The Telos Press Podcast: Recent Episodes
Telos Press
Since 1968, the quarterly journal Telos has served as the definitive international forum for discussions of political, social, and cultural change. Readers from around the globe turn to Telos to engage with the sharpest minds in politics, philosophy, and critical theory, and to discover emerging theoretical analyses of the pivotal issues of the day. Don't miss a single issue—subscribe to Telos today at the Telos Press website, www.telospress.com.
In today's episode of the Telos Press Podcast, Adrian Pabst talks with Michael Lind and John Milbank about postliberalism, the topic of the current issue of Telos, "Debating Postliberalism." Adrian Pabst's "The New Era: What Comes After the Self-Erosion of Liberalism," Michael Lind's "After Liberalism," and John Milbank's "The Politics of Virtue" all appear in the issue. We have made the articles by Pabst and Lind available as open access publications, and they can be read for free at our website. To purchase a copy of the issue or to subscribe to Telos, visit our online store.
In this episode of the TPPI Podcast, we present plenary session 3, entitled “Economic Democracy and Political Participation,” from day 1 of Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference. This session was moderated by Imogen Sinclair, Director of the New Social Covenant Unit. The panel featured presentations from the following four speakers:
- Dan Carden MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool, Walton since 2017;
- Jonathan C.D. Clark, British historian; Joyce C. and Elizabeth Ann Hall Distinguished Professor Emeritus of British History, University of Kansas;
- Will Hutton, President, Academy of Social Sciences; columnist, The Observer; author of This Time No Mistakes (2024); and
- Munira Mirza, Director, Civic Future; Head of the No. 10 Policy Unit (2019–2022).
The 2024 Postliberalism Conference took place on December 13–14, 2024, in the McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, UK. Co-sponsored by the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, the Centre for Social Renewal, Energeia, and Plough, the conference brought together leading academics, politicians, policymakers, and journalists to explore the errors and excesses of liberalism and to conceptualize constructive alternatives to its worldview and to the dominant theoretical models that underpin it.
In this episode of the TPPI Podcast, we present plenary session 2, entitled “Beyond Global Capitalism and the Ecological Crisis: Rebuilding National Economies and Societies,” from day 1 of Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference. This session was moderated by David Pan, Editor of Telos and Professor of German at the University of California, Irvine. The panel featured presentations from the following four speakers:
- Sohrab Ahmari, Co-Founder and Co-Editor, Compact Magazine; U.S. Editor of UnHerd; author of Tyranny, Inc. How Private Power Crushed American Liberty–And What To Do About It (2023);
- Juan Carlos Belausteguigoitia, Professor of Economics; Director of the Center of Energy and Natural Resources, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM);
- Mary Harrington, Contributing Editor, UnHerd and author of Feminism against Progress (2022); and
- Wolfgang Streeck, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany; author of Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism (2024).
The 2024 Postliberalism Conference took place on December 13–14, 2024, in the McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, UK. Co-sponsored by the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, the Centre for Social Renewal, Energeia, and Plough, the conference brought together leading academics, politicians, policymakers, and journalists to explore the errors and excesses of liberalism and to conceptualize constructive alternatives to its worldview and to the dominant theoretical models that underpin it.
In this episode of the TPPI Podcast, we present plenary session 1, entitled “The Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism and Civil Society,” from day 1 of Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference. This session was moderated by Alison Milbank, Emeritus Professor of Theology and Literature, University of Nottingham, and author of God and the Gothic (2018) and For the Parish (2010, with Andrew Davison). The panel featured presentations from the following three speakers:
- Maurice (Lord) Glasman, Labour Life Peer, founder of Blue Labour and of the Common Good Foundation, and author of Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good (2022);
- Frances Foley, Deputy Director of the Compass think-tank; and
- Paul Tyson, Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland, Australia.
The 2024 Postliberalism Conference took place on December 13–14, 2024, in the McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, UK. Co-sponsored by the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, the Centre for Social Renewal, Energeia, and Plough, the conference brought together leading academics, politicians, policymakers, and journalists to explore the errors and excesses of liberalism and to conceptualize constructive alternatives to its worldview and to the dominant theoretical models that underpin it.
