This is the first part of six linked podcasts on the topic of left-wing hegemony and populism. This part focuses on examining the relationship between the views outlined in Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's preface to the 2001 edition of their book 'Hegemony and Socialist Strategy', and Mark Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism'. It outlines a short history of neoliberalism before discussing issues such as the way in which capitalist realism as an ideology helps institute a politics without frontiers, the role grassroots movements might play in overturning this situation, and how a hegemonic strategy provides a technical framework for those movements to operate in a singular struggle against capitalism.