Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Life of the Party
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Our Party? Who Really Has the Power? | 01 Sep 2025 | 00:53:13 | |
Shanice, Joe and Jonas dive into all things democracy, examining Zarah Sultana’s saucy New Left Review interview, travelling way back to the Greek agora, and asking searching questions of Corbynism’s legacy. As the Your Party founding conference looms, they ask what real party democracy actually looks like? Readings: The Alternative - Zarah Sultana Born for life, Marked for death - Max Shanley Models of Organisational Democracy - Jante's Umarell Party as Articulators - Salar Mohandesi Credits: Design: Rachel Carr / rachelcarr.co.uk Music: Benjamin Tissot / 9INTLNTLWTYTDKVN | |||
| 2: Can Zack Polanski Break the Green Ceiling? | 15 Sep 2025 | 01:07:21 | |
As Zack Polanski begins to make his mark scrapping with journalists and political opponents, Joe and Shanice disagree on where his biggest challenge will come from. Meanwhile the row between MPs Zarah Sultana and Adnan Hussain on trans politics raises critical questions about what Your Party stands for. Readings: Regime Change in the West - Perry Anderson In and Against the State. Revolutionary Feminism During De-industrialisation - Katrina Forrester Greens Who Organise - Robert Magowan Their End is Our Beginning - Brian Bean Credits: Design: Rachel Carr / rachelcarr.co.uk Music: Benjamin Tissot / 9INTLNTLWTYTDKVN | |||
| 3: We Need New Leaders | 29 Sep 2025 | 01:00:10 | |
What the f!#k has just happened with Your Party? Shanice, Joe and Jonas try their best to shake off their collective depression and get a handle on the drama and controversy underlying Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s very public fallout. How did we get here, and more importantly how the hell do we get out? Readings: Whose Party Is It Anyway - Archie Woodrow Your Party’s Messy Public Breakdown Shows It Has Big Questions to Answer - Archie Woodrow Disaster Nationalism - Richard Seymour Theory of The Party - Phil A. Neel | |||
| 5: Can Palestine Solidarity Win a Left Majority? | 27 Oct 2025 | 01:11:09 | |
As Zack Polanski’s comms campaigning takes the Greens from strength to strength, Your Party releases its founding documents; with debates beginning at regional assemblies. Shanice gives us a look into this contrasting picture, whilst Joe kicks off a debate about NATO, anti-imperialism, and whether Your Party and the Greens need to be more than simply pro-Palestine parties. Reading: Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat - Hannah Proctor | |||
| 4: Can Economic Populism Beat Nigel Farage? | 13 Oct 2025 | 01:09:20 | |
As the left turns to economic populism as the way to beat Farage, Jonas, Shanice and Joe explore it's potentials and imitations. Meanwhile, the Greens surge to 100,000 members, Joe tests the water at Green Party conference, and Zarah Sultana comes out gunning for the Greens at The World Transformed. Reading Organising for Popular Power - An Anti-Capitalism Base Building Tendency in Your Party The Neapolitan Novels - Elena Ferrante Belgian Workers Party Congress Documents New Times, New Circuits: Recovering Sivandan's Political Economy - John Narayan | |||
| 6: The Irresistible Rise of Zohran Mamdani | 10 Nov 2025 | 01:10:23 | |
With Your Party's regional assemblies in full swing Jonas breaks down the dynamics and debates shaping the grassroots of the party. Meanwhile, Shanice puts the debates about class and identity politics under the microscope; making the case you cannot understand the seismic and irresistible rise of Zohran Mamdani without taking seriously how class is felt through identity. But what are the lessons for the British left? Reading Can Apartheid Free Zones Help Liberate Palestine? - The Bristol Cable | |||
| 7: Is This the End for Your Party? | 24 Nov 2025 | 01:06:56 | |
As Your Party’s founding conference approaches, Joe breaks down the latest financial shenanigans and resignations, whilst Jonas makes the case that even if the launch has been a disaster, the historical opportunity presented by the crisis of British capitalism hasn’t been totally squandered. Reading: Melinda Cooper - Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance Helen Walsh - Once Upon a Time in England Oliver Eagleton - Your Party: The Return of the Left | |||
| 8: A Wild Weekend at Conference | 08 Dec 2025 | 01:16:05 | |
** Help keep the podcast ad free - become a Life of the Party supporter ** Coming back from a wild weekend in Liverpool, Jonas gives us an insider account of the vibes, schisms and politics shaping the long-awaited founding conference of Your Party. Meanwhile Joe probes at critical questions: have the Green party completely over-shadowed Your Party? Should Your Party ditch elections and focus on the hard work of building popular power? Reading: The Days of Abandonment - Elena Ferrante Social Infrastructure Proposals - Organising For Popular Power Your Party Conference: Total Chaos or the Future of Democracy - Novara Media | |||
| 9: Are We Revolutionaries? Your Questions Answered | 22 Dec 2025 | 01:19:26 | |
In the run up to Christmas Joe, Jonas, and Shanice answer your listener questions. Are we revolutionaries, what does that even mean? Should the left run as councillors? What does community organising mean? Why have some of the Independent Alliance remained in Your Party? We answer these questions, and more - as well as give you our favourite reads of 2025. Readings: Workers Can Win - Ian Allinson Supermarket Struggle - Workers' Inquiry Pessimism of the Will - Asad Haider New Model Island - Alex Niven Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain - Sam Wetherell | |||
| 14: Queen of the North? What Hannah Spencer's Win Means for the Left | 02 Mar 2026 | 01:33:54 | |
What a week! Shanice, Joe and Jonas dissect the Green party's exciting and decisive victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. How did Hannah Spencer's campaign win? Is Keir Starmer’s Labour party finished? And where does this leave Your Party? With Jeremy Corbyn's The Many slate coming out of the CEC elections with a big majority, we ask where next for the beleaguered new left party. To wrap up a big episode, Jonas digs deeper into the question of ideology and positioning: should left parties advocate for radical policies like drug decriminalisation and decarceralisation, or do we need to appeal more to the status quo? Reading Golden Gulag - Ruth Wilson Gilmore Policing the Crisis - Stuart Hall The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud | |||
| 13: Left Parties That Win: Lessons from the DSA and the Belgian Workers’ Party | 16 Feb 2026 | 01:15:22 | |
With the Your Party CEC elections in full swing, Jonas breaks down the current state of play in the party - and the gang despair at Your Party’s deteriorating culture of political debate. Would Your Party and the Greens be better if they were a little bit more like the Belgium Worker's Party (PTB), or the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)? Joe challenges the assumptions of the British left, arguing that the PTB and DSA are very different organisations, and we need to analyse them on their own merits. Reading The Breaking of the English Working Class - Jonas Patrick Marvin We Found Love in a Hopeless Place - Gabriel Wynatt The History and Practice of Political Police in Britain - Tony Bunyan Parks and Houses For the People - Johan Pries | |||
| 12: Matt Goodwin is a Loser | 02 Feb 2026 | 01:10:40 | |
With Andy Burnham out for the count - blocked by Keir Starmer and his allies from running to be Gorton and Denton's next MP - Joe, Jonas and Shanice grapple with the dynamics at play in this upcoming, historic by-election that could change the face of British electoral politics. Can the Greens really beat Reform in the North? Are Labour out of the race? And most importantly, why is Reform's candidate Matt Goodwin such an incorrigible loser? Reading A Very British Coup - Chris Mullen The Gorton and Denton by-election: a tale of two Manchesters? - Rob Ford Matt Goodwin and the Politics of Resentment - James Bloodworth How to Block ICE in Your City - Eric Blanc Support Help make Life of the Party happen. Donate at lifeoftheparty.uk/support | |||
| 11: Who Are the Trade Unions Really For? | 19 Jan 2026 | 01:07:54 | |
To kick off series two of Life of the Party Shanice, Jonas and Joe are back to their usual antics with spicy hot takes and pressing party news. This week Jonas gives you the lowdown on Your Party's CEC elections so far. Meanwhile Shanice goes against the grain: arguing that trade unions aren't the only site of working class struggle, and why Your Party and the Greens shouldn't formally affiliate to them. Readings: Disaster Nationalism - Richard Seymour Grub first, then ethics? - Jonas Marvin Lenin's Last Struggle - Moshbe Lewin | |||
| 10: Uprisings, New Leaders and the End of MAGA? | 05 Jan 2026 | 01:17:00 | |
Wrapping up the first season of Life of the Party Shanice, Joe, and Jonas give out awards for the major players (and wreckers!) on the burgeoning British left. Meanwhile your hosts dust off their crystal balls to give their predictions on the big political moments heading our way in 2026. Readings: Mistaken Identity - Asad Haider The Populist Moment: The Left after the Great Recession - Anton Jäger and Arthur Borriello Black Marxism - Cedric J. Robinson Become a supporter at lifeoftheparty.uk | |||
| 18: Your Party Is Dead, But Are The Greens Enough? | 27 Apr 2026 | 01:37:53 | |
Jonas breaks down the latest shenanigans inside Your Party and the crew ask themselves how it got so bad. Whilst Joe offers some thoughts on what we do next, now that it seems the Jeremy Corbyn-led party has entered into a zombie state. Readings Anton Jäger - Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences Laleh Khalili - Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy Lotte L.S. - An Economy of Starlings Please subscribe, comment and leave a review! Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd. Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions. Become a supporter: https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ Follow us on Instagram. This is an Ampersounds production. | |||
| Live Shows! We’re Coming to Bristol (April 28) , Norwich (May 16) & London (June 4) | 20 Apr 2026 | 00:01:39 | |
Come see the Life of the Party Live! Ticket links: April 28th in Bristol w/ the Bristol Cable. May 16th in Norwich w/ Norwich Transformed. June 4th in London: email podlifeoftheparty@gmail.com w/ 'London Event' in the subject line. | |||
| 17: The Troubled Story of the Socialist Workers’ Party | 13 Apr 2026 | 01:22:58 | |
Shanice opens us up by comparing the outwards-looking priorities of Zack Polanski’s Greens with their fraught neighbours in Your Party. Whilst Jonas uses the opportunity of the recent mass anti-racist Together march to deep dive into one of its central organisers: the Socialist Workers Party. Readings John Maynard Keynes - The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money Red Mole Substack - Duncan Chapel Please subscribe, comment and leave a review! Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd. Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions. Become a supporter: https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ Follow us on Instagram. This is an Ampersounds production. | |||
| 16: NATO is Dead. So What Next? | 30 Mar 2026 | 01:28:32 | |
Jonas takes us across the pond in this week's news section, analysing the French municipal elections and gleaning some insight from Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise. Whilst Shanice argues that the acceleration of US imperial decline also heralds the fracturing of Western military alliances and the emergence of new possibilities for anti-war politics. Readings Now, the People! Revolution in the Twenty-First Century - Jean-Luc Mélenchon Homeland Empire w/ Nikhil Pal Singh - Politics Theory Other Love, Loneliness and AI: Where Should We Begin? Live with Esther Perel Please subscribe, comment and leave a review! Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd. Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions. Become a supporter: https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ Follow us on Instagram. This is an Ampersounds production. | |||
| 15: Should the Greens Poach Labour’s Left MPs? | 16 Mar 2026 | 01:22:34 | |
Shanice brings in this week’s news with a warning that the Green Party needs to tread cautiously as left-wing MPs consider jumping off the sinking Labour ship and defecting to the eco-populist insurgency. Whilst Joe and Shanice clash over the growing recourse to motion maximalism within the Green Party, as the former’s defence of socialist comms rubs up against the latter’s insistence on the primacy of political principle. Reading Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson Adults in the Room - Yanis Varoufakis Become a supporter: lifeoftheparty.uk/support | |||
| 19: Antisemitism, Local Elections and the End of Two Party Duopoly | 11 May 2026 | 01:36:19 | |
In this week’s episode, Joe takes us on a tour through the recent local elections as we contemplate the end of the two-party system and the brewing Green insurgency. Then Shanice discusses two of this disintegrating system’s morbid symptoms: the rise of both antisemitism and moral panics about antisemitism, asking how the left fights both racism towards Jews and the instrumentalisation of Jewish identity by bad faith actors defending a broken political settlement. Readings Abram Leon - The Jewish Question Callum Cant and Matthew Lee - The Future in our Past: The General Strike Please subscribe, comment and leave a review! Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd. Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions. Become a supporter: https://lifeoftheparty.uk/ Follow us on Instagram. This is an Ampersounds production. | |||
| 20: LIVE SHOW! Andy Burnham and British Politics After the Local Elections (Norwich Transformed) | 25 May 2026 | 01:00:48 | |
Who is Andy Burnham? What is Manchesterism? Should the Greens be afraid of Labour's so-called soft left? Jonas, Joe and Shanice dissect the state of British politics after the local elections, and ask where next for the Left in a rapidly disintegrating two-party system. This episode was recorded live at Norwich Transformed 2026. Please subscribe, comment and leave a review! Hosted by Shanice McBean, Jonas Marvin and Joe Todd. Edited by Marcus Berdaut for Ampersounds Productions. Become a supporter: lifeoftheparty.uk Follow us on Instagram. This is an Ampersounds production. | |||