For this week's episode we're joined by Phil Neel and Kang Kang to discuss Phil's recent book Hellworld: The Human Species and the Planetary Factory.

We talk about optimism and partisanship, literacy and revolutionary subjectivity, and whether to fear or embrace the apocalyptic nihilism of our time.

SUGGESTED READINGS:

--"Theory of the Party" - Phil A. Neel, 2025: https://illwill.com/theory-of-the-party

--"Forest and Factory" Phil A. Neel & Nick Chavez, 2023: https://www.endnotes.org.uk/palabre/forest-and-factory

--"Garbage time of history" - Alexander Boyd, 2024: https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2024/08/06/garbage-time-of-history/

--"Heart" - Shuang Xuetao, 2023: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/09/heart-fiction-shuang-xuetao

Phil A. Neel is a communist geographer and the author of Hinterland and Hellworld. His most recent work can be found in his blog, The Planetary Factory.

Kang Kang is a writer, translator, and artist working on a dissertation about revolutionary pessimism in ethnic Chinese literature.

LINKS:

https://philneel.substack.com/

https://kangkang.fyi/

https://www.rosachicago.com/