Peter Hitchens is something of an iconoclast. Among his colleagues on the right, the Mail on Sunday columnist stands out as a heterodox thinker – yet he’s perhaps one of the few who could be described as a genuine conservative. Aaron Bastani meets him to discuss his previous life as a Trotskyist and a Moscow […]
Throughout his 30-year career, Billy Bragg has never shied away from politics. From playing benefit gigs for miners in the 1980s to clashing with the BNP in his hometown of Barking, he has always used his influence to help those who need it. Ash recently sat down with Billy to discuss his 2006 book, The […]
What is it about social media that turns us into such objectionable creatures? To discuss this, Jorts The Cat and why people want pics of Ash’s feet, Ash is joined by Richard Seymour, author of The Twittering Machine.
Humans have existed for at least 200,000 years. Yet until recently, historians believed that cities, astronomy, architecture and numeracy did not arrive until agriculture emerged some 12,000 years ago. But what if that was wrong? What if cities existed before agriculture and our hunter gatherer ancestors enjoyed a far more complex existence than we thought? […]
If you had millions of ill-gotten pounds, dollars or rubles you would need to find a way of hiding where it came from and the very fact that it’s yours in the first place. It turns out that the place in the world best suited to provide this service is the UK. Oligarchs from all […]
On the morality of having children, the Just Stop Oil protests and Southampton F.C.
Eating is supposed to be fun, so why has food culture become so difficult to navigate without feeling anxious? Ash Sarkar meets food writer Ruby Tandoh, former Great British Bake-Off contestant and author of Cook As You Are.
In 2011, while working as a City trader, Gary Stevenson joined the ultra rich with a single bonus cheque. Not long after he was named one of Citibank’s highest performing traders worldwide. Stevenson made millions for his employer by betting on one thing: that the British and American economies would fail to recover from the […]
On 2nd October, Brazil will be faced with a stark choice. The incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro, has overseen economic calamity and nearly 700,000 Covid deaths in his first term. His challenger, Lula Da Silva, is hoping to regain the presidency – just three years since being freed from prison. To discuss the state of Brazilian […]
Jeremy Corbyn talks to Aaron Bastani about the mainstream media, the antisemitism crisis, Alistair Campbell and King Charles III.
Exclusive: Three months after the Labour party ‘weaponised’ abuse that left her in A&E, Britain’s first hijabi MP Apsana Begum returns to politics.
On the 8th of September this year, Queen Elizabeth II died. In a special episode of Downstream, Aaron and Ash discuss her life and the aftermath of her death.
We are constantly told that we are witnessing unprecedented innovation in technology, and that our problems will be solved by new apps, electric cars or space exploration. But is this innovation truly liberating? Or does it serve to outsource labour and further consolidate power and money in the hands of the few? Ash Sarkar meets […]
Amidst a grave cost of living crisis, bosses in The Royal Mail, BT and others are imposing pay increases on their employees way below inflation. Aaron Bastani speaks to CWU General Secretary Dave Ward about corporate greed, the shadowy world of CEOs and how he plans to coordinate direct action beyond his union’s particular dispute.
The author of The Botany of Desire, How To Change Your Mind and The Omnivore’s Dilemma talks to Ash Sarkar about caffeine, capitalism and how to avoid a bad trip.
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