is socialised instead of privatised? And why do we seem to be talking about “self-care” more than caring for others? The gang consider these questions and more in a suitably extended episode, with help from Foucault, feminist theory and caring tunes by Kate Bush, Bill Withers and Rihanna. A reminder that the SoundCloud version of this podcast has extra music and surprises – head to Novara Media’s SoundCloud to find it. Music: Vashti Bunyan – ‘Lately’ / Bill Withers – ‘Lean On Me’ / Kate Bush – ‘The Man With the Child In His Eyes’ / George McRae – ‘Rock Your Baby’ / The Beatles – ‘When I’m 64’ / Sam and Dave – ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ / Rihanna – ‘Umbrella’ Books, podcasts & videos: Joan Tronto – Caring Democracy / Michel Foucault – The Care of the Self / The Care Collective – The Care Manifesto / David Graeber on Novara FM, February 2019 / Plan C – WTF is Social Reproduction? / Christine Berry – Challenging the Asset Economy: Ownership in the Care Sector Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

In a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), a group of people take a trip into an imaginary world, guided by an MC or ‘dungeon master’. Not limited to the Tolkien-esque themes of the famous Dungeons & Dragons, TTRPGs range from gritty sci-fi scenarios to steampunk heist fantasies, and from everyday life to magic, monsters and vampires. In this Microdose, Nadia, Keir and Jeremy gather round the table to talk about how role-playing games have evolved over half a century and what different game-playing styles might say about other societal battles – from feminism and reactionary masculinism to the revenge of the nerds. Discussing games like Call of Cthulu and Vampire: The Masquerade, as well as TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Expanse, the gang look at the huge cultural impact of TTRPGs. How has the rise of Silicon Valley changed the reception of geek culture? How might a players’ politics turn up in their gameplay? How have women navigated these subcultural spaces so long dominated by men? Shake those polyhedral dice and find out. Books and podcasts: The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity – Jon Peterson / The Grognard Files / One Shot / Not DnD/ What Would the Smart Party Do? / What Am I Rolling?

Games are all around us. They let us escape from drudgery and experiment with other worlds and ways of being. But they can be traps too: apps designed to be addictive, producing only the most hollow sense of achievement. In this Trip, Nadia, Jeremy and Keir throw their polyhedral dice to explore how games shape our inner and outer lives. How has game theory been used to explain human behaviour? How can we make play emancipatory in a gamified world? Is there such a thing as a left-wing game? And how has the figure of the ‘gamer’ become synonymous with introversion, misogyny and reactionary politics? The gang discuss games both ancient and modern – from chess to Super Mario, Go to Dungeons & Dragons – with music from Koji Kondo, The Who, Tinie Tempah and more. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify – just search ACFM. Look out for a Microdose episode on Dungeons & Dragons coming soon. Books & articles: Ludwig Wittgenstein – Philosophical Investigations / Roger Caillois – Man, Play and Games / Johan Huizinga – Homo Ludens / Patrick Jagoda – Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification / James Carse – Finite and Infinite Games / Alex Williams & Jeremy Gilbert – Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back) Music: Koji Kondo – Super Mario Bros. Theme Song / Masato Nakamura – Sonic Theme Song / The Clash – ‘The Card Cheat’ / Joe South – ‘Games People Play’ / Tinie Tempah – ‘Passout’ / Janet Kay – ‘Silly Games’ / Business Man AKA Trentemøller – ‘Dubby Games’ / The Who – ‘Pinball Wizard’ / Amy Winehouse – ‘Love is a Losing Game’ / Koji Kondo – The Legend of Zelda Theme Song Games: Apocalypse World / Chess / Comrades / Disco Elysium / Dixit / Dungeons & Dragons / Go / Microscope / Sonic The Hedgehog / Super Mario Bros / Red Plenty Games / Tomb Raider

