ACFM

Mar 06 2025 86 ep. 77 mins 435

ACFM Podcast artwork

Welcome to ACFM, the home of the weird left. Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert and Keir Milburn bring you a show examining the links between left-wing politics, culture, music and experiences of collective joy.

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ACFM Microdose: Making Art in a World on Fire w/ Amber Massie-Blomfield

Mar 06 2025 70 mins

What's the point of the arts when the world is on fire? To follow the pipeline from creativity to activism and back again, Nadia Idle is joined by Amber Massie-Blomfield, former chief of theatre company Complicité and the author of Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create Better World. Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters Help us build people

ACFM Microdose: Making Sense of Sovereign Debt w/ Heidi Chow

Jan 30 2025 69 mins

Following last week's ACFM on the meaning and morality of personal debt, Keir and Nadia return to investigate the macroeconomics of debt. Joining them to make sense of concepts like sovereign debt, structural adjustment and international ratings agencies is Heidi Chow, executive director of Debt Justice. She explains how and why countries borrow money, why Global South countries e

ACFM Trip 49: Debt

Jan 23 2025 119 mins

The concept of debt is as slippery as it is powerful. In this Trip episode, Keir, Nadia and Jem explain why debt is more like a belief than a calculation, and wonder how to imagine a society without it. From credit cards to dowries, they discuss the reality and fantasy of debt, with ideas from David Graeber and Deleuze and music from Crass and Gwen Guthrie. Find the books and mu

ACFM Microdose: The Communist Manifesto

Jan 02 2025 91 mins

The AFCM gang gather for a midwinter reading of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Download a version online and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem reassess of one of the most influential political tracts ever written. Help us build people-powered media – support us from as little as £1 a month: https://novara.media/support

ACFM Trip 48: Political Commitment

Dec 05 2024 108 mins

Which side are you on? Keir, Nadia and Jem consider the ebb and flow of political commitment with ideas and music from Jodi Dean, Gramsci, John Coltrane and the Raincoats. Is cultural production the same as political action? What’s the difference between an ally and a comrade? And why do some communists end up as right-wing turncoats? Find the books and music mentioned in the

ACFM Trip 47: Disruption

Nov 14 2024 94 mins

Disruption is a byword for success in the tech industry, but when it affects our daily routines – say, because Just Stop Oil are slow-marching down the high street – disruption becomes nothing short of criminal. In this Trip, Jem, Nadia and Keir try to make sense of the harsh sentences handed down to climate activists this year while unpacking the political uses of disruption

ACFM Trip 46: Death

Oct 11 2024 111 mins

Of all the unseen forces that shape human society, could death be the most powerful? The ACFM crew take a leftwing look at mortality in this Trip, asking how capitalism has altered our approach to the inevitable. Jem, Nadia and Keir discuss how industrialised workers were taught to prepare for death, why powerful men are obsessed with their legacies, why we failed to ritualise or

ACFM Microdose: The Joy of Fascism

Sep 15 2024 86 mins

A month after racist riots engulfed the country, the ACFM crew ask what fascism – and antifascism – look like in Britain today. Do the riots and counter-protests mark a return to "street politics"? Why didn't the Labour party align itself with opponents of the pogroms? And how popular are extreme rightwing views among Britain's frustrated youth? Jem, Nadia and Keir take a clos

ACFM Trip 45: Holidays

Aug 24 2024 116 mins

Everybody hates a tourist, as Jarvis Cocker once pointed out, and the ACFM gang are no exception in this ACFM Trip exploring the allure of holidays. Keir, Jem and Nadia consider all the different ways we avoid work, from holy days and vay-cays to grand tours and gap yahs. Does travel make fools of us all, or is there a smarter, more ethical way to go sightseeing? Is the promise o

ACFM Trip 44: Humility

Aug 03 2024 81 mins

With the general election leaving plenty of Labour voters feeling sidelined, the ACFM crew explore the role of humility – and humiliation – in politics. Should we cultivate humility to cope with political weakness? Is fear of humiliation a product of patriarchy? Can humility help us be better political thinkers and organisers? And who's the humblest ACFM host of them all? Nad