Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village is a 1966 book by academic William Hinton, documenting the experience of one particularly poor Chinese village of early efforts at land reform. It is almost opaquely dense, and yet very illuminating.
If you want access to our Patreon...
2023-05-12 16:02:27 +0000 UTC View PostWithout the guidance of their fearless leader Riley, the gang - joined by Josh Boerman of The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast (http://worstpossible.world/) - are swept up in a monarchist fervour.
*LIVE SHOW ALE...
2023-05-11 09:14:10 +0000 UTC View PostNick Adams, writer on such shows as BoJack Horseman, New Girl, Tuca and Bertie (and others!), takes some time off the WGA picket lines to talk to us about writing as a profession, how studios have constantly sought to break up and undermine it, and the insane plan to replace Hollywood Writers wit...
2023-05-09 07:04:43 +0000 UTC View PostRiley, Milo (now returned from holiday), Alice, and special guest David Banks (author of The City Authentic, out now on University of California Press) get into the relationship between real est...
2023-05-04 19:58:39 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to the first luxury $10 episode of Writtenology, the series within a series where Alice and I talk about a book one of us read. This time, we discussed Timothy Morton's 2013 book Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World. In it we wonder how theories of the overwhelm...
2023-05-02 16:20:46 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
Riley, Hussein, and Nate look at the collision course between a rentier economy with a shrinking set of (allegedly) productive activities to support it… and realise the podcast has become de facto illegal in Brisbane for our consistent pro-hoon position...
2023-04-30 23:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's second Britainology, we decided to watch a film with legendary status in British cinema—and shot in an era that's just so unbelievably strange. It's the 1980 gangster-geezer classic THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, featuring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It's good! And also bad! And diffi...
2023-04-30 12:35:23 +0000 UTC View PostThis week, we've brought on friend of the show Mattie Lubchansky to discuss a whole slew of New York content. We do a close read of a frankly bonkers speech that Mayor Eric Adams gave at a Nowruz celebration, examine the breathlessly optimistic press about NYPD robot dogs that fall over after tak...
2023-04-27 00:05:12 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
This week, Riley, Milo, and Alice speak with friend of the show Molly White (@molly0xFFF) about a recent presentation from Andreesen Horowitz in which they predict… a much rosier 202...
2023-04-24 19:05:02 +0000 UTC View PostRiley and Alice talk to Quinn Slobodian about his book, Crack Up Capitalism, which explores the creation of a thousand mini Hong Kongs around the world and the right wing nut jobs that love them.
Check out Quinn's book here! 2023-04-20 23:02:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Mike and Jesse from YKS join the gang to watch The Catholic League's latest blockbuster documentary about The Woke Mind Virus taking over Disney and making it so perfectly normal senior citizens can't STAND to watch children's TV anymore. Also, we talk about the most fun a sitting President had s...
2023-04-20 15:27:13 +0000 UTC View PostWe've fixed the issue that was causing glitching during playback!
For this month's first Britainology, we've decided to invert the formula of our last show with Jackson Baly and Joel Zammit of Sanspants Radio: instead of Brits in Australia, we're now discussing Australians ...
2023-04-18 19:21:21 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
This week, Riley, Hussein, Alice, and Devon talk about the latest salvo in Britain’s war on children, especially gender non-conforming ones, in all facets of life—but especially in education and safeguarding. We also react to one of the dumbest AI-rel...
2023-04-17 19:24:33 +0000 UTC View PostWe did a live show in Berlin on March 11 and we recorded it. We discuss our best friends from Wirecard, an electric VTOL taxi company that has, so far, only created a fake airport terminal in Coventry but cannot actually fly anywhere, and much more.
2023-04-12 23:49:51 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
This week, Riley, Hussein, and Alice speak with author, activist, and friend of the show Cory Doctorow about the ongoing lawsuit against the Internet Archive—a campaign by the mega-conglomerate publishers of America which all hate free digital book lend...