What defines each era? Historians often lean on terms that point to technology: bronze, steam, carbon, silicon. So is technology a fundamental aspect of being human? On this wide-ranging Trip, the gang take on one of their biggest topics yet. Starting from the basis that technology is an application of knowledge for a practical purpose, Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn propose the washing machine as the most important invention of the 20th century, theorize a fully automated luxury Keynesianism, and consider what motivates the left’s apparent technophobia. They also discuss techno-adjacent political formations, from Luddites to Accelerationists to cyborg feminists, and return to a classic ACFM conversation about technologies of the self. Expect techno music, obviously, plus songs from Kraftwerk, Phuture and Laurie Anderson. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify. Books & articles: Katrine Marçal – Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men / JM Keynes – The Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren / EP Thompson – The Making of the English Working Class / Joseph Schumpter/ Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy / Donna Haraway – A Cyborg Manifesto / Helen Hester – Xenofeminism / Foucault – Technologies of the Self / Nick Srnicek & Alex Williams – Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work / David Stubbs – Future Days / Andy Beckett – Promised You a Miracle Music: Pink Floyd – ‘Welcome to the Machine’ / Kraftwerk – ‘The Robots’ / Model 500 – ‘No UFO’s’ / Horrible Histories – ‘The Luddites Song’ / Phuture – ‘Acid Trax’ / Laurie Anderson – ‘O Superman’ / Disco Inferno – ‘Even The Sea Sides Against Us’ / The Houghton Weavers – ‘The Song of the Weavers’ Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

Throughout history, countless good ideas have been side-lined or dismissed because they were put forward by women. That’s the frustration which motivates historian Katrine Marçal, who delves into her myth-busting research for a Microdose all about technology’s missed turnings. With ACFM host Nadia Idle, the author of Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men lays out some of the questions and frustrations she’s encountered in her studies. Why did it take 5,000 years to put wheels on a suitcase? Why was the electric car rejected as too feminine when it was first conceived, a century ago? And how come all the early computer programmers and coders were women? Look out for the next ACFM Trip on technology with Nadia, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn, landing soon.

Just what is it good for? This time on ACFM, Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn respond to the Ukraine invasion with a conversation about war. Is it an aberration, or an unavoidable product of human power struggles? Are conflicts between nations better understood as a reflection of domestic divisions? And how is war used to divert the working class from progressive politics at home? The gang think through these questions and more as they relate to global politics and the UK left, with music from Stiff Little Fingers, Rage Against The Machine, Robert Wyatt, Digital Mystikz and more. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify. Books & articles: Deleuze & Guattari – A Thousand Plateaus / Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine / Michel Foucault – Society Must be Defended / Jeremy Gilbert – The Bennites’ revenge: how Jeremy Corbyn and his allies survived political exile / Keir Milburn – The August riots, shock and the prohibition of thought / Why war? A letter from Freud to Einstein Music: Rage Against The Machine – ‘Killing in the Name Of’ / Mala – ‘Anti-War Dub’ / Bob Dylan – ‘With God on Our Side’ / Jimmy Cliff – ‘Vietnam’ / Stiff Little Fingers – ‘Tin Soldier’ / Elvis Costello – Oliver’s Army / Robert Wyatt – ‘Shipbuilding’

Has democracy broken down? Is it even an idea worth fixing? Trip 22 is a three-horse race as Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn consider the anti-democratic shifts happening across the political spectrum and ask what it really means to be ruled by the people. The gang discuss whether democracy is necessary to tackle climate breakdown, how democratic relationships can spawn creativity and joy, and what happens when left politics abandons mass movements – as well as selecting some suitably egalitarian music from Crass, Shonen Knife and more. An ever-expanding playlist of all the music discussed on the show can be found on Spotify. Music: Crass – ‘Punk is Dead’ (Use Knife Remix) / Cornelius Cardew & the Scratch Orchestra – ‘The Great Learning’ / Shonen Knife – ‘Riding on the Rocket’ / Persimfans Orchestra – Beethoven’s 9th Symphony / Weather Report – ‘Milky Way’ Books & articles: Robert D. Putnam – Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community / Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline / Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright – Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future / Paul Hirst – Associative Democracy / Francesca Polletta – Freedom is an Endless Meeting / Sean Smith – Crass Goes Disco Produced and edited by Chal Ravens and Matt Huxley. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

When he’s not working on #ACFM, show producer Matt Huxley is a musician. His recent EP under the name Muckers is the inspiration for this Microdose – a short audio essay about land, family, trespass and belonging. Recorded while out walking, Acid Camping considers who owns the landscape, the methods by which people have been driven off the land, and how we can dissolve the boundaries within ourselves. Matt draws on ideas from Nick Hayes, Richard King, Jodi Dean and, of course, #ACFM. All the music has been repurposed and rearranged from the Dingly Dell EP by Muckers, released on Circle Dance Recordings. Thanks to Amber Husain and Thom Andrewes for editorial advice on the text. Written, produced and mixed by Matt Huxley. Mastered by Rupert Clervaux. Design by Joe Nava.

