Episodes

  • Downstream: How the Democrats Abandoned Working People w/ Eric Schlosser

    Downstream: How the Democrats Abandoned Working People w/ Eric Schlosser
    Feb 23 2026
    In 2001, Eric Schlosser published Fast Food Nation: an investigation into the toxic depths of America’s food industry. Twenty five years later, the book remains an urgent intervention, as much for what it says about workers’ rights as for our agricultural systems and dietary health. On Downstream this week, Ash Sarkar talks to Eric Schlosser […]
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • ACFM Trip 57: Ecology

    ACFM Trip 57: Ecology
    Feb 22 2026
    Are humans distinct from nature? Are there natural limits to inequality? Can you have action without effort? Do bacteria have agency? Jem, Nadia and Keir find themselves dwarfed by the concept of ecology in this planetary-scale episode, which touches on cybernetics, systems thinking, ecofeminism and actor-network theory. Their ACFM guide to ecological thinking includes ideas […]
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    2 hrs and 9 mins
  • Do Your Own Research: Megafarms and Megafamines: Secrets of the Global Food System w/ Charles C. Mann

    Do Your Own Research: Megafarms and Megafamines: Secrets of the Global Food System w/ Charles C. Mann
    Feb 16 2026
    There’s nothing in the world more important than the food system. The twentieth century was scarred by enormous famines – and, like the one in Gaza, they are still deliberately engineered. But since the 1970s, the absolute number of deaths from famine have dropped by over 90%. On a global scale, we now make so much food […]
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    1 hr and 46 mins
  • Downstream: Mandelson & the Perverted Fantasies of New Labour Liberalism w/ Maurice Glasman

    Downstream: Mandelson & the Perverted Fantasies of New Labour Liberalism w/ Maurice Glasman
    Feb 16 2026
    Just a week ago, the architect of Starmer’s rise to power, Morgan McSweeney, resigned over his connections to Peter Mandelson, after further proof of Mandelson’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein emerged in the newest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice. According to this week’s guest, this scandal isn’t an anomaly, but an […]
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Downstream: Vape Shops, Crypto and Luxury Watches: How Money Laundering Is Everywhere w/ Oliver Bullough

    Downstream: Vape Shops, Crypto and Luxury Watches: How Money Laundering Is Everywhere w/ Oliver Bullough
    Feb 9 2026
    When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, those on the left generally think of exploitation. People often turn to crime, so the thinking goes, because they can’t make ends meet by legitimate means. Whatever your views on that framing, there is also another – far less discussed – connection between capitalism and […]
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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Downstream: China, AI and the West’s Free Speech Crackdown w/ Ai Weiwei

    Downstream: China, AI and the West’s Free Speech Crackdown w/ Ai Weiwei
    Feb 2 2026
    Over the past three years, the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flash point for freedom of speech in the West. Expressing solidarity with Palestinians has given Western governments an excuse to crack down on dissenters. There has been intimidation and job insecurity at one end of the scale, through to brutal […]
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    50 mins
  • Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor

    Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor
    Jan 26 2026
    This week, Donald Trump continued his streak of threatening tariffs against any country that opposes him, increasing the odds of an escalating trade war and further destabilising the global economic system. But according to this week’s guest, the system is in desperate need of reform. Indeed, she thinks without a complete structural overhaul, it will […]
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Downstream: Exposing the Lies of the 20th Century w/ Tariq Ali

    Downstream: Exposing the Lies of the 20th Century w/ Tariq Ali
    Jan 19 2026
    Our guest this week was born in 1943, in what was then British India – modern day Pakistan. Unlike most, who have learned history through books and second-hand sources, he has witnessed first-hand a great deal of the 20th and 21st centuries. Tariq Ali founded Verso Books, the leading left-wing publishing house in Britain, as well […]
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    1 hr and 50 mins