Hemlock #42 - Support the History of Philosophy Audio Archive on Patreon, and follow William Engels's writing on Substack.

I am joined on this episode by independent writer and philosopher Emma Stamm to discuss the late, great, Mark Fisher. Emma is a member of the theory collective LEPHT HAND, and she has a new online course enrolling soon/now on Mark Fisher's "Acid Communism." You can also follow Emma's writing (Elf Theory) on Substack.

SHOW NOTES:

Books and Articles Referenced:

Books by Mark Fisher:

Acid Communism (Unfinished Introduction, 2016)

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (2009)

The Weird and the Eerie (2016)

Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures (2020)

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology, and Lost Futures (2014)

K-Punk: Politics (Anthology, 2020)

More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (2025) by Adam Becker

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (1992) by Judith Herman

Postscript on the Societies of Control (1990) by Gilles Deleuze

Works by philosopher Byung-Chul Han:

The Agony of Eros (2017)

Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power (2014)

The Burnout Society (2010)

Gaia Wakes: Earth's Emergent Consciousness in an Age of Environmental Devastation (2025) by Topher McDougal

Book that Emma and I did NOT like about 'longtermism' and Effective Altruism: What We Owe the Future (2022) by William MacAskill

Other Events, People, References:

Haight-Ashbury Human Be-In (January 1967)

Jacob Chansley the " QAnon Shaman"

Timothy Leary and Eldridge Cleaver do LSD in Algeria (1970)

For Hemlock #41 on the History of Philosophy Audio Archive I am joined by MKUltra survivor Bill Yarborough to discuss government secrecy, Cold War hijinks, the refinement of torture techniques over the years, and the history of domestic covert operations in the United States.

This episode contains descriptions of torture and child abuse, so please be forewarned.

Bill has recently published a book (a work of fiction inspired by real experiences) about MKUltra. We dug in deep on the Cold War, the nuclear arms race, the Third Reich, movies about Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy, and the origin of US torture programs in Latin America and elsewhere.

NOTES

Books Referenced on the Show:

Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephen Kinzer. (Highly Recommended / Excellent Author)

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA & Mind Control by John D. Marks

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (also highly recommended. Klein is a marvelous journalist and writer).

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) by Thomas Pynchon (see the bit about "Dr. Hilarius" from Wikipedia:

Dr. Hilarius – Oedipa's psychiatrist, who tries to prescribe LSD to Oedipa as well as to other housewives. Toward the end of the book, he goes crazy and admits to being a former Nazi medical intern at Buchenwald concentration camp, where he worked in a program on experimentally-induced insanity, which he supposed was a more "humane" way of dealing with Jewish prisoners than killing.

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died & Why It Matters by James W. Douglass (2008). Very good Kennedy assassination book. Includes an interesting discussion of Thomas Merton's (possible) assassination as well, along with rich connections to liberation theology.

Movies Referenced on the Show:

Secret Honor (Robert Altman, 1984)

Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson, 2000)

Nixon: Director's Cut (Oliver Stone, 1995)

Historical Events and Other References:

Lead article in the Canadian Press about MKUltra lawsuits

Operation Paperclip (OSS/CIA Operation to bring Nazis to US)

Hemi-Sync (Project Stargate developed guided meditation album for out-of-body experiences, one friend called it 'DIY MKUltra')

Operation Sea-Spray (Domestic US Navy biological warfare experiment in SF)

Operation Sunrise (OSS/Allen Dulles attempt to negotiate separate peace with Heinrich Himmler, AKA the Berne incident)

Otto Ambros (Nazi concentration camp chemist, developer of Sarin gas and thalidomide)

Otto Skorzeny (Waffen SS officer, rescued Benito Mussolini from prison, GLADIO operative)

Unit 731 (Japanese Imperial Army biological warfare unit)

Mike Mansfield (Senator, called for CIA oversight committee)

Project Plowshare (theoretical nuclear terraforming of landscapes)

Operation Gladio (stay-behind paramilitary network in Europe of far-right gangsters and mercenaries)

40 Committee (Assassination program established under Eisenhower and headed by VP Nixon, responsible for planning Castro's assassination)

Operation Midnight Climax (subproject of MKUltra, sex and interrogation)

E. Howard Hunt (CIA agent, White House "plumber" under Nixon, prolific author)

Happy nightmare reading...