In the first #ACFM Trip of the year, Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn look at the conflicting desires and demands that make up a political movement. Is unity possible? Is coalition desirable? Do we need to agree in order to win? The gang discuss the difference between liberal and radical conceptions of identity and gaze out towards the communist horizon with help from Gilles Deleuze and Jodi Dean and musical selections from Desmond Dekker, Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti. Look out for the accompanying Microdose interview with actor and activist Norah Lopez Holden on the women who fought in the Spanish Civil War and the feminist dynamics of the Popular Front. Music: Desmond Dekker – ‘Unity’ / Blue Mink – ‘Melting Pot’ / Byron Morris & Unity – ‘Reunion’ / Graham Reynolds – ‘The Difference Engine’ (Demián Gálvez Remix) / Roy Ayers & Fela Kuti – ‘2000 Blacks Got To Be Free’ Books and articles: Katrina Forrester – ‘By Leaps or by Federation: Two Paths to Left Unity’ / Paulo Gerbaudo – The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy / Jodi Dean – The Communist Horizon / Gilles Deleuze – Difference and Repetition Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

What can we learn from the women of the Popular Front? Ahead of an #ACFM Trip on Unity and Difference, Nadia Idle talks to actor and activist Norah Lopez Holden about the milicianas who fought in the Spanish Civil War. What brought these women together – and what pushed them apart? Lopez Holden has worked at theatres around the UK, including the Young Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Royal Exchange Manchester, and performed as a voice artist for the BBC Radio Drama Company. She is an organiser of the Good Night Out Reading group of socialist theatre workers and is also involved with advocacy and organising at the Crossroads Women’s Centre in London. Please note: this conversation was recorded in October 2020. We also apologise for the diminished sound quality of this recording. Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. Books: No Turning Back – Lidia Falcón (edited) / Homage to Catalonia – George Orwell / Fighting Women – Isabella Lorusso / Doves of War – Paul Preston Films: Land and Freedom (1995) dir. Ken Loach

What should political organisation in the 21st century look like? Wiggly? Lumpy? Diagonal? Something rather like that, suggests political theorist and author Rodrigo Nunes, who joins Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert on this additional revolutionary Microdose. Focusing on the last few decades of radical left politics, the trio reflect on on their own experiences in movement building and thrash out alternatives to the old opposition between “vertical” and “horizontal” organising. Surveying the shifting sands of revolutionary potential, they also discuss how our ideas of organisation can break free of the party to be understood as a diverse ecology of initiatives and forms. Don’t miss the other recent Microdose, Revolution from Cromwell to Castro, a brief history of several centuries of political upheaval which sets the scene for Trip #20 on Revolution. Nunes’ book, Neither Vertical nor Horizontal, is available now from Verso. Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

The #ACFM gang square up a suitably momentous topic for their milestone 20th Trip: revolution! Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn wonder how the idea of political revolution ever became thinkable, and if it’s still thinkable today. Was the sexual revolution a real revolution? How did disillusionment with Soviet communism affect our political imagination? And who is the revolutionary subject? The gang of three discuss all that and more with reference to Gramsci, the Black Panthers and the Arab Spring, plus righteous music from Public Enemy, Manu Chao, the MC5 and more. Don’t miss the accompanying Microdose episode, Revolution from Cromwell to Castro, which sets the scene for this Trip via a brief history of several centuries of political upheaval. Music: Public Enemy – ‘Revolution Generation’ / 4 Non Blondes – ‘What’s Up’ / MC5 – ‘Kick Out the Jams’ / Billy Bragg – ‘The Internationale’ / Manu Chao – ‘Clandestino’ Books & articles: Rodrigo Nunes – Neither Vertical nor Horizontal / Erik Olin Wright – How To Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty First Century Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

