In this episode, Jim and Chris discuss the woeful response of Columbia University to Trump's aggressive attempt at control and crackdown on academic freedom and free speech. They discuss the letter organised by friend of the podcast and journal...

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right, but it is not unrestricted. There are things that you do not have a right to say, even when a broad free speech right is in place, as in the US. The classic example is shouting 'fire' in a crowded theat...

Free speech is, supposedly, a right-wing issue and yet the Trump administration is engaging in the most severe crackdown on political speech since McCarthy, and they may shortly surpass even that dismal nadir.Jim and Chris discuss freedo...

Chris describes watching Mississippi Burning with his son, how that brought back memories of his time as a local reporter in Mississippi in the 1980s, and how the themes of the film resonate with today. The social norms that have been in place ...

Trump and Musk and their enablers and acolytes are busy dismantling the entire American system of government. As the US hurtles towards a constitutional crisis, with the Trump administration preparing the ground to ignore the rulings of courts ...

Jim and Chris welcome back Guido Haefli to hear about his time working at the Swiss Embassy in India. We hear some details of the Swiss relationship with India, before discussing the history of the situation in Kashmir, where it currently stand...

Is what is happening in the US a coup? The short answer is yes. By rummaging around in the digital plumbing of various government departments and shutting down funding to those he disapproves of, private citizen, I beg your pardon, 'special gov...

What is it like to be a military peacekeeper? What do military peacekeeping missions actually do, and do they make any difference?Jim and Chris are joined by Swiss national Guido Haefeli, who prior to studying in Birmingham was a peacekeepe...

After marking the death of The Band's Garth Hudson, Chris and Jim get in to the dark spectacle of the Trump inauguration. Unconstitutional policies, barely veiled threats of invasion and territorial expansion, plans for economic terrorism, base...

Chris and Jim are joined in this first episode of 2025 by old friend of the podcast, author and journalist Sasha Abramsky. Sasha talks a little bit about the situation in LA which he visited at the weekend (see his photo essay for The Nation

Our final instalment with Luke Doherty, where we cash a couple of cheques that were issued in the past two episodes - the role of AI in politics, and the prospects of a 'new cold war' between the US and China. We're going to take a bre...

The second part of what is now going to be a trilogy of episodes featuring Jim, Chris, and Luke Doherty.In this wide-ranging discussion, the trio begin by considering the US role in international politics in the run-up to and immediate afte...

In this episode, Jim and Chris are joined by Luke Doherty, a fellow student with Jim in Birmingham. After talking for a little bit about what Luke was doing before he came to Birmingham, and what brought him back to studying, they consider the ...

With the UK hit by unseasonal snow, Jim and Chris spend a little bit of time discussing the shall we say unusual political approach of the Starmer government in the UK, which seems to involve annoying as many people as possible as quickly as th...

In this episode, Jim talks with Chris about the course that he is doing on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Jim outlines the various theories of international relations that he has come across so far, realism, liberalism, and constructivism, an...

In this episode, recorded on Thursday 7th November, Jim Driscoll and Chris Floyd discuss the comprehensive Trump victory in the recent US election. Using Gore Vidal's idea that there is only one party in America, the Property Party, as a prompt...

After catching up with respect to Chris' Greek odyssey, and discussing his brief career as a cricket correspondent for the Moscow Times, Jim and Chris discuss the impact of the shock doctrine on Russia in the 90s before considering the extent t...

In this episode Jim and Chris discuss the upcoming US election. Bypassing the usual horserace commentary, they talk about the unprecedented nature of the contest, the 'sane-washing' of Trump, possible futures after the election, and one possibl...

In this episode, recorded on the evening of the 8th October when there were still three candidates in the Tory leadership race and everyone expected James Cleverly to make the final two, Jim and Chris discuss the degree to which the British pol...

Chris talks to Jim about his recent relocation to Birmingham to start an MA in Global Conflict and Cooperation, and his fifteen-and-a-half day journey from Oxford to Birmingham by narrowboat. What does taking so long to travel such a small dist...

Jim and Chris discuss themes arising from the recent Democratic Convention in Chicago - how, beyond the schmaltz, nothing much changes; how the centrist project leads to the triumph of the right; and how we are living in a decadent democratic c...

With Chris back from his secret mission for the mysterious figure known only as 'Toolmaker', and in an episode recorded in the hours before Kamala Harris gave her speech, Jim and Chris briefly discuss the strange experience of watching a Democr...

Following the restructuring of our corporate sponsor, Crab Tut Beer (the best beer you've ever seen), Boondoggle is amending its offer by incorporating various modalities of speech-based content into a new magazine-style format designed to appe...

Chris and Jim begin by discussing recent developments in the Middle East, with tensions running high and fears of escalation after Israel reserves the right to respond to Iran's launching of drones and missiles at Israel (itself a retaliation f...

Political discussion with Jim Driscoll and Chris Floyd. In this episode, Jim begins by asking Chris about his experiences growing up in rural Tennessee during the Civil Rights era. They then use these experiences to explore the relationship...