What is a co-operative?

We throw the word around like it’s a trendy café or a startup with a conscience, but in Baltimore, David Lidz and his team at WaterBottle Co-op are proving it’s something far more radical, a way of reclaiming power from the few and putting it back in the hands of the people who actually graft. Worker-owners, not shareholders. Community control, not corporate spin. We talk about ownership, democracy, and what Baltimore can teach Britain about building from the ground up.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They said it was just about the bins. But if you’ve ever lived on an estate, you know better — it always starts with the bins.

In this episode, I’m reporting from the streets of Birmingham, a city on its knees with a bankrupt council, a broken promise to workers, and rubbish piling up faster than excuses. I joined Unite the Union and the striking bin workers right outside the council house as they raised their voices (and a fair bit of hell) against a system that’s failing them — and us.

This isn’t just about pay. It’s about dignity. About working-class people being pushed into a Victorian underclass while the powers that be hide behind buzzwords and balance sheets. You’ll hear from the frontlines — chants, chaos, and community — and we’ll trace how Brum got here, what it means, and why this fight matters beyond the Midlands.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sitting down with Greenaway, aka The Lit Crit Guy, for a chat about his new book felt like pulling back the curtain on something we all live in but rarely name: a system so inescapable, so total, that it starts to feel like air — poisoned, pressurised, but invisible unless you stop to really look. And that’s what the book does: it doesn’t just point at late-stage capitalism and say “this is bad,” it opens the trapdoor and drags the whole thing down into the genre it belongs to. Not economics. Not politics. Horror.

Because what is capitalism if not a haunted house? A slow-burn possession? A monster that feeds off every moment of rest you almost had, and every future you thought might still be possible. Greenaway maps it all — from the daily grind to the crisis of meaning, from wage labour to the endless content churn — and makes the case that the scariest part isn’t the chaos. It’s the order. The cold, systemic, spreadsheet-shaped order that knows your worth down to the last decimal and still says, “Not enough.”

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The independent publisher that’s been shaking up the literary scene with its bold, anti-establishment ethos. From philosophy to politics, music to subcultures, Repeater has carved out a space for radical thought and unflinching creativity.

In this episode, we unpack the explosive whistleblowing that exposed the tech-capitalist ties behind the scenes, the role of AI in eroding independent publishing, and what this means for the future of leftist literature. Featuring voices from those on the front lines, we explore how corporate power is suffocating radical thought—and why the fight for Repeater and Zer0 is far from over. Free Palestine. Smash the machines. The struggle continues.

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For this weeks UK Desk, I reflect on my experiences in the UK film and creative scene and the current plight facing the industry at the moment which has left more then 70% out of work across the sector.

Can the working class artists survive this war on culture?

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And I wonder—if Dazai were alive today, would he even stand a chance? Would he be dismissed as “too bleak” for publishers? Would he be buried under a thousand AI-generated books designed to mimic his style but lacking his soul? Would an algorithm decide that his work was too risky, too unpredictable, too human?

Art, when it’s real, doesn’t follow the rules. It doesn’t obey authority. It doesn’t ask permission to exist. And maybe that’s why Dazai still resonates today—because his work is a reminder of what art is supposed to be. It’s a slap in the face to a world that wants everything to be palatable, profitable, and safe.

So maybe the real question isn’t whether Dazai would survive in today’s world. Maybe the question is—would today’s world even deserve him?

I reflect on my relationship with the work of Dazai and crucially the impact 'No Longer Human' had on my personal since Lockdown.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.