Music and Politics
Claim This Podcastby Adam J Sacks
Podcast Authority
Beta
Podcast Overview
<p>Discs of Dissent! Sounds of Subversion! "Music and Global Politics" is an arts and ideas-theme based podcast combining an exploration of politics and political philosophy alongside music listening and appreciation. Ranging across all genres and countries, fusing rigorous concepts and fascinating ideas with exciting and iconic musical sounds. Our aim is to think philosophically about music as a political text, from tone poems to tropicalia, from gospel to grunge, and opera to hip-hop. From Thailand to Tallinn, from Soweto to Surabaya and from Mumbai to Mobile, we traverse the world. We guarantee your eardrums a-tingle and your brain cells a-quiver, with something special to take away you wont get anywhere else. We feature lectures as well as interviews and tackle hard hitting contemporary developments alongside those long overlooked and historically significant. Each episode has a set theme that furthers challenging ideas and highlights musical ideas and compositions. Please join us and like, rate and subscribe. For the cost of an overpriced coffee on our patreon page we will gladly dedicate an episode in your honor. Find us at musicandglobalpoliticspod.com Happy and bold listening ahead!</p><p></p><p>Please consider joining RSS and use my link here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://rss.com/?via=f3da93">https://rss.com/?via=f3da93</a></p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
4/10/2024
Unlock The Full Podcast Authority Score Report
See how your podcast performs across key metrics
Podcast Authority
BetaRecommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
Recommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
Unlock comprehensive insights including:
- • YouTube presence analysis
- • Social media reach metrics
- • RSS compliance scoring
- • Podcast 2.0 features
- • Technical standards
Detailed Analytics
- Complete breakdown of all 19 authority metrics
- Personalized recommendations for each metric
- Industry benchmarks and comparisons
- Technical RSS feed analysis and compliance scoring
Growth Strategies
- Step-by-step action plans for improvement
- Quick wins to boost your score immediately
- Pro tips from successful podcasters
See how your show performs across every key metric
High authority scores make your podcast more attractive to industry leaders and influencers who want to appear on credible shows.
Sponsors look for podcasts with proven authority and engagement. Your score demonstrates your podcast's value to potential partners.
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you make data-driven decisions to expand your listener base effectively.
Reach the team behind Music and Politics
Verified contact details for this show aren't on file yet — sign up to get notified when they land.
Recent Episodes
June 21, 2026
Americana Music, MAGA and the Southern Jewish Experience with Mark Rubin
<p>"I recommend you find you a gun, it's too late it's already begun....your neighbours hate you and always did, all this time chomping at the bit." Chilling and arresting lyrics from the Americana raconteur, punk-bluegrass veteran and self-described "Jew from Oklahoma, Mark Rubin. Loudly sounding the warning bells of fascist return, Rubin mines deep into the Americana underbelly of prejudice and mayhem but also the fount of musical wisdom found in folk. A former roadie for the Flaming Lips, he was a co-founder of the classic Americana band "Bad Livers" who pioneered alternative bluegrass in the late 1980s. A master of tuba and the string bass, he hosted radio in Austin, and produced music for Richard Linklater. HIs most recent work out of New Orleans, finds him mining radical Yiddish traditions of resistance poetry and partisan activity on his two most recent releases: 2021's "Triumph of Assimilation," and 2025's "Dispatches from a World Gone Mad." Strangely enough, he mines the Southern Jewish experience to make sense of MAGA today. He is drawing upon the work of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience opened in 2021 in New Orleans where he contributes in a supervisory role. Perhaps this unique minority perspective of this group gave them something of a head start in facing that not so subtle climate of intimidation, southern gothic horror of terror wrapped in the homespun. It is in the South where we find a next chapter of the Anglo tradition of the iron first inside the soft velvet glove, whose ways could not prevent the greatest flowering of musical genres in the modern world. We discuss it all directly from New Orleans Congo Square, a musically sacred patch of ground where drumming from the Kongo met stringed melodies from Senegambia which over time led to jazz, blues and rock and roll. Happy listening ahead.</p><p></p><p>Please check out Mark's website and band camp below, where you can find a string of his latest single releases:</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.jewofoklahoma.com">https://www.jewofoklahoma.com</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://jewofoklahoma.bandcamp.com/"><strong>https://jewofoklahoma.bandcamp.com/</strong></a></p>
