The Burning Archive

When COVID hit, the numbers of people who played computer games exploded - not just among adolescents but across many age groups. People found out something about gaming - that, as Forbes magazine wrote, gaming has the “potential to unlock bonds of community, educate and inspire.” This episode responds to questions posed by Isaac Rich in episode 32 (This Archive is for the Players), and explores how games are windows to history, how they are a form of art, and an aspect of a fundamental experience, play. And just possibly, they preserve the hope that not even Sylvanas can kill.

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This new series of podcasts will explore the unfolding crisis of security in Europe, precipitated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and America/NATO's expansion eastward over 30 years. This first episode reports on the military situation on 3 March 2022, the economic war against Russia by waged by America and the European Union, and the exploding information and cultural war. This new twice-weekly podcast will explore the unfolding crisis of the emergence of a new multipolar world order.

This special episode on the crisis in Ukraine was recorded on 26 and 27 February. I discuss the background to the conflict in the failure to negotiate a fair peace to end the cold war, and the response to Russian proposals for a new security architecture in Europe. Events are unfolding quickly and a major information war is under way. Take care all and remember what thou lovest well will not be reft from thee.

Before Britain ruled with waves, it was the empire of Spain that was known as the empire on which the sun never sets. For a century or so it even joined with Portugal to be the first and only empire of land and sea across multiple oceans that was built with pre-industrial resources. But it declined. When? How? Why? And should we remember these empires not by images of conquistadores and the Spanish Inquisition, but by walking through the Botanic Gardens of Madrid? In Part II of Flowers of Empire the Burning Archive takes a closer look at Portugal's empire and the extraordinary legacy of the expeditions of the Hispanic Enlightenment including the botanical collections of Jose Celestino Mutis.

Full details of materials referred to in the show will be available on www.theburningarchive.com.

Before Britain ruled with waves, it was the empire of Spain that was known as the empire on which the sun never sets. For a century or so it even joined with Portugal to be the first and only empire of land and sea across multiple oceans that was built with pre-industrial resources. But it declined. When? How? Why? And should we remember these empires not by images of conquistadores and the Spanish Inquisition, but by walking through the Botanic Gardens of Madrid? 

In the first episode recorded in 2022 Jeff Rich explores the big signs of cultural decay and renewal in 2021, and makes for predictions for the year ahead. And in a postscript comments on the major geo-political events of the summer, including the information war on Ukraine and the Xi-Putin Summit in Beijing that does not augur well for the declining American Empire.

In this Summer Edition of The Burning Archive, Jeff Rich reviews the events of 2021 against the theme of social fragmentation. For so many people around the world, 2020 and 2021 have been the years of the Great Seclusion. How has the response to the pandemic fired social fragmentation and been fuelled by social isolation and loss of community? Can we chart a course to a more forgiving and tolerant Society of Islands in 2022?

In this Summer Edition of The Burning Archive, Jeff Rich reviews the major events of 2021 against the theme of political decay. But should the The Burning Archive replace the idea of political decay with political disorder? 2021 has tested the limits of the (liberal) democratic political orders of many countries around the world. Experts and populists have clashed... we are still waiting on a verdict. It has been a bad year for two pillars of democratic political orders -  science and the mass media. What trouble lies ahead for 2022? Is there a rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem?

In this Summer Edition of The Burning Archive, Jeff Rich reviews the events of the year in geopolitics against the theme of imperial rivalry. With the retreat from Afghanistan and dramatic diplomatic clashes, 2021 has been a pivotal year in relationships between the Great States of United States of America, China, Russia, the European Union and India. What does 2022 hold? Wars in Ukraine, Taiwan or Iran? Or the emergence of a new Concert of the globe, premised on a multipolar world?

In this first Summer Edition of The Burning Archive Jeff Rich reflects on 12 surprises, discoveries or gifts that mattered most in 2021. Be prepared to be surprised as well-known and obscure stories from the year are retold. Ranging across empire, politics, society, culture, history and the writer/podcaster's life, this episode will entertain you, and show how the past is not dead - the past is not even past.

Full references are at www.theburningarchive.com.