https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dj6mj-19d11ff On legitimacy and chronic crisis. Benjamin Studebaker talks to Alex and Lee about his book, Legitimacy in Liberal Democracy – and why the absence of the threat of revolution makes the crisis drag on. What's wrong with 20th century accounts…
Read More /522/ At the Bottom of the Tar Pit ft. Benjamin Studebaker
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-rz56m-19c6234 On the crisis in literacy. Poet, podcaster and teacher, C. Derick Varn – who has taught in Mexico, Korea, Egypt and the US, at various levels – joins Alex and George to interrogate the coming "post-literate society". What do…
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ba8qd-19bd9aa In this special episode, we present talks given by contributing editor Catherine Liu and co-host George Hoare on the paranoid style at a recent conference at UC Irvine, co-hosted by the Palm Springs School for Social Research. 00:01:23 –…
Read More /520/ Conspiracy Culture & Paranoid Styles ft. Catherine Liu
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-wwsvx-19bb5b0 On the middle classes and cultural compression. For the concluding episode of the 2024/25 Reading Club, we discuss C. Wright Mills' White Collar, plus some additional short texts on what mass culture is like today. credit: Ryan Zickgraf, based…
Read More /519/ Reading Club: White Collar & Post-Mass Culture ft. Dustin Guastella
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-qsttn-19b0fcd On technology, transhumanism, and progress. James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips. What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL? Why…
Read More UNLOCKED: /497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-2yciw-19add32 On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation. Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist. Does it make sense to talk of "right-wing cancel culture"?…
Read More /518/ We Have Never Been Postmodern ft. Geoff Shullenberger
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-dmktd-19a6bc6 On places of ritual. Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly. For the full episode subscribe at…
Read More /517/ Wonders of the Modern World ft. Pier Paolo Tamburelli
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-tnags-199c0d1 On 20 years since the 2005 riots. Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – riots in the banlieues;…
Read More /416/ France’s Two Peripheries: Riots and Insurrection ft. Fred Lyra
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9cnte-1991c20 On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion. Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism. Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but…
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-x5y6m-1986e1f On living with modernity. Richard J Williams talks to Alex and George about his new book, The Expressway World and how cities have adapted to the infrastructural legacies of the mid-20th century. We talk about New York, London, São…
Aufhebunga Bunga 