In this episode of the TPPI Podcast, we present Michael Lind’s keynote address “After Liberalism: Pluralism and the Social Constitution,” from day 1 of Political Economy and the Good Life: The 2024 Postliberalism Conference. Lind is a leading academic, commentator, and bestselling author of The New Class War (2020). The panel discussion was moderated by Tom McTague, Political Editor of UnHerd, and it featured responses to Lind’s lecture from the following three speakers:
- Claire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal, Progressive Policy Institute; Director of Policy, Labour Party (2020–22); author of The New Working Class;
- Jon Cruddas, former Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham; author of The Dignity of Labour (2021), and A Century of Labour (2024); and
- Adrian Pabst, Professor of Politics, University of Kent, and author of The Politics of Virtue: Postliberalism and the Human Future (2016, with John Milbank) and Postliberal Politics (2021).
The 2024 Postliberalism Conference took place on December 13–14, 2024, in the McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, UK. Co-sponsored by the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, the Centre for Social Renewal, Energeia, and Plough, the conference brought together leading academics, politicians, policymakers, and journalists to explore the errors and excesses of liberalism and to conceptualize constructive alternatives to its worldview and to the dominant theoretical models that underpin it.
In today’s episode of the TPPI Podcast, Gabriel Noah Brahm speaks with New York City filmmaker Richard Ledes about his latest film, Ikonophile Z (2024). Ledes is the director of Adieu Lacan (2022), A Hole in One (2004), The Caller (2008), Foreclosure (2012), Fred Won't Move Out (2012), Golden Dawn, NYC (2014), The Dark Side (2014), No Human Is Illegal (2018), and the forthcoming V13 (2025).
Gabriel Noah Brahm talks with Orian Morris, a longtime close observer of Israeli politics and culture, a noted Israeli literary critic, a critically acclaimed novelist writing primarily in Hebrew, and a former IDF combat soldier. While serving as a paratrooper, he saw the death of his company commander in battle and participated in an ambush in which a number of Hezbollah terrorists were killed. He has authored numerous highly original and thought-provoking essays and stories for Haaretz, Makor Rishon, Tablet, and TelosScope. The release of his formally innovative 2016 book לרגל עבור מקום אחר (With My Little Eye) established him as the latest "enfant terrible of Hebrew literature."
Gabriel Noah Brahm talks with Paul Gross, a Senior Fellow at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Previously, Gross served as speechwriter for Israel's Ambassador to the UK. He holds an MA in Middle East Politics from the University of London, and lectures widely on Israeli history and politics. His numerous published research articles and op-eds have appeared in a variety of media outlets in Israel, the UK, the US and Canada, including The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Fathom, The American Interest , and Persuasion. He was an active participant in the protest movement against judicial reform in Israel from December 2022 to October 2023.
Gabriel Noah Brahm talks with Michael S. Kochin, Professor Extraordinarius in the School of Political Science, Government, and International Relations at Tel Aviv University. Kochin received his A.B. in mathematics at 19 from Harvard and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. He has held visiting appointments at Yale, Princeton, Toronto, and Claremont McKenna College. Through September 2025 Kochin is Visiting Scholar at the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship and at the Catholic University of America. He has written widely on the comparative analysis of institutions, political thought, politics and literature, and political rhetoric. Kochin is the author of three books: Gender and Rhetoric in Plato’s Political Thought (2002), Five Chapters on Rhetoric: Character, Action, Things, Nothing, and Art (2009) and (with the historian Michael Taylor) An Independent Empire: Diplomacy & War in the Making of the United States (2020). With Alberto Spektorowski he edited Michel Houellebecq, the Cassandra of Freedom: Submission and Decline (2021).
The TPPI Podcast, Episode 6: Israel's Year of Dangerous Living, Part 2: "From the Battlefield of Ideas to the Battlefield, and Back": A Podcast Conversation with Dr. Jonathan Spyer
Gabriel Noah Brahm, director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s Israel Initiative, speaks with Jonathan Spyer, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, the Middle East Forum's flagship publication, and director of research at the Forum. A journalist, he reports for Janes Intelligence Review, writes a column for the Jerusalem Post, and is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and The Australian. He frequently reports from Syria and Iraq. He has a B.A. from the London School of Economics, an M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. He is the author of two books: The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict (2010) and Days of the Fall: A Reporter's Journey in the Syria and Iraq Wars (2017).
