DEATH // SENTENCE

What if you wanted to redefine Communism for the 21st century and accidentally wrote the plot to The Expanse? Novara Media's Aaron Bastani has written Fully Automated Luxury Communism, which extols the virtues of automation, artificial meat and asteroid mines as a means of achieving a socialist utopia. We're joined by Jon and Ash of The Horror Vanguard (https://www.patreon.com/horrorvanguard) for...

Hussein Kesvani (MEL Magazine, Trashfuture) joins us to discuss his excellent book Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims. Predictably, we get distracted by how EXTREME Deadpool would be if he had a Venom symbiote and the religious ramifications of the Multiverse. Music by Imperial Triumphant: https://redefiningdarknessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/imperial-triumphant-inceste-ep

Gamers rise up! But in a good way. Like against your bosses. Jamie Woodcock's Marx At The Arcade (Haymarket Books) explores the history of the videogames industry right up to its present day, when labor organizing is just beginning to happen. We talk about the Marxist tool of workers' inquiry, Marx himself as a game character and why the bourgeois individualism of Sekiro has broken me. Music by Wa...

We're joined by Intercept columnist and writer Natasha Lennard (@natashalennard) to talk about her book Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life. What's non-fascist life? Was Occupy cool? How do we make ourselves less Fashy? Ghosts? The answers are here. Music by Neckbeard Deathcamp: https://neckbearddeathcamp.bandcamp.com/album/so-much-for-the-tolerant-left And Full of Hell: https://fullofhell....

James Bridle's New Dark Age argues for a better understanding of our late-capitalist Hellworld, taking in everything from algorithmically-generated mousepads to rendition flights. We talk about his book, nihilism, art, the New Aesthetic and we beg our listeners to send us powerful psychoactive drugs! Music by TOMB MOLD: https://tombmold.bandcamp.com And False: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/albu...

It's another of our 'stuff that's not books but is as good as books' episodes, but this time kind of about a book: the manga Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda. It's about a hunt for a stash of gold in turn-of-the-century Japan, but it's actually about colonialism, indigenous identity, the psychological effects of war, and friendship. Pod Save Anime host Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) is on hand to help kee...

We talk to Juliet Escoria about her new book Juliet the Maniac (on Melville House), the story of a teenager with some very severe mental health problems who makes all kinds of sex and drugs-related mistakes and winds up in therapy, which doesn't exactly work. It's kind of something everyone involved in the making and probably listening-to of this show can relate to, so we're into it. Music by Foie...

British-Literary-Neocon daddy Ian McEwan has lowered himself to writing a 'scientific fiction' book to show us poor saps that they can have real feeling and emotions! So there's a robot in the background while some middle-class white people talk about their feelings. And you bet there's some bad sexual and racial politics! Music by Big Brave and DILLY DALLY. Support our Patreon and become a true W...

We've got comics artist, writer and critic Sarah Horrocks on the show to talk about her work so far (which has included The Leopard and Goro) and her forthcoming mecha comic. We talk Gundam, learning to draw, the nature of melodrama and whether we'd vore Donald Trump like ducks or snakes. Learn more about Sarah's work here: https://mercurialblonde.squarespace.com/ Music by Skepticism and Les Ralli...

What if we're wrong about the current far-right movements in Europe and the US being fascists? What if they're a new, more dangerous phenomena that blends ideas from the far-right with the relative acceptability of the political centre? That's the main thesis in David Renton's The New Authoritarians, so we dissect it and, somehow, still manage to talk about horror movies, bad Lolita takes and bust...

This is both the first Patreon-exclusive episode and the first time that we've had a poet on the show: Rax King is the author of The People's Elbow: Thirty Recitatives on Rape and Wrestling, a raw, beautiful meditation on trauma and healing that's also about Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Music by Devil Master and Chevalier.

South Londoners ITHACA blew everyone away when they released The Language of Injury in February, so we've been waiting, biding our time, holding back until the perfect moment to get the band's singer Djamila to come on the show to talk about Hollow Earth, weaponised estrogen and Nicki Minaj, Music by Grave Pleasures: https://gravepleasures.bandcamp.com/releases And Seeyouspacecowboy: https://seeyo...

It's barely March and already we've got a book of the year contender: Marlon James' Black Leopard Red Wolf, an epic fantasy that might be the best, and definitely the most literary thing in the genre since The Vorrh. There's enough material in its 600-plus pages for ten podcasts, so naturally, we talk about, video games, violence, queering fantasy and under-appreciated Judas Priest albums. Music b...

