TRASHFUTURE

Riley is joined by Birkbeck's Dr. Kojo Koram to discuss how Britain's colonial legal legacies - in the form of offshore, overseas, non-dom, etc. - make us the perfect place for the global rich to hide their ill gotten gains. Also, in the studio, Milo, Hussein, and Alice discuss another rent-instead-of-own startup, but with a creative twist. Get the full episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon...

This week, we’re talking about a mental-health startup that’s even worse than the man made horrors you thought were beyond your comprehension, some particularly spicy UK legal news, and a simple request for people to be honest about what they actually want, politically. Hope you enjoy! Support the Sheffield JustEat riders on strike! Their fund is here and really, really needs your donations: https...

For the first Britainology of March, Nate and Milo watch a *terrible* British sitcom from the 1970s that has, somehow, endured. That's right, we've been Frank Spencerpilled--we've watched Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, and we're still shaken from the 'what if Britain was in the Eastern Bloc' vision that it portrayed. Get the whole thing on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64048657 *WEB DESIG...

We bring back friend of the show Quantian1 to discuss sanctions against Russia, how the global financial system can shut out a large economy (and how economic integration doesn't necessarily mean less chance of conflict), how the conflict will affect food prices, and our theory that, instead of sanctions, we should just do a Reverse Salisbury on Putin. Get the full episode on Patreon here: https:/...

It’s the True Chaos Configuration of Milo, Hussein, and Alice, and we’re discussing the Festival of Brexit–a bizarre idea that seems to be at least competently executed, much to our surprise. However, it includes a techno festival called Tour de Moon with an intensely 2000s website that has to be seen to be believed. We also talk about sanctioning Abramovich, and much more. Support the Sheffield J...

Dr. Riley Quinn (DPhil International Relations), Dr. Milo Edwards (PhD Russian Language), and Maj. Alice Caldwell-Kelly (OSINT specialist) introduce another “garden of forking paths” version of ourselves. We also discuss the bipartisan consensus that spiking energy prices (which have been spiking long before the war) are good and worth the Blitz spirit. Also, another article and Lebedev/Johnson ha...

Riley, Alice, and Milo look at the ongoing descent of the UK pundit class into embodying the global death drive, and take a look at a story of a certain kind of British Guy achieving apotheosis (spending £218 of Bolton Council's money meant for excluded children at the Spar in Praia du Luz in Portugal). In between, Riley talks to academic Thea Riofrancos about why "onshoring" mining is all the rag...

Riley, Milo, Abi, Alice, and Devon read a little book called The End Of The World Is Flat, a satire about the struggles of the “TERGs” against the “Flat Earth Movement.” Or, more accurately, Riley is the only person in the world to read a book again. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63338182 *WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer...

This week, friend of the show Abigail Thorn ( @PhilosophyTube ) joins us to discuss the EHRC’s turn towards belligerent transphobia. One might go so far as to say that they’ve violated Riley’s Law, but there’s an American dimension: British transphobia is beginning to appear in American legal statutes, cited approvingly. Seems bad! We also discuss an app to buy your way into government? And some a...

This week, Nate and Milo address the important issue: why is there a culture of getting on it and getting completely blasted out of your mind? What is a big night out? What is the sesh? What is the deal with those guys in the picture? To help our investigation, we brought on nightlife expert and journalist Tom Usher ( @Tom_Usher_ ) to discuss. If you want to hear more Britainology, sign up on the...

In this episode, Milo takes Nate on the most inscrutable journey yet: a vision of British 1980s/90s sitcoms that are too cockney to be parsed without a translator. Yes, it's the 'Heroes and Villains' episode of Only Fools and Horses, perhaps the most British thing Nate has had to encounter yet, and the one that did the most to break his spirit. Hope you enjoy! If you want to hear more Britainology...

For this week's bonus, we discuss the UK ending all COVID testing, the NYT/Serial 'Trojan Horse Affair' podcast making British columnists lose their minds, an update on Roku's hilarious financial peril, and a long rumination on what would happen if Keir Starmer took Julia Fox on a date. We hope you enjoy. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62964279 *LIVE SHOW ALER...

