TRASHFUTURE

Why is it that British dads all want to go to war? Why is it that, despite having grown up during a period of unparalleled peace and stability, people over 50 want to relive Dunkirk and embrace the Blitz Spirit? Maybe because they’re all deeply bored and lazy people. To discuss this (and much more), we’ve brought on Francis Horton ( @ArmyStrang ), cohost of What a Hell of a Way to Die (with our ow...

We took Trashfuture on the road, opening up the start of of the Birmingham Transformed festival. The cast was Riley, Hussein, Nate, and returning guest Soweto Kinch ( @sowetokinch ). We talked about a high-tech eugenics platform and a news site that might as well be the QAnon Onion. You'll love it as much as we did, friends. If you want to hear the whole thing, get it on Patreon here: https://www....

What a whirlwind week it’s been. For starters, Jeremy Corbyn gave the Lib Dems and CUK/TIGs an offer they would normally not be able to refuse, but instead refused because (as we knew all along) they hate mild social democracy more than they hate Brexit, despite being the “Stop Brexit Jeremy” parties. We discuss this, as well as WeWork’s recent initial public offering. Riley ( @raaleh ) dug up the...

We did it. We drove from London to Edinburgh with all our equipment in tow, climbed a fucking medieval staircase in a downpour, got soaked to the damn bones, and then played a (sold out!!!!) show at the Edinburgh Fringe. We only had a 50 minute time slot, so this was a short one. Thank you so much to all the fans who came out in the garbage weather to see it. This show was a blast and we think you...

It's a special episode featuring only the loveliest of accents. This week's bonus features Milo with guests Aidan 'Taco' Jones, Dan Muggleton, and Pope Lonergan. It's a bunch of comedians telling some damn jokes -- about Australia, about fancy words, about rugby -- and so much more. Hope you enjoy! If you want to hear the whole thing, get it on Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/28990329...

A broad swath of modern reactionary and xenopobic sentiment tries to employ fake medieval history to create a fantasy version of Europe. Whether it’s Middle Earth or some bullshit about Agincourt, the British right can’t stop making stuff up. So, to dispel this, Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ) spoke with academic Dr Eleanor Janega...

Why call it history when you can call it ‘progress studies’? This week, Riley ( @raaleh ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum  join writer and PhD student Annie Kelly to discuss Steven Pinker-ized airport books, tech positivity, and Annie’s research into women members of the alt-right. You’ll love it. Annie’s New York Times article that gets referenced in the piece is available he...

You wanted to hear more Quillette close-reads, so here it is. We discuss the most bootlicking of all pro-Amazon pieces to ever appear, plus a bizarre 2006 op-ed about shoes from Rafael Behr. Our special guest Juliet Jacques ( @zinovievletter ) helps us break down just how brain-melt it all is. You'll love it, folks—you'll absolutely love it.  If you want to hear the whole episode, get it on Patreo...

We’ve all written something that was maybe a little over the top, though mercifully none of us has written for Quilette. This week, Riley ( @raaleh ), Olga ( @rocknrolga ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum  join Novara Media’s Eleanor Penny ( @eleanorkpenny ) to discuss brain impresario Toby Young’s recent paen to Boris Johnson’s skull shape and neck thickness. It’s weird! It’s abn...

Did you know that Riley's hometown newspaper is run by horse people? Did you know that there's a Code Pink-style group that stalks people who work at the Seattle Zoo's elephant enclosure? Did you know that Fiverr wants to drive down your wages but also want to make you feel empowered? Did you know that the Telegraph has found a way to get mad about black people in Bond films? Yes. It's all true. E...

Okay, some housekeeping: this might be the episode where you can hear our brains breaking. Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ),  Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum  discuss Elon Musk’s strange fixation on preventing SkyNet, new revelations that place Steven Pinker in Jeffrey Epstein’s plane on multiple occasions, and a Guardian article in which Alastair Campbell devotes an e...

Riley's cousin lives in London and got the absolute worst tinder-date breakup message. It was so bad, so painfully long-form and weird, that we had to convene a session of Balthasar Speedboat to discuss it. So, we brought on Riley, Milo, Olga, Alex Kealy, and Rajiv Karia ( @RajivAKaria ). Hope you enjoy it! If not, we're breaking up with you (in over 1000 words). Get the full episode here on Patre...

