We need to talk about...Nationalism
A monthly podcast in which Guardian journalists tackle a topic suggested by Guardian members and answer their questions on it. In this edition, Vicky Frost, the Guardian’s deputy membership editor, discusses the global rise of nationalism with Randeep Ramesh, Iman Amrani and Ewen MacAskill
In our monthly podcast series We Need to Talk About … we tackle the big issues shaping the world. This is the fourth in this podcast series, and the first which is available for everyone to listen to – we initially released these discussions exclusively for Guardian members, but we heard from many of you that you thought we should share this debate with as many people as possible, and we were happy to oblige.
These podcasts feature the experiences and questions of Guardian members, and the expertise of a special panel of journalists and guests. You ask the questions, we try to supply the answers.
Nationalism, and particularly questions regarding progressive nationalism – does it exist? what does it look like? why might we have to even ask these questions? – are among the issues we are wrestling with inside the Guardian.
Is there a presumption by some – perhaps by the media? – that nationalism is necessarily a bad thing? And is that perception tied to location? Members in Scotland or Catalonia, for instance, might feel differently from those in England.
We invited members to share with us what they feel is driving the current political surge. Is there an extent to which it’s about people feeling disenfranchised and ignored, that politics no longer represents their best interests? Is it a reaction to an increasingly unequal society? Where does identity – personal and national – come into this?
The Guardian’s deputy membership editor Vicky Frost is joined by Randeep Ramesh, chief leader writer for the Guardian, Iman Amrani, a video journalist who also writes for our opinion pages, and Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian’s defence and intelligence correspondent, who also writes about UK politics.
Making this podcast series, we’ve been inspired from the start by the curiosity, breadth of views, and depth of knowledge that members hold, and we are keen to showcase more of these.
If you would like to email us with your thoughts on which topics we should tackle you can do that by sending an email to weneedtotalkabout@theguardian.com
To join the growing number of readers who support our independent journalism go to gu.com/support/podcast
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