Peyton Harris, Editor

Founding editor of Jacobin. Columnist and writer for The Guardian US, The New York Times and The Washington Post. President of The Nation magazine. These are just some of the titles held by La Salle’s latest guest speaker Bhaskar Sunkara, set to visit campus this Thursday, Sept. 26.

Sunkara’s talk, “What Capitalism Gets Right, What Capitalism Gets Wrong, and Is There an Alternative?” aims to foster discussion on the benefits of the current economic system within the United States, that system’s flaws and whether an alternative might be able to address the issues that the country faces.

Sunkara, 35, was born and raised in Westchester County, New York. In an interview with the New Left Review, he credits his reading of authors such as George Orwell and Leon Trostky for his first experiences with politics in his early teenage years. By the age of 17, he had joined the Democratic Socialists of America and began writing and editing for their online blog forums.

At age 21, while on leave from George Washington University, the concept of a socialist news outlet came to fruition: Jacobin. Initially launched in September 2010, Jacobin now reaches an audience of 75,000 readers per quarterly print publication, and over 3,000,000 readers per month accessing their online forum. 

As the son of immigrant Indian and Trinidadian parents, he acknowledges the role that his parents played in the shaping of his political views. 

“They were always supporters of left populists, in a very broad sense,” Sunkara says. “They liked both Castro and Clinton in equal measure.”

Using his experience as a former international relations student at George Washington, Sunkara has also written for Foreign Policy and Vox, as well as participating as a frequent guest on MSNBC, FX and PBS. 

By 2019, Sunkara had written and published his first book, “The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality.” The following year, he was featured in Fortune magazine in their “40 Under 40 Most Influential in Government and Politics” as an individual with a large impact on current affairs. 

After becoming president of The Nation in February 2022, Sunkara aims to continue the legacy of the 159-year-old organization by upholding and strengthening the value of independent journalism, while fostering critical debate and bringing focus to issues that matter to working-class Americans. Having been a writer for the periodical since 2013, he is eager to step into this role and continue his work. 

The multi-faceted journalist will be visiting La Salle to share his views on the current economic climate and what he believes can be done to change the trajectory of American economic policies. For any further questions regarding the visit, students can contact Dr. Barbara Allen at allenb@lasalle.edu.

Sunkara’s talk, sponsored by La Salle’s School of Arts and Sciences, will be presented Thursday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. in the Union Building’s Second Floor Music Room. Students and faculty alike are invited and welcomed to attend for an interactive, thought-provoking discussion.