Afleveringen
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For many years, politicians have sold the public a simple story: The answer to undocumented immigration is a strong, fortified border. This story has a seductive, common-sense reasoning — but it is also wrong.
Decades of research has shown that people determined to move, find a way to move.
And when States respond with border controls, people turn to smugglers to circumvent these controls; and on and on this cycle goes with increasingly militarised borders on the one hand, and increasingly desperate people on the other.
But politicians don’t want to engage with this research, when it is much more politically palatable to spend billions buying shiny technology from private corporations to prop the myth of strong borders.
Our guests today have published research that shows the UK government has spent over 3.5 billion pounds in public money to support a sprawling, almost entirely privatised, apparatus to stop desperately vulnerable people from using small boats to cross the English channel and apply for asylum in the United Kingdom.
Listen in to learn more
This research was part of the collaborative Channel Crossings project who are Dr Arshad Isakjee, Dr Thom Davies and Dr Tesfalem Yemane, Dr Lucy Mayblin and Dr Joe Turner.
We would like to thank Corporate Watch and Tipping Point UK in supporting this work.
Here is a link to the initial report: https://channelcrossings.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/border-security-contracts-briefing.-april-2025.docx-1-1.pdf
To find out more about the border security economy see here https://corporatewatch.org/category/companies/ and here https://www.tni.org/en/publication/financing-border-wars
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In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by James Battershill, Ayodeji Rotinwa & Carla Abreu
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
00:00 Introduction
03:30 The manufactured border crisis
06:30 How to understand borders
11:20 The economic migrant 'myth'
15:09 The Borders industrial complex
18:08 Technological underpinnings
22:20 Investigating surveillance contracts
25:09 Companies profiting from war and refugees
28:25 We're all complicit
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Community organisers around the world have long argued that to change a country, canvas a community. But is that really true?
In this episode, we catch up with someone who literally wrote the book on the subject. Our guest George Goehl started organising in a soup kitchen in Southern Indiana 30 years ago in the Clinton era and continues to do so in the time of Trump.
Listen in to understand how to fight effectively for change and why immigration is such a divisive issue.
The Fundamentals Of Organizing - George Goehl
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In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
00:00 Introduction
01:18 How to George get into community organising
05:37 The state of rural America
08:12 Can community organising go national?
11:45 Recharging for the fight ahead
12:45 The public opinion of migration
16:30 AD - The World Unspun podcast
17:55 Progressive meekness
21:31 Meaning making
23:37 How progressive are Democrats really?
25:54 Political vs Community organising
28:55 Tangible change
34:01 Tales from the doorsteps
36:55 What does solidarity mean to you?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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The already fraught relationship between the United States and South Africa has been put under even more strain with Donald Trump's decision to cut foreign aid, not to mention South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ.
Menzi Ndhlovu, a political economist and risk analyst at Signal Risk a risk analysis consultancy focused on Africa, joins us to discuss this critical moment for South Africa.
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In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy’s Africa Editor, Ayodeji Rotinwa. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
00:00 Introduction
02:51 South Africa's support for Palestine
09:19 The street that caused a geopolitical issue
14:06 How the ANC has changed
16:26 Trump's issues with South Africa
22:10 Musk's issues with South Africa
24:10 Is the US trying to bring South Africa to heel?
28:00 How can South Africa appease the US?
31:30 Is there an upside to the rift with the US?
34:28 South Africa's moral quandary
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Danny Sriskandarajah is the author of Power to the People: Use your voice, change the world
Sriskandarajah discusses the shift from a positive phase of civic engagement to a reversal over the past decade, emphasising the importance of community networks beyond state and market fixations. He highlights the role of civil society in nurturing democracy and the need for international solidarity. Sriskandarajah shares personal experiences from his childhood in Sri Lanka and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, underscoring the power of collective action and the interconnectedness of global issues.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jimmy The Giant is a popular YouTuber who did what many would consider to be beyond the pale - he changed his mind about politics. Jimmy went from heading down the right wing pipeline of self improvement gurus to U-turning and becoming, dare we say, ‘woke’.
In today’s episode Aman Sethi talks to Jimmy about how and why he changed his mind about the political landscape and together they examine the changing online landscape that is making it all too easy for mainly young men to slip gradually into the world of alt-right politics.
Jimmy the Giant: @JimmyTheGiant
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN, Jimmy The Giant and Rebel News.
00:00 Introduction
03:32 Jimmy's history
08:30 The rightward turning point
13:22 The popularity of Elon Musk
15:17 The need for hope
17:23 Ad - The World Unspun Podcast
18:48 Disillusion in young men
24:11 How do we get people thinking about the world again?
27:47 Are algorithms actually the problem?
30:13 Understanding online culture
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Borders patrolled by AI-powered robotic dogs once seemed like something purely in the realm of dystopian sci-fi novels. But the border industrial complex is working hard to make them a part of our (still dystopian) reality.
