My guest is Amber A'Lee Frost, a writer, organizer, co-host of the Chapo Trap House podcast and the author of Dirtbag (2023). We discuss today's dysfunctional left, elite overproduction, online political subcultures and the emergence of “youth” as a counter-cultural and consumer demographic. Is the New Right support for labor real? What does it mea…

My guest is musician Matty Healy of The 1975. He joins me to discuss internet culture and the strange aesthetics of our time. We explore the inspirations behind his work, including the writing of cultural theorist Mark Fisher. Matty describes the "slow cancellation of the future" by comparing distinct styles of pop music across various decades. Fis…

Yung Chomsky is the producer of the TrueAnon podcast, creator of the mobile app Phomo, and a natural athlete with 16 years of experience. We discuss his personal journey of learning to lift online while exploring exercise subcultures via forums and message boards. We sort the facts from fictions and discuss the tenuous connections between weight li…

My guest is comedian Peter James Fowler. He joins me to discuss his political meme account that he ran at age 11. I’ve spent the last few years interviewing young people who make radical posts online. Peter shares his journey from growing up in evangelical Christianity, to new atheism, and from Trump to Bernie.…

My guest is artist and geographer Trevor Paglen. His groundbreaking work links new technological developments to larger political issues that are often secret or unseen. We discuss the emerging paradigm of "psyops capitalism", the history of the CIA's MK Ultra psychological operations and how magic shapes our perception of reality. These technologi…

My guest is JJ McCullough a YouTuber who was previously a TV political commentator and columnist at the Washington Post. We discuss generational shifts from the political left to right, explore the state of alternative media and debate the origins of right-wing populism. While we disagree on some core issues, we always grant each other the space to…

My guest is Jreg or Greg Guevara as he is known offline. Jreg is a popular YouTube creator who explores online radical politics. He joins me to discuss our shared fascination with incredibly niche ideologies that only exist online. We explore social atomization as a political project and agree that taking the friend pill is the best advice you can …

My guest is Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine. She is the author of 'Virtue Hoarders: the Case Against the Professional Managerial Class'. We discuss the origin of trauma studies, self branding on social media and the ideology of the professional class. Liu has an unwavering commitment to historical materialism and a f…

My guest is Brace Belden, an organizer, an infamous shitposter and co-host of the TrueAnon podcast. I’ve spent the last few years interviewing young people who make radical posts online and later find their way into real world politics. Irony and humor play a huge role in this process. For the first episode, I wanted to talk to one of my favorite p…

Max Read joins me to discuss "the Zynternet", a newly emergent youth subculture online. We explore the For-You-Pagification of social media, the revenge of the normies and the future of online subcultures.Follow:https://maxread.substack.com/بقلم Joshua Citarella

This week’s guest is a 17 year old Left Communist from the Bay Area. He was a right-wing troll at age 13. We explore niche political subcultures, generational posting styles and the value of electoral politics.بقلم Joshua Citarella

Alex Hochuli is a co-host of the Aufhebunga Bunga podcast and a co-author of "The End of the End of History: Politics in the 21st Century". He joins me to discuss universalisms, organization and the difficult way forward.Follow:https://x.com/bungacasthttps://x.com/Alex__1789بقلم Joshua Citarella

Otherworld presents Deep Research. This week, we’re covering “Tartaria”. Tartaria is a conspiracy theory that suggests the existence of a vast, advanced civilization that supposedly existed in ancient times but has been intentionally erased from historical records. Proponents of this theory often claim that Tartaria was a highly developed and techn…

I sat down with Catherine Liu, author of Virtue Hoarders (2021), professor of Film & Media Studies at UC Irvine, for her new series at Montez Press Radio. Catherine writes, “This series, Workers of the Culture Industry Unite! (LOL) tries to address the problems of artists' work in the age of finance capitalism… At a time when the corporations and i…

Ruby Thelot is a designer, cyber-ethnographer and artist. He is a professor of Design and Media Theory at NYU. We discuss his new book: A Cyber Archeology of Checkpoints (2024) a poignant tribute to a vanished online community.Get the book: https://www.irrelevantpress.com/store/pre-sale-a-cyberarchaeology-of-checkpoints-ruby-thelotFollow: https://w…

My guest is a Post-Marxist. We explore political subcultures such as Post-left Anarchy, Unconditional Accelerationism, Anarcho-Primitivism and more.بقلم Joshua Citarella

Towards a Philosophy of Photography by Vilem Flusser (1984)https://dis.art/obama-baroquehttps://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000007785730/facebook-news-feed-zuckerberg.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLGhXv76dgبقلم Joshua Citarella

