What's Left? With Jovan + Freddie

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Are we more American than European? Has the UK's future been fatalistically forged? New Statesmen Editor and Brexit Historian Tom McTague offers an account of the real trade offs faced by the British establishment.

Too often, politics resorts to a conclusion of managed decline. A despondent shrug. Are we suffering...

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Another heatwave just dropped so we’re here with our first in-depth convo on the climate crisis, joined by one of the world’s biggest eco-influencers, Michael Mezz.

After studying economics at Stanford, Michael decided to hold onto his soul and become an activist to prevent ecological collapse. Remember folks, the magic circle law firm / big 3 consultancy isn't the only way...

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Green Industrialist and Labour Party mega-donor Dale Vince is beefing with Energy secretary Ed Miliband, as speculation around Andy Burnham's Chancellor nomination reaches fever pitch.

Vince, in typically bombastic style, intervened in the Times to argue that Labour should 'scrap Net Zero'. Yep, you read that right.

Is Britain's most divisive 'Eco Tycoon' reneging...

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Emily Lawford's viral New Statesman cover story 'Meet the Angry Young Women' created huge waves of online discourse, undulating from the radical TikTok Left to the extreme Right on Elon Musks's brainwashing algorithm.

Polling from Merlin Strategies found that Gen-Z women were feeling extremely pessimistic,about their future, young men and our politics. Why?

We thought...

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Can the Left forgive the Centre? Can the Centre forgive the Left?

This week we are joined by the UK's second biggest politics podcaster on where the Left is going wrong and how it must unite to win. Keeping out Reform will not be enough to fix the country. A...

In our latest video essay (optimised for YouTube), Freddie breaks down why the Labour Party refuses to engage meaningfully with Gary Stevenson - and why that all might be about to change...

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The Labour leadership crisis has gone nuclear with Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigning this afternoon, after a week of intense speculation of a coup following Labour's local elections drubbing.

We sat down with Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain and The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares, to dive deep into the chaos. Phil...

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Skit Comedian Tom Nestor and host of podcast All Right Idiots joins us for a chat on livestreamers, chronically online extremists and the upcoming local elections.

After calling out Freddie for his cold approach game with viral streamer Gymskin, the boys invited Tom on the podcast to discuss the best way to get non-political audiences caring about the issues of our time... <...

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Has political imagination died? Having made a name for herself as a leftist short-form content creator, Louisa Munch has quickly become Instagram’s favourite Critical Theorist. Expert in applying canonical political texts to the chaos we see unfolding today, Louisa joins us for a meandering discussion on higher education, leftist utopia and the how to challenge the insurgent populist right.

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Back again with the biggest quandaries afflicting the modern progressive movement as political canon events unfold at breakneck speed!

I don’t think I’ve ever felt more jaded by the perpetual shock and awe chain reaction of geopolitics. We’ve decided to create a little bit of...

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When Asim agreed to do this podcast, I messaged all my bros from school days immediately. Asim's character Chabuddy G, of 'People Just Do Nothing' fame, was one of the biggest cultural influences on those hazy days. In the playground, we used to spit Chabuddyisms over a bit of 2 touch, while deep...

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Ooooo yesss it's another WL x Novara crossover, as Ash Sarkar joins us in the studio! You know there's nothing we love more than a chaotic chat about political theory with a few gags mixed in – you are certainly entitled to question whether any of it is useful beyond a collective intellectual ego massage. We hope it is lol.

...

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YouTube OG, Josh Pieters, joins us for a deep cut into the ethics and cultural impact of YouTube and what has sustained his success through different eras of online culture. All of those questions stored up from spending hours and hours of our early teen years parasocially connecting with these slightly older teenagers, finally saw the light of day.

BONUS MINI-EPISODE!

After Labour's worst case scenario loss in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Freddie asks who still votes Labour and why?

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Joe Biden’s Tech Adviser (2020-2) Tim Wu joins us for a deep dive into the ‘Age of Extraction’. Wu is a Columbia Law Professor who writes regularly for the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Economist. He’s published an array of literature that focuses on big tech, monopolies and how the attention economy has restructured modern economic life.

In...

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Dr. Andrew Lownie has been vindicated. After putting his reputation on the line with his investigations into rogue members of the British Royal family, Lownie faced a barrage of criticism aimed at discrediting him. A well-respected academic historian, he trusted the veracity of his sources and stood by their claims with regards to the disgraced royal, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

...

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Steve Tsang is a political scientist, Director of the SOAS China Institute and the author of 'Xi Jingping's Political Thought'. On Tuesday 27th January, We sat down with Steve as Keir Starmer landed in Beijing for the first visit of a British Prime Minister in China since 2018.

With the Davos consensus of globalisation and free seamless trade becoming...