In anticipation of the next Trip, the ACFM trio deliver a condensed but essential history of revolution from Oliver Cromwell to Fidel Castro, with stop-offs in France, America, Haiti, China, Spain and Russia. What does it take to cook up a revolution? Is the French Revolution still relevant to our idea of radical social upheaval? Can we have unlimited political reforms without eventually triggering a revolution? Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn speed through several centuries of unrest in a collective Microdose which sets the scene for the main event: Revolution, the 20th Trip in the series. Look out for the full Trip this Sunday, followed by an extra Microdose with Rodrigo Nunes, author of Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal. Texts: Reinhart Koselleck – Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time / James C. Davis – ‘Toward a Theory of Revolution’ Music: Excerpt from a Rara procession from Haiti / Los Zafiros – ‘Cuando Yo La Conocí’ / ‘La Marseillaise’ / The national anthem of the USSR / A rendition of Spanish civil war song ‘A las Barricadas’ Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

In this #ACFM Microdose to accompany the gang’s recent Trip into space, Keir is joined by Fred Scharmen, author of Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space. Drawing on his background in architecture and spatial design, Scharmen unpacks the human desire to go into space and create new worlds from scratch. How do the rocket-powered endeavours of oligarchs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk differ from the visions of a communist space utopia set out by Soviet sci-fi writer Alexander Bogdanov? And do we need to settle on Mars and mine asteroids to achieve a post-scarcity society – or is that an impossible dream? They also discuss afrofuturist visions of the cosmos, ethnic separatism beyond geographical borders, and why colonising space is the same as colonising the future. Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn explore the politics of space. What even is space, and why does it so often seem to be the domain of the political right? How does the built environment have the power to discipline or liberate us? And why do all the billionaires want to get off the planet and into outer space? With reference to Reclaim The Night, public-common partnerships, Jeff Bezos’ phallic rocket and ’90s free party culture, the gang work it all out with some suitably spacey music to match. Music: Sun Ra – ‘Space is the Place’ / Babylon Zoo – ‘Spaceman’ / DJ Noisekick – ‘Army of Speedcore’ / Hawkwind – ‘You Shouldn’t Do That’ / Roy Rogers – ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ / Gil Scott-Heron – ‘Whitey on the Moon’ Books & articles: Doreen Massey – For Space / Henri Lefebvre – The Production of Space / Gaston Bachelard – The Poetics of Space / Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire / Alexander Bogdanov – Red Star / Keir Milburn & Bertie Russell – Public-Common Partnerships: Building New Circuits of Collective Ownership Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

What could our towns and streets become after the pandemic? Ahead of the next #ACFM on space, Nadia Idle goes down to street level to discuss spatial equality with architect and planner Pooja Agrawal. As the co-founder of Public Practice, a social enterprise bringing good design into local government, Agrawal spends a lot time thinking about how public space is used and shared. She talks to Nadia about how councils can take back control from developers, what high streets might be used for in a post-retail world, and the work that she’s doing with Sound Advice, a platform exploring spatial inequality through music. Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

Keir Milburn, Nadia Idle and Jeremy Gilbert get on the couch to talk about therapy. Wrangling with how to square their collectivist politics with the introspective work of therapy, they wonder if people on the left are more inclined to seek such treatment, and what role physical exercise plays in their mental wellbeing. Analysing their own very different experiences of the therapist’s couch, the gang also consider the shortcomings of CBT and the twisted logic of positive thinking. Go to Novara Media’s SoundCloud for the extended musical version of this podcast. Music: Prince Paul – ‘Outroduction to Diagnosis’ / The Raincoats – ‘Fairytale in the Supermarket’ / Gil Scott-Heron – ‘The Bottle’ / Burial – ‘Endorphin’ / Bongwater – ‘Folk Song’ Books: Kate Pickett & Richard G. Wilkinson – The Spirit Level / Richard Layard – Happiness: Lessons from a New Science Produced and edited by Chal Ravens and Matt Huxley. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

The point of psychodrama is not to create beautiful theatre, laughs practitioner Nada Sabet. To accompany the next #ACFM Trip on the topic of therapy, host Nadia Idle finds out about an unusual therapeutic technique which borrows elements of theatre, psychiatry and psychotherapy to gain insight into different facets of our identity. Nada explains how psychodrama can be used to deal with trauma, abuse and family dynamics, and how the method can shift focus from the personal to the political. Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

