The ‘Fully Automated’ podcast features interviews with scholars and thinkers on a range of ongoing controversies within the left, including austerity, financialization, automation and, above all, the future of left strategy.
Fully Automated
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47 episodes
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Podcast Overview
The ‘Fully Automated’ podcast features interviews with scholars and thinkers on a range of ongoing controversies within the left, including austerity, financialization, automation and, above all, the future of left strategy.
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🇺🇲
Publishing Since
2/18/2017
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Recent Episodes
January 2, 2026
Episode 45: Clyde W. Barrow | Marxist State Theory Today
This is a re-broadcast of Class Unity Transmissions Ep 19: Clyde W. Barrow | Marxist State Theory Today In this episode, we are joined by political theorist Clyde W. Barrow to revisit the classic debates in Marxist state theory and to consider their renewed relevance in the present conjuncture. Barrow was a guest speaker in the CU “State Theory” course that ran earlier this year, and we thought we’d invite him back for a more detailed discussion—and to explore how these debates might help guide the left through its current impasse. The conversation begins with the Poulantzas–Miliband debate of the 1960s and 1970s, situating it against the crisis of postwar Fordist–Keynesian capitalism and the broader effort by Marxists to move beyond instrumental or reductionist accounts of the capitalist state. Barrow explains why the debate remains foundational, what is often misunderstood about Miliband’s position, and why Marxist politics cannot afford to treat the state as a secondary or merely epiphenomenal problem. From there, the discussion turns to globalization and contemporary political economy, drawing on Barrow’s book Toward a Critical Theory of States: The Poulantzas–Miliband Debate after Globalization. Rejecting the idea that globalization has rendered states powerless, Barrow emphasizes the central role played by states—particularly the U.S. state—in constructing and managing global capitalism. We then examine how Marxist state theory helps illuminate recent developments in trade policy under the Trump administration, including the structural constraints that capitalist states face when they pursue policies that run counter to dominant class interests, and what this may signal about the future of the global trade regime. The latter part of the episode moves a bit more “into the weeds,” engaging debates over Lenin, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the long-standing question of what a socialist theory of government might look like. Barrow reflects on the limits of romanticized models such as the Paris Commune, the enduring tensions between democracy and state power in socialist strategy, and the usefulness of Poulantzas’s concept of authoritarian statism for understanding contemporary right-wing governments. The conversation concludes with a discussion of what Marxist state theory can tell us about the challenges facing democratic socialist governance today, using the case of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani to explore the structural and political limits confronting left projects within capitalist states. Biographical note: In recent months, Barrow has also been a prominent public critic of managerial governance and political interference in higher education and has faced disciplinary action related to his speech and public commentary. While this episode focuses on theory rather than biography, his situation has made him an important contemporary reference point in ongoing debates over academic freedom and freedom of expression in U.S. universities. Additional background: Clyde W. Barrow earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and previously taught for many years at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Barrow is widely known for his contributions to Marxist state theory, political sociology, and the political economy of higher education. His major books include Universities and the Capitalist State: Corporate Liberalism and the Reconstruction of American Higher Education, 1894–1928; Toward a Critical Theory of States: The Poulantzas–Miliband Debate after Globalization; The Dangerous Class: The Concept of the Lumpenproletariat; and A Critique of Political Science: A History of the Caucus for a New Political Science (forthcoming), along with numerous influential articles on state power, class relations, and academic governance. For donations, educational courses, or membership inquiries please visit: http://www.classunity.org
January 2, 2026
Episode 44: Technofeudalism versus Total Capitalism (w/ Alex Hochuli)
