The Chatterbox

“Smart” devices like TVs, speakers, and thermostats. Our cars. DNA tests we might take to learn about our ancestry. Our searches online. Along with Flock cameras and other forms of big data policing contracted by local governments, we’re unwittingly surveilling ourselves at every turn. Legal scholar Andrew Guthrie Ferguson describes how sensor-driven digital technology tracks our daily lives — whether we’re seeking an abortion or protesting our government — and are only, at best, a warrant away from being used against us.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance NYU Press, 2026

Photo credit: r.nial.bradshaw

The post Surveilling Ourselves appeared first on KPFA.

In the 1960s, the CIA lost a plutonium-fueled generator on top of a mountain in India. The generator was supposed to power an unmanned listening station, intended to pick up signals from China’s missile tests. But when mountaineers ascended the near 26,000-ft Nanda Devi – under the guise of studying the environment – weather got in their way. They left the nuclear device behind and months later, when they returned, it was gone. New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman reconstructed this event with a team of journalists. The story took about seven years, thousands of miles, and earning the trust of many men who had grown old and have since passed away.

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And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic,  you can reach us by email at [email protected].

This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs. 

Daniel A. Olivas, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, book critic, and attorney. In this episode, Jacke talks to Daniel about his lifelong devotion to literature and its ability to humanize the targets of anti-immigration sentiment. In the interview, Daniel recounts how his interest in literature led to his novel inspired by Mary Shelley, Chicano Frankenstein, and his play inspired by Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. PLUS Jane Austen expert Janet Todd (Living with Jane Austen) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read.

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza sit down with the American science-fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson to discuss his work, the nature of his trilogies, the future of utopia, utopic realism, politics of the present, science of politics, his forthcoming novels, and many other things

You can listen to our podcast here: https://anchor.fm/crisisandcritique

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Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have brought queer TV into the mainstream of global media. Scholars of everyday political economy highlight how both producing and watching television shape global queer identities. Dominant media channels promote specific, standardised ways of being queer, often celebrated as victories of LGBTQAI+ visibility, yet at the cost of erasing alternative expressions. 

Global media tend to privilege urban, Western narratives, marginalising rural, local, and Global Majority experiences. Queerness is often framed as progressive only when detached from place, tradition, or indigeneity. Popular formats, particularly in drag, have commodified queerness, smoothing over linguistic and visual differences for global appeal. 

Still, alternative forms of queer expression continue to surface across TV, art, digital platforms, and community spaces, offering more grounded and resistant modes of visibility. 

Concepts discussed: commodification, globalisation, queerness, visibility and invisibility, resistance. 

Host: Dr Frank Maracchione, SOAS University of London. 

Speakers: 

Dr Mariya Levitanus is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh, as well as a queer activist and psychotherapist from Kazakhstan. Her earlier research explored the everyday narratives of queer individuals in Kazakhstan, while her current work focuses on Russian queer and trans* migration to Central Asia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Dr Helton Levy is a London-based journalist, lecturer, researcher, and visual artist. They work as lecturer in digital and visual media at London Metropolitan University. They are the author of Globalized Queerness, and The Internet, Politics, and Inequality in Contemporary Brazil: Peripheral Media. They have published widely on digital activist cultures, social media discourse, queer media, and Latin American studies. 

Reading list: 

Butler, J. (2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 

Levitanus, M., & Kislitsyna, P. (2024). “Why wave the flag?”: (in)visible queer activism in authoritarian Kazakhstan and Russia. Central Asian Survey, 43(1), 12–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2023.2234955 

Levy, H. (2023). Globalized Queerness: Identities and Commodities in Queer Popular Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing.

N-ost - border crossing journalism. (2023). Behind the Mask: Contemporary Drag Culture in Kazakhstan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtgXoysv5Tw 

Pereira, P. P. G. (2019). Reflecting on Decolonial Queer. GLQ, 25(3), 403–429. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-7551112

Schramm, C. (2012). Queering Latin American coloniality and the cross-cultural production of racialised sexualities. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33(3), 347-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2012.673476 

Sultanalieva, S. (2023). ”Nomadity of Being” in Central Asia : Narratives of Kyrgyzstani Women’s Rights Activists (1st ed. 2023.). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5446-7 

Corrigendum: In the episode, we incorrectly mentioned January 2026 as the signing date of Kazakhstan’s anti‑LGBTQ law. The correct date is 30 December 2025. 

This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Frank Maracchione with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anthony is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches courses in U.S. religious history, gender and sexuality studies, the long 1980s, and visual culture. His most recent book, "Provoking Religion: Sex, Art, and the Culture Wars," examines the history of feminist and queer artists who found themselves caught in the crosshairs of the Christian Right. He is also the author of "After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion. " Anthony serves as a series editor for the North American Religions book series at NYU Press. Before joining Notre Dame, he was an associate professor of religion at Boston University, where he also served as the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor and founded the Health Humanities Project.​​

In this conversation, Anthony and I discussed the role of artists in the culture wars of the 80s and 90s and the ongoing relevance of material religion in contemporary art. We also shared thoughts on how artists today continue to engage with religious themes, challenge traditional narratives, and address issues of race, sexuality, and power through their work.

Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the years-long relationship between Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein, and how their relationship sheds light on the murky inner workings of the one percent.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a co-host of the Autonocast.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Go to surfshark.com/SAVEUS to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee or just punch in code SAVEUS at checkout!

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Ed has written two recent pieces about Elon Musk’s relationship with Epstein.
• Here’s more information on Juleanna Glover’s relationship with Epstein.

Support the show

Susanne Paola Antonetta is an accomplished writer and poet, the author of numerous books, and in 2001 her book Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir, won a prestigious American Book Award.

Her latest book is The Devil's Castle, Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today.

***

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© Mad in America 2026. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org

Hello! Emilie here. For most of my adult life, Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me In the Bathroom has been the only definitive book about the New York music scene of my youth. The trouble is that a lot of important stuff happened alongside and after that, particularly across the river in Brooklyn. So, thank God for Ronen Givony. The founder of longtime concert series Wordless Music and former Le Poisson Rouge booker braved the wilds of the publishing industry to bring us the first comprehensive history of the Brooklyn music scene: Us vs. Them: The Age of Indie Music and a Decade in New York (out now via Abrams).

Us vs. Them traces the years 2004 to 2014 and a wide cast of artists and other characters, some familiar, many not. But part of the point is to look past the usual suspects to talk about the lesser-known artists and promoters who built the scene, often with their very own hands. The book traces how Bush-era political dissatisfaction, cheap rents, and digital technology gave rise to one of those uniquely fertile cultural moments in music history that only come around every so often—you know, where great gigs felt endless, scenes felt possible, and you and your friends were the ones making it happen.

Ronen joins us to discuss what it was like to chronicle a scene that, unlike the Manhattan scene of the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol, was geographically far-flung and features a lot of characters who never became household names or whose careers have been lost to time. We also get into what conditions made it possible for north Brooklyn to become home to a creative ecosystem that, in Ronen’s words, “existed for a reason other than profit” and its complicated relationship to commerce, the media, and selling out. And we talk about what this history teaches us about how we might go about fostering culture in New York—and cities like it—today.

Ronen was also kind enough to make us a playlist featuring artists from the book. Cue it up for a great companion listen to the episode.

Buy Us vs. Them

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