This is the first of two episodes on Simone Weil’s 1943 essay, “On the Abolition of all Political Parties. In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the distinction Weil draws between “truth” and “ideology”.

This is a repost of the Guy Debord episode that was originally posted on 3/15/23.

In This episode of the Critical Media Studies podcast we discuss Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. As the book is aphoristic, rather than trying to address the work as a whole, Barry and Mike look at what Debord means by Spectacle and hone in on a few particular sections (24-28). The focus of this episode settles around the question of whether or not there is a continuity between Debord's mediated society and our own digital mediasphere.

We hope you enjoy and welcome any feedback or suggestions.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Federica Merenda’s essay, “Reading Arendt to Rethink Truth, Science, and Politics in the Era of Fake News”. They discuss Arendt’s distinction between factual truths and rational truths and how they reveal of the interplay of truth and politics.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the uncanny ways that Sigfreid Kracauer’s 1927 essay, Photography, anticipates the modern media landscape.

Barry and Mike discuss Siegfried Kracauer's 1926 essay "Cult of Distraction: On Berlin's Picture Palaces." Written nearly 100 years ago, the essay is strangely relevant to our current political landscape. We pay special attention to Kracauer's unique notion of distraction, which contra Stiegler, Kracauer views as a stimulus to thought.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All” by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. They discuss the main arguments about the inevitability of our demise at the hands of superhuman intelligence and present a few alternatives to this doomsday scenario.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Rachel Bitecofer’s substack article, “The Whole World is Getting Dumber (And the Smartphone Did It.)” We question whether her solution of banning smart phones from the classroom will make much of a difference or if we just have to go “scorched earth” on technology to regain our attention and focus.

In this episode we discuss Alberto Romero’s Substack article on AI video.  While Romero argues that perhaps we should seek legal remedies to the problems of deepfake video, Barry and Mike consider an alternative.  They discuss the issues that deepfake video brings to the fore and wonder whether the problems caused by deepfake technologies can be resolved by law or if these technologies should be engaged pharmacologically.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “The Most Important Skill in the 21st Century,” Alberto Romero’s polemical defense of boredom in the media entertainment age. They discuss whether it’s possible to be bored today in the way that Romero seems to require.

This is part two of our discussion of Bernard Steigler's "Elements of Pharmacology". This time, Barry and Michael focus on Stiegler's discussion of the unique challenges posed by new digital 'pharmaka.'