things i'm reading and listening to (july)
hi everyone! it's been a while since i've posted on here and i thank you all for being patient on that front. as always let me know if there are particular types of content you'd like to see.
upon many requests over the years, i'm happy to offer reading, listening and watching recs. a lot of this stuff i am working on still, i am not quite finished with anything!
history of rome podcast - just finished this after about a year and a half of on and off listening. part of the reason why i enjoyed it so much is because it's nice edutainment content to have on in the headphones while you work out or cook or do dishes. and this is why podcasts/audio content mean a lot to me! but another big part of it is my personal project of trying to get at least a cursory understanding of world history. roman history is, of course, integral to european history, and learning about the various 'successes' and crises of the republic-then-empire give us an insight into 1. how much history is a storytelling practice dominated by the 'victors' and by opportunistic elites; 2. how empires rise and decline not based on one easy answer ('the barbarians were let into roman society!' 'christianity destroyed the empire!') but based on one multi-form answer. the same things that made rome awe-inspiring in its sheer power and influence were the same things that over time made its weaknesses multitudinous and impossible to address. it turns out that dominating 2 million square miles and 20% of the world's population, including the antecedents of regions from britain to egypt to albania to spain, leads to 1. a really hard time centralizing power 2. a constant need for war at an insane radius 3. irreconcilable social and cultural divides 4. climate and thus famine/epidemic related catastrophes, and more. can't wait to start the history of byzantium podcast next!
mystery AI hype theater 3000 - a really solid left-lib podcast for news updates on how AI is being forcibly incorporated into every part of life, the pseudoscientific papers justifying its usage, resistance efforts, and all news AI
macrodose - another left-lib podcast, probably with a socdem/demsoc slant, but gives really good, succinct descriptions of how climate, war, tech and more affect the global economy and the political realities underlying what mainstream economics seems to handwave away as "natural." features some great interviews, i recommend the one with laleh khalili.
and then some reading stuff:
the dawn of everything - still working through this one steadily, you've probably heard a lot about it but if not you'd probably best be introduced to the subject matter and debates at hand here by checking out the morbid zoo's latest video on bad pop anthropology
heatmap news - really useful newsletter for getting brief, succinct updates on energy politics news
these are all pretty white recs, just to give folks a sense of some of the white people i do listen to. jokes aside, i spend a lot of time listening to stuff meant for a more mainstream left-leaning audience and dense in detail on news and logistics, then try to fold that with what i would call my more radical social and political views on the current capitalist-colonialist polycrisis and history.
i hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves! :)
Comments (3)
mahalo for sharing. resonating with liking audio/podcast! wanna reciprocate these offerings. some of my favorite Indigenous Turtle Island recs, specifically Red Media, the Red Nation Podcast on Patreon & All my Relations podcast. Red Nation: • Romantic Love is a weapon of capitalism x Red Power Hour • In Memory of Haunani Kay Trask— Native Hawaiian Nationalist, kumu & activist for ea / indigenous sovereignty •what have we learned one year into the escalation of the genocide of Palestinians • episodes on Western Marxism with Lakota oyate Dr. Nick Estes I recommend these episodes of All my Relations • For the Love of The Mauna (3Pt series on Kanaka Maoli Resistence) • Protect Indigenous Women • An Indigenous Eco-Erotics worldview with Hailey Maria Salazar. • Can Our Ancestors Hear Us? On Indigenous language revitalization. • An Indigenous Perspective on AI with Dr. Keolu Fox • Decolonizing Sex - with Kim Tallbear.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Elliot hope you're doing well :)) There's two topics I'd be interested to see you cover. 1) AI and it's impact on the environment - I feel like I see a lot of different information about it and would be curious for your thoughts. 2) More marxist music philosophy, maybe a video on Theodore Adorno? You talk about pop culture and music a lot but as ur a former music journalist and make some yourself, I'd love your perspective on the creation of fast food music, how a lot of music has the same structure, what it means for music to go against the status quo, etc.