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Government intervention is back in a big way, as countries turn back on years of free market ideology to actively support national industries in an increasingly competitive and unstable world. The session presents the case for an active industrial strategy to meet social and economic goals. Chair: Patrick Allen Speakers: Paul Sweeney, David Edgerton, Michael Jacobs

Covid-19 accelerated the digitisation of our economy, as more and more activity has moved online. But the technologies we have threaten an uncertain future at best: unemployment, huge inequalities of wealth and power, and a lack of democratic oversight. What might we expect, and what are the alternatives? In this panel discussion Dalia Gebrial, Aaron Benanav and Ursula Huws grapple with these questions about our digital future.

Last month the Progressive Economics 2022 conference, a one-day festival of transformative economic thinking, took place at the University of Greenwich. In a world battered by crises, facing environmental collapse, PEF brought together leading thinkers from across the progressive movement to present the arguments and solutions we need to build a radically better economy. Speakers included Gargi Bhattacharryya, Aaron Benanav, Francesca Bria, James Meadway, Kate Pickett, John Mcdonnell MP, and David Edgerton amongst many others. PTO was pleased to be an official media partner of the event and in the coming weeks we'll be posting some of the excellent panel discussions that took place at the event. First up, is a session on the Cost of Living Crisis. In the panel discussion James Meadway, Susan Newman, and Rupert Russell discuss the causes of price rises, the disastrous effects of conventional policy responses, and what the real solutions are to high inflation.

Richard Seymour and I discuss the Conservative Party leadership election and the legacy of Boris Johnson. We talked about which conservative candidate has the most dangerous agenda and why it is that both labour and the conservatives seem so intellectually adrift. Finally, Richard explained why the presence of several BAME candidates in the election can't simply be dismissed as mere tory tokenism.

Richard Seymour on the recent wave of strikes in the UK, and whether the upsurge of industrial action signals the long hoped for revival of Britain's labour movement.

Sebastian Budgen returns to the show to talk about the second round of the French legislative elections. We discussed the breakthrough of Jean Luc Melenchon's NUPES coalition and the broader prospects for the left following Emmanuel Macron's failure to secure a majority. We also talked about the historic breakthrough of Marine Le Pen's national rally and the breakdown of the so-called Republican front against the far right. Finally, we talked about where Emmanuel Macron goes from here, and whether or not his Ensemble coalition will be able to ally with the conservative Republicans, in order to pass legislation.

Anna Della Subin joins PTO to talk about her book Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. The book tells the stories of men who have inadvertently been turned into living Gods - from Gandhi and Haile Selassie to Prince Philip and Narendra Modi. In the book Anna shows how deification and violence were intertwined in the colonial enterprise and in the present day cult of the political strong man, yet - she argues - it's also a process that's been central to struggles of liberation. In our conversation we focussed on the chapters of the book on Haile Selassie and the emergence of the Rastafari in Jamaica in the 1930s, and on the history of deification in the British Raj - regarding both the colonial authorities and the iconic leaders of the independence movement.

Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to discuss the upcoming French legislative elections and the prospects for the new left popular union coalition, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and La France Insoumise. We talked about the prospects for the popular union and whether Mélenchon becoming Prime Minister is a realistic prospect. We also talked about the creation of the new coalition which includes the french socialists and the greens, hitherto fierce critics of Mélenchon. Finally, we discussed why Marine Le Pen's National Rally and Eric Zemmour's Reconquête party have failed to make an electoral pact - and why this is likely to lead to a poor electoral result for the far right. Become a £5 support of PTO to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

Ukrainian filmmaker and writer Oleksiy Radynski joins PTO from Kyiv. We talked about the current situation in the city and the popular mood in Ukraine. We went on to talk about Oleksiy's article 'The Case Against the Russian Federation' which appeared in E-Flux magazine. Oleksiy described the key features and history of Russian nationalism and why it is that Vladimir Putin, and the clique around him, repeatedly misunderstand the political realities of Ukraine.

