For the second part of our conversation series with contemporary fiction writers we are over the moon to have a chat with Elvia Wilk, who released her debut novel “Oval” last year to great acclaim.

For this episode we welcome academic and DJ Larisa Kingston Mann from Temple University in Philadelphia, whose work analyzes the relationship between law, technology, sovereignty and creativity, especially focusing on the ways changing media technologies affect communities’ ability to flourish

Her PhD thesis “Rude Citizenship”, soon to be turned into a book, looks at the ways in which Jamaican popular music practices challenge the colonial underpinnings of copyright law and of sovereignty itself. We discuss the economics of Jamaican sound system culture, the sticky topic of copyright as a flawed protection for creators, and proposals for a fairer DJ economy.

We had a few sound issues that we tried to clean up for this episode, and Larissa is a generous and fun guest. I hope you enjoy it and are having a great week!

Thanks again for the support :)

On Larisa's recommendation, we donated to support The Attic Youth Center in Philly. The Attic Youth Center is the only organization in Philadelphia exclusively serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. https://www.atticyouthcenter.org/

Since the idea of this podcast first came to mind, we had imagined starting a thread of conversations with fiction authors and artists that in many ways touch on some of issues that we might be exploring in other conversations.

Today we are thrilled to kick off this direction with a conversation with Tim Maughan, the author of Infinite Detail, winner of The Guardians best science fiction and fantasy book of 2019, and a gripping and prescient work that explores the simple question: what would happen if the internet stopped working?

In this conversation we discuss sailing on a trade ship to China, the 21st century skills of reading how invisible networks dictate many aspects of our lives, conservatism and relevancy in science fiction, and how the book economy works, and could work better.

Tim is a generous and funny guest, we hope you enjoy it!

There is also a weird noise that occasionally appears on Tim's side, we tried to pull it out but it made the audio very muffled. Hope it isn't too distracting!

Links!

Buy Infinite Detail! https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374175412

DRONEGOD$ manifesto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U7F5X84bj0

This week we talk to Director at PRS for music and Gomez songwriter Tom Gray, who, through the #brokenrecord hashtag and other advocacy work has been championing the need for reform the way that streaming services work, and reform copyright policy to better protect songwriters and producers.

We discuss the case for user centric streaming over the current pro-rata payment model, what is was like to witness the transition from sales to streaming as a successful touring band, and how, at a time when the song is earning the least amount it has ever earned, the expenses to develop the songs are being placed on the songwriter and producer more than ever before by labels and streaming. There are also some stories that border on ASMR, Tom has by far the best microphone we have encountered doing the podcast so far.

In this episode we speak with Kate Crawford, founder of the AI Now Institute and professor who has spent the last decade studying the political implications of data systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

We discuss the anatomy of AI systems and full ecosystem of human and material resources behind an Amazon echo, the need to develop an understanding of the exponential accumulation of power under platform capitalism, the use of AI systems in predictive policing and other controversial areas, and Kate’s parallel experience as an electronic musician.

This episode ends rather abruptly as we got lost in conversation and Kate had to run, so forgive us for the atypical ending!

In this episode we welcome David Turner, writer and founder of the Penny Fractions newsletter, which holds a critical and often political lens to the latest developments in the music industry.

In this episode we discuss the music industry response to Black Lives Matter, positive infrastructural proposals that could lead to long lasting and meaningful diversification, the meme music economy, lessons from ad hoc protest gatherings and sitting on a small plane with Radiohead and Silento.

David is a deeply thoughtful and fun guest, we hope you enjoy this one!