What do we mean by solidarity? Keir Milburn, Nadia Idle and Jeremy Gilbert consider the meaning of a much-used word in this unusual Trip, recorded live as part of HKW’s online festival, Acid Communism: Spectres of the Counterculture. With music from Nina Simone, The Youngbloods and The Special AKA, the gang consider the legacy of the counterculture in creating solidarity between liberation campaigns, what happened to solidarity with the emergence of identity politics in the 1980s, and how the flourishing of mutual aid during the pandemic might have a lasting impact on culture. Music: The Youngbloods – ‘Get Together’ / The Specials AKA – ‘Nelson Mandela’ / Nina Simone – ‘Revolution’ Books: Emma Dabiri – What White People Can Do Next / Jeremy Gilbert – Notes Towards a Theory of Solidarity / Rodrigo Nunes – Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization / Asad Haider – Mistaken Identity Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS Licence Number: LE-0016481

In this extended Trip, Keir Milburn, Nadia Idle and Jeremy Gilbert wrestle with the idea of “the long ‘90s”: a set of cultural, political and affective assumptions that have outlasted the 20th century, and from which a certain cohort of today’s politicians, commentators and columnists cannot seem to escape. With music from Roni Size, Stereolab and Kula Shaker, the gang discuss to what extent the long ’90s were shaped by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and the Chinese Communist Party, how “new laddism” emerged as a riposte to cultural pluralism, and what people really meant when they declared “the end of history”. Finally, they agree to disagree on the musical and social value of Britpop. Music: Roni Size – ‘Brown Paper Bag’ / M-Beat ft. General Levy – ‘Incredible’ / Kula Shaker – ‘303’ / Spice Girls – ‘Wannabe’ / Stereolab – ‘Ping Pong’ / Asian Dub Foundation – ‘Fortress Europe’ Books and articles: Eric Hobsbawm – The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991 / Gavin Mueller – ‘Stereolab’s Revolutionary Horizon’ / Francis Fukuyama – The End of History and the Last Man Produced and edited by Chal Ravens and Matt Huxley.

The proposed new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an obvious assault on the right to protest, threatening penalties of up to 10 years in prison for “causing public nuisance”. With the bill on its way to becoming law, Jeremy Gilbert, Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn draw on their own experiences to discuss the recent #KillTheBill protests. How is the bill a reaction to movements like Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion? What might it reveal about the social coalition backing up the current Tory government? And just how effective are street protests anyway? Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

Jeremy Gilbert hits the road for a musical microdose accompanying the #ACFM Trip on Folk. Connecting different strands of folk music with their various political tendencies, Jeremy looks at the communism of Woody Guthrie and the singers of the Dust Bowl era, the Vietnam protest music of Bob Dylan and the Greenwich Village scene, and the folk psychedelia of the Incredible String Band and Vashti Bunyan. This episode includes over 40 musical examples spanning a period of around 100 years, which we’ve also compiled in a Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OH9nNxqlmcpTSgMCqXRDz Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert go back to the land to dig into the politics of folk. With music from The Pogues, Steeleye Span and Enigma, the gang discuss island cults, progressive patriotism, Communist folkies and the pitfalls of accelerationism. Turn on, tune in, muck out! Music: Woodie Guthrie – You Gotta Join That One Big Union / Steeleye Span – Hard Times of Old England / The Pogues – The Irish Rover / The Incredible String Band – The Hedgehog’s Song / Ewan MacColl and The Pogues – Dirty Old Town / Billy Bragg – A New England / Enigma – Return To Innocence Books: Alex Niven – Folk Opposition / Simon Reynolds & Joy Press – The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock ‘n’ Roll / Raymond Williams – Culture and Society; The Country and the City / Fred Turner – From Counterculture to Cyberculture / Alex Williams & Nick Srnicek – Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work / Simon L. Lewis & Mark A. Maslin – The Human Planet Film and TV: The Wicker Man / Blood on Satan’s Claw / Straw Dogs / Deliverance / The Owl Service / The Good Life Other: My Albion podcast Produced and edited by Chal Ravens and Matt Huxley.