The 2nd of May marked the 25th anniversary of New Labour's coming to power and the election of Tony Blair as prime minister. I spoke to Jeremy Gilbert about how he viewed the New Labour project at the time and about how the Blairites succeeded in winning support within the party, despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm for their neoliberal policy agenda. We also talked about why Jeremy disagreed with Stuart Hall's analysis that saw New Labour as a hybrid project containing both neoliberal and social democratic threads. And finally, Jeremy explained why, in spite of the defeat of the Corbyn project he believes the broad left is in a much stronger position than it was a decade ago.

Richard Seymour discusses his new book, The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism. We talked about why the Marxist left for a long time gave relatively little attention to the ecological crisis and about Richard's own turn towards environmental writing. We also talked about the process of the earth's disenchantment in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it made possible capital's hyper exploitation of the natural environment.

Dorit Geva joins PTO to talk about the recent re-election victory of Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Dorit's article, 'Orban’s Ordonationalism as Post-Neoliberal Hegemony' which is published in the journal Theory, Culture and Society. We discussed why Orban secured such a convincing electoral victory in spite of the opposition's highlighting of government corruption and Orban's friendly relations with Vladimir Putin. We went on to talk about the innovative character of Orban's post-neoliberal rule which involves not merely erosion of democratic norms but also the combining of certain elements of a neoliberal marketisation agenda with efforts to promote national capital at the expense of foreign corporations and the radical centralisation of state power.

Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the first round of the French presidential election, and the prospects for the second round vote later this month. We discussed what Marine Le Pen may have learned from her heavy defeat in 2017, how Eric Zemmour's far-right candidacy affected the campaign and why the left can take some heart from the impressive result for Jean-Luc Melenchon - that came close to pushing Le Pen and the national rally into third place.

Richard Seymour responds to the excellent questions sent in by listeners - on topics ranging from the left's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the relationship between psychological injury and physical ailments, and the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy.

Kojo Koram returns to PTO to talk about his new book, Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. We chatted about how the British empire and its legacy continues to structure the UK and world economies, and why the supposed opposition between critics of Britain's imperial inheritance and the material concerns of ordinary working class people - ignores the way the economic innovations of empire and decolonisation - from tax havens and outsourcing, to the corporate form, itself - continue to structure all of our lives.

In the second episode of Interregnum Richard Seymour discusses his recent article, 'The cruelties of self-help culture'. We talked about the magical thinking propagated by what Richard calls "the success wing of self-help literature" and why its claim that success depends almost solely on individual effort is so appealing. We also talked about the history of self-help culture and the significance of Samuel Smiles, the Victorian liberal reformer and author of the 1859 book Self Help: Illustrations of Character and Conduct. Finally we discussed Richard's plans to write a self-help book from the left.

Despite India's deepening alliance with the United States, and the country's regional rivalry with China, the Indian government has refused to join condemnation of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Ravinder Kaur joins PTO to talk about India's tacit alliance with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, how Russian weaponry continues to be the primary source for India's military, and why there is a striking degree of support for Russia within the country.

James Meadway returns to PTO to talk about his recent article on the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the Putin regime's invasion of Ukraine. We discussed the special significance of targeting the Russian central bank, and the likely consequences for the Russian economy. We also talked about the extraordinary dangerousness of the situation, given the raising of the alert status of Russia's nuclear forces, and the apparent absence of any face-saving way in which Vladimir Putin could deescalate. We also discussed China's gradual distancing from Russia since the start of the invasion.

In the first episode of Interregnum, a new fortnightly show with author Richard Seymour, we talked about the objectives of the Russian invasion, and what Vladimir Putin's broader geo-strategic goals are. And we also discussed his extraordinary claim that the invasion is in part aimed at the "denazification" of Ukraine. Finally, we talked about the risk of direct Western military intervention.

Paul Rogers joins PTO again to talk about his recent article in Open Democracy: Who would benefit from Russia going to war with Ukraine? We chatted about the Russian military build up on Ukraine's borders and whether this portends an imminent invasion. We also talked about the arms industry and how the nexus between arms companies, states, and research institutions encourages policy makers to see military solutions to all security problems. Finally, we discussed Labour leader Keir Starmer's recent article in The Guardian in which he lauded NATO and condemned the Stop the War Coalition. Become a £5 support of PTO to get access to this and all other episodes of PTO Extra: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother