Isaac finds himself at the Green Party conference in Brighton. The main interview is with the co-founder of Greens Organise, Steve Jackson. GO are organising the left within the Greens at a moment when the party is surging in the polls under the left populist leadership of Zack Polanski, whose leadership campaign Steve was part of.

The interview discusses the dangers of being a jaded ex-Corbynista and the unsettling quality of organising within a party that actually wants you to be there. Our hosts discuss the good, the bad and the cringe of Green politics and whether they actually stand any chance of becoming a mass force in British politics.

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As Pride becomes more visible each year, it risks leaving behind the very people who helped build it. Too often, Pride ignores the deep inequalities within its own institutions and sidelines the queer voices of the Global Majority. Mose-Issie, Lisa Inneh, and Teena Lashmore discuss the intersection of being a member of the Global Majority and queer, being capable of speaking truth to power, and challenging the status quo, and they explore the institutional racism still embedded in Pride organisations; the lack of funding and recognition for Global Majority-led queer events; and what true inclusion and solidarity actually look like.

So, this is a bit of a break from the usual, but we figured the lessons we can learn from radicals 200 years ago are every bit as relevant as those from today. Isaac is back out exploring, and this time he's in a Hotwells building that was once ground zero for radical science and politics in England: The Pneumatic Institute. This place was a hotbed in the late 1700s, right around the time of The French Revolution. Joining Isaac is cultural historian Mike Jay, author of Free Radicals, who gets stuck into this history and the psychedelic science it sparked. The conversation revolves around Nitrous Oxide (NOS) - re-criminalised in 2023 but still wildly popular - and the experiments a motley crew of renegades conducted with it. They were essentially getting high, but these weren't just parties; they sparked revolutionary thinking across medicine, chemistry, and the arts, ultimately forging groundbreaking ideas about public health.

The cast:
Thomas Beddoes
Humphrey Davy
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
James Watt

People Just Do Something (PJDS) is the podcast for people who want to change the world. It is for those who act, instead of waiting for others. It is for those who understand the impact of local change. If you’ve found this episode, then you’re not far from action.

From The Bristol Cable's award-winning newsroom, hosts Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval, along with producer George Colwey, bring you relaxing and possibly enraging conversations with activists, organisers, and change-makers tackling everything from local Bristol struggles to global movements.

The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom—fiercely independent journalism that puts people before profit. Since 2014, we've been holding power to account through investigative reporting, community campaigns, and democratic media ownership. Because when journalism serves the community, not shareholders, real change becomes possible.

Support independent journalism and help us bring more vital conversations to Bristol: become a Bristol Cable member.

[TRIGGER WARNING: Communism]

This episode comes from our last live show where we had international super comrade, professor Jodi Dean, blessing us with a discussion focussed on Communism in the modern age. As an outwardly left wing academic residing in the U.S.A, Jodi is often at the sharp end of the discourse, and she eloquently describes the importance of building a solidarity movement in tough times. Jodi is clearly wedded to the old guard of revolutionary thought, and this chat dives into some of the sticky stuff in framing those ideas for a contemporary audience. Questions like; is Comrade a cringe word? [obviously it is but Jodi and Isaac don’t think so.. c’est la vie].

People Just Do Something (PJDS) is the podcast for people who want to change the world. It is for those who act, instead of waiting for others. It is for those who understand the impact of local change. If you’ve found this episode, then you’re not far from action.

From The Bristol Cable's award-winning newsroom, hosts Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval, along with producer George Colwey, bring you relaxing and possibly enraging conversations with activists, organisers, and change-makers tackling everything from local Bristol struggles to global movements.

The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom—fiercely independent journalism that puts people before profit. Since 2014, we've been holding power to account through investigative reporting, community campaigns, and democratic media ownership. Because when journalism serves the community, not shareholders, real change becomes possible.

Support independent journalism and help us bring more vital conversations to Bristol: become a Bristol Cable member.

Number one Potter fanboy (joking please no more libel) Ethan Shone gives us a whistle stop tour of the sketchy world of The Dark Arts, aka secretive political lobbying. How is Bristol MP Darren Jones connected to a globally influential organisation set up by MI6 operatives? Why has Starmer's Labour party been described by former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy as "the first private sector government in Labour's history"? Who's pulling the strings and how has corporate capture become the overarching narrative of our political era? Journalist Ethan Shone shines a light into these murky corners in an attempt to establish the parameters of the playing field to support campaigners and activists.

The Dark Arts substack
Hakluyt

People Just Do Something (PJDS) is the podcast for people who want to change the world. It is for those who act, instead of waiting for others. It is for those who understand the impact of local change. If you’ve found this episode, then you’re not far from action.

From The Bristol Cable's award-winning newsroom, hosts Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins and Priyanka Raval, along with producer George Colwey, bring you relaxing and possibly enraging conversations with activists, organisers, and change-makers tackling everything from local Bristol struggles to global movements.

The Bristol Cable is Bristol's community-owned cooperative newsroom—fiercely independent journalism that puts people before profit. Since 2014, we've been holding power to account through investigative reporting, community campaigns, and democratic media ownership. Because when journalism serves the community, not shareholders, real change becomes possible.

Support independent journalism and help us bring more vital conversations to Bristol: become a Bristol Cable member.

Annie McGann aka The People's Lobbyist, graced us with her presence at the last PJDS live event to talk about her favourite topic, night-life. Her campaign group Save Bristol Nightlife has been pivotal in supporting the city's night-time economy, acting as a resource hub as well as a go-between for industry workers, Bristol City Council representatives, property developers and more. She calls it "interfering" but it would more commonly be called lobbying. Annie talks us through what led her to this point, her fascination with David Bowie, The Blitz Club, Soundsystem culture and the importance of doing the paperwork if you really want to effect change...

"Tommy Robinson's worst nightmare" is how Taj Ali described his experience at Uni. He came to town for PJDS live to talk about the past, present, and future of trade unionism and activism in the UK. Drawing from his time as an industrial correspondent and his upcoming book on British South Asian resistance, Taj connects the dots between working-class history, racial identity and common struggle. He manages to stay focussed on the love, care and solidarity that still exists in working class communities, whilst also exposing how the far right exploits and encourages division within them. Most importantly he offers a roadmap for fighting back against divisive narratives, using community organising for the sake of the community.

Oh and Isaac talks about his camping trip where he almost climbed into a pyre in a yard outside a church where they speak in tongues??

The queue for the women's toilet was tiny at the Reform UK rally according to Sian Norris, our guest this week. She's a journalist who has used undercover reporting to lift the lid on on the rise of right-wing populism and misogyny, particularly in relation to reproductive rights. She's a Senior Reporter at openDemocracy and has written several books, most recently Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right attack on reproductive rights went global.

Join us as we look into the moment to moment experience of going undercover, how to do it and what it feels like. Featuring badly thought out acronyms, UFO conspiracies and a number of moral dilemmas, Sian takes an extremely considered approach to understanding the people involved in this movement and what makes them tick.