This is a re-broadcast of Class Unity Transmissions Ep. 18: Technofeudalism versus Total Capitalism (w/ Alex Hochuli) In this episode, we’re joined by writer and political analyst Alex Hochuli to discuss his recent essay in American Affairs, “Technofeudalism Versus Total Capitalism.” The conversation explores the rising popularity of the “technofeudalist” thesis — associated with thinkers like Yanis Varoufakis, Cédric Durand, and Jodi Dean — and the claim that capitalism is undergoing a structural mutation into a new mode marked by digital rent extraction, platform dominance, and fragmented sovereignty. We ask: – What is technofeudalism, really? – Has rent overtaken profit as capitalism’s core mechanism? – Are Big Tech and asset managers forming a new feudal elite? – What does this mean for politics, ideology, and the future of the left? – And are we just caught in another cycle of declaring new “ages” without structural transformation? Hochuli argues that what many read as a feudal regression is better understood as a deepening of capitalist modernity itself — marked by desocialization, the hollowing out of collective institutions, and the rise of algorithmic governance. The conversation also addresses the limits of post-ideological strategies, the political role of the state, and the importance of resisting the moralization of industrial capitalism. Hochuli is a writer and political analyst based in São Paulo. He is co-host of the @BungaCast podcast (Aufhebunga Bunga), a leading platform for critical discussion on global politics, post-liberalism, and ideological drift in the post-Cold War era. His work has appeared in American Affairs, Compact, UnHerd, Damage, and other venues. He is co-author of The End of the End of History (Zero Books, 2021), a critique of political stagnation in the neoliberal era and the rise of populist disruption. Links: Follow Hochuli on Twitter/X: @Alex__1789 Explore the podcast: @BungaCast / www.bungacast.com The End of the End of History – Available from Zero Books Hochuli, “Technofeudalism Versus Total Capitalism” (American Affairs, Summer 2025)
February 5, 2024
Episode 43: James A. Smith of The Popular Show
Hello friends! Welcome to another episode of Fully Automated! Our guest for this episode is none other than James A. Smith, co-host with David Slavick of The Popular Show. Smith is also the author of Other People’s Politics: Populism to Corbynism (Zer0 Books, 2019) and coauthor with Mareile Pfannebecker of Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the end of Capitalism (Bloomsbury, 2020). Smith is a defender of the idea that the 2016-2020 “Bernie moment” was a real opportunity to advance the cause of socialism. While it can be tempting today to look back and think that it was doomed from the start, Smith argues that the failure was largely self-inflicted. This means there are lessons that can be learned from the failure. However, he notes, the left today “seems worryingly uncurious about the regressive influence earlier defeated lefts have sometimes inadvertently had.” Smith believes that the left needs to rethink its approach to political freedom. Following up on our recent episode with Efraim Carlebach on the 10-year anniversary of Mark Fisher’s famous essay, “Exiting the Vampire Castle,” we chat with Smith about his recent Sublation essay, “Capitalist Realism All Over Again” (3.17.2023). As he puts it, the left has “struggled to apply the book’s insights,” all too often succumbing to political correctness and “anti-political moralism.” Meanwhile, as evidenced in the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, capitalist elites are claiming that crises that are “too important to be hazarded to democratic oversight or protest.” When the left abandons this fight, the right will try to fill in the gap, claiming that only it can stop the power grab. We also ask Smith about some of his recent episodes, including his interview with Matt Taibbi, one of the main journalists behind The Twitter Files. Like Taibbi, Smith believes that capitalist elites today are leveraging state powers to censor social media activity, essentially constituting a strategy of “revenge against both left and right populism.” We also discuss a number of foreign policy matters, from the west’s war for NATO expansion in Ukraine to the iconoclastic left’s bankrupt analysis of Israel’s war in Gaza. Concerning the latter, many otherwise insightful critics have suggested that Hamas is essentially a bonapartist organization, seeking to create an islamic state. How does Smith respond to these critics? Moreover, given the difficulty of imagining the construction of a working class party in Gaza today, what should be the left position on this terrible war? Smith can be followed on Twitter/X @thepopularpod. Curious listeners can also follow up on Smith’s work on Jacobin, where he has published numerous articles on the state of the British left: “The Labour Party Is Ignoring Britain’s Muslims. A Judge-Led Inquiry Won’t Change That” (12.12.2023) “Labour’s Left Needs to Regain the Insurgent Spirit That Made Jeremy Corbyn Leader” (07.31.2023) “The Labour Left’s Fatal Contradictions Are Still Unresolved” (11.04.2021) NOTE: This is a re-post of Episode 13 of Class Transmissions, which was posted on Feb 4, 2024. I want to thank Class Unity for letting me share this work with listeners of Fully Automated. Please check out Class Unity's website: here Class Unity can be followed on Twitter/X here: @Class_Unity
47 total episodes available
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This podcast is available on 10 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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