Richard Chiem's King of Joy (Soft Skull Press) is a novel about porn, weed and good dogs that's also a Lynch-ian vaporwave nightmare *and* a raw, intense story of grief and perseverance. You know, based on that description, that I 'had to do it to 'em' (interview Richard on his life, influences and writing process.) Music by Candlemass: https://candlemass.bandcamp.com/album/the-door-to-doom And Vi...

Lords of Chaos was going to be the definitive story of the bloodiest chapter in extreme metal's history, a cinematic event essential to any true metal fan... Until Vice fucked up the release so only one of the three people on this podcast got to see it. Fortunately, that person was Megan Osztrosits from Couch Slut, one of the best bands ever, so we ended up talking about Air Bud, YouTube and catfi...

We get into one of the most anticipated books of the early part of 2019: Esme Weijung Wang's The Collected Schizophrenias. The essay collection explores life with Schizoaffective Disorder, and lets us cover everything from bad C-grade Sci-fi movies to magick. Music by Zig-Zags: https://zigzags.bandcamp.com And Dream Theatre: www.dreamtheater.net

We're back. with a real episode about books, without a single anime in sight. We're talking with Charlie Jane Anders- prolific short story writer, podcaster, founding editor of io9, person who can stand us talking about Pissgrave for way too long and writer of City in the Middle of the Night. We discuss influence, technology, climate, tidally locked planets and Pissgrave. Music by HIRS: https://hi...

I turned my back for a second and Langdon went and recorded an episode entirely about Anime, or as the Japanese call it, 'Manga'. He and a fellow lost soul talk about Fate/Stay Night, by way of Nietzsche, Deleuze, Chaos Magick, Christian mysticism and masturbation. Overly long theme tune by NECRONOMIDOL Music by JYOCHO (PS, JYOCHO did the end theme for an anime based on the work of horror manga ar...

We've got Leslie Lee III of Struggle Session with us to talk about one of his favorite books and ours: Cormac McCarthy's Grind-Western Blood Meridian. We talk about liking problematic work, gnosticism, Vincent D'onofrio, Mandy, Batman vs Superman and Benny Hill. Music by Chelsea Wolfe: https://chelseawolfe.bandcamp.com And City Hunter: https://youthattack.bandcamp.com/album/deep-blood Remember to...

It's the very best Best Of episode of 2018, where we struggle to remember what happened this year, up to and including how many Olympics there were! Join us for a star-studded line-up that includes Mitski! Tomb Mold! Tribulation! Goblin Slayer! Mids! And many more! Maybe we should start writing stuff down! I don't know! Music by The Body: https://thebody.bandcamp.com/album/i-have-fought-against-it...

Tom Whyman (@healthuntodeath- a reference I get immediately) stops by to discuss the legacy of Mark Fisher, one of the British Left's most innovative thinkers, and his posthumous book K-Punk (Repeater Books). We tackle his key ideas of capitalist realism, hauntology, and the weird and the eerie, Vampire Castles, the online left and Russel Brand. Music by The Armed: https://thearmed.bandcamp.com/ A...

In this very special episode, Steve Anwyll (@oneloveasshole) is on the line to talk about his book Welfare (on Tyrant Books), a punchy, rhythmic story of purposeful underachievement and smoking shitty weed on a hot couch. We discuss getting published, William Burroughs, being condescended to in the unemployment office and saying swears. Music by Vessel: https://vesseluk.bandcamp.com And Chained To...

I was lucky enough to catch Canadian anti-oppressive doom-duo Vile Creature at their show in Manchester for a chat about everything from their vegan bakery to their appearance at the Black Flags over Brooklyn festival next year to a lengthy discussion of Friends with one of the organizers of the Roadburn festival. Again, this is an incredibly normal podcast. Remember to like this episode on Soundc...

Crowded (on Image Comics) is about a ten-minutes-into-the-future world in which anybody can put a crowdsourced hit on anybody else, a party girl with a million dollar bounty on her head and a bodyguard with a 1.4 star rating. Its writer Chris Sebela is on the line to talk about his work, breaking into comics, raking, tunnels and washed-up YouTubers. Music by Tomb Mold: https://tombmold.bandcamp.co...

Scandinavia fuckin' rips: it's always cold, it's mostly dark and its very existence pisses off CHUDs. We talk about Norwegian singer and novelist Jenny Hval's debut Paradise Rot, published in English by Verso, and how the legacy of Steig Larsson, the best-selling Communist in all of fiction, is being dismantled by capitalism. Also, an extended digression into how lit Castlevania is. Music by Sapar...