Shows / Novara Media
Episodes
Novara Media136: Help! Will I be single forever?
Moya and Ash solve your dilemmas, featuring advice for an eager dater who wants to make the first move; the child of a parent who’s voting for Reform; a young…
Novara MediaDownstream: Ex-Accountant Whistleblower: The System Is About to Break w/ Richard Murphy
In 2007, Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant of 42 years, accurately foresaw the global financial crisis. Today, in 2026, he believes we are heading for an…
Novara MediaDo Your Own Research: Inside China's Biotech Revolution w/ Ruby Wang
In the Mao era, ‘barefoot doctors’ got just a few months of training before being sent out to straighten broken bones and administer vaccines. Now China’s…
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135: I’ve lost my confidence! How can I make new friends and keep them?
Moya is anxious about her social life and wonders if there’s a better way to make friends – and keep them. Plus: advice for an international special one who…
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Downstream: See My Movies Then Go On Strike w/ Boots Riley
You’ve probably heard of Boots Riley’s work – Sorry To Bother You starring LaKeith Stanfield was a surprise hit, and his series I’m A Virgo got picked up by…
Novara MediaACFM Trip 64: Confidence
Ever felt like an imposter? Jem, Nadia and Keir offer a weird-left analysis of confidence – from market dynamics and private school to the power of positive…
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Do Your Own Research: How China Defied The End of History w/ Kaiser Kuo
Through the 1990s and the 2000s, the West told itself a story: let China get rich, and it’ll become like us. But then China got rich – and it become less and…
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134: Try, fail and fail again? How embarrassing!
Ash has a big theory about our growing fear of cringe. How does the internalisation of secondhand embarrassment change our behaviour? Is it possible that to be…
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Downstream: The New Right Is Obsessed With AI, Israel & the Apocalypse w/ Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor
In Brighton, for a special recording of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar sat down with Naomi Klein, and organiser, writer and co-founder of the Debt Collective…
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Do Your Own Research: The Mao Era – Catastrophe or Necessity? w/ Rebecca Karl
No one is disputed like Mao. Was he a mass murderer, a Communist hero, a charlatan, or a great poet? The saviour of the peasants, or the man who extracted from…
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133: What if we explained ourselves a little less?
A weird interaction on the dancefloor gets Ash thinking about ambiguity. How do we balance the need for clear consent with the perks of mystery and…
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Downstream: Gaza Has Exposed the Hypocrisy of the West w/ Omar El Akkad
Three years ago, just weeks after the genocide began, writer Omar El Akkad posted a tweet, attached to some footage showing the extent of the ruin that Israel…
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Do Your Own Research: 150 Years of Constant Revolution w/ Rebecca Karl
For a century, China underwent a series of invasions, revolutions and counter-revolutions. In China, it’s known as the Century of Humiliation. It was a time of…
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132: Is there such a thing as healthy competition?
After quitting Instagram, Moya wonders if the concept of ‘healthy competition’ is a myth, and Ash explains how to hate with artistry. Plus: Taylor Swift chat…
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Downstream: Former Scottish Leader: How My Family Escaped Gaza & Why I Can’t Forgive Starmer w/ Humza Yousaf
This week marked three years since the Hamas attack of October 7th, and the beginning of the Israeli state’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian…
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Do Your Own Research: The Chinese Company That Terrifies the West w/ Eva Dou
Huawei makes the pipes and cables that power the Chinese internet. Its global reach has made China into a superpower. Huawei is often accused of spying for…
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131: Is the an upside to AI-generated porn?