April 19, 2026
The "Devil's Music"?: The Genius of the Blues at the Heart of Modern Music
<p>Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Like and subscribe, rate and review and support . Patreon/Gmail: musicandpoliticspod. Become an RSS member yourself using this link here:</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://rss.com/?via=f3da93">https://rss.com/?via=f3da93</a></p><p>In this episode we ask, is blues the core of Jazz, is it even the mother of all modern music? Is as BB King once said that "Jazz is the Big Brother of the Blues" or that Blues is High School and Jazz is College? Well its social and economic roots cannot be denied, a rural music versus the city one of the agricultural Delta not the bustling Port City, based on poor cheap transportable instruments, e.g. guitar and harmonica. Surrounded by an aura of suspicion as the "devil's music," the subterranean reservoir of Voodoo that lay beneath was never entirely hidden. ` A highly profane music of work and the carnal life, it is the first person singular voice of existential challenge.</p><p>Musically, based around the pentatonic scale and non-tempered “blue” notes. These are crafted out of regular microtonal bends on the notes, most often on the 3,5,7 notes Out of this fairly defined 12/16 Bar,3 line AAB form, literally thousands of hit songs emerged, an inexplicable alchemy. These semi-tones create a sense of ambiguity between major and minor.</p><p>Not published nor orchestrated, even the identities of that very first generation of Missippii Delta players remain shrouded in mystery. For all the myth around Robert Johnson, he was last in a long line of forebears unknown to the after world. :</p><p></p><p>For musical selections today, two masters of the electric blues showcasing each of the primary instruments, Muddy Waters on Guitar and Sonny Boy Williamson on Harmonica.</p><p><strong>Suggested reading</strong>:</p><p>· Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, Callahan , Kelley, et al.</p><p>· And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, Joe Boyd</p><p>· <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/">http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/</a></p><p>· <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html">http://www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html</a></p><p><strong>Suggested Listening</strong>:</p><p>Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson</p><p>Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues</p><p>W.C. Handy "St. Louis Blues" On The Ed Sullivan Show</p><p>Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out</p><p>Son House – Preaching Blues</p><p></p>
April 5, 2026
Rock Religion: How Spirituality Displaced Politics at the end of the 60s
<p>Welcome back to Music and Global Politics. Like and subscribe, rate and review and support . Patreon/Gmail: musicandpoliticspod</p><p>In honour of Easter, Passover and Qingming tomb-sweeping festival today , we move to matters of the spirit: Did the political tragedies and disappointments of the late 60s convert energy for change into energy for the spirit? Did intimidation and fear of violence enforce this retreat into less earthly matters? Or did the transcendent awakenings of entheogens and the psychedelic experience cry out for metaphysical not political answers?</p><p></p><p>The Grand Tour to the Ancient World instead became a trek to inner worlds, known as the "Hippie Trail," with overland passage through a safe and friendly Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan often by school bus culminating in India and Nepal.</p><p></p><p>The Beatles stay with the Maharishi in Rishikesh studying Transcendental Meditation opened the global floodgates for a youth ready to rush their energies as spiritual seekers rather than revolutionaries.While the Beatles had an acrimonious split with the Maharishi, less well-known is that their American colleagues in art-pop, the Beach Boys actually went on tour with the Indian Guru, and titled a song promoting his consumer friendly technique of Transcendental Meditation.