Support the Archive on Patreon! Follow William Engels's writing on Substack. Who do the Black Hills really belong to? Was George Armstrong Custer a hero, an idiot, or a fanatic? Who carved Mount Rushmore, and what was it supposed to represent (the "apotheosis of Western Civilization?") What happened at Wounded Knee (in 1890, and 1973) - and why does Secretary of War (sic) Pete Hegseth (sick) want to make sure that those Medals of Honor are preserved?

My guest on Hemlock #40 was Matthew Davis, author of A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore available now in bookstores. You can read more about Matthew on his website, https://www.matthewdaviswriter.com/

NOTES

Books:

• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer

• American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard

• Death Sonnet for Custer by Walt Whitman (later titled "From Far Dakota's Canons" in Leaves of Grass:

FROM far Dakota's cañons,

Lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lonesome stretch, the

silence,

Haply to-day a mournful wail, haply a trumpet-note for heroes.

The battle-bulletin,

The Indian ambuscade, the craft, the fatal environment,

The cavalry companies fighting to the last in sternest heroism,

In the midst of their little circle, with their slaughter'd horses

for breastworks,

The fall of Custer and all his officers and men.

Continues yet the old, old legend of our race,

The loftiest of life upheld by death, 10

The ancient banner perfectly maintain'd,

O lesson opportune, O how I welcome thee!

As sitting in dark days,

Lone, sulky, through the time's thick murk looking in vain for light,

for hope,

From unsuspected parts a fierce and momentary proof,

(The sun there at the centre though conceal'd,

Electric life forever at the centre,)

Breaks forth a lightning flash.

Thou of the tawny flowing hair in battle,

I erewhile saw, with erect head, pressing ever in front, bearing a

bright sword in thy hand, 20

Now ending well in death the splendid fever of thy deeds,

(I bring no dirge for it or thee, I bring a glad triumphal sonnet,)

Desperate and glorious, aye in defeat most desperate, most glorious,

After thy many battles in which never yielding up a gun or a color

Leaving behind thee a memory sweet to soldiers,

Thou yieldest up thyself.

Support this work on Patreon

Read the full write-up on this archive on William Engels's Substack, Hemlock.

Part 1 of 2:

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd."

-Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way", Girl With Curious Hair

In an act of desperate folly, I have collated (by my count, which could be wrong) twenty-nine different recordings of DFW, (29!) - and placed them in as strict a chronological order as the otherwise-degraded catalogues of 90s and 00s public radio metadata will allow. There are various (much older) DFW audio archive projects - which I have used to make this - but they are half the size/accuracy/detail of THIS behemoth. May its 14 hour bulk guide you through the 14-hour night of the Winter Solstice. Depending on latitude.

If you listen to this, you are empowered to say with a straight face that you have heard every interview that David Foster Wallace ever gave.

This is my holiday gift to all of you, and my sign-off for the year, as I head home for Christmas.

Enjoy.

Music Credits: Creative Commons: Chopin, Raindrop Prelude Op 28 No 15, CC-0 performed by Rousseau (YouTube)

Support this work on Patreon⁠

⁠Read the full write-up on this archive on William Engels's Substack, Hemlock.⁠

Part 2 of 2:

We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd."

-Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way", Girl With Curious Hair

In an act of desperate folly, I have collated (by my count, which could be wrong) twenty-nine different recordings of DFW, (29!) - and placed them in as strict a chronological order as the otherwise-degraded catalogues of 90s and 00s public radio metadata will allow. There are various (much older) DFW audio archive projects - which I have used to make this - but they are half the size/accuracy/detail of THIS behemoth. May its 14 hour bulk guide you through the 14-hour night of the Winter Solstice. Depending on latitude.

If you listen to this, you are empowered to say with a straight face that you have heard every interview that David Foster Wallace ever gave.

This is my holiday gift to all of you, and my sign-off for the year, as I head home for Christmas.

Enjoy.