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‘This could be the end for Starmer’. Pundits, sub-editors and political rivals have been drawn to this phrase more than any other over the past 18 months. Evidentially, it seems a spurious claim. The Prime Minister has trudged on, by all accounts unfazed, despite the merry-go-round of self-immolation (call it a self-destructive fireworks display) that’s dogged his premiership. Labour’s top-scorer, much like the PM’s beloved Arsenal, has been own goals. And yet with a soviet-style majority, Starmer still will...

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Now this is cricket.

Horatio Gould, comedian + podcast virtuoso (and OG fan of What's Left), joins us in the studio with author James Bloodworth (Hired, Lost Boys) guest-hosting.

Post Davos, Western elites are checking their bank accounts and stock portfolios, considering the premium paid for their unerring...

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Hey What’s-Leftists, We’re back for season 2 and finally doing paid content so we can keep the lights on. So, if you’re a fan of the show and want early access to ad-free extended cuts and much more, THIS is the product for you.

We had planned to take some more time t...

Finale of SZN 1 w the donny herself, Grace Campbell ❤️!!!

This might be our funniest episode yet. Or maybe just the one where we all laughed the most.

Recently, I found out a listener had stopped engaging with the pod as he was finding the topics too depressing. I get it. Confronting our myriad crises has been hardly been reassuring. But I'm hoping that this ep could be the antidote that brings him back into the fold.

Why has there been no revi...

George Gilbert, the Gen-Z Farage fan recently kicked off Big Brother, joins us for a chat on cancel culture, young men and the radical right, with guest host Jordan Stephens!

As you know, What’s Left aims to stick its head above the culture wars. But we can’t avoid the magnetic pull from controversial personalities that keep the digital news cycle churning. We’re just as human as you.

Following our interview with the Oxford Union’s George Abaraonye, it appears we’ve found a new theme: int...

UK's biggest politics substacker, Sam Freedman, explains the deep rot at the heart of British politics. In this episode we address the big questions: why is Keir Starmer's Labour government failing and what would Reform do differently?

After winning a swathe of councils at the last local elections, Reform have struggled with the realities of governing. Indeed, a majority of Reform councils look set to raise council tax by the maximum after winning power by promising millions in cuts to spending.

Freedman argues that this is the...

Jonathan Hall, the Independent Reviewer of Terror Legislation, was in the room when the UK Govt decided it would proscribe Palestine Action as a terror group, alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Since then, we’ve seen anti-war activists, including pacifist priests and grandmothers (even both!) arrested for carrying placards, as the police enforce the letter of the law. A recent Guardian article revealed that the home office was advised that proscribing Palestine Action could make the organisation more popular. Over a thousand arrests later, it appears the advisors have been proved ri...

Miles Taylor, the Trump whistleblower, is now an enemy of the state.

Latest WL? dispatch comes from McGill University's conference on big tech's threat to democracy. We’ve stitched together four interviews with leading thinkers on whether the AI bubble will burst and how to confront mass manipulation in the digital age.

The first half is a deep cut with Miles Taylor, the author of the explosive NYT ‘anonymous’ op-ed, which revealed the chaos inside the first Trump administration. A vociferous critic of Trump and MAGA, Taylor is now experiencing the regime...

Aaron Bastani, co-bossman ⁨@NovaraMedia⁩ just burnished our leftie credentials!!!

Super gassed to share this episode with one of our absolute favourite political commentators. We filmed this on August 20th (2 months before release) so we didn't manage to get into the Your Party in-fighting / capitulation nor the rise of eco-populist Zack Polanski. Sorry about that.

But we still managed to get into the weeds on immigration, identity politics and why Aaron thinks the Labour Party is failing to win over the public!!! You're welcome.

EXCLUSIVE: Oxford Union President wants to make amends for insensitive Charlie Kirk comments.

In June, George Abaraonye rose to uni fame as the Oxford student who challenged Charlie Kirk about ‘toxic masculinity’. Just a few months later, his name and face was plastered all over digital and broadcast media as the Oxford Union President who ‘celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s death.

What happened?

Moments after news broke that Kirk had been shot at one of his classic campus debate events, Abaraonye took to Instagr...

Will Ed Miliband take on Richard Tice in a Misfits Boxing Match for the future of Net-Zero? We’ve got the exclusive 🤣

It’s been an exhilarating 10 days of b2b conferences and a huge milestone for What’s Left as we interviewed ex-Labour leader, Energy Secretary of State Ed Miliband and Kamala Harris’ immigration tsar Frank Sharry!

In this episode we’ve got something a bit different for you – a buy one get one free. The first half is an interview with Miliband, where we discuss the challenges...

Bill Gates Advisor + LSE academic Hassan Damluji offers us a glimmer of hope to avoid international catastrophe!