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert explore the political power of desire from the storming of the Capitol to the millenarian strands of Corbynism, with music from Portishead and the Au Pairs. Music: Portishead – Glory Box / Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die / Alton McClain & Destiny – Crazy Love / Alternative TV – Love Lies Limp / The Au Pairs – It’s Obvious Books: Deleuze & Guattari – Anti-Oedipus / Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams / Spinoza – Theologico-Political Treatise / Wilhelm Reich – The Mass Psychology of Fascism / Nick Hornby – High Fidelity / Herbert Marcuse – One-Dimensional Man / Adkins, Konings & Cooper – The Asset Economy / Alex Williams – On Negative Solidarity and Post-Fordist Plasticity Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.  

Nadia Idle speaks to psychosexual therapist and writer Tabitha Bast about dating and desire. They discuss the changing dynamics of dating, how to build romantic resilience, the politics of swiping right and more. Tabitha is a qualified psychosexual therapist who works privately and through a charity, currently conducting her sessions online. She was also involved in ecological and social justice activism for over 20 years. Look out for the next episode of #ACFM on 14 February, with Nadia, Jeremy and Keir exploring the concept of Desire. Books: Emily Nagoski – Come As You Are Podcasts: Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel / Tabitha on the Bella Ciao podcast

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert return to talk about the power and potential of crowds – from mobs and marches to mesmeric leaders and terrace anthems, with music from the Joubert Singers, Sham 69 and more. Music: The Polyphonic Spree – Light and Day / The Joubert Singers – Stand On The Word / Pink Floyd – Fearless / Sham 69 – The Kids are United / The Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith (as sung by Hibernian F.C. fans) Books: Jeremy Gilbert – Common Ground / Nadia Idle & Alex Nunns – Tweets from Tahrir / / Elias Canetti – Crowds and Power / JS McClelland – The Crowd and the Mob / Gustav Le Bon – The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind / Freud – Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego / Sartre – Critique of Dialectical Reason / Dan Hancox – The Power of Crowds (article) Look out for the accompanying Microdose interview with Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran, who talks to Nadia Idle about the joy inherent in a protest and why raves are more infantilising than inspiring.

Nadia Idle speaks to Turkish journalist and author Ece Temelkuran about the potency of crowds. Reflecting on their experiences in Tahrir Square and Gezi Park, they talk about feeling powerful in political demonstrations, why raves might be infantilising rather than inspiring, and how Covid-19 has put an end to free assembly. Ece, twice named Turkey’s “most read political columnist”, has published several novels as well as 2019’s How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, chronicling the rise of right-wing populism in Turkey and the west. She was awarded the Human Rights Association of Turkey’s Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought Award in 2008. Books: Ece Temelkuran – How to Lose a Country: The 7 steps from Democracy to Dictatorship / Nadia Idle and Alex Nunns – Tweets from Tahrir / Elias Canetti – Crowds and Power You can read more of Ece’s work on her website: https://ecetemelkuran.com Produced by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens.

#ACFM is a podcast about left-wing politics, culture, music and experiences of collective joy, brought to you by Novara Media. Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn present a new Trip just about once a month, as well as Microdose interviews with special guests. Search for “ACFM Music” on Spotify to find a playlist of music discussed on the show and join the mailing list to keep up with everything #ACFM: http://novara.media/acfmlist

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert are back to discuss the recent rise of conspiratorial thinking within New Age, spiritual and ‘wellness’ communities, and what implications this has for the Left, with music by David Bowie, Mark Stewart and Coki. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys and Matt Huxley. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 Music: Black Sabbath – Paranoid / Mark Stewart + Maffia – None Dare Call It Conspiracy / David Bowie – Moonage Daydream / The Stooges – TV Eye / Coki – Mood Dub / David Bowie – Rock’n’Roll Suicide. Books: Frederic Jameson – The Postmodern Condition / Jean-Francois Lyotard – The Condition of Postmodernity / Thomas Pynchon – The Crying of Lot 49 / Dan Hind – The Return of the Public: Democracy, Power and the Case for Media Reform / Clare Birchall – Knowledge Goes Pop: From Conspiracy Theory to Gossip / Jack Bratich – Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture / Alan Piper – Strange Drugs Makes For Strange Bedfellows: Ernst Junger, Albert Hofmann and the Politics of Psychedelics. Listen to our Microdose with Erik Davis here. Erik is the author of TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica, and High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. You can also sign up for his excellent Substack. Psymposia are an organisation making sense of the complex connections between drugs, science, capitalism, policy and culture. You can also read an interview with the Zizek Stardust. We’ve compiled an ever-expanding playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify. Want to up your dose? Join the mailing list to find out first about new developments from the #ACFM crew. https://novaramedia.com/?p=24304

