Each generation must encounter the Communist Manifesto anew, deciphering Marx and Engels’ text for their own era. So what gives this short book its enduring power? In his new book A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto, China Miéville explains how its various facets – being part political treatise, part gothic literature, and part spell to bring about a different reality – continue to act upon the world. 

The author of The City & The City joins Ash Sarkar to discuss sadism, sci-fi, blockchain utopias, Lord of the Rings and the politics of Sally Rooney's fiction.

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

Downstream: Working Class is Not An Identity w/ China Miéville

Boris Johnson is gone – but he's not out of office. What happens next?

Plus: the first Tory MP to launch their leadership campaign.

With Ash Sarkar and Michael Walker.

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Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

TyskySour: Boris Has Broken At Last

In a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), a group of people take a trip into an imaginary world, guided by an MC or ‘dungeon master’. Not limited to the Tolkien-esque themes of the famous Dungeons &amp; Dragons, TTRPGs range from gritty sci-fi scenarios to steampunk heist fantasies, and from everyday life to magic, monsters and vampires.

In this Microdose, Nadia, Keir and Jeremy gather round the table to talk about how role-playing games have evolved over half a century and what different game-playing styles might say about other societal battles – from feminism and reactionary masculinism to the revenge of the nerds.

Discussing games like Call of the Cthulu and Vampire of the Masquerade, as well as TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Expanse, the gang look at the huge cultural impact of TTRPGs. How has the rise of Silicon Valley changed the reception of geek culture? How might a players' politics turn up in their gameplay? How have women navigated these subcultural spaces so long dominated by men? Shake those polyhedral dice and find out.

ACFM Microdose: Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Boris Johnson's demise meant Britain could have had a serious Prime Minister. Instead, we're likely to get Liz Truss.

Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss her campaign.

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TyskySour: Britain's Next Joke PM

David de Jong joins PTO to talk about his extraordinary new book, Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties, which tells the story of how German tycoons made billions during the Nazi era and WWII and how many of those industrialists and financiers and their heirs continued to be central figures in first the West German Economy and then the reunited Germany. We talked about the Quandt family - for decades the controlling interest behind BMW - and their intimate links to Hitler's inner circle. And we also talked about why German businessmen who were directly implicated in the persecution and murder of European Jewry were largely able to maintain their business empires after the war.

Nazi Billionaires w/ David de Jong

Beatrice and Phil speak with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò about the politics of "getting a seat at the table" and his book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else).

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, and the author of the books “Reconsidering Reparations” and “Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)”.

Find Olúfẹ́mi's book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1867-elite-capture

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

Pre-orders are now live for Bea and Artie's book! Pre-order HEALTH COMMUNISM here: bit.ly/3Af2YaJ

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

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Death Panel Episode 368 Elite Capture w/ Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (08/25/22)

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Elite Capture w/ Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (08/25/22)

We are joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss his great new book Resisting AI. As Jathan wrote in a blurb for the book: “With analytical and moral clarity, McQuillan makes the case for recognising the radical politics of AI and meeting its goose step march head-on.” We get deep into an excellent discussion spanning the political economy and political epistemology of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Ed is trapped in Pittsburgh where he is now forced to live as a worker in a defunct steel factory.

••• Follow Dan on Twitter https://twitter.com/danmcquillan
••• Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai
••• Data Science as Machinic Neoplatonism https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-017-0273-3 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills  

Grab TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ 

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)

186. Refusing the Everyday Fascism of Artificial Intelligence (ft. Dan McQuillan)

On the day that Liz Truss wins the Tory leadership content and thus becomes Britain's next Prime Minister Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar discuss what a Truss premiership means.

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TyskySour: Liz Truss Is Now Britain’s PM

King Charles III has given his first address to the nation following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Plus: Truss's energy plan comes as news of her Oil company donations; and a Scottish chip shop owner gets attacked for posting a video celebrating the Queen's death.

With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.

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TyskySour: Britain’s New King

It’s one of the few things that the late anarchist anthropologist David Graeber and tech billionaire Peter Thiel agreed on: the sci-fi future we were promised has not materialised. Where are the flying cars? Where are the teleportation machines? And why, instead, do we just have 15 different ride-hailing apps to choose from?

In this episode of Downstream, Ash Sarkar sits down with technology writer Paris Marx, author of The Road to Nowhere, to talk about the future we were promised and the Silicon Valley fraudsters who stole it from us.

Downstream: Silicon Valley Fraudsters Are Lying To Us w/ Paris Marx

Jumping off an FT op-ed on venture capital and tech hype – which aligns great with TMK thought – we discuss the value and risk models of venture capitalism, then get into the emerging market structures and dynamics for generative AI. It’s not just a web3 redux. We end with Ted Chiang’s fantastic article on lossy compression as an analogy for large-language models.

Some stuff we reference: 
••• The new Current Thing for VCs mourning the implosion of Web3 https://www.ft.com/content/83807cad-5f2c-4c35-a4ff-e9df5cbd3505
••• Generative AI: A Creative New World | report by Sequoia Capital https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-a-creative-new-world/ 
••• ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

TyskySour: Boris Has Broken At Last

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