Petra Molnar, author of The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, joins us to discuss the militarization of border technologies, the racial politics of migration and the complexities of being both a refugee and an economic migrant.
Petra is a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in migration and human rights. She is the co-creator of the Migration and Technology Monitor, a collective of civil society, journalists, academics, and filmmakers interrogating technological experiments on people crossing borders.
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In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from NowThis, TVO Today and ParliamentTV
00:00 Introduction
01:39 Why Petra you write The Walls Have Eyes?
07:00 The theatre of surveillance
08:55 The history of the politics of migration
11:47 Racial politics and migration
14:37 AI's roll in policing borders
18:43 How do we decide who is 'worthy' or migrating?
20:09 Is Trump creating a new type of migrants?
22:00 Defining a refugee in the modern age
24:08 Petra's experiences in Israel and Palestine
27:28 The death of physical borders
29:19 How can we resist?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Something strange is happening in Germany.
Last year, the Alternative for Germany or AFD, as it scored, became the first far right party to win a state election in Germany since World War Two. Then in February this year, the AfD came second in Germany's national elections, with 20% of the votes.
The AFD isn't just another populist right wing party. Members of the party have consistently downplayed the horrors of Nazi Germany. What is happening?
Georg Diez, journalist, writer, and author of a Tipping Points: From the promises of the 90s to the crises of the present joins us to discuss how he believes we're witnessing the birth of a new form of far-right politics and should prepare ourselves accordingly.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN, Diem 24, Institute For Policy Studies
00:00 Introduction
01:23 What's going on in Germany?
05:30 The global financial crisis and the rise of the far-right
08:12 Right-wing extremism in modern Germany
12:01 Is fascism the right word?
15:27 What hope do we have for the future?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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What do the Ukrainians at the heart of the conflict with Russia feel about being used as a bargaining chip by countries like the United States? In this episode we speak to Volydomyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, academic, and editor of Ukraine World. Volydomyr lives in Kyiv and is also the host of the Explaining Ukraine podcast.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The rising global far right is violent, racist and misogynistic – and depends on exploiting women.
While many of us associate attacks on women’s bodily autonomy with ultra-religious groups, openDemocracy’s Sian Norris argues that the stripping away of abortion rights is a political issue, rooted in fascistic ideas about women and men. Her book, Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global, explains how organisations and individuals obsessed with stopping the “great replacement” are fuelling the assault on reproductive rights, and their success relies on recruiting, and exploiting, women.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Have we all been looking at Donald Trump’s success in the wrong way? Jeff Sharlet, journalist and author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, makes a compelling case for examining his rise not as a political figure, but as a religious one. After all, Trump himself would surely be the first to suggest that he is divine.
Do the president’s most ardent supporters truly believe that he is an ‘imperfect vessel’ chosen by God? Join us as we discuss.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN
00:00 Introduction
01:04 Why did Jeff write 'The Undertow?'
04:45 Trump the 'imperfect vessel'
06:06 Actually listening to Trump
10:01 The people who follow Trump
14:33 The appeal of Trump to people of colour
18:16 Where do we go from here?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Since al-Assad’s regime fell from power in December 2024, much of the reporting on Syria has focussed on geopolitics in the region. More concern has been paid to the reactions of neighbouring nations than the ordinary Syrians whose lives have been uprooted by years of violence.
But Syria is so much more than a strategic stronghold to be fought over by nations in the Global North.
We spoke with Waseem Albahri, a Syrian cultural heritage specialist who works to preserve heritage sites in conflict zones, about the challenges of reclaiming a country’s history after it’s been held hostage by a regime that was quite literally re-writing the history books.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from Aljazera, Middle East Eye, Wall Street Journal and France24
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Trump 2.0: Is This the Inauguration of A New Era of the Strongman?
Professor Wendy Brown is an American political theorist, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and an author.
Professor Brown’s bibliography includes what we refer to as ‘the Trump trilogy' - three books that span the political career of President Donald Trump. Given Trump’s return to the White House we felt it was the perfect time to speak to her about how a new blueprint for authoritarian leaders seems to be materialising before us.
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Get our independent journalism delivered direct to your inbox, join the openDemocracy Newsletter today.
In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. It’s hosted by openDemocracy editor-in-chief Aman Sethi, an award-winning journalist and author of A Free Man. Support the show by visiting openDemocracy.net/donate.
Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Edited and produced by Nandini Archer, James Battershill & Ayodeji Rotinwa
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Featuring audio clips from CSPAN
00:50 How surprising was Trump's victory?
04:00 Why do Democrats find economic populism so hard?
06:34 Do pundits overlook Trump's populism?
11:30 Is chaos part of the plan?
13:37 The destruction of institutions
21:49 Profound unfreedom
25:30 Is Dehli a window into the future of the US?
27:12 Charisma and demagoguery
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