Jeremy Gilbert talks to Erik Davis, scholar of weird culture, mysticism, and the fertile crossover between esoterica and politics. From gnostic revivals to conspiracy theories, the JFK assassination to QAnon – why does there seem to be a sudden resurgence in conspiracy theories, sometimes in the most unexpected corners? Is there a connection between conspiracy theory and the ‘California Ideology’? And does rationalism always triumph in politics? Erik’s latest book, High Weirdness, is out now. https://novaramedia.com/?p=24214

Keir Milburn, Nadia Idle and Jeremy Gilbert discuss the history and theory of friendship, from Aristotle to Elland Road, while reflecting on how the podcast has impacted their relationship as a group, with music by Minutemen and Carole King. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 Music: Babylon Circus – My Friend / Christopher Martin – Mi Friend Dem / Carole King – You Gotta Friend / Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends / Henri Garat – Avoir Un Bon Copain / Minutemen – History Lessons Part 2 / Dinosaur L – Go Bang (original and François K mixes) / The Jungle Book – That’s What Friends Are For. Texts: Jacques Derrida – The Politics of Friendship / Jodi Dean – Comrade / Ben Morea – Black Mask & Up Against The Wall Motherfucker / Andrew Cornell – Oppose and Propose: Lessons from the Movement for a New Society We’ve compiled an ever-expanding playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify. Special thanks to Ilyanna Kerr for the beautiful new visuals for the show. View more of her work at her website. We want to be your friend. Join our mailing list to find out first about new developments from the #ACFM crew. https://novaramedia.com/?p=22727

Nadia, Jeremy and Keir search for the feeling of freedom, moving from Nina Simone to Buddhist House via Jeremy Clarkson. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. Texts: Isaiah Berlin – Two Concepts of Liberty / Simone de Beauvoir – Second Sex / Wendy Brown – Undoing the Demos / Adam Kotsko – Why We Love Sociopaths / Richard Sennett – The Corrosion of Character.   To celebrate our 10th Trip, we’ve compiled a playlist of all the music heard across #ACFM so you can tune in and drop out at your leisure. Find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Wv61PS6qItwCBUluNcSFx #ACFM Trip 10: How It Feels to Be Free

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn discuss Utopias, including the Paris Commune, analogue dreamlands and kettle logic. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 Tracklist: Goldfrapp – Utopia / John Lennon – Imagine / Nairobi Sisters – Promised Land / Harry McClintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain / Joe Meek – I Hear A New World / Noel Brass Jr – Cortex Overflow / Liverpool Cathedral Ringers and Cleo Evans – Imagine. Texts: George Orwell – Homage to Catalonia / P.M. – Bolo Bolo / Thomas More – Utopia / Fredric Jameson – Archaeologies of the Future / Kristin Ross – Communal Luxury / Jodi Dean – The Communist Horizon / Raymond Willians – Marxism and Literature. #ACFM Trip 9: Utopia

The #ACFM crew discuss life in lockdown including cheese care packs, the moral economy, and the crisis of liberalism. Texts: Nadia Idle- This Too Shall Pass https://notaloneintheworld.com/2020/03/22/this-too-shall-pass/ / Craig Gent – When Logistics Run Out Of Time https://novaramedia.com/2020/03/23/when-logistics-run-out-of-time / / Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer – How Corona Virus Hijacks Your Cells https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/11/science/how-coronavirus-hijacks-your-cells.html / Kropotkin – Mutual Aid / Hobbes – Leviathan / E.P. Thompson – The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century.   #ACFM Microdose: Acid Lockdown

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn discuss Acid Urbanism, including, The Right to the City, Communist Follies and Reclaiming the Streets. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 Tracklist: D-Shake – Techno Trance/ The Lovin’ Spoonful – Summer in the City/ David Bowie – London Bye, Ta-Ta/ The Specials – Ghost Town/ Pete Seeger – O What a Beautiful City Texts: Henri Lefebrvre – The Right to the City /Naomi Klein – No Logo/ Ivan Chtcheglov – Formulary for a New Urbanism / Greil Marcus – Lipstick Trace/ Ashley Dawson – Extreme Cities / Common Wealth – ‘Green New Deal City‘ https://novaramedia.com/2020/02/16/acfm-acid-urbanism/

