A newsletter about Pop Culture, Software Studies, Business Strategy, Media Platforms, Algorithmic Management, Game Design, and everything in between.

FEATURED

Essays

Retrograde

Like water, gold simply can’t tell you what it used to be.

Essays

Free money

Bankers and prophets seem to be driven by an almost poetic compulsion to push further.

  • Using generative AI, researchers design compounds that can kill drug-resistant bacteria

    With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers designed novel antibiotics that can combat a drug-resistant form of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). https://news.mit.edu/2025/using-generative-ai-researchers-design-compounds-kill-drug-resistant-bacteria-0814 more ›

  • Four years on from the Taliban takeover, Afghan women are asserting themselves through art

    Having lost many opportunities and rights under the new leadership, women are finding in miniature paintings, abstract textiles and more an important means of expression https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/08/15/four-years-on-from-taliban-takeover-afghan-women-are-asserting-themselves-through-art more ›

  • Daniel Trilling · Is this fascism?

    Are​ we, as Richard Seymour suggests, ‘in the early days of a new fascism’? In Disaster Nationalism, Seymour… https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n10/daniel-trilling/is-this-fascism more ›

  • The China in Africa Podcast: If You Want to Get Rich, Build a Road. Testing China’s Theory in Africa

    Listen: https://ift.tt/8wCWdXN There's a Chinese proverb that says, “If you want to get rich, build a road first.” That philosophy has guided China's development strategy in Africa for much of the past 25 years, that's led to the construction of… more ›

  • In Our Time: Oscar Wilde

    Listen: https://ift.tt/8OTekSy Melvyn Bragg examines Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetes. In February 1895 Oscar Wilde was at the height of his powers, he was known on both sides of the Atlantic, he was feted in London society and celebrated in… more ›

  • Great Anarchists: Great Anarchists – Oscar Wilde

    Listen: https://ift.tt/L7r2khY By Ruth Kinna and Clifford Harper. Read by Barbara Graham and Jim Donaghey. Scholar, poet, playwright, socialite and wit, Oscar Wilde is one of  those magnetic figures that everyone now seems to want to own a piece  of.… more ›

  • Trapital: America Streams American. The World Follows.

    Listen: https://ift.tt/ghYPv0q American music still dominate the global stage, despite the world going local. In this episode, I am joined by former chief economist at Spotify, Will Page. We explore the powerful global influence of American music and what it… more ›

  • Channels with Peter Kafka: Bluesky Wasn’t Supposed to be a Twitter Rival. Now It Is.

    Listen: https://ift.tt/DVQFjJ0 I admit it: I most definitely rolled my eyes in 2019, when Twitter announced vague plans to build an "open and decentralized standard for social media". At the time I didn't really understand what then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was trying… more ›

  • The LRB Podcast: Is this fascism?

    Listen: https://ift.tt/Jvwabsp ‘How useful is it,’ Daniel Trilling asked recently in the LRB, ‘to compare the current global resurgence of right-wing nationalism to fascism?’ In this episode of the podcast Daniel joins TJ to explore the question in light of his… more ›

  • LARB Radio Hour: What To Do About Shame?

    Listen: https://ift.tt/OuHD9Sg In this special episode, hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman wrestle with the question: What are we to do about shame? Using Frédéric Gros’s recent book, A Philosophy of Shame, as a guidepost, they discuss shame’s place in culture, politics,… more ›