Contain Podcast

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Experimental episode on two controversial but relevant fiction books: House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera (1978) and Harry Crews' A Feast of Snakes. They explore grotesquerie, madness, and Dark Psychedelia through the lens of Rhodesian Zimbabwe and Rural American South (Mystic, Georgia), along with Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Catherine Malabou: Reawakening: Différence + how to look at nothing, morality, transformation, Kool Keith's 98 year old refrigerator and more

Full episode available on Patreon: patreon.com/contain

Interview with Anthony Darnell, aka Darnell the Artist, known for his daily social media posts of cryptic and hallucinatory artwork based on conspiracy theories, politics, and his military experience. He shares his experiences in the US Marine Corps, using art as therapy, PTSD, the GI Bill, conspiracy theories, and more. This is Anthony's first spoken interview. 

The state of right to repair and how corporations try to undermine consumers with legendary activist and electronics technician Louis Rossmann.

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2/24/25

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On the upending political/structural/technological situation, maintaining faith in strange times, broken dreams, etc.

Archive, 1/28/25

Episode about cartoons and how they shape the world around us with Mike Bilandic + his article How Fred Flintstone Became One of America’s Greatest Cultural Exports 

Eurodance music with Smurfs and Flintstones, the purpose and legacy of Dexter's Lab, Hanah Barbera, Casimir Spaulding aka Glo Mula, Glo Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Iceberg: Fred infiltrating fashion, loukos_por_trenzinhos_ofc, cartoon imagery on legalized weed and gray market dispenseries, Degentrificartion, 1960's, a history of drugs and cartoons, Street artist Kenny Scharf making a Flintstones and Jetson's religion, Hugus who painted 50 Rick & Morty murals in NYC, Latino love for Loony Tunes, Cartoons in the hood and in rap music, Teletubbies: total psychedelic illiteracy, the Smurf conference at the start of Covid: first super spreader event, Turmoil in the Toy Box, cartoons in the age of AI, the NFT Ape effect, Florence Fang and the Flintstone's House (1976)

Edit by Alex Talan

This New Year we're going in on all things space-relevant and the weird development of libertarian Network States with Fred Scharmen, author of Space Forces.

Topics: Biocosmism in Russia, the project Concept Country, Bitcoin City, Nick Land Acknowledgement, mini singularities in the 1970's, astral exploration, lines by decade, science beyond earth, van stripes of the 1970's as cultural signifier, the broken future of Elon and Cyberpunk, why there is no libertarianism in outer space, Title V, The O’Neil Cylinder, "a world where many worlds are possible", Maoist tech Venture Capitalists, Ivan Chtcheglov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Is Utopia different from the Real?, Is there an Outside to Utopian thinking?, the trash on the the International Space Station, Article V, Envoy of Humanity, the international court (ICC) beyond earth, quaalude colonialism, the ant farm Cadillac graveyard ranch, ecstatic desolation, the art of Rick Guidice and Don Davis, getting people in architecture into space futures

Full episode

w/ Nathan (Looming Totality/Y2K_Mindset) on the ideas and sociology of Megalopolis, his hypothesis on the Long 2014, the past decade of slop, and why utopian thinking is good

David Graeber, Elective Affinities by Goethe, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler, Nixon shock/OPEC crisis, Axial Age, The Lord of the Rings - Boris Groys, Sports Gambling, Linux, Creative Commons movement, "This was made for me"

Part A

Part B

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Ok this is a big one: Professor Emeritus of Leisure Studies and author of Free Time and Age of Experiences Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt joins for a lively discussion on the possibility of leisure and freedom in the age of experience.

Other subjects: Jeffersonian Democracy, taking Eugene McCarthy to the airport, the spark of poetic creativity, Frank Lloyd Wright, UBI, the heart of the work ethic destroyed, work as religion, the future of work and automation, craftsmanship, the history of shortening labor hours, Rexford Tugwell and The Brain Trust, overproduction into consumerism, towards experiences over commodities, the appreciation of community, faith, and love.

3hr30 min tribute to the non-philosophical thought of François Lauruelle...full episode

Francois Laruelle was a French philosopher who developed the concept of "non-philosophy." His work influenced facets of the project (particularly The Spectre of Finance Punk) through his critiques of traditional philosophical systems that prioritized the material and empirical over abstract theorizations + his non-historical/non-mystical encounters with science, art, and spirituality through his mediations on the One (the Real). He sadly passed away last week so it seemed fitting to do an episode on him and try to bring forth some of his ideas a bit in reference to the state of things and ask some pretty broad "what if questions" using the Non-Philosophy magnifying utensil. What would he think of Country Music and barbecue...