Gabriel Noah Brahm, director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s Israel Initiative, speaks with Gadi Taub, a Senior Lecturer at the Federmann School of Public Policy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Taub previously joined us for the TPPI webinar on “Our Troubled Institutions: The End(s) of Higher Education, Post-Journalism, and Antisemitism after October 7,” which also featured Russell A. Berman and Paulina Neuding, and which is available here.
For more information about TPPI's Israel Initiative, visit our website.
The TPPI Podcast, Episode 4: The Nazi Roots of October 7: A Conversation with Prof. Matthias Küntzel and Gabriel Noah Brahm
Gabriel Noah Brahm, director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s Israel Initiative, speaks with German political scientist Prof. Matthias Küntzel about the Nazi roots of the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, and about the dangers posed today by Iran. This conversation follows TPPI’s webinar of February 7, 2024, “Historians on Ideology and Politics in the 1948 War” with Küntzel, Jeffrey Herf, and Benny Morris, available here: https://youtu.be/2-xT2ePXjfU. The video version of this podcast is available here: https://youtu.be/gQezPnV0kvw
For more information about TPPI's Israel Initiative, visit our website here: https://www.telosinstitute.net/israel-initiative/
In the latest podcast of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, TPPI's Mark G. E. Kelly, organizer of the 2024 Telos conference on "Democracy Today?," speaks with Salvator Babones of the University of Sydney about democracy in India, asking him in particular about his sympathetic reading of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A video version of this interview is available here: https://youtu.be/epeq67sOccg
Gabriel Brahm, director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute's Israel initiative, talks with Abe Silberstein, a writer and critic based in New York, whose essays have appeared in the New York Times, Ha’aretz, The Forward, Times Literary Supplement (UK), and Dissent, among other publications. Their discussion focuses on Frantz Fanon and the events of October 7. This conversation follows TPPI's webinar on January 7 on the same subject with Silberstein, Cary Nelson, and Manuela Consonni, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWNDnQtLvLQ
Gabriel Brahm, director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute's Israel initiative, speaks with Prof. Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors, about the role of critical theory in the response within higher education to the Hamas atrocities of October 7. This conversation follows TPPI's webinar on January 7 on the same subject with Nelson, Abe Silberstein, and Manuela Consonni, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWNDnQtLvLQ
Sherman A. Jackson discusses his article "Islam and the Promotion of Human Rights" from Telos 203 (Summer 2023).
Chih-yu Shih discusses his article "Loving Hong Kong: Unity and Solidarity in the Politics of Belonging" from Telos 202 (Spring 2023).
David Pan talks with Stephen Muecke about his article "Belonging in Aboriginal Australia: A Political 'Cosmography,'" from Telos 202 (Spring 2023).
David Pan talks with Matthew Dal Santo about his article "Russia, the Ukraine War, and the West’s Empire of Secularization," from Telos 201 (Winter 2022).
John Milbank discusses his article "A Tale of Two Monsters and Four Elements: Variations of Carl Schmitt and the Current Global Crisis" from Telos 201 (Winter 2022).
Paul Grenier discusses his article "Konstantin Krylov's Ethical Theory and What It Reveals about the Propensity for Conflict between Russia and the West" from Telos 201 (Winter 2022).
Miles Yu discusses his article "Escape from Civilization's Predicaments" from Telos 201 (Winter 2022).
Eric Hendriks-Kim discusses his article "The Polemics of China's Counter Cosmopolitanism" from Telos 201 (Winter 2022).
David A. Westbrook discusses his article "From the Ivory Tower to the Football Stadium: A Rueful Response to Michael Hüther" from Telos 200 (Fall 2022).
Michael Hüther discusses his article "Tired of Science?! Notes on the Relationship between University and Society" from Telos 200 (Fall 2022).
Greg Melleuish and Susanna Rizzo discusses their article "Universities: Truth, Reason, or Emotion?" from Telos 200 (Fall 2022)
J. E. Elliott discusses his article "Brand English and Its Discontents: Situating Truth and Value in the University Today," from Telos 200 (Fall 2022)
Richard T. Marcy and Valerie J. D'Erman discuss their article "The Sensemaking and Construction of Political Narratives in Academic Settings," from Telos 200 (Fall 2022)
Xudong Zhang discusses his article "China and the West: Methodologies for Comparison," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Xudong Zhang discusses his article "China and the West: Methodologies for Comparison," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Brian Wolfel discusses his article "Thomas Carlyle’s Conception of Transcendentalism in Sartor Resartus and Its Application to Theorizing Postliberalism," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Brian Wolfel discusses his article "Thomas Carlyle’s Conception of Transcendentalism in Sartor Resartus and Its Application to Theorizing Postliberalism," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Karen Thornber discusses her article "Decentering the 'West' and 'China' in China-West Comparison," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Karen Thornber discusses her article "Decentering the 'West' and 'China' in China-West Comparison," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Ban Wang discusses his article "The Clash of Civilization and World Community: The West and China," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Tomáš Sobek discusses his article "Tolerance as Suppressed Disapproval," from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Telos editors Tim Luke, Mark Kelly, and David Pan discuss their essays on Ukraine and world order from Telos 199 (Summer 2022).