Our beautiful son Riley is still in New York, a city famous for being ‘alright’ if you ‘like’ ‘saxophones.’ In the interim, Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice are here to hold down the fort. We’ve uncovered a startup that wants to scan your licence place and use it to order McDonalds. We’ve read an op-ed encouraging the securitisation of water scarci...

Tony Blair, what a guy! Am I right, folks? He can't stop whining about how we need fewer houses and more apps. He can't stop pointing a finger at the Labour party and saying that it was better when we were pro-privatisation and pro-bombing. And now, of course, his institute has a great plan -- a policy paper full of nothing but management consultant speak -- with one sole defined policy goal: nati...

We did it. We played another show outside of London—this time at Wolfson College in Cambridge—and we made sure to prep only the best. Did you know Boris Johnson wrote a horny, frustrated novel about terrorism called '72 Virgins'? Well, we read the damn book so you didn't have to. Enjoy! If you want to listen to the whole thing, sign up on Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/28163493 *LIVE...

You’ve heard the expression that while the cat’s away, the mice will play? In this case, while the cat’s away, the mice got in the studio and recorded their own podcast. Yes, friends, Riley was away on holiday and so was Nate, leaving only Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ) and Hussein ( @HKesvani ) to host an episode entirely of their own making, with special guest and [Canadian voice] returning podcast cham...

Well - we did it. We hit $2500 a month of funding, so as promised a special 4th of July edition of Riley's Commie Book Club on graduate politics seminar standby - Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities.  The “nation” is a concept much beloved of reactionaries and dismissed by Marxists as mere ideology. But it has serious psychological power nevertheless. Anderson’s book asks what is a “nation,”...

What if an app made you pay $30 a month for some email hotkeys? What if Britain stopped burning coal only to build 30 gigawatts of gas-burning power? What if Justine Greening wasn't a reliable source on anything, but certainly not social mobility? Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ) join special guest and feature writer Tom Usher ( @to...

As of next month, all episodes of Commie Book Club will be published on on our Patreon feed... BUT without any paywall in front of them at all. So they'll be free each month with no delay. If you nonetheless want to support us anyway and get next month's book club early, check out  www.patreon.com/trashfuture/ Another instalment of Riley's Commie Book Club delivered to you, our delightful and belo...

Every outbreak has its patient zero. New York's Typhoid outbreak had Typhoid Mary. Springfeield's Infectious Diptheria problem had Jebediah Springfield. Britain's most tedious faux-progressive centrists have the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Novara Media's Ash Sarkar joins the lads to discuss a skydiving monarch, fifty dancing industrialists, and a salute to the Windrush Generation that a...

The UK can't get enough of border forces. We want to fund them in our own country and in other countries, even when those countries want visa-free regional travel. We love making everyone a cop, and we're joined this week by Zoe Gardner ( @ZoeJardiniere ) from Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants ( @JCWI_UK ) to discuss this. However, we also have a terrible startup to review, and a great (...

America desperately wants to go to war with Iran, so much that it's willing to engineer some extremely fake circumstances under which it can claim to be the victim of aggression. Why is that? Well, according to Bret Stephens, it's because they hate Ben Franklin, or something. To discuss this, we bring on Sina Rahmani, host of the The East is a Podcast , and ask him why the US can't seem to stop br...

This week, we're talking Logic Guys with Aisling McCrea ( @ambientGillian ), the author of a great Outline piece about debate and a canny observer of terrible Mind-Boomers online. Why is Andrew Doyle so angry and unfunny? Why does Stephen Crowder always ambush college students with his dumb garbage? All this and more is yours. If you want to hear the full version of this episode, get it on Patreon...

We’re posting through tears on this one. Our precious boy -- our sweet, beautiful lad himself -- is no longer a candidate for the Tory leadership contest. That’s right, Matt Hancock has stepped down after only four days. It was a truly heart-rending experience for Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ). How can we live in a future where t...

We've been monitoring the situation in Hong Kong from our extremely high-tech Amstrad eMailer, but given how fast things are developing, we decided to add some additional (serious) content this week. So, please enjoy this interview between Nate ( @inthesedeserts ) and Brian Hioe ( @brianhioe ), the editor of New Bloom Magazine. Brian is currently reporting from Hong Kong and gave insight into the...