Left analysis with historical depth.
Jacobin Radio gathers several Jacobin conversations into one argumentative feed. Its strongest episodes treat current events through history, class power, and institutions rather than quick partisan reaction.
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Jacobin Radio is a broad left politics feed with the structure of an interview archive and the temperament of a political education project. Its episodes do not chase novelty for its own sake. They take events that look immediate - an election, a war, a strike, a policy fight, a market panic - and place them inside older arguments about capitalism, empire, labor power, and the state. The pace is measured. The questions tend to sharpen definitions and push guests toward consequences rather than drift into personality. Behind the News keeps a two-segment format, moving from Washington corruption to crypto, from Iran to Cuba, or from class theory to federal layoffs. Confronting Capitalism treats the left's strategic problems as live organizational questions, especially around the Democratic Party, Amazon, AI surveillance, and union power. Long Reads uses historical and international context, including the French left and the New Popular Front, to slow politics down enough for structure to become visible. Jacobin Radio's own interviews can be more theoretical, as in the discussion of austerity, workers, and the possibility of escaping capitalism. The show is openly situated on the left. That matters. It names class interests, imperial violence, corporate power, and social-democratic limits without pretending those are neutral categories. But its better moments come from argument, not slogan. Guests are given room to explain, and hosts often return to the same point from another angle until the logic is clear. The feed can be demanding. It assumes interest in Marx, labor history, electoral strategy, international affairs, and political economy. It also rewards that attention with conversations that connect topics usually kept apart: inflation and unemployment, AI and workplace control, race and gender with class, Venezuela with U.S. power, and France's parliamentary crisis with antifascist history. The mood is grave, dry, and occasionally warm. Jacobin Radio is best understood as a sustained left analysis feed for people who want political judgment backed by history and institutional detail.
Made for: For listeners who want serious left political analysis, long interviews, and structural explanations of current events. It especially suits people interested in labor, capitalism, international affairs, and left strategy.
What sets it apart: The feed combines several Jacobin formats, so it can move from theory-heavy interviews to close readings of elections, wars, and workplace power. Its edge is the consistent habit of treating news as a symptom of deeper class and institutional conflict.
News, politics, history and more from Jacobin. Featuring The Dig, Long Reads, Confronting Capitalism, Behind the News, Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman, and occasional specials.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jacobin Radio connects elections, labor and foreign policy through sustained attention to institutions, economic interests and the organization of power.
Jacobin Radio treats politics as a contest over power, labor and capital, then follows those forces from elections to workplaces and foreign policy.
Amazon's robots meet the union question before your tech optimism gets too comfortable.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A live left-strategy conversation that keeps returning to class, APAC, and the risks of polished Democratic messaging.
The episode of Confronting Capitalism turns on the left's electoral strategy, with Matt Karp and Crystal Ball joining Vivek Chhibber and Melissa Nashek to press on where the project has been and where it is headed.
A sharp case for austerity as a built-in feature of capitalism.
Jacobin Radio's conversation with Clara Mattei keeps a steady focus on a hard-edged idea: austerity is not a mistake in capitalism, but one of its working parts.
Andrew Coburn traces US political greed through imperial decline, market disbelief, and Hindutva's rise.
Behind the News places Andrew Coburn's account of spectacular greed inside a wider story of imperial decline, moving from fading US influence and China's rise to Trump's threats over the straits and the political uses of wealth.
A clear discussion of how AI may reshape labor organizing by monitoring workers as much as replacing them.
Amazon is treated here as a window into a larger labor question: what changes when automation makes workers easier to track and organizing more visible to management.
A measured review of the Iran war's uncertain aims and its effects on Ukraine, Lebanon, and Hezbollah.
Behind the News treats the war in Iran as a U.S.-Israel venture whose purpose remains difficult to fix, with Trump's stated aims shifting, sanctions questions staying blurry, and the risk of a wider energy shock hanging over the discussion.
A measured discussion of Trump's China posture, China's economic interests, and the global order under pressure.
Behind the News frames Trump's softer turn on China as a way into a bigger argument about power, accumulation, and the institutions built around the neoliberal era.
A sharp look at Amazon, workplace monitoring, and the organizing potential automation still leaves open.
Amazon's logistics machine gives the episode its pressure point: automation may change the shape of work, but it does not make organizing irrelevant.
National security through consequences, not noise.
Connecticut talk with sharp civic instincts.
Books, media, memory, and public evidence.
This episode features an interview with researcher Mosaab Baba discussing the civil war in Sudan, its historical roots in colonialism, and the humanitarian crisis affecting millions.
Doug Henwood hosts a two-segment episode of Behind the News.
Melissa Nashek and Vivek Chhibber host Benjamin Fong to discuss labor organizing against Amazon.
This episode examines Israel's military actions in Gaza, including attacks and occupation, within the context of genocide allegations, featuring insights from John Reynolds.
Confronting Capitalism's 50th episode asks what makes someone a Marxist, and Vivek Chibber identifies class centrality as the defining commitment.
Confronting Capitalism records its first live recording in Brooklyn on April 6th.
Susie Wiseman speaks with political economist Clara Mattei about Escape from Capitalism.
Doug Henwood uses Behind the News to split one episode between Andrew Coburn on Trump's political order and Tadas Tir on crypto under Trump.
This episode analyzes the unexpected victory of the left-wing New Popular Front in France's snap elections, defeating the far-right National Rally and reshaping the political landscape.
This episode discusses the aftermath of Nicolas Maduro's kidnapping in Venezuela, featuring an interview with Gabriel Hetland on U.S.
Confronting Capitalism puts Amazon at the center of a debate over labor's future.
Helen Yaffe describes Cuba's electricity crisis, with blackouts, postponed surgeries, and solar panels arriving from China.
This episode features an interview with philosopher Nancy Fraser discussing her work on integrating class with identity categories like race and gender, followed by journalist Natalie Y.
This episode analyzes the 2026 US-led military operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro, featuring an interview with professor Gabriel Hetland about the historical context of Chavismo and the implications of this aggressive intervention.
This episode examines the Trump administration's explicit imperialist policies, termed the Dunrow Doctrine, and their implications for global politics, anti-imperialist movements, and conflicts in Venezuela and Ukraine.