Ash and Moya talk about porn, sex work, desire, 'duty sex' and more in a conversation sparked by a mystery question. Is AI-generated porn driving viewers to…
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Downstream: Trauma Farming and the Politics of Public Suffering w/ Catherine Liu
Are we in the era of trauma Top Trumps? ‘Lived Experience’ has become a byword for standpoint authority and progressive politics. It has allowed people from…
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Do Your Own Research: Secrets of the Chinese Internet w/ Tianyu Fang
Welcome to Series 2 of Do Your Own Research. Until the end of the year, I will be focusing on the most important and interesting country in the world: China…
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130: The inconvenient truth about convenience culture
Moya and Ash get their nerd on with a conversation about the rise of convenience and the loss of enchantment. How can we access feelings of wonder in a world…
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Downstream: Porn Addiction Defines Our Political Age. Here's How w/ Patricia Nilsson
The effect of pornography on the people who consume it is often moralised about, generally due to its influence over the nascent sexuality of young men. But…
Novara MediaACFM Microdose: Reading The Society of the Spectacle
Following their recent Trip episode on Situationism, the gang offer a close reading of The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, first published in France in…
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129: How Did the Pandemic Change You?
What if we still haven’t processed what the pandemic did to us? Was Covid a permanent turning point for our social lives and mental health? Ash and Moya…
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128: Does a widening income gap spell trouble between friends?
Moya and Ash think about how money changes our priorities. Should rich friends should pay for their poor friends? And how do income gaps affect our romantic…
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ACFM Trip 63: Situationism
What did the Situationists actually achieve? Nadia, Jem and Keir look back on the antics and manifestos of the socialist revolutionaries who gathered under the…
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127: Help! I think my friend is in love with me?!
Moya is worried about status – and so are increasing numbers of men in therapy, according to a recent report. So what does status look like in this economy?…
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Downstream: The Big AI Lie w/ Cory Doctorow
AI is set to take all of our jobs. It will irrevocably transform our relationships - and it might even kill us all. These are some of the big claims made about…
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Downstream: Multiculturalism Will Save the Working Class w/ Jonas Patrick Marvin
We live in a moment when the working class is fractured along a great many lines. Gone are the days of solidarity built around a shared experience of factory…
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Downstream: Elites Have No Plan for Climate Change w/ Bill McGuire
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2026 is roughly the same as when, in the very, very distant past, the Earth was between 6 and 8 degrees…
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126: What if you don't have to feel anxious 24/7?
126: What if you don't have to feel anxious 24/7? by Novara Media
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Downstream: The Journalist Who Terrifies Corporate America w/ Amy Goodman
The genocide of Palestinians, carried out by the Israeli army with backing from the US and the British state, has lead to an almighty breakdown in public trust…
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ACFM Microdose: How Britain's Coastal Communities are Reclaiming Power w/ Hazel Sheffield
Nadia visits reporter and author Hazel Sheffield in her Hastings beach hut to talk about the coastal communities that are reimagining their economies in the…
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125: Is the era of conspicuous consumption nearly over?
Have we finally had enough of hyper-consumerism? Moya and Ash confront the political crises that are changing our attitudes to spending, and what that’s got to…
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Downstream: Ex-Oil Engineer Turned Climate Whistleblower: "We Face Collapse" w/ Kevin Anderson
The summer of 2026 will go down in history books as the hottest, driest and most deadly set of heatwaves Britain has ever experienced. This weather isn’t…
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ACFM 62: The Beach
Nadia, Keir and Jem wonder why humans are drawn to the beach, in a weird-left conversation about geological deep-time, the birth of surf culture, the politics…
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124: Are you afraid of being ordinary?
Trapped in the attention economy, Moya wonders if our reading habits are affecting our sense of self, and Ash offers a feminist analysis of ‘main character’…
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Downstream: The West is Over. Here's Why w/ Pankaj Mishra
In the years since October 7th, the world has been bitterly polarised over how to make sense of the violence. While polling shows that a majority of people do…
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Do Your Own Research: Is This Podcast the Problem? w/ Joshua Citarella
Joshua Citarella built his reputation by mapping synthetic e-deologies of terminally online politics, expressed in memes, micro-disputes and merch drops. Now…
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Do Your Own Research: What JD Vance and Tucker Carlson Actually Believe w/ James Pogue
The American empire is in crisis – and there is a new generation of more vocal critics coming from the right. So what do JD Vance and Tucker Carlson actually…
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Downstream: Who Profits From Genocide? w/ Andrew Feinstein
A new consensus has emerged in Westminster, seemingly overnight: we need more defence spending, and we need it now. But the Ministry of Defence has a record…
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122: Can you change who you're attracted to? w/ Annie Lord
Former Vogue agony aunt Annie Lord joins Ash and Moya to talk about what happens if you let go of your ‘type’ and allow your romantic ideals to change. Her…
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Downstream: You Will Rent Forever. Here’s Why. w/ Peter Apps
We live in times of crisis. But perhaps none of the crises affect so many people in the here and now, as the housing crisis. Solving it could provide the…
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121: Is it time to stop height-shaming men?