What happens when two experimental music veterans go full Smashmouth? Callahan and Witscher's new album Think Differently answers just that-full of wry introspection on the conditions of music, it's value, and despite misreads by music journalists as being "irony poisoned"-comes across as uniquely sincere in a way most things don't. We talk about the album, what is the value of a critique? flexing on critics with pure musical chops, nu-fluxus, low-brow messaging, the rise of "tastecels", the value of humor, sleeping on floors and slogging it out on the road, why you can't stop creating, destroying your life, going to shows you don't want to, Fairport Convention, and attempt to answer the question: "What is the value of music?"

Buy think differently from Post Present Medium Here 

For full full episode, music, and to support the project subscribe Here

Architect/author Matt Shaw comes on to discuss his new book American Modern on the anomaly of Columbus, Indiana: a futuristic small town designed by a who's who of architects (Saarinen, Pei, Robert Venturi, Girard) almost entirely bankrolled by progressive Christian industrialist J. Irwin Miller. This is a history of that town and the rise and fall of independent-funded public works in America

Music from the new release by Desvelada & Sprælle

For full 6 hour episode and more deep research excursions subscribe to our Patreon

Part two of the experience economy episode, this one focused on the history of experience design, the combinatorial arts, and independent value creation in order to advance some solutions to the problems politics can only scratch the surface of. Topics: the rise of Kill Tony and interactive cringe comedy, Baby Invasion/Edglrd by Harmony Korine movie review, first person shooter w/ Burial Soundtrack, John Ruskin’s Pathetic Fallacy, art market crash, “Total Work” - German Christian philosopher Joseph Pieper , DeSano’s pizza University. The Take Back Your Time organization, Leisure Capital, UX, Feng Shui, Leibniz’s understudied dissertation on Combinatorial Art, exploding pagers in Lebanon: Pandora Box, Value Capturers, Dorthe R. Christensen, The European Commission, Comic-Con, the rise of AirBnB, Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age, Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt’s book on the Eudaimonic Tech + more...this is a continuation of part A 🎩 up now

This is a preview, for full 3 hour episode: patreon.com/contain

Writer/journalist James Pogue comes on to discuss his recent stint in central Africa as it undergoes one of the biggest gold rushes in human history plus:

contracting Malaria in a CAR prison and your hotel getting shot up, diamond heists, geiger counters, JD Vance and the Anti-American NatCon right, the Wagner groups activities in the Sahel, the strange reconfiguration of the political spectrum, the return of gold, pastoral industrial policy, Bernard DeVoto and the end of the Wild West, the American Experiment from a left wing anarchist perspective, the legacy of Thomas Sankara, + much more

Continuing on the subject of natural resources and geopolitics

Read James's recent articles here

This is a preview, full episode: patreon.com/contain

Episode all about oil, maybe the most important and controversial substance in the world and how it came to dominate our history and take over our planet

Abiotic oil theory, climate change, is oil fake, the origin of the term fossil fuels, did Dinosaurs even exist, artificial scarcity, Reza Negarestani's Cyclonopedia, 'sentient oil', Soviet Neft Dashlari city built on water, wildcatters, creation of new cities, the history of fracking/new carbon extracting technologies, algae resetting the earth w/ oxygen, geological timescales, Clint Murchison Jr./Dallas Cowboys, WWI/WW2/Cold War, Baku, trucks that last forever, Patillo Higgins, The Regime of Disposability, Ahriman, Thomas Gold's hypothesis, L Fletcher Prouty

 Jed is a researcher and typewriter refurbisher. For more information on oil go to Jed's Substack

Music by Barrett and Alex Coolwater

Full episode here

Ex Guns N' Roses/Poison manager and OG Pawn Star Howie Hubberman comes on to talk about LA in the 1980's, antiquing, Hair Metal, Power Ballads, doing 1000 pushups a day while battling cancer, Slash’s Appetite for Destruction guitar, weird music industry shenanigans, the mafia, mud wresting competitions in the valley, hustling, and more. “There’s more vehicles, but less with actual engines in them” PRACTICAL stuff, also hilarious…topping off the interview series

First Half, full 2 hr+ episode here

...on LARPing with artists Maggie Dunlap and Ben Werther and his recent show When You Can No Longer Speak, Sing Me A Song documenting mock high stakes environments of Military Simulation (MilSim) culture.

Other topics: identity construction and the fraying of the American cultural fabric, the anonymous 14th century Christian mystical text The Cloud Of Unknowing, total sculpture, non pedantic art, soft black stars, the end of intellectuals and words, readymades, LARPing as a luxury commodity item, Murderbilia, the BTK killer, fandoms forming around depravity, True Crime as female MilSim, Kantian ethics, desire for martyrdom, Davey Crockett, Neo Suprematism, why Country Music is reaching peak popularity, hair metal, The South and the east coast as The Big Other, Mike Kelley's stuffed animals from a the perspective of a child, Sam Hyde's 'active shooter' phenomenon, James Bridle, Borges, Joseph Beuys.