This week, Nate and Hussein speak with Brian Reed and Hamza Syed of the Trojan Horse Affair podcast, an investigation into a hoax letter in Birmingham in 2014 that–despite being known to be false–kicked off an intensification of surveillance and mistreatment of British Muslims. And everyone knew it was fake at the time! It is the official position of Trashfuture that you listen to the Trojan Horse...

We speak with Q Anon Anonymous U.K. correspondent Annie Kelly about how, far from being fringe whackos, the lumpen petit bourgeois wingnuts that meet on telegram and gather outside Parliament are central to the right wing project. Also, we read Starmer’s baffling paean to NATO. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62691536 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* We will be doing a live s...

Gareth Dennis ( @GarethDennis ) of Rail Natter returns to our hallowed halls to talk about, among other things, the decision to put the capital’s transport network into “managed decline,” so we can enjoy the standards of infrastructure currently only available to exotic places like “Italy” or “Quebec.” Also, a Foxtons for the Metaverse. Check out Rail Natter here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/U...

This week, Nate and Milo are joined by Paul Ewart ( @paulewart23 ) of the University of Sussex to discuss Margaret Thatcher and how she changed Britain (pretty much solely for the worse!) And guess what: none of those effects are felt today, in any way. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62438141 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* We will be doing a live show in London on Wednesda...

In this special extra segment, Nate interviews Sam Asumadu from Media Diversified ( @WritersOfColour ) about the phenomenon of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs), a now-banned sentence that has resulted in thousands of British residents effectively receiving life sentences for acts as minor as stealing a mobile phone at age 17. Sam’s written an article on the topic for OpenDemocr...

We speak with technology critic Evgeny Morozov about the history of ideas like “Web 2,” “Web 3,” and who these ideas serve and how - and what a better web may look like. Check out Evgeny's 'The Syllabus' project here: https://www.the-syllabus.com Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62393298 *MILO ALERT* Milo has a bunch of live shows this month in both London and P...

We speak with Phil Burton-Cartledge ( @philbc ) about his book, Falling Down, about the sociology of the U.K. Conservative party. How is it to be understood? What are its weaknesses? But first, we look into a number of chickens that appear to have come home to roost in the Labour Party. Riley Quinn: And also, of course, we talk about a ludicrous Web3 Project. Buy Phil’s book here! https://www.vers...

Riley sits down for a discussion of the implications of the upcoming Health and Care Act for the NHS with Dr Allyson Pollock and Peter Roderick from Newcastle University, and tries to get to the heart of the question: what do we mean when we talk about “privatising the NHS.”

We review the further state of institutional rot in the U.K., where a lot of our most prominent dunces are feigning surprise that the met police, EHRC, etc., may simply have been rotten all along. Also, we review Ark’s Big Ideas Summit, which is essentially a kind of Autonomous Cars for Christ pamphlet. Get the whole thing on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62033688 *MILO ALERT* Milo h...

We look at the shape of the (contracting) frontiers of politics and (expanding) frontiers cooked up in the minds of our most addled billionaires. Let Mark Zuckerberg make a skinwalker out of you, let Elon Musk put your brain into a tunnel, but try to work a little less and - as the British state always does - then "we got problems." If you’re in the UK and want to help Afghan refugees and internal...

Our politics and economy has once again found itself hitting the bottom of a large hole - and their solution is to dig up! We revisit some troubling developments at our old friends Netflix, Peloton, and THG, then we read an article about sending in a hot British general to fix up Downing Street. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/61694831 If you’re in the UK and w...

We’ve brought on Jonathan Bernhardt ( @jonbernhardt ) of Patch Notes podcast to discuss Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We discuss Activision’s super-villain CEO, the dismal state of its business at present, and what ‘metaverse’ fixations mean for the future of gaming. We also discuss a terrible security-state startup and subject Jonathan to Britain. Enjoy! If you want acces...

We retvrn to tradition (we unwound by watching a recent-era Guy Ritchie movie). Geezer Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan gets romantic with a pig, and everyone is really upset about… dealing weed? Journey with us into the mind of a confused old man, as we review THE GENTLEMEN. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/61387407