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Bhaskar Sunkara

Founding Editor, Jacobin; President, The Nation, Jacobin

Search every verified Bhaskar Sunkara interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation and founding editor of Jacobin, has been promoting two books in recent appearances: an updated edition of "The Socialist Manifesto" (Basic Books, 2026) and "The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World" (Verso, 2026), co-authored with others. In interviews across several podcasts, he discussed his view that markets are "an objective good" and argued that the primary socialist critique of markets concerns unequal income distribution, which skews production toward luxury goods. He also described his vision of socialism as including guaranteed access to necessities like housing, education, and healthcare, as well as worker control of firms, where employees would elect management and receive shares of profits. Sunkara criticized Soviet-style command economies as "utterly irrelevant to our times" and leading to authoritarianism, while suggesting Nordic social democracy empowered workers and guaranteed social rights. He also commented on contemporary U.S. politics, stating that Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani's mayoral appeal benefited from a clear ideology tied to working-class narratives, and he argued that some Democratic Party consultants oppose candidates like Mamdani against evidence of their popularity with the median voter. He acknowledged capitalism's strengths relative to feudalism but maintained that reforms alone are insufficient, advocating for systemic change.

Recent appearances

  • Bhaskar Sunkara Thinks the Market Has a Place Under Socialism | Odd Lots

    October 22, 2026 · 📺 Bloomberg Podcasts

    In September, Gallup released a poll that showed that 43% percent of Americans viewed socialism positively, the highest approval since Gallup began the poll back in 2010. Since Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral election, the left has made a number of gains across national politics. As a longtime DSA member and veteran of leftist media, Bhaskar Sunkara is one of socialism's leading advocates, and he's spent much of his career charting what a socialist economy in America might look like. Unlike some other leftists, he believes the market has a place. In fact, he thinks markets and entrepreneurs…

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  • Socialism, Today

    October 06, 2026 · 📺 WNYC

    Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/authors/bha...) , founding editor of Jacobin, (https://jacobin.com/author/bhaskar-su...) publisher of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, former vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (https://www.dsausa.org/) and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality (Basic Books, updated 2026) and co-author of The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World (Verso, 2026) talks about today's socialism and its response to today's issues. Photo: Bhask…

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  • How Democrats Win With Socialist Policies w/ Bhaskar Sunkara

    October 05, 2026 · 📺 Fast Politics w/ Molly Jong-Fast

    A discussion with The Nation's Bhaskar Sunkara centers on socialism, democratic socialism, and how different historical models have worked or failed, with the speaker contrasting Soviet-style command economies, Nordic social democracy, and worker cooperatives as possible foundations for a modern socialist model. It then turns to New York City politics and Zohran Mamdani’s approach, arguing that his appeal comes not just from policy proposals like free child care, rent freezes, and free buses, but from the way he ties them to a clear narrative about affordability and working people. The convers…

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  • Can Democratic Socialism Save America? | Bhaskar Sunkara

    September 29, 2026 · 📺 Wajahat Ali

    Can democratic socialism actually offer a different future for America? Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and president of The Nation, joins Wajahat Ali to discuss the growing influence of democratic socialism, the future of the American left and what a socialist political program could look like in practice. Sunkara has argued that democratic socialists need to move beyond their strongest urban bases and build a broader working-class coalition, including in rural America. He has also argued that reforms within capitalism are not enough in the long term, making the case for changi…

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  • Bhaskar Sunkara: What is Democratic Socialism? | Doomscroll

    August 12, 2026 · 📺 Joshua Citarella and Whitney Museum of American Art

    Part 2:   / doomscroll-ii-166390833   My guest is Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder of ‪@JacobinMag‬, the president of ‪@thenation‬, and the publisher of Catalyst: Journal. He is a former vice-chair of the ‪@DSAdemsocialists‬ Democratic Socialists of America. Bhaskar Sunkara, Ben Burgis and Mike Beggs are co-authors of "The Blueprint: How Socialism can Work in the Real World", published by ‪@VersoBooks‬. We discuss the history of the 20th century and the possibilities for a more egalitarian future.   / joshuacitarella   This program is part of the 82nd Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerre…

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  • Reforming Capitalism Is Not Enough - Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin, at VTHC.

    August 03, 2026 · 📺 SEARCH Foundation

    The transcript of this speech is available here on the Jacobin website: https://jacobin.com/2026/06/socialism... This speech was given as part of the 2026 SEARCH-Jacobin Tour

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  • Bhaskar Sunkara: Can the American Left Actually Govern?