Courtney Hodrick discusses her article "From Neoreaction to Alt-Right: A Schmittian Perspective," from Telos 198 (Spring 2022).
Georges Van Den Abbeele discusses his article "Can the Precariat Be Organized?: The Gig Economy, Worksite Dispersion, and the Challenge of Mutual Aid," from Telos 198 (Spring 2022).
Martin Tomszak discusses his article "'With Desire I Have Desired': Enjoying the Face of the Other as Political Theology: John Caputo and Dorothy Day Situating Hospitality as Divine Encounter," from Telos 198 (Spring 2022).
Vivian P. Y. Lee discusses her article "The City in Flux: Toward an Urban Topology of Hong Kong Cinema," from Telos 197 (Winter 2021).
Xuesong Shao discusses her article "Restoring and Reimagining Socialist-Built Cities: Wang Xiaoshuai's 'Third Front Trilogy,'" from Telos 197 (Winter 2021).
A panel discussion of Timothy W. Luke's new book, The Travails of Trumpification (Telos Press, 2021), with Timothy Luke, David Pan, Fred Siegel, and Mark S. Weiner.
Linus Recht discusses his article "After Desire: Foucault’s Ethical Critique of Psychological Man and the Foucauldian Ethos of the Internet Age," from Telos 196 (Fall 2021).
Kyle Baasch discusses his article "Critical Theory in the Flesh: Adorno and Foucault in San Francisco," from Telos 196 (Fall 2021).
Nir Evron discusses his article "Hannah Arendt, Thinking, Metaphor," from Telos 196 (Fall 2021).
Matthew Sharpe discusses his article "Solitaire/Solidaire: Camus, Contemplation, and the Vita Mixta," from Telos 196 (Fall 2021).
Lillian Hingley discusses her article "The Feminine Character: The Allegory of Ibsen’s Women in Adorno’s Modernist Literary Theory," from Telos 196 (Fall 2021).
Telos editors Mark G. E. Kelly, Adrian Pabst, Marcia Pally, David Pan, and David A. Westbrook discuss the causes of the U.S. failure in Afghanistan and the long-term consequences.
Matthias Schwartz discusses his article "Servants of the People: Populism, Nationalism, State-Building, and Virtual Reality in Contemporary Ukraine," from Telos 195 (Summer 2021).
Telos Editor David Pan talks with Jay Gupta, Mark G.E. Kelly, and Timothy W. Luke about the changing character of the public sphere.
Aryeh Botwinick discusses his article "Contra Originalism: The Elusive Text," from Telos 195 (Summer 2021).
Kiran Sridhar discusses his article "Russia’s Hybrid Warfare Strategy and How to Combat It," from Telos 193 (Winter 2020).
Adam K. Webb discusses his article "Supranational Governance and the Problem of the 'Dignified Constitution,'" from Telos 195 (Summer 2021).
Marcin Skladanowski discusses his article "Criticism of Western Liberal Democracy by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’," from Telos 193 (Winter 2020).
Antonio Lecuna discusses his article "Populism in Venezuela: The Nature of Chavismo," from Telos 195 (Summer 2021).
Beau Mullen discusses his article "Turmoil in Egypt: Faith, Nationalism, and the Apparent Inadequacies of Liberalism," from Telos 194 (Spring 2021).
Michael Millerman discusses his article "The Ethnosociological and Existential Dimensions of Alexander Dugin’s Populism," from Telos 193 (Winter 2020).
Edward Hadas discusses his article "Three Rival Versions of Monetary Enquiry: The Ideologies of Money," from Telos 194 (Spring 2021).
Telos Editor David Pan talks with Jay A. Gupta, Mark G. E. Kelly, and Timothy W. Luke about the January 6th US Capitol riot.
