“The monsters are on the loose”
CLACSO premiered on November 5, 2024, the first two episodes of a podcast series about new right-wing movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, produced in partnership with elDiarioAR, grouped under the title of “The monsters are on the loose”, with content and narration by the Argentine journalist and documentary filmmaker Ana Cacopardo.
Each episode – available on Spotify, YouTube and all podcast platforms – lasts half an hour and features one or more interviews with the voices and reflections of intellectuals, researchers, and activists from Argentina, Latin America, and Spain.
The first, called «The Argentine laboratory"It is built around the writer's reflections Martin Kohan and from the sociologist Daniel Feierstein, director of the Center for Genocide Studies at the University of Tres de Febrero.
The second episode –»The triumphant narratives"—it puts the activist from the social organization La Poderosa into dialogue Claudia Albornoz the political scientist Esperanza Casullo.
In episode 3 –“The wounds of politics”– the Mexican anthropologist Rossana Reguillo It analyzes the impact of techno-digital change, new political subjectivities, and social networks as spaces of resistance.
In episode 4 –“A shift to the right or neoliberal subjectivity?”– We address the right-wing politicization of youth that emerged during the pandemic. The Argentine sociologist, researcher, and professor Melina Vázquez He shares some key insights into understanding this generational experience, which oscillates between disillusioned voting and intense, aggressive digital activism. For his part, the anthropologist and sociologist Pablo Semán He analyzes the “neoliberalism from below” that was the ferment of the Mileismo movement and asks why in Argentina the worst right wing won with the best results.
What are the reasons behind the programmatic antifeminism of the new right? Is it just a culture war? In episode 5 –"State antifeminism" Veronica Gago, philosopher, feminist activist and leader of the “Ni una menos” collective, reflects on the scope of the conservative restoration embodied by the government of Javier Milei in Argentina.
Was the pandemic a missed opportunity, or perhaps the keys to shaping a different world lie within that extraordinary time? Was the rapid return to normalcy truly normal, or a form of forgetting? Why didn't we see the serpent's egg that is now corroding democracies? An episode to reflect, from our continent's perspective, on the threats and challenges of the post-pandemic order. Episode 6: «The serpent's egg of the pandemic", maristella svampa, sociologist, researcher and socio-environmental activist.
Victoria De Masi (journalist and writer) and Natalia Aruguete (Conicet researcher) reflect in episode 7 «The Trojan horse of freedom"On the world of social media and a contemporary climate marked by emotions, individuation, and ideological and affective polarization. Why was freedom the Trojan horse of the millennial generation? In a digital territory that seems immune to data, arguments, and facts, are there conditions for democratic dialogue?"
March 8th of anti-fascist internationalism. Racist, antifeminist, and transphobic rhetoric has intensified globally with Trump's rise to power, while feminist internationalism raises the banners of antifascism. How can we move beyond a purely reactive agenda? What challenges does the masculinization of institutional politics and the silencing of feminist voices pose? How can we re-establish a narrative of transformation? On this International Women's Day (March 8th), we ask: Cristina you will fail, journalist and one of the most influential voices in Spanish feminist activism, and Karina Batthyány, Executive Director of CLACSO, analyze the current context and raise crucial debates on feminisms.
Narrating our time. How do we tell this historical story? What is the role of critical discourse? What narrative approach do we take to distance ourselves from the agendas and provocations put forth by the far right in the ecosystem of social media and online platforms? What fictional narratives illuminate our understanding of our time? The writer's analysis Teresa Andruetto, by the writer and screenwriter Claudia Pineiro and from the journalist Sergio Ciancaglini.
Ana Cacopardo interviewed by Gustavo Lema at InfoCLACSO on October 30, 2024
“We were interested in focusing on the social conditions that help us understand the emergence of the new right wing. More than what happens in government palaces, we were interested in examining the profound social and political transformations that accelerated with the pandemic,” he anticipates. Ana Cacopardo.
He added: “The new right wing is the emerging phenomenon of this historical moment, which has something of a liminal feel about it. We are crossing a threshold, and this becomes evident when we feel perplexed or the sense that we have never lived through a moment like this before.”
The conversations raise questions and address local and global agendas: Are we inhabiting a new phase of neoliberalism? Is digital territoriality a condition for the expansion of fascism? Why are the far right programmatically antifeminist? Are democracies collapsing? Rightward shift or unbridled neoliberal subjectivity? How do we broaden the conversation in a polarized public sphere co-opted by the logic of networks?
The podcast's structure plays with scenes from social and political life that encapsulate a part of the time we live in. "We recreate these scenes using archival footage and narrative. They are often brief scenes that we bring ourselves, but our interviewees also suggest them, and they function as mirrors for us to see ourselves and as a trigger for the thematic axes proposed in each episode," Cacopardo explains.
The podcast's other defining feature is a sort of question-survey that closes each episode, evoking Antonio Gramsci's words when he described the dilemmas of mid-20th-century Europe: "In the chiaroscuro of an old world that is dying and a new one that is slow to appear, monsters emerge." This statement continues to resonate, prompting us to reflect on our times and ask ourselves: What monsters are on the loose? Do they perhaps dwell within us?
“This time has something apocalyptic about it. It seems easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of this predatory capitalism. The podcast's narrative focuses on understanding, not on feeding the apocalyptic fatigue that distresses us. Feminisms taught us to reclaim the monstrous as a way to break free from the mold. That's the perspective that interests us,” Cacopardo points out. At the beginning of each episode, Manuel Callau's voice affirms this quest: “In this podcast you will find monsters but also glimmers of hope in the darkness.”
The third episode, which will premiere on Tuesday, November 12, features a relevant voice in Latin American critical thought: the Mexican anthropologist and chronicler Rossana Reguillo.
Along with the episodes, as a sort of bonus track, extended versions of some of the interviews conducted by Ana Cacopardo for this podcast series will be published in elDiarioAR and on CLACSO's networks.
Narration and content: Ana Cacopardo
Voiceover: Manuel Callau
Production by CLACSO: Eric Domergue
Sound editing and original music: Fermín Irigoyen
Director of Communication and Information at CLACSO: Gustavo Lema
Executive Director of CLACSO: Karina Batthyány