For full episode and more subscribe here

Preview, for full episodes and more subscribe here

2.5 hour rundown of one of the worlds most treasured resources—the Internet Archive—with digital archive legend Jason Scott of Internet Archive. We go in on the ins and outs of the collection and why preserving pre-online digital media matters now more than ever

We discuss ripping VHS tapes of Tuvalu in the 1980’s, Rick Prelinger: saving old government films, Brewster Kahle and the foundation of the archive, origins and history of the Wayback Machine, weird fetishes, how sometimes multi millionaires do good things, bankrolling poor art bands and coed sororities, Eastern European hacker magazines, why the Internet Archive is not a front, company housing, preserving offline digital culture, the cost of lost memory, dealing with forged documents, procuring and authenticating 17th century manuscripts, the repair manual library, Argentinian political radio stations, The Wave (1981), why censorship is bad: the non rage-farming perspective, "Agnostic Ingestion", crappy playbooks on how to whip people up into a frenzy, thought leaders, running from past, technical issues of preserving software, Library of Congress, 4000 3-4 hour mixes of Brazilian Dance music, ‘the heroin of online life’, countercultural house organs, + much more...very inspiring and fun convo

Me and⁠ Ben Kellog⁠ speak with writer/director Ben Hopkins (Inside (2023) w/ Willem Dafoe, Simon Magus, Lost in Karastan) on dialogue-free scripts, armageddon, and more

For full episodes, resources, and more support the project on ⁠Patreon⁠

Interview with Corin Johnson on the unveiling of his pink marble sculpture of Lawrence (Felt, Mozart Estate) in the Fitzrovia Chapel in London and his fascinating upbringing in the Spiritualist Church. 

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Emmalea Russo is back to analyze the new Byung Chul Han book "In Praise of Inactivity", the 2024 content creator exodus, ethereal tiredness, and more  

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Music by the Ebenezer Group w/ The Rockford Files 

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Haiti, Jimmy BBQ Shevalier G9 Pierre Esperance NGOs Indigenous Symbolic power vs. Skyscraper building power Victoria Nuland resignation and replacement by Kurt Campbell, democratization of industry/backyard nuclear, SV Flannery group/California forward farmland purchases for new city, Gaza, Comely: danger of control through professional credentialing orgs, Oathtakers

This is the first half-for full 3 hour episode as well as resources, extra documents, and more plz subscribe HERE

Episode on the history of non/anti-cybernetics (Game/Automata/Double Bind Theory) developed in the UK, US, USSR, and China and what that means for us today: cognitive autonomy, surveillance, breaking out of the cyberculture, etc. Throught the 20th century complexity studies were conducted globally by social psychologists, computer scientists, and mathematicians in capitalist and socialist countries alike, and despite them all adopting the same trendy word at one point or another: "Cybernetics", that wasn't exactly what they were all just doing. And they certainly weren't aiming for the same outcome of streamlined logistical matrices--and depending on the cultural, social, and national context, sometimes aimed for the opposite! 

The project turned four for so bod [包家巷] proposed we do a rundown of every single episode of from 1 until 170 and "react" to each one - the good, the bad, the ugly - every single phase from this nebulous, undefined sociology project. Afterthoughts on what worked and what didn't work, who to trust, where things are headed, and more. From cult leaders to Soundcloud rappers to transhumanists and 21st c. philosophers-after 4 long years I have finally found out what this show is about.

This is a preview, for full 3 + hour episode consider⁠ subscribing for all episodes ⁠

Comprehensive history of AI episode w/ Max Foley (Reality Gamer) (Harmless AI / Anti-Yudkowski)

Original release 8/28/23

the stupidity of E/ACC, RAND corporation 4.0, Van Neumann / Robert Oppenheimer, Game Theory, Corporate Surrealism, Andy Warhol: Cyborg, AI Alignment scam, Bayesian probability, Roger Bacon's Brazen Head,  “There is no natural religion”, #BRG, scientific realism, and more...

Full episodes, research series, and more here

for full 4.5 hour episode support the show on Patreon

4.5 hour sequel of A History of Leisure and Free Time focusing on lesser known movements, innovations, and countercultural operations of the 20th century - a consummate historical excursion into how we can redeem the Realm of Freedom in the 21st Century. 

Robert Rauschenberg's Captiva Island getaway in post 68', Bell Laboratories, Experiments in Art and Technology, and Expo 70' in Osaka, Robert Maynard Hutchin's Civilizations of the