The #ACFM crew take stock in the wake of Labour’s defeat and the dawning of a new year. https://novaramedia.com/?p=16785

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn ask why now for acid corbynism? They discuss historical conjunctures, farcical repetitions, and left melancholy. https://novaramedia.com/2019/10/27/acfm-trip-7-be-here-now/

‘You can’t say it’s boring’: the #ACFM crew bring you an election special – on organising, energy and political polarisation. Plus, a special campaigning song. https://novaramedia.com/?p=15970

The #ACFM crew discuss some of the issues and ideas raised by the ongoing Extinction Rebellion protests in London (and around the world). Links to some of the talks and texts discussed in the show: https://rebellion.earth Gail Bradbrook video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wUJFrvnGk Why Civil Resistance Works: https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/IS3301_pp007-044_Stephan_Chenoweth.pdf Graham Jones – Shock Doctrine of the Left: http://politybooks.com/jones10052018/ Roger Hallam Interview: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/49-roger-hallam-on-extinction-rebellion Global Justice Rebellion: https://www.facebook.com/events/489014714988220/

Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn talk intoxication and sobriety: from capitalist prohibition to weekend trippers, from drunk workers to Romantic escapes from bourgeois subjectivity, to straightedge and tech-world microdosers. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert discuss consciousness raising. Edited and produced by Olivia Humphreys, Matt Huxley and Matt Phull. PRS LICENCE NUMBER: LE-0016481 Tracks featured: Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised / Johnny Osbourne – Truth and Rights / Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – This Land is Your Land / Arrested Development – Give a Man a Fish / Childish Gambino – This is America / Gregory Porter – 1960 What? / Bernie Sanders – This Land is Your Land Texts referred to: Mark Fisher — Acid Communism (unfinished introduction) / Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism / Mark Fisher and Jeremy Gilbert – Capitalist Realism and Neoliberal Hegemony: A Dialogue / William H. Hinton – Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village / Keir Milburn – Generation Left Other links: Nadia Idle and Keir Milburn – Building Acid Communism – transmediale.de/content/building-acid-communism A description of the Acid Communism Consciousness Raising groups we have been running. Kathie Sarachild – Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon. – womenwhatistobedone.files.wordpress.com/2013/…s.pdf The classic early text on Consciousness Raising from the Women’s Liberation Movement. Institute for Precarious Consciousness – We Are All Very Anxious www.weareplanc.org/blog/we-are-all-very-anxious/ An influential text that proposes anti-precarity consciousness raising groups as the precondition for political action under contemporary conditions.

ACFM’s Jeremy Gilbert interviews Professor Mica Nava on her experience of women’s liberation and consciousness raising in London in the 1970s. Mica is the author books such as Changing Cultures; Feminism, Youth and Consumerism and Visceral Cosmopolitanism Here are some texts by some of the people we mention: Sheila Rowbotham Women’s Consciousness, Man’s World Juliet Mitchell Women’s Estate Shulamith Firestone The Dialectic of Sex Christine Delphy Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women’s Oppression Lisa Adkins & Diana Leonard (eds) Sex in Question: French materialist feminism There’s a useful article on social reproduction theory, by Susan Ferguson, here: https://www.plutobooks.com/blog/social-reproduction-theory-ferguson/

The #ACFM crew discuss the history of theories of ideology and consciousness in the radical tradition. Texts referred to include: Karl Marx The German Ideology György Lukacs History and Class Consciousness Vladimir Leinin What is to be Done Antonio Gramsci Selections From the Prison Notebooks Stuart Hall et. al Policing the Crisis Paolo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed Félix Guattari & Suely Rolnick Molecular Revolution in Brazil

Nadia Idle, Keir Milburn and Jeremy Gilbert discuss consciousness raising, with bonus excerpts from an interview with Mica Nava, one of the pioneers of feminist consciousness-raising in the UK. Listen to the full show, with music and archival material, on the Novara Media website or on Soundcloud.