Committed

Which side are you on? Keir, Nadia and Jem consider the ebb and flow of political commitment with ideas and music from Jodi Dean, Gramsci, John Coltrane and the Raincoats. 

Is cultural production the same as political action? What’s the difference between an ally and a comrade? And why do some communists end up as right-wing turncoats?

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching "ACFM".
Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

ACFM Trip 48: Political Commitment

The AFCM gang gather for a midwinter reading of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Download a version online and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem reassess of one of the most influential political tracts ever written.

Help us build people-powered media – support us from as little as £1 a month: https://novara.media/support

ACFM Microdose: The Communist Manifesto

The concept of debt is as slippery as it is powerful. In this Trip episode, Keir, Nadia and Jem explain why debt is more like a belief than a calculation, and wonder how to imagine a society without it. 

From credit cards to dowries, they discuss the reality and fantasy of debt, with ideas from David Graeber and Deleuze and music from Crass and Gwen Guthrie.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
Sign up to the ACFM newsletter: https://novaramedia.com/newsletters
Follow our ever-expanding playlist on Spotify by searching "ACFM".

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

ACFM Trip 49: Debt

Part one of our two-part investigation into the Rationalist cult “The Zizians.” We start with the killing of a border patrol officer and make our way back into the belly of the beast: Silicon Valley. Featuring: Harry Potter fanfic, samurai swords, Guy Fawkes masks, Blake Masters, Bayesian probability, and Eliezer Yudkowsky. Infohazard warning: some of your least favs will be implicated.

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com

Episode 434: Evil Gods Must Be Fought: The Zizian Murder Cult [Part 1]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY FEB 7 2025 (Bandcamp Friday / Wildfire Relief)

LA is the ESP Institute’s hometown. The label’s captain, Lovefingers, is a native Angeleno who has lived in 15 of its neighborhoods spanning decades. While the ESP Institute was born in 00’s New York City with an international cast of artists, the DNA of the label has always been infused with the wild sense of freedom and space that is LA. It breaks our hearts to see the city and its residents in such a difficult position today. Our home and label’s office were damaged, the grounds incinerated and fire/smoke damage right up and onto it’s walls, and although it is still uninhabitable, we consider ourselves unbelievably fortunate that the structure was spared, surviving among our many neighbors whose homes are reduced to ash. Both the Palisades and Eaton fires have left so many of our friends and family with nothing – we collectively mourn not only for their physical space, much of which is generational, but for mementos of family history, their sense of security and ability to function from a safe sense of “home.” The grief and tasks of recovery are uncharted and ongoing, the rebuilding is daunting, arduous and overwhelming, and everyday brings new challenges in the fires wake. This will take time. If there is any light that we see in this, it is the prevalent sense of community we are witnessing in real time.

This is the 15th year of ESP Institute and we had an idea for a compilation planned, but, given the circumstances and the immense needs of our city and fellow Angelenos, we have decided to expand this release to 3x its initial scope and commit all of its efforts and income to wildfire relief organizations. We have initially selected the following vetted non-profit charities: CalFund, MusiCares, GiveDirectly, Global Empowerment Mission, Canine Rescue Club and plan to manually top up funds from circulating GoFundMe spreadsheets for under-represented families, commencing with those in Altadena. We anticipate a bi-weekly dispersal of funds, given the urgent and evolving nature of community needs, but will re-assess this consistently as time passes.

ESP’s artists have generously allowed us to present their music for this compilation and our gratitude starts with them. It is our hope the following 90 tracks will bring you something you need, whether it be joy, catharsis, wonder or meditation.

Thank you for your support from the bottom our hearts,
Andrew / Lovefingers & ESP Institute
.
.
[ESP150A]
ESP Institute XV - I - Active
Dosage: 30 tracks spanning fifteen years of the label’s work with a focus on physical movement and mental release.
Energy level: High.
Recommended: Late night / witching hours.

[ESP150B]
ESP Institute XV - II - Passive
Dosage: 30 tracks spanning fifteen years of the label’s work with a focus on ambience, mood control and meditation.
Energy level: Low.
Recommended: Daytime / sunset / sunrise.