Expert in global politics, climate change, pandemics and education reform, Hassan spent a decade at the Gates Foundation in charge of the Middle East, Pakistan and East Asia, closely advising Bill Gates and holding discussions with the likes of Saudi’s MBS, UAE’s President MBZ, Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif and original GOAT investor Warren Buffet. Quite the line up.

Currently, he is a senior visiting fellow in International Relations at LSE and direct...

We are addicted to ragebait - Jameela Jamil dropped serious bars in the latest What’s Left? pod!

Short Form content is information crack. We’re hooked on it, even though doomscrolling leaves us feeling empty.

Your da’ gets sunday scaries now - isn’t that mad.

But what’s even more mental is hosting Jameela on the podcast discussing what the hell is left?! Thanks for coming Jam 🤝

A legend who has experienced the culture war f...

When Britain is shattered who do you need to win the next UK election?

Latest What's Left episode with pollster Luke Tryl drops amongst the “OMG this poll has Reform predicted to win 400 seats” hysteria. Chillllll, Winston, we’re still a few years out.

Of course, any given poll should be taken with a pinch of salt and a shot of tequila + lime. Politicos are taught not to read polls in isolation - but to look at the average across the polls for a sober analysis. Even then, you only have a limi...

Wealth taxes are all the rage as we approach an Autumn budget where money affi make for the Treasury.

75% of the British public want a wealth tax (2% tax on assets over £10 million) according to YouGov polling. Gary Stevenson, Dale Vince and the Patriotic Millionaires crew say it will raise £24 billion - so why doesn't the government just do it...

Dan Neidle is the UK's foremost tax expert - head of the Tax Policy Associates and formerly Clifford Chance's Head of Tax for 20 years. His tax vigilanteism led to the sacking of se...

New left-wing commentator unlocked!!

Tilly Middlehurst a.k.a. BlondePraxis shot to TikTok fame after her debate with Charlie Kirk at the Cambridge Union went viral.

Charlie Kirk made a name for himself by turning up on US college campuses to troll leftie students.

When he came up against Tilly, a competitive British debater currently in her 2nd year at uni, the chronically online US political scene went ballistic. Kirk had certainly met his match.

With over 300k followers on TikTok, Tilly has...

Worried about the Manosphere? We got you w a DLC.

We've got two of the world's leading authorities on what is really going on inside the world of the pay-to-play male paranoia.

James Bloodworth is a journalist and author, who has recently published 'Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere'. Matt Shea is a former VICE journalist, best known for his series of documentaries on 'you know who', which were aired on the BBC.

Hopefully this 90+ min discussion can help explain the deeper complexities that tie...

Labour welfare rebel Henry Tufnell is the first MP in the hot seat at WLHQ… 

There’s been no breaks to the psychodrama of UK politics since 2016. We can’t be the only ones who are feeling completely exhausted.

This week the government had to climb down from its proposal for welfare reform which targeted the UC + PIP bill (benefits) which has ballooned since COVID and is projected to double over the course of this parliament.

Critics of the bill said it would target the most vulnerable. Many economists said it was absolutely necessary.

If you w...

00:00 Intro

1:00 What is online manipulation?

7:00 Censorship and news

12:00 Left-wing politics

18:04 Southport riots

22.30 AI and fake news

26:00 How manipulation brings down governments

33:50 Gaza, traumatic content and Britain’s muslim community

42:06 Radicalisation online

47:01 Why some conflicts are more known than others

52:00 Political unity vs consensus

Disinformation is democracy’s kryptonite.

Have you seen a shocking video recently on your fyp, only to discover later that it was made with AI? I can’t be the...

Disinformation = democracy’s kryptonite?

Have you seen a shocking video recently on your fyp, only to discover later find out that it was made with AI? Every day it seems that we are uncovering a new tool online that can be used to create false narratives. It’s a powder keg for bad actors, foreign interference and the destruction of our political systems.

We knew it was bad, but it’s going to get a lot worse.

Our latest guest on What’s Left is one of the worl...

Matthew Torbitt, a former Labour advisor and now talking head across (mainly right-wing but also centrist) broadcast media is the first guest to grace the hot seat at What's Left HQ.

Matt is a rare thing in British politics: a self-proclaimed "gobshite", who has made his way from being a homeless teen with a criminal record to campaigning in Parliament as a leading political commentator on the telly.

The point of 'What's Left?' is to hear from the broad spectrum of thought leaders across our political movement - asking them what it really means...

In our first podcast episode, Jovan and Freddie sit down to discuss their first film 'Reform UK's Biggest Rally Ever'.

As we near the local elections and the by-election result in Runcorn, the question on everyone's lips is whether Nigel Farage's party has the momentum to overtake the Tories and present as the genuine opposition to Labour.

The boys give their verdict, while explaining a bit more about who we are and what we want this platform to be...

We believe in direct democracy, so let us know what you think in the...