PUSHBACK Talks is a podcast launched in June 2020 by Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, and Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten, following their collaboration on the documentary PUSH. Produced by WG Film in Malmö, Sweden, it examines the financialization of housing—where homes become investment assets rather than places to live—and its worldwide effects on affordability and communities. Episodes air every other Wednesday on platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
The series originated from discussions sparked by PUSH, which highlighted corporate investors buying up rental properties and driving up prices. Farha and Gertten host experts to unpack trends, such as vulture funds demolishing affordable units in the US, rent control fights in California, and tenant movements in Spain rewriting laws. Other installments cover poverty in the UK, the right to housing basics, and critiques of financial jargon that obscures investor gains.
By 2020, it had attracted over 10,000 listeners across 139 countries, positioning it as a resource amid rising evictions and speculation post-pandemic. Guests like sociologist Saskia Sassen discuss escaping money-dominated housing markets, while episodes address post-truth challenges in housing debates, including conspiracy theories and fake news.
From its Malmö base, PUSHBACK Talks spans continents, linking European tenant resistance to American suburb erosion and global policy shifts. It avoids broad activism calls, instead dissecting specific cases—like London's hunger crisis tied to investor dominance—to reveal how financial forces reshape urban life. Now in its fifth year, it sustains focus on these mechanics through steady guest-driven analysis.