In this episode, co-hosts and producers, Jessica Schwartz (UCLA) and Paul Hollins (Bolton), are immersed in the world of British punk history as it unfolds as a creative, complex, critical, and artistically heterogeneous way of experimenting with identity and/as culture. 

And, we were kept in suspense with the Sham 69 question… 

You won’t want to miss the breakdown of this question and our overall journey into Britain’s punk history with Professor Matthew Worley who explains the messiness of it all in such a clear way–offering connections between punk and porn (via the Enlightenment!), and how punk can be appreciated as decidedly political while also having its historical connections to (and, at times being co-opted and pulled between) capital “P” political movements. 

 About Our Guest 

 Matthew Worley is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading. His books include No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–84 (2017) and Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines, 1976–88 (2024). Associated articles may be found in such journals as Contemporary British History, History Workshop, Twentieth Century British History, and Journal of British Studies. He is a co-founder of the Subcultures Network and sometimes a collaborator with the artist Scott King under the banner of Crash!