2023-04-12 00:09:40 +0000 UTC View PostJournalist Daniel Trilling rejoins Riley, Hussein, and Alice for an episode with a more serious tone, talking about London's Metropolitan Police and the various corruption scandals that have eaten away at the myth of "Policing by Consent." We conclude that even the liberal position on reforming t...
2023-04-05 23:01:59 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
We speak to computing researcher Dan McQuillan, author of the recent book “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence,” all about that open letter about how scary powerful AI is. Also, a startup that helps automate academic lite...
2023-04-03 21:53:57 +0000 UTC View PostAlice and Riley are back and cracking the books. For the second Brane Zone this month, Riley read James C. Scott’s “Seeing Like a State,” (1998) and contend with a man contending with solving political problems at the end of history.
2023-03-30 16:22:50 +0000 UTC View PostMatt Bors and Ben Clarkson, authors of the forthcoming Justice Warriors, join us for an episode all about British political cartoons, and the one time a telegraph cartoonist got too redpilled and then got fired. Also, we speculate about a Trump perp walk and check in on a million dollar bet made ...
2023-03-29 23:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostWe're very pleased to announce a small UK tour this May - we will be coming to the following cities:
May 14th BIRMINGHAM
May 15th LEEDS
May 16th MANCHESTER
MAY 21st GLASGOW
This is sure to sell out so grab your tickets now:
For this month's second Britainology, Nate and Milo viewed the second installment of the Up series, entitled SEVEN PLUS SEVEN, which aired in 1970. The BBC's control group of children are now fourteen years old and already on the path towards being stock characters, but there are also some ...
2023-03-27 14:59:52 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
Immigration and refugee issues specialist Zoe Gardner (@zoejardiniere) joins the gang to discuss Britain’s transformation from “quite a bit like Children of Men” to “just Ch...
2023-03-27 14:40:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Milo and Riley are joined by Alex Kealy to discuss pure riffs. To include: the absolute worst-case scenario for trying to steal antique silverware from a National Trust home. Hope you enjoy!
Check out Alex's work here: https://ww...
2023-03-23 00:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
This week, we're joined by writer and Modern Money Network research director Nathan Tankus (@NathanTankus) to discuss the recent events with Silicon Valley Bank. Is the US Government...
2023-03-20 19:33:56 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's first Britainology, it's a slight reversal of the script: we have before us a British cultural institution that Nate knows more about than Milo does. It is in fact the children's weekly comics paper / mischief compendium 'The Beano,' which Nate read avidly in the early 1990s and ...
2023-03-19 20:24:20 +0000 UTC View PostWe've reconvened the Book Club and present to you an episode in which Riley and Alice discuss what they've recently read. This inaugural episode of what we might call The Brane Zone (if we don't change our minds) revolves around Alice having read EASTERN APPROACHES, the memoir of Sir Fitzroy Macl...
2023-03-16 00:02:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the (late) free one!
This week, Riley, Hussein, and Alice join Annie and Julian from the QAnon Anonymous podcast to discuss the recent ecumenical freakout protests in Oxford on the topic of ‘15 Minute Cities.’ Annie was there interviewing participants—she managed...
2023-03-14 19:07:45 +0000 UTC View PostWe look at a few trends in technology and pricing that are threatening to make all of our lives worse in the coming years, and also look at a startup (related), and some UK political silliness (not related). We are joined by Bryan Quinby (2023-03-09 00:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
We take an in depth look at a an article by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher about how AI is going to re-catholicise the entire world, and turn Patagonia vest nerds into a class of priests. We also turn to a stupid little startup before we get into the weighty stuff.
2023-03-06 18:10:43 +0000 UTC View PostWe are pleased to announce we are releasing our new shirt design (What If Your Telephone Was Portable? - by Australian artist Phoebe Paradise) for pre-orders on our website!
We're also pairing it with a re-release of the Flying Lada shirt which was so popular back in 2021, and you can buy ...