Contain

This New Year we're going in on all things space-relevant and the weird development of libertarian Network States with Fred Scharmen, author of Space Forces.

Topics: Biocosmism in Russia, the project Concept Country, Bitcoin City, Nick Land Acknowledgement, mini singularities in the 1970's, astral exploration, lines by decade, science beyond earth, van stripes of the 1970's as cultural signifier, the broken future of Elon and Cyberpunk, why there is no libertarianism in outer space, Title V, The O’Neil Cylinder, "a world where many worlds are possible", Maoist tech Venture Capitalists, Ivan Chtcheglov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Is Utopia different from the Real?, Is there an Outside to Utopian thinking?, the trash on the the International Space Station, Article V, Envoy of Humanity, the international court (ICC) beyond earth, quaalude colonialism, the ant farm Cadillac graveyard ranch, ecstatic desolation, the art of Rick Guidice and Don Davis, getting people in architecture into space futures

Full episode

on the ideas and sociology of Megalopolis, his hypothesis on the Long 2014, the past decade of slop, and why utopian thinking is good

David Graeber, Elective Affinities by Goethe, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler, Nixon shock/OPEC crisis, Axial Age, The Lord of the Rings - Boris Groys, Sports Gambling, Linux, Creative Commons movement, "This was made for me"

200th episode special on the history and future of abstraction in social life, art, and more. For full 4hr20 minute episode:

Part A

Part B

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Ok this is a big one: Professor Emeritus of Leisure Studies and author of Free Time and Age of Experiences Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt joins for a lively discussion on the possibility of leisure and freedom in the age of experience.

Other subjects: Jeffersonian Democracy, taking Eugene McCarthy to the airport, the spark of poetic creativity, Frank Lloyd Wright, UBI, the heart of the work ethic destroyed, work as religion, the future of work and automation, craftsmanship, the history of shortening labor hours, Rexford Tugwell and The Brain Trust, overproduction into consumerism, towards experiences over commodities, the appreciation of community, faith, and love.

3hr30 min tribute to the non-philosophical thought of François Lauruelle...full episode

Francois Laruelle was a French philosopher who developed the concept of "non-philosophy." His work influenced facets of the project (particularly The Spectre of Finance Punk) through his critiques of traditional philosophical systems that prioritized the material and empirical over abstract theorizations + his non-historical/non-mystical encounters with science, art, and spirituality through his mediations on the One (the Real). He sadly passed away last week so it seemed fitting to do an episode on him and try to bring forth some of his ideas a bit in reference to the state of things and ask some pretty broad "what if questions" using the Non-Philosophy magnifying utensil. What would he think of Country Music and barbecue...

What happens when two experimental music veterans go full Smashmouth? Callahan and Witscher's new album Think Differently answers just that-full of wry introspection on the conditions of music, it's value, and despite misreads by music journalists as being "irony poisoned"-comes across as uniquely sincere in a way most things don't. We talk about the album, what is the value of a critique? flexing on critics with pure musical chops, nu-fluxus, low-brow messaging, the rise of "tastecels", the value of humor, sleeping on floors and slogging it out on the road, why you can't stop creating, destroying your life, going to shows you don't want to, Fairport Convention, and attempt to answer the question: "What is the value of music?"

Buy think differently from Post Present Medium Here 

For full full episode, music, and to support the project subscribe Here

Architect/author Matt Shaw comes on to discuss his new book American Modern on the anomaly of Columbus, Indiana: a futuristic small town designed by a who's who of architects (Saarinen, Pei, Robert Venturi, Girard) almost entirely bankrolled by progressive Christian industrialist J. Irwin Miller. This is a history of that town and the rise and fall of independent-funded public works in America

Music from the new release by Desvelada & Sprælle

For full 6 hour episode and more deep research excursions subscribe to our Patreon

Part two of the experience economy episode, this one focused on the history of experience design, the combinatorial arts, and independent value creation in order to advance some solutions to the problems politics can only scratch the surface of. Topics: the rise of Kill Tony and interactive cringe comedy, Baby Invasion/Edglrd by Harmony Korine movie review, first person shooter w/ Burial Soundtrack, John Ruskin’s Pathetic Fallacy, art market crash, “Total Work” - German Christian philosopher Joseph Pieper , DeSano’s pizza University. The Take Back Your Time organization, Leisure Capital, UX, Feng Shui, Leibniz’s understudied dissertation on Combinatorial Art, exploding pagers in Lebanon: Pandora Box, Value Capturers, Dorthe R. Christensen, The European Commission, Comic-Con, the rise of AirBnB, Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age, Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt’s book on the Eudaimonic Tech + more...this is a continuation of part A 🎩 up now

This is a preview, for full 3 hour episode: patreon.com/contain

Writer/journalist James Pogue comes on to discuss his recent stint in central Africa as it undergoes one of the biggest gold rushes in human history plus:

contracting Malaria in a CAR prison and your hotel getting shot up, diamond heists, geiger counters, JD Vance and the Anti-American NatCon right, the Wagner groups activities in the Sahel, the strange reconfiguration of the political spectrum, the return of gold, pastoral industrial policy, Bernard DeVoto and the end of the Wild West, the American Experiment from a left wing anarchist perspective, the legacy of Thomas Sankara, + much more

Continuing on the subject of natural resources and geopolitics

Read James's recent articles here

This is a preview, full episode: patreon.com/contain

Episode all about oil, maybe the most important and controversial substance in the world and how it came to dominate our history and take over our planet

Abiotic oil theory, climate change, is oil fake, the origin of the term fossil fuels, did Dinosaurs even exist, artificial scarcity, Reza Negarestani's Cyclonopedia, 'sentient oil', Soviet Neft Dashlari city built on water, wildcatters, creation of new cities, the history of fracking/new carbon extracting technologies, algae resetting the earth w/ oxygen, geological timescales, Clint Murchison Jr./Dallas Cowboys, WWI/WW2/Cold War, Baku, trucks that last forever, Patillo Higgins, The Regime of Disposability, Ahriman, Thomas Gold's hypothesis, L Fletcher Prouty

Jed is a researcher and typewriter refurbisher. For more information on oil go to Jed's Substack

Music by Barrett and Alex Coolwater