Rabab Kamal discusses her article "The Curious Case of Islamic Reform: Why the Concept of Holy Violence Remains Disputed and How Nonviolent Islamism Is More Than Problematic," from Telos 194 (Spring 2021).
Timothy W. Luke discusses the new edition of his book Screens of Power: Ideology, Domination, and Resistance in Informational Society (Telos Press, 2020).
David A. Westbrook discusses his article "Social Capitalism: A Descriptive Sketch," from Telos 194 (Spring 2021).
F. Cartwright Weiland discusses his article "Reflections of a Rapporteur" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Ruth Starkman discusses her article "Making Human Rights Readable: The Report of the Commission on Unalienable Rights" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Russell A. Berman discusses his article "Reflections on Rights" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
David Pan discusses his article "Unalienable Rights, the 1619 Project, and Nation-State Sovereignty" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Christopher Tollefsen discusses his article "Some Further Thoughts on the Nature, Scope, and Source of Human Rights" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Jon Simons discusses his article "Divine Violence, Profane Peace: Walter Benjamin, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Peace in Israel–Palestine" from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
David Pan and Russell Berman talk with Elham Manea about her new book, The Perils of Nonviolent Islamism (Telos Press, 2021).
Mark G. E. Kelly discusses his article "Is Fascism the Main Danger Today? Trump and Techno-Neoliberalism," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Aryeh Botwinick discusses his article "Negative Theology, Power, and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Menachem Fisch discusses his article "The Tragic Paradox of Political Zionism," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
David Pan talks with Kenneth Johnson about Black Lives Matter and the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Annabel Herzog discusses her article "When Arendt Said 'We': Jewish Identity in Hannah Arendt’s Thought," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Justin Neville Kaushall discusses his article "Natural Spontaneity, or Adorno’s Aesthetic Category of the Shudder," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Lenka Ucnik discusses her article "Conscience, Morality, Judgment: The Bond between Thinking and Political Action in Hannah Arendt," from Telos 192 (Fall 2020).
Takahiro Nakajima discusses his article "Constitutionalism and Sovereignty: On Constitutional Problems in Japan," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Loren Goodman discusses his article "Poetic Impositions: Japanese–U.S. Constitutional Problems of Peace and Tranquility," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
David Pan discusses his article "State, Movement, People: Representation and Race in the Construction of Political Identity," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Qin Wang discusses his article "Constitution and Literariness: Takeuchi Yoshimi’s Critique of the Postwar Japanese Constitution," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Aryeh Botwinick discusses his article "Epistemological Skepticism, Textual Skepticism, and the Role of Constitutions," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Greg Melleuish discusses his article "Constitution and Culture: The Unusual Case of Australia," from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Robert Miner discusses his article "Human Joy and the Subversion of Work/Play Distinctions: A Note on Adorno’s Minima Moralia 2.84," from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
Devin Singh discusses his article "Exceptional Economy: Sovereign Exchanges in Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben," from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
David Pan discusses his article "Economy and Ecology: Federal Populism and the Devil in the Details of Universal Basic Income," from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
Steven Knepper and Robert Wyllie discuss their article "In the Swarm of Byung-Chul Han," from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
Mark G. E. Kelly discusses his article “Foucault and the Politics of Language Today,” from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
Camelia Raghinaru talks with Beau Mullen about his article “Democratic and Republican Coups,” from Telos 189 (Winter 2019).
Camelia Raghinaru talks with Murray Skees about his article “Grab Them by the Public: Trump, Twitter, and the Affective Politics of Our Fragmented Democracy,” from Telos 191 (Summer 2020).
Camelia Raghinaru talks with John Milbank about his article “In Triplicate: Britain after Brexit; the World after Coronavirus; Retrospect and Prospect,” from Telos 191 (Summer 2020). Read the full article here.
Telos editor David Pan and Russell Berman talk with author Fred Siegel about his forthcoming book The Crisis of Liberalism: Prelude to Trump, published by Telos Press Publishing. Siegel discusses the growth of the administrative state, the similarities between former New York City mayor John Lindsay and Barack Obama, the Black Lives Matter movement, the echoes of the 1960s in today’s politics, and the rise of left-wing fascism. Order your copy of The Crisis of Liberalism today at www.telospress.com and save 20% off the list price. Also available in Kindle ebook format.