COUNTERSIGN is a podcast hosted by Stewart Motha, Professor of Law at Birkbeck. Stewart and guests discuss books, films, and other materials from across disciplines which open new perspectives on law, difference, and plural existence.
Discussing New World slavery as irreparable evil with David Scott, Ruth and William Lubic Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York. We consider the destruction of forms of life through slavery, genocide, and colonialism and consider why there is a renewed demand for reparations now. How is responsibility for the past being renegotiated after the end of revolutionary postcolonial horizons?
30 Mar 2026
'Dumps & Dead Miners' - South African constitutionalism without constitution
Discussion with Prof Tshepo Madlingozi, South African Human Rights Commissioner, on the legacy of colonialism and Apartheid as we approach the 30th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the adoption of the Constitution of South Africa, signed by President Mandela in 1996. Madlingozi speaks of his childhood lived in the midst of environmental racism and racist capitalism as his father toiled in the mines, and his family contended with separations and living next to a 'shit dump' where effluent from white suburbs was disposed. We consider how world-destroying aspects of colonialism have survived in the supposedly post-apartheid era. Madlingozi explains what it would mean to reconstitute a society and nation in the context of decolonisation?
6 Mar 2026
Fukushima - the art of staying with the trouble
How does art take us closer to the nature of the ongoing catastrophe in Fukushima? I visited the Fukushima nuclear reactor exclusion zone with art curator Jason Waite. The collective art project, 'Don't Follow the Wind', interrogates the nature of nuclear catastrophe with practices that mirror the duration of irradiation. We explore the history of extraction and colonisation of the Fukushima region and people; as well as the social networks that have emerged to provide mutual aid, and re-imagine the infrastructures for living with more-than-human life that has returned to Fukushima in greater numbers more recently.
Artists in Don't Follow the Wind include:
AI WEIWEI, CHIM↑POM, NIKOLAUS HIRSCH & JORGE OTERO-PAILOS, MEIRO KOIZUMI, EVA & FRANCO MATTES, GRAND GUIGNOL MIRAI, AIKO MIYANAGA, AHMET ÖĞÜT, TREVOR PAGLEN, TARYN SIMON, NOBUAKI TAKEKAWA, and KOTA TAKEUCHI.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 15 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
17
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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