Get the book: https://darkforest.metalabel.com/dfa2Yancey and I visit Montez Press Radio in downtown NYC to discuss The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet.Follow:https://www.instagram.com/montezpressradiohttps://www.instagram.com/ystricklerhttps://twitter.com/ystricklerhttps://www.instagram.com/metalabel__/https://twitter.com/metalabel_…

Austin Robey, co-founder of Metalabel, joins me to discuss alternative models for the internet. We explore “Ampled”, a cooperative platform for musicians that existed from 2018-2023 and theorize about the next generation of platforms.Follow:https://twitter.com/austinrobey_https://www.instagram.com/michaelcoors/https://twitter.com/metalabel_https://…

Get the game: https://joshuacitarella.metalabel.com/class-fantasyClass Fantasy is an action RPG card game that pairs fantasy character classes with political ideologies. Your goal is to defeat other players in battle and achieve utopia.Inspired by games like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft, Class Fantasy explores the …

Exploring the political arc of the social media decade.Get the books:https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vincent-bevins/if-we-burn/9781541788985/?lens=publicaffairshttps://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374610326/doppelgangerLinks:https://youtu.be/6FCYcfiVqYQhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/05/leftwing-vulkan-group-claim-responsibil…

Simon Denny's Metaverse Landscapes unpack historical resonances between territory, abstraction and financialization.Links:https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/arts/design/simon-denny-art-computers-gaming-review-musk-grimes.htmlhttps://www.instagram.com/sden023/https://www.instagram.com/juliaxgulia/https://www.instagram.com/joshuacitarella/https://www…

Artist Paige K.B. calls into the stream to discuss three major exhibitions: “Cute” at Somerset House in London, “Poetics of Encryption” at KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin, and Simon Denny’s shows in New York.Follow:https://www.instagram.com/guiltgroupe/Exhibitions:https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/cutehttps://poeticsofencryption.…

My guest is a 20 year old Marxist. At age 12, he began exploring niche circles of Tumblr, YouTube and Wikipedia.بقلم Joshua Citarella

@dnlklr joins me to discuss the For-You-Pagification of the internet, hyper polarization online, network states, AI vs. climate and building new institutions.https://twitter.com/DnlKlrhttps://www.instagram.com/dnlklrhttps://twitter.com/__vaporware__بقلم Joshua Citarella

My guest ran a collaborative role-playing game that turned political meme accounts on Instagram into an MMO for fantasy nation-states.بقلم Joshua Citarella

Her new book is out now from MacMillan Press: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250269621/dirtbagAmber A'Lee Frost is a writer and co-host of Chapo Trap House. Find her writing in Jacobin Magazine, Catalyst, Damage Magazine, The Baffler, American Affairs and many others.IG: https://instagram.com/amberaleefrost…

Philosopher of technology, Benjamin Bratton, joins me to discuss AI and planetary scale computation. Read his work and learn more about Antikythera in the links below:twitter.com/brattonantikythera.org/mitpress.mit.edu/9780262029575/the-stack/www.versobooks.com/products/2749-t…nge-of-the-realTrust: Inhumanism Rising - Benjamin Brattonmitpress.mit.e…

Philosopher of technology, Benjamin Bratton, joins me to discuss AI, terraforming, geopolitics and planetary scale computation. Read his work and learn more about Antikythera in the links below:https://twitter.com/brattonhttps://antikythera.org/https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262029575/the-stack/https://www.versobooks.com/products/2749-the-revenge-of-…

My guest is a 22 year old from the Middle East. She has spent the last few years immersed in political meme culture and radical content online.بقلم Joshua Citarella

Welcome to StateBook. A public option for social media.Read the full essay:https://joshuacitarella.substack.com/p/platform-wars-part-4-a-public-optionبقلم Joshua Citarella

If you’re just joining us, check out The Platform Wars part 1 & part 2.https://joshuacitarella.substack.com/p/platform-wars-part-3-tiktok-and-geopoliticshttps://www.patreon.com/posts/platform-wars-3-87023598بقلم Joshua Citarella

Dianna visits the podcasts to discuss trend cycles, faith, mythology and artistic practice. Hear about her upcoming performances:https://diannaluciadragonetti.substack.com/Send professional inquiries:info-[at]-saras.worldبقلم Joshua Citarella

My guest is a 19 year old left-wing Islamic nationalist from Tennessee. His account attracted lots of attention and controversy online.**recorded: Dec 12, 2020**بقلم Joshua Citarella

