For this week's TF bonus, we're speaking with Welsh journalist Becca Wilks about the Welsh government's usage of automatic facial recognition, the privacy nightmare it creates, and their frankly bonkers justifications for why they want to use it everywhere. Don't worry, it won't cause any.....act...
2024-06-30 21:17:16 +0000 UTC View PostWe've unlocked our discussion of Master and Commander to the free tier, and we've unlocked the sequel, Post Captain, to the $5 tier... so check them out, and if you like them, you can check out the next instalment - HMS Surprise - now on the $10 tier!
November and Riley read the first in Pa...
2024-06-27 21:18:46 +0000 UTC View PostWe've unlocked our discussion of Post Captain, the second in the Aubery Maturin series, to the $5 dollar tier, so you can check it out. If you like this, check out the next instalment - HMS Surprise - now on the $10 tier!
November and Riley are back at it again, swashbuckling on the high se...
2024-06-27 21:16:04 +0000 UTC View PostRiley and Nova have once again read a Patrick O'Brian novel and the main thing about the two of them is that they love Patrick O'Brian novels. HMS Surprise feels like the work of a more developed author who explores oafery, the dynamics of a regency incel relationship, and the useless governance ...
2024-06-27 21:12:34 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's first Britainology, we've watched the season of the military-themed and emphatically strange UK reality TV show "Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins," featuring....Matt Hancock. It's exactly what you think it is.
2024-06-26 22:28:15 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
For this week’s free one, we’ve Riley, Milo, and November discussing the Reform manifesto, which reads like a handful of Volk-centered social democracy policies with a lot of what you can only called overt fascism. Great to know that this will be ...
2024-06-25 12:09:34 +0000 UTC View Post
For this week's bonus, we're talking EU elections and weird European politics with Corner Späti's Ciarán Dold. Learn about Ursula Von Der Leyen's anti-wolf vendetta, Cypriot Mr. Beast somehow getting a parliamentary seat, the hypothetical return of François Hollande in a move they're calling O...
2024-06-19 23:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
For this week’s free one, we’re talking about a Thiel-funded startup to invent future guns that is apparently run by a 9-year-old. We’re also talking about AI Steve, the strange but 100 percent not made up story of a guy who’s claiming he’ll mak...
2024-06-17 15:21:49 +0000 UTC View PostFor this week's bonus, we're joined by US politics observer Josh (@ettingermentum), who runs the Ettingermentum newsletter. We're talking Bidenism, Starmerism, Bidenism Without Biden, the UK now having two parties who refuse to ...
2024-06-13 22:57:41 +0000 UTC View PostJosh (@Boshj) from The Worst of All Possible Worlds joins the gang to discuss the Humane AI Pin's latest new feature (gets really hot), Lars Windhorst's latest personal update ("I am not on the run"), and the return of Nigel Farage to fr...
2024-06-10 22:25:44 +0000 UTC View PostWe continue to follow the election with stony faced horror, as the decision is put to the country: “which group of sociopathic bigots do you want to be in charge of pushing the nuclear button, which they have promised to push”? Then, a reading from the Tony Blair Institute on their plan to ci...
2024-06-06 18:56:25 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
For this week’s free episode, we’re joined by returning guest and author Dan Davies, whose recent book “The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind” inspired a discussion of bad AI ge...
2024-06-03 22:36:41 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's second Britainology, we brought on friend of the show Gareth Dennis to talk about Fred Dibnah, a man out of time. We watched the 1979 BBC short film FRED DIBNAH, STEEPLEJACK and regaled in its weird ambiance. This may be the most concentrated shot of Britainology we've ever encou...
2024-05-30 19:24:17 +0000 UTC View PostJathan Sadowski of This Machine Kills podcast joins the gang to talk about the “new” generation of AI models announced by Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and others - all of which seem to want to imitate the movie Her. The value proposition of this to a normal person is unclear.
...
