The Kids Are Right: Why France’s Protests Are Spreading (S01E168)

Monday, October 12, 2026, Paris

Student protests continue to expand across Europe, shaking France, Spain, and Belgium and revealing the underlying crises that threaten public trust and social stability.

In the latest totally free episode of badlands, I unpack the escalating protests—including at my own daughter’s school—their implications for the future.

With hundreds of thousands of students taking to the streets in France, I discuss the overcrowded classrooms and staff shortages that sparked the protests last month, as well as well as broader dissatisfaction with government’s neoliberal policies.

In interviews with India’s NewsX World, I also discuss the relevance of the protests worldwide, how they reflect the same dissatisfaction causing political upheavals from the US to India.

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