    July 24, 2026 · 📺 UC3P Public Policy Podcasts

    Jacobin founder and Nation magazine president Bhaskar Sunkara joins The Forum to make the case for a socialism that can actually win elections and run cities. We cover the DSA's growth past 100,000 members, what makes Zohran Mamdani's messaging distinct from performative leftism, why the Teamsters' pivot toward Trump says more about Biden-era politics than it does about workers, and whether AI displacement is a threat to the labor movement or just the next chapter in a much older argument about who captures the gains from productivity. Sunkara also traces "the American socialist" back further…

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  • A 'Society Without Capitalism' | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

    July 16, 2026 · 📺 Interesting Times and 2 more

    Democratic socialists are having a moment. But can they actually remake the Democratic Party — and the American economy — in their image? My guest today, Bhaskar Sunkara, is longtime democratic socialist, and he makes the case that socialism has a universal appeal that transcends our current politics and will ultimately triumph against capitalism. 00:00 Intro 1:24 The rise of democratic socialism 5:00 Why is this a breakthrough moment for Democratic Socialism? 8:24 Class Realities: The demographics of socialist voters 9:26 The intellectual foundations of the American left 11:02 What socialist…

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  • Yale Debates Bhaskar Sunkara || Everyone Should Govern

    January 22, 2026 · 📺 Yale Political Union

    Bhaskar Sunkara (founding editor of Jacobin; president of The Nation) joins the Yale Political Union for a debate on: Resolved: Everyone Should Govern. Should political power be radically broadened—through sortition, participatory institutions, workplace democracy, or mass civic rotation? Or does “everyone governing” risk incompetence, paralysis, and faction? Sunkara makes the case, takes questions, and argues it out in parliamentary debate format. About the speaker: Bhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor of Jacobin and president of The Nation, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto. AB…

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  • Bhaskar Sunkara on Trump

    November 30, 2025 · 📺 SEARCH Foundation

    This is an excerpt from a SEARCH Foundation webinar held on 17/18 Oct 2025, featuring Dr Jim Stanford and Bhaskar Sunkara. About the speakers Dr Jim Stanford is a leading Canadian labour economist, researcher and educator, well-known in Australia having worked here, most recently for several years as Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work. Jim received his Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York. He also holds an M.Phil. from Cambridge University, and a B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Calgary. Jim advises unions and progressive movements on ho…

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  • Is Capitalism Better than Socialism for Human Flourishing? Yaron Brook vs Bhaskar Sunkara

    November 22, 2025 · 📺 Yaron Brook

    Recorded live on November 13, 2025 by the Steamboat Institute,    • Is Capitalism better than Socialism for hu...   Is capitalism truly the moral engine of human flourishing—or does socialism offer a better path? In this sharp, high-stakes debate, Yaron Brook (Ayn Rand Institute) and Bhaskar Sunkara (Jacobin, The Nation) go head-to-head on the fundamental question shaping the future of freedom, prosperity, and the human condition. Hosted by the Steamboat Institute in partnership with the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual, this event brings moral philosophy, economics, po…

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  • Bhaskar Sunkara Explains Zohran Mamdani’s Rise

    November 05, 2025 · 📺 Novara Media

    Buy tickets for Downstream IRL with Cory Doctorow and Aaron Bastani: https://dice.fm/event/oen5rr-downstre... Support our work: http://novara.media/support Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“In this model there is a more equal distribution of income. There's also a condition in which if the firms are controlled by its workers, if management is elected, if people not only receive a wage but receive a share of residual profits, like a dividend, then it's hard to say that this is a condition of exploitation. Then there's a broader set of criticism that has to do with like more philosophical, like alienation”

“Markets are great. I think they're an objective good. And the socialist problem with markets boils down to one and the uneven distribution of income, which means if we are voting with our dollars, then, you know, someone else has a lot more dollars than me and they're going to skew the economy towards luxury goods. And yes, there is a trickle down effect from that spending on luxury goods, but it's less useful than a”

“I think ultimately if you look at the Soviet example, if you look at the Chinese example, these are countries coming out of very very deep reactionary authoritarian regimes. They didn't have the same tradition of a democratic civil society. They didn't have the same tradition of democratic politics. They had the seizure of power through armed conflict and through sort of mass mobilizations and armed conflicts and the”

“Ultimately when I think about the goals of socialism, the first half of the goals that I have is simply as an egalitarian, I believe that the necessities of a good life, you know, access to housing, education, healthcare, all that should be guaranteed just by virtue of being born. So then you could stop there and say okay isn't this just an extreme version of welfare state capitalism and I would say yes it has a lot ”

“I think for one, actually having the ideology of being a Democratic Socialist, I think, has been to his benefit. So in a rough sense, this is going to make me sound like I'm dogmatic, but it is useful to be able to walk into a room or a situation and know the broad truth of the matter, like know the capital T truth that working class people are trying to survive, and they're creating a lot of the value of a society, ”

“I think that we have to start with saying that socialism in various forms have actually been tried in the sense that I think a lot of democratic socialists like myself like to do the 'no true Scotsman' sort of argument and say that, no, no one has really had these ideas. They were all imposters just pretending to be socialists. So socialism was tried, of course, in Soviet-style systems. And that ended really poorly. ”

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