2024-05-30 18:45:47 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
The cast joins guest Jason Koebler of 404 Media to discuss the recent downward spiral of Facebook, a platform currently being destroyed by AI and a total lack of content moderation that cannot admit the causes of its crisis because it, too, is dumping mon...
2024-05-28 23:41:00 +0000 UTC View PostFor this week's bonus, it's Riley, Milo, Hussein, and November discussing the recent news about ICC arrest warrants (and US/UK politicians statements about wanting to bomb the Netherlands as a result), but we're also discussing a very strange UK business claiming it's going to build a sort of Bri...
2024-05-25 22:53:06 +0000 UTC View Post
For this month's first Britainology, we examine an unambiguously good (and strange) British crime film: Jonathan Glazer's 2000 debut SEXY BEAST. Why is the film so atmospheric and detached? Why is Ben Kingsley so good at being an ultra-geezer? Is the plot saying definitively that Ian McShane had ...
2024-05-24 12:41:41 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
Hesse from Seeking Derangements and Movie Mindset joins the gang to watch Scoop - the story behind the news night interview that blew up the Prince Andrew story and made him lose his job as the nation’s special little boy for upwards of eight months. 2024-05-21 21:28:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for the belated episode!
This is the make-up $10 Britainology that was supposed to come out in April, in which we continue our deep-dive into Michael Apted's UP series. For this episode, we discuss the 1998 installment 42 UP, with some digressions about adolescent bul...
2024-05-19 14:30:55 +0000 UTC View PostFriend of the show and Financial Times journalist Rob Smith joins us to discuss Euro finance guys. Why are they so louche and strange? Why are they just sort of hanging around connecting people? Why is this entire episode a name alert? We also discuss Volocopter and Neom some more. It's an episod...
2024-05-17 00:50:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello gang,
We're very excited to announce that we will be back at Monkey Barrel during the Fringe this year on Wednesday 14th August for another late night show.
Tickets are on sale now and are sure to sell out so grab them whiie you can!
A very limited number of discounted...
Hello gang,
We're very excited to announce that we will be back at Monkey Barrel during the Fringe this year on Wednesday 14th August for another late night show.
A very limited number of discounted tickets are available for $10+ patrons via the link here (£15, down from the stand...
It's the free one!
For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Milo, Hussein, and November discussing London local elections, the UK media’s reactions to pro-Palestine student protests in British universities, the huge backtracking on workers’ rights propos...
2024-05-13 23:23:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe gang watched Lift, a movie where Kevin Hart plays a gentleman thief who lives in the Battersea Sky Pool building. Also, it contains the line: “I paid my $22m… I want my NFT.”
2024-05-10 13:47:04 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Hussein, and November with special guest and friend of the show Victoria Scott (@mikurubaeahina) in a discussion about Tesla’s r...
We're joined by top tier friend of the show Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis) of the Rail Natter YouTube channel to discuss 'Great British Railways,' the new Labour plan to 'renationalise' (sic) the trains while leaving all of t...
2024-05-02 22:45:19 +0000 UTC View PostNovember and Riley have read another book - a piece of highly fictionalised reportage on the collapse of the Ethiopian Empire in 1974. It's a book about court politics, political theatre, and state (de)formation. Inevitably, our thoughts turn to our own crumbling polity at the end.
(Technic...
2024-05-01 14:51:40 +0000 UTC View PostIt's the free one!
For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Hussein, and November discussing some interesting UK politics news regarding a little-known political entity called the Labour Party and a little-known digital voting software platform they designed and ad...
2024-04-29 20:08:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello everyone,
Nate here, and I'm reaching out to apologize for the delay on this month's second Britainology. As you may have heard from recent episodes, Milo is both still in Oceania and also very ill from food poisoning. By contrast, I am presently in England and both taking care of an ...
2024-04-29 14:02:32 +0000 UTC View PostFor this week's bonus, Riley, Hussein, and November discuss some recent UK news where one of Britain's most tendentious morons has been trying to claim that the Met Police are in cahoots with Hamas somehow and people are expected to take this seriously. We also discuss recent Tory and Labour talk...
2024-04-24 23:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post