Ash and Moya answer a not-so-mystery question about male self-image and whether short kings really do lose out in the dating market. How does modern…
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ACFM: Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
The Meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius are perhaps the best-selling self-help book of all time. Rooted in the rational philosophy of the Stoics, the…
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120: Help! I’m dreading moving to the suburbs with my partner
Ash and Moya get stuck into your dilemmas. Featuring: a POC friend whose new boyfriend votes Reform, an attractive male coworker who’s gone from supportive to…
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Downstream: The Middle Class Will Collapse Unless We Tax the Rich w/ Gary Stevenson
The idea of a wealth tax has never been more popular in Britain, and while many have campaigned for it, none have done more to boost the demand than one man…
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Do Your Own Research: The True Cost of AI Girlfriends w/ James Muldoon
AI boyfriends and girlfriends are all the rage – for some. For others, they just inspire rage. So what's the truth about these seductive machines? Do they open…
Novara MediaDownstream: Who Really Won the War on Drugs? w/ Kojo Koram
Last year, Zack Polanski’s Green Party suggested changes could be made to Britain’s prohibitionist approach to drugs – and felt the full force of the…
Novara Media119: I know I should forgive my enemies… but what if I don’t want to?
* Last call for our show at Crossed Wires in Sheffield this Saturday, 4th July! Final tickets: https://crossedwires.live * A brush with an old enemy brings up…
Novara MediaDo Your Own Research: How China Wins the Resource War w/ Thea Riofrancos
We need critical minerals for the green transition, the military and the AI boom. In barely a year, lithium and the rare earths have become some of the most…
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Downstream: Governments Do Capitalism Wrong. Here's How We Fix It w/ Mariana Mazzucato
Mariana Mazzucato is a towering figure in contemporary economics, known best for her work on the entrepreneurial state and mission-oriented, ‘moonshot’…
Novara MediaACFM Trip 61: Resilience
A weird-left look at the magical properties of resilience, from the colonial legacy of the stiff upper lip to contemporary narratives of trauma and victimhood…
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118: Can a hen party ever be chic?
* We'll be at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! Final tickets: https://crossedwires.live * 'Tis the season! Moya and Ash explore the etiquette…
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117: Is screen addiction ruining our connection to art?
* We'll be at Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield on 4th July! Final tickets: https://crossedwires.live * Moya has a big theory about why wealthy elites seem…
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Downstream: ‘They Want Racial Holy War’ – the truth About the US Military w/ Matt Kennard
The War on Terror ended in 2021, with the US and British militaries’ catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the consequences of that decade of conflict…
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Do Your Own Research: Israel Is Literally Burying Evidence of Its Genocide w/ Eyal Weizman
The so-called ceasefire in Gaza has not ended the genocide. The bombing runs may be quieter, but the bulldozers roar on. Israel is tearing up homes, orchards…
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116: I can't stop worrying about money. Is there a way out?
* Come to see us at Crossed Wires in Sheffield on 4th July! Final tickets: https://crossedwires.live * Moya tunes into the background hum of money worries…
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Downstream: AI Billionaires Want to Control Every Aspect of Your Life w/ Karen Hao
It has been a year since Aaron Bastani first met with AI investigative journalist Karen Hao, to discuss her book Empire of AI. A year is a long time, in the…
Novara MediaACFM Microdose: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The ACFM crew gather for a close reading of Walter Benjamin's classic of 20th century cultural and media theory. Follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem consider…
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Do Your Own Research: The Future of Manipulation is Here w/ Trevor Paglen
We are all subject to manipulation campaigns all the time: advertising, political campaigning, social media. You don’t know what’s true and you can’t stop…