This is an intermediate guide to weight lifting.https://open.substack.com/pub/joshuacitarella/p/fitness-program-and-syllabus-summerhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/fitness-program-85642009بقلم Joshua Citarella

We’re at an inflection point for social media. Here’s what happens next:https://joshuacitarella.substack.com/p/the-platform-warshttps://www.patreon.com/posts/platform-wars-82710977بقلم Joshua Citarella

Yancey joins me to discuss the “Dark Forests” of the internet. We explore new, post-platform guilds and digital native institutions for the 21st century. Browse the links below for his excellent writing on these topics:Follow:https://twitter.com/ystricklerhttps://twitter.com/metalabel_xyzhttps://www.instagram.com/metalabel_xyz/Read:https://onezero.…

My guest is a 16 year old council communist. He spent ages 12 to 14 fully immersed in conservative content on YouTube. Today his account is no longer active.**recorded: Oct 13, 2020**بقلم Joshua Citarella

Taylor joins me to discuss the creator economy, mommy bloggers, personal brands, beauty tutorials on youtube, and gamergate. Check out her new book: Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet.Pre-order:https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Extremely-Online/Taylor-Lorenz/9781982146863?fbclid=PAAabwR0m9uZEWA8QezC…

My guest is a 16 year old anarcho-capitalist. He is a long time user on Instagram and highly influential in niche corners of the internet.**recorded: May, 2020**بقلم Joshua Citarella

From Myspace “Top 8” to VR glasses (less powerful than ideology), Lil Internet joins me to discuss how new technologies are shaping creative life in the 21st century. This episode is part of a series of one-on-one conversations with Channel creators.Follow:https://www.instagram.com/lilinternet/https://twitter.com/lilinternethttps://www.instagram.co…

Nadim Samman, curator at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, joins me to discuss his new book, Poetics of Encryption: Art and the Technocene.get the book:https://www.hatjecantz.de/nadim-samman-8254-1.htmlsocials:https://www.instagram.com/nadim.samman/https://www.instagram.com/kwinstitutefcontemporaryart/…

Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine, visits the podcast to discuss Phillip Guston, the PMC and cultural institutions. She is the author of Virtue Hoarders (2021).https://cliuanon.substack.com/https://twitter.com/bureaucatliuhttps://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virtue-hoarders…

My guest is a 20 year old Left Communist. He began by exploring 4chan, /leftypol/ and kik messenger. In 2019, he joined an IRL political organization. We discuss Bookchinites, leftcom killing fields, proletarian discontent, shitposting and animation.**recorded: July 2, 2020**بقلم Joshua Citarella

All the "wellness" products Americans love to buy are sold on both Infowars and Goop:https://qz.com/1010684/all-the-wellness-products-american-love-to-buy-are-sold-on-both-infowars-and-goopits real folksAuto-Experiment: Hyper-Masculinity:https://www.patreon.com/posts/auto-experiment-55888347بقلم Joshua Citarella

My guest is a 22 year old reactionary who is "extremely-online". He was a Bernie supporter in 2016 and self educated on sites like 4chan, Instagram and Youtube. We discuss authoritarianism, libertarianism, the enlightenment, neoreactionary theory, Hindutva, vegetarianism and shitposting.**recorded: August 5, 2020**…

CB joins me to discuss how new technologies and ideologies are shaping the public sphere in the 21st century. This episode is part of a series of one-on-one conversations with Channel creators.Follow:https://www.instagram.com/cbcb2000https://twitter.com/cbcb2000https://www.instagram.com/newmodels_iohttps://twitter.com/newmodels_iohttps://newmodels.…

I wrote the unthinkable (but true) take for the new issue of Document Journal. Read the piece online alongside a beautiful series of photographs by Bobby Doherty.https://www.documentjournal.com/2022/12/raw-eggs-pink-pills-and-embodied-identity-online-communities-create-their-own-proof-in-a-vacuum-of-truth/…

My guest is a 16 year old Anarcho-Communist who was an Eco-Fascist in 2019. “R” is a co-admin on a popular leftwing meme account. The week before recording this episode she attended a Black Lives Matter protest in a nearby major city. We discuss neoliberalism, classical liberalism, esotericism, schizoposting, e-boys, accelerationism and mental heal…

People's Republic of Walmart co-author Leigh Phillips joins me to discuss eco-austerity, neo-malthusianism, degrowth, socially necessary atmospheric carbon and the on going debate around economic planning vs. neoliberalism.Follow on socials:https://twitter.com/Leigh_Phillips Get the books:https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-…