</p><p>George Harrison made an even greater contribution to ISKCON - the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, known as "Hare Krishna." He bought the movement their first house in England, Pigget's Manor in Letchmore Heath, near Watford, in Hertfordshire, renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor, after the Hindu tradition of devotion the movement aligned itself with. Though inherently musical, already using chanting for transcendence, Harrison also produced and performed on the London branch's recording of the Hare Krishna mantra, an unexpected pop hit, peaking at #13 in England and remaining on the charts for 9 weeks.</p><p>From the opposite side of the musical spectrum, the jazz world, Alice Coltrane the widow of the saintly saxophonist John, was not content to remain a spiritual apprentice, and instead founded her own ashram. For four years Doja Cat actually lived at Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, California with her mother. Highlighting her remarkable gospel-jazz fusion, Alice recorded cover 20 albums of such spiritual jazz, an excerpt of "Om Shanti is coming right up, recorded under her new name <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="GI370e" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Turiyasangitananda&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfApYRLTnk63WyxFxBQLiuSrk5-SwQ_3dTfEd1YbLckLaRrKHmzIyJDyOfv_JpuX7g8aD86bf2sZVeKVWxWcW3ZDW1fZlTiFbXQK6hdI-sPVdE0ki8fPJzeLgoAwaeMAMsKXCZNp0sv3XhSbYcIuwsYAgsuaqqutJACeaSywkzndcwRcPZ7OtGe2MVmk1iLi7kjSHs16WXpX-Quj0mvdcn-sjtwSfcvdia6mAce_cNY0xit6HtYm1VIL2iX4vj5dGv64cdPd6dAmantBwtbmOhey&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwjdicf4-tWTAxVFa_UHHWPRKWsQgK4QegQIARAC"><strong>Turiyasangitananda</strong></a>, which translates to "the Transcendental Lord's highest song of Bliss"</p><p>Stay tuned until the end to hear an excerpt from "the Source Family of Father Yod" a spiritual counterculture commune that made a frenzied form of devotional psychedelic rock, recording over 60 albums worth of material. The track "Godmen," by "Children of the Sixth Root Race," a clear reference to the Theosophical movement, the foundation of all New Age philosophies.</p><p></p><p>Here are a few more suggested resources to continue your journey!:</p><p> KRSNA</p><p> Hare Krishna! (Documentary Film)</p><p> Raga (Film)</p><p> Yoga for the City (Documentary Short)</p><p> Spiritual Revolution, 2008 (Documentary Film)</p><p></p><p>· BBC George Harrison Fact or Fantasy interview</p><p>· George Harrison - Vatican Blues</p><ul><li>The Beach Boys 'Transcendental Meditation' –</li><li>The Beach Boys - All This is That</li><li>George Harrison - Awaiting on You All</li></ul>
38 total episodes available
Recent guests on Music and Politics
Guests from recent episodes — sign up to see every guest that has ever appeared on this show.
Dr Larry Mass
Guest
Deep-dive analytics for Music and Politics
Frequently asked questions
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
- What is Music and Politics?
<p>Discs of Dissent! Sounds of Subversion! "Music and Global Politics" is an arts and ideas-theme based podcast combining an exploration of politics and political philosophy alongside music listening and appreciation. Ranging across all genres and countries, fusing rigorous concepts and fascinating ideas with exciting and iconic musical sounds. Our aim is to think philosophically about music as a political text, from tone poems to tropicalia, from gospel to grunge, and opera to hip-hop. From Thailand to Tallinn, from Soweto to Surabaya and from Mumbai to Mobile, we traverse the world. We guarantee your eardrums a-tingle and your brain cells a-quiver, with something special to take away you wont get anywhere else. We feature lectures as well as interviews and tackle hard hitting contemporary developments alongside those long overlooked and historically significant. Each episode has a set theme that furthers challenging ideas and highlights musical ideas and compositions. Please join us and like, rate and subscribe. For the cost of an overpriced coffee on our patreon page we will gladly dedicate an episode in your honor. Find us at musicandglobalpoliticspod.com Happy and bold listening ahead!</p><p></p><p>Please consider joining RSS and use my link here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://rss.com/?via=f3da93">https://rss.com/?via=f3da93</a></p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates weekly.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 8 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Legal Disclaimer
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.