Music Credits: Creative Commons: Chopin, Raindrop Prelude Op 28 No 15, CC-0 performed by Rousseau (⁠YouTube⁠)

SOCIALS

Will’s Patreon - patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreon

Will’s Substack (Hemlock) - williamengels.substack.com

Bad Role Models on YouTube: youtube.com/@hemlock-yt

The Big BRM Playlist on YouTube

Bad Role Models is a co-production of Richard Sinex, Thomas Vanek, and William Engels.

ERRATA:

I said "Nicholas Drake" when I meant "Thomas A. Drake" the pre-Snowden NSA whistleblower who condemned Stellar Winds (I said "Solar Winds") and the Trailblazer Project as unconstitutional.

REFERENCES

• The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Nicholas W. Zamiska and Alexander C. Karp

• The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State by Michael Steinberger

• The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power by Max Chafkin

• Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

• The Collapse of Complex Societies: New Studies in Archaeology by Joseph A. Tainter

• Total Information Awareness (US Domestic Surveillance Proposal)

• Machines of Loving Grace (Hemlock Podcast Episode)

SOUND CREDIT: The Chamber Stage (YouTube)

Support the boys (Thomas Vanek & Richard Sinex) and I on Patreon and YouTube:

https://patreon.com/c/hemlockpatreon

https://www.youtube.com/@hemlock-yt

Because someone will ask: the Nixon tape is from Feb 1st 1972 and features the Reverend Billy Graham giving his fascinating interpretation of the Jewish Question in the Oval Office. Nixon concludes (its' a little garbled on the tape) by saying "I believe it. I can't say it but I believe it."

https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/662/conversation-662-004

The books in question are "The Contrarian" by Max Chafkin (the better book, for the record) and "The Philosopher in the Valley" by Michael Steinberger.

Looks like we're stuck with the Bad Elves, Frodo.

You can find Jake’s work on his website, (The Rip Current) and you can find his podcast (same name) on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

His 2022 book The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back is available on Amazon. He also writes under The Rip Current on Substack: https://theripcurrent.substack.com/

Support my work and keep this channel alive on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon

Hemlock #39

Nuclear war, and nuclear risk, are still just as real and just as close as they have been during the tensest eras of the Cold War. I had questions about where suspected nuclear flashpoints were forming - in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, and Iran - and wanted to review Trump's record of militarizing outer space, resuming nuclear testing, pre-emptively attacking Iran's nuclear reactor sites, and spending billions in a never-ending American quest for "Star Wars" or missile defense (in this latest iteration: not Reagan's SDI, but rather The Golden Dome). Which is why I invited Jack on the show.

Jack Kennedy is the nuclear risk editorial fellow for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is a doctoral candidate and research associate at the Centre for International Security at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. His research focuses include strategic stability under conditions of multipolarity, extended deterrence, and coercive diplomacy. He previously worked at the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, and as a journalist. He holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

You can read Jack's very insightful article Washington's neglect of South Korea's security concerns is a proliferation problem here. We had a wide-ranging and largely in-tune conversation about horizontal proliferation, nuclear latency, real policy wonk shit like specific treaties, and dug into the nuclear histories of the US, Iraq, Pakistan, South Africa, and North Korea.

All this to say: this is how you don't blow up the world.

References:

1981 Iraqi Osirak Reactor Bombing (Operation Opera)

Seymour Hersh Article about Iran's Nuclear Reactor Strike:

I sort-of misremembered this article - estimates vary on how much the US strike set back the program. I said 'sixty days' which I heard somewhere but can't recall. Sy Hersh suggests 'years' but others imagine less, given that the centrifuges were likely not destroyed but merely buried. The size of the setback is ultimately immaterial to the point being made, a question of tactics. The principle of the strike itself was what made the situation dangerous and destabilizing and ultimately unworkable.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/was-it-obliteration?utm_source=publication-search

Buy Graham's book on Terence on Amazon!

Graham's website: https://www.edgecentral.net/

Reputable information about psilocybin and harm reduction:

https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml

James Fadiman's book/manual: https://www.psychedelicexplorersguide.com/

"We are the inheritors of one million years of striving for the unspeakable"

-Terence McKenna

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