[ESP150C]
ESP Institute XV - III - Unobtanium
Dosage: 30 tracks spanning fifteen years of the label’s work with a focus on unreleased rarities, demos and remixes.
Energy level: All over the place.
Recommended: For those who know. 

released February 7, 2025

I Active, II Passive, III Unobtanium

Madame Tussaud

LA Wildfire Relief

Madame Tussaud - ESP Institute L.A. WILDFIRE FUNDRAISER

Welcome to DOGE-stan! We take stock of the Trump admin’s early chaos including the plan to annex Gaza, sending American prisoners to El Salvador, and the goldbuggery of the Mar-A-Lago Accords. 

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com

Call the tip line at (646) 801-1129

Episode 437: Fork in the Road

The gang convene for a milestone 50th Trip episode all about acid – as a drug, a music genre, a political concept, a mental tool and a thought corrosive. Nadia, Keir and Jem look back on six years of the podcast to decide if ‘acid’ is still a useful way of thinking about leftwing politics.

With music from Tricky, Pink Floyd and Phuture, they discuss anticapitalism, Acid Corbynism, Rimbaud, acid rock, Terence McKenna, mind-body dualism and plain old LSD.

Follow our Spotify playlist of all the music discussed on ACFM and subscribe to the ACFM mailing list to get weirder and leftier.

Music: Jimi Hendrix – ‘Purple Haze’ / Thatcher on Acid – ‘Sitting’ / Pink Floyd – ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ / Boredoms – ‘Acid Police’ / Phuture – ‘Acid Tracks’ / D Mob – ‘We Call It Acid’ / Funk, Inc. – ‘The Better Half’ / Tricky – ‘Overcome’

Books: Mark Fisher – K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings / Mark Fisher – Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures / Jay Stevens – Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream

ACFM Trip 50: Fifty Shades of Acid

Quinn Slobodian returns to PTO to talk about his new book 'Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right'. Whilst politicians and thinkers of the new right are typically characterised as fierce opponents of neoliberalism, Quinn explains how the emergence of the populist right developed through a split within the neoliberal movement itself. We talked about the intellectual development of the new right, why their neoliberal heritage is often ignored, and how their racism and obsession with borders - though often seen as merely irrational and atavistic - contains its own form of economic rationality.

Hayek's bastards w/ Quinn Slobodian

Semafor reporter Dave Weigel returns to the show to look at the political angles to Trump’s tariff regime and the global economic shocks. We discuss the various attempts to backfill justifications, responses from GOP and Democrats, and how this is all somehow about wokeness and masculinity or something. We also discuss last week’s special election in Wisconsin, and what it can tell us about Trump (and Elon)’s strength going forward.

Find Dave’s work on Semafor here: https://www.semafor.com/author/david-weigel


923 - The Banks Are Out of Money feat. Dave Weigel (4/7/25)

How does a teenage goodie-two-shoes grow up to be a convicted criminal? On Committed, a new four-part series from Novara Media, we go behind bars to find out why dozens of young climate activists are risking prison for what they believe in – and why Britain's courts are sending more of them to jail for longer. 

Committed begins on 22 April in the Novara Media podcast feed. 

Help us build people-powered media: novara.media/support

Committed: A New Series Out Now

In episode one of Committed, Clare and Rivkah meet imprisoned Just Stop Oil activists who took direct action against the climate crisis and faced dire consequences.

By blocking roads, climbing bridges and throwing soup at paintings, they made headlines – and became national hate figures in the process. We find out how four ordinary young people ended up as convicted criminals, at the sharp end of the government’s crackdown on protest.

Episode 2 coming on 24 April.

1. What Kind of Person Goes to Prison for Their Politics?

Locked in their cells for up to 22 hours a day, how are Britain’s jailed climate activists coping with a life of inaction? In episode two of Committed, Rivkah and Clare follow the Just Stop Oil inmates to find out how they’re adjusting. How does JSO prepare activists for incarceration? What’s it really like inside Britain’s prisons? And what do the guards and other inmates think of Just Stop Oil activists’ crimes?

Episode 3 coming on 29 April.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

1. What Kind of Person Goes to Prison for Their Politics?

Novara Media

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