Doomscroll with Joshua Citarella

Deep Research is a mini-series collaboration with Otherworld . In the final episode, Josh speaks to the researcher "JC Dentun" about the vast cosmology and beliefs of Robert Monroe and the circle of people around him that we learned about in Part 1. Jack writes: A big thank you to Joshua Citarella for going above and beyond with this series. He started exploring this many months ago, and quite fra...

My guest is Quinn Slobodian. We discuss the crisis of the 1970s and the 2020s. Of all the open theoretical debates, these periods are by far the most consequential. The analysis we take away from these periods will help determine whether neoliberalism was a project of class war (something that can be reversed) or an inevitable development within capitalism (a persistent feature that cannot be chan...

My guest is Quinn Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University. He is the author of "Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism". Neoliberalism is the most misused word in today's political discourse. In this episode we discuss the origins of the ideological movement. What is neoliberalism? When did it begin? How did it transform global politics?

In this episode, Josh talks to three individuals who have done the Gateway tapes Chelsea, DJ, and Charlie. This mini series is a collaboration with Otherworld . In the next and final episode, Josh speaks to a researcher who uses the pseudonym "JC Dentun" to explore Monroe's vast cosmology of the astral realm.

This is a subscriber’s only episode. My guest is Will Menaker. We discuss “based populism”, the power of comedy in politics, and the realignment of counter-culture in America.

My guest is Will Menaker, a host of the ‪Chapo Trap House‬ podcast. We discuss the failures of working within the Democratic Party, the role of alternative media and a certain state in a certain part of the world. Can humor help us find truth within the online landscape?

Joshua Citarella begins his deep dive into the history and teachings of the Monroe Institute ("the worlds premiere organization for studying human consciousness"), starting with an expert interview with artist and acoustics expert Carmelo Pampillonio . This mini series is a collaboration with Otherworld . This is the first part of a three part series. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 coming soon.

This is a subscriber’s only episode. My guest is Dasha Nekrasova. We discuss Trump’s historic victory, counter elites, the class interest of precarious freelancers and the state of creative industries today.

My guest is Dasha Nekrasova, an actor, director and host of the Red Scare podcast. We discuss Trump’s historic win, Luigi Mangione and Dasha's political journey from a Bernie Sander’s supporter in 2016 to a Trump voter in 2024. What happens to political consensus when all narratives have now become alternative?

Mike Pepi is the author of “Against Platforms”, a bold critique of the hidden costs of digital life – and a manifesto for a better future. He is also one of my best friends and someone I have been in conversation with for over a decade. In this episode, we discuss our shared history in working to develop a new institutionalist  critique of emerging technologies and platforms. The vast expansion of...

These are confusing times. Familiar divisions between left and right fail to map onto today’s political landscape. The culture war has absorbed all aspects of media. Elon Musk is setting world records in Diablo IV (completing Pit level 150 in 1 minute, 56 seconds!) and soon he promises to speed clear the United States discretionary budget with DoGE (the Department of Government Efficiency). We’re...

My guest is Daniel Keller, an artist whose work and research has inspired me for over a decade. We discuss tech monopolies and their cozy relationship to state power, the artificial intelligence race, the chips war, network states and geopolitical competition between the US and China. These are the defining conflicts of the 21st century.

My guest is Jack Wagner, a writer & director, host of the Otherworld podcast and one of my all time favorite posters. We discuss his experience of creative life on the internet and explore the many esoteric belief systems that have grown out of social media. We see a trend of increasing irrationality in a complex world. At the end we pay homage to one of the greatest memes ever made.

My guest is Caleb Cain or Faraday Speaks as he is known online. In 2019, Caleb Cain posted a video on YouTube called “My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline”. In the video, he described his first person experience of online radicalization. It quickly went viral. Soon after, Cain was profiled in The New York Times in a piece titled “The Making of a YouTube Radical”. In 2020, he was featured again b...

My guest is Amber A'Lee Frost, a writer, organizer, co-host of the Chapo Trap House podcast and the author of Dirtbag (2023). We discuss today's dysfunctional left, elite overproduction, online political subcultures and the emergence of “youth” as a counter-cultural and consumer demographic. Is the New Right support for labor real? What does it mean for American workers?

My guest is musician Matty Healy of The 1975. He joins me to discuss internet culture and the strange aesthetics of our time. We explore the inspirations behind his work, including the writing of cultural theorist Mark Fisher. Matty describes the "slow cancellation of the future" by comparing distinct styles of pop music across various decades. Fisher links these cultural moments to larger economi...

Yung Chomsky is the producer of the TrueAnon podcast, creator of the mobile app Phomo, and a natural athlete with 16 years of experience. We discuss his personal journey of learning to lift online while exploring exercise subcultures via forums and message boards. We sort the facts from fictions and discuss the tenuous connections between weight lifting and far right politics. This is the lifting...

My guest is comedian Peter James Fowler. He joins me to discuss his political meme account that he ran at age 11. I’ve spent the last few years interviewing young people who make radical posts online. Peter shares his journey from growing up in evangelical Christianity, to new atheism, and from Trump to Bernie.

My guest is artist and geographer Trevor Paglen. His groundbreaking work links new technological developments to larger political issues that are often secret or unseen. We discuss the emerging paradigm of "psyops capitalism", the history of the CIA's MK Ultra psychological operations and how magic shapes our perception of reality. These technologies culminate to form a new economic order of priva...

My guest is ‪JJ McCullough a YouTuber who was previously a TV political commentator and columnist at the Washington Post. We discuss generational shifts from the political left to right, explore the state of alternative media and debate the origins of right-wing populism. While we disagree on some core issues, we always grant each other the space to fully argue an idea. My analysis and understandi...

My guest is Jreg or Greg Guevara as he is known offline. Jreg is a popular YouTube creator who explores online radical politics. He joins me to discuss our shared fascination with incredibly niche ideologies that only exist online. We explore social atomization as a political project and agree that taking the friend pill is the best advice you can find.

My guest is Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine. She is the author of 'Virtue Hoarders: the Case Against the Professional Managerial Class'. We discuss the origin of trauma studies, self branding on social media and the ideology of the professional class. Liu has an unwavering commitment to historical materialism and a fierce critique of elitist academies. She explores...

My guest is Brace Belden, an organizer, an infamous shitposter and co-host of the TrueAnon podcast. I’ve spent the last few years interviewing young people who make radical posts online and later find their way into real world politics. Irony and humor play a huge role in this process. For the first episode, I wanted to talk to one of my favorite posters who has also lived his politics in the real...

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Max Read joins me to discuss "the Zynternet", a newly emergent youth subculture online. We explore the For-You-Pagification of social media, the revenge of the normies and the future of online subcultures. Max is one of my favorite writers on Substack. I highly recommend checking out this piece and following his newsletter: https://maxread.substack.com https://maxread.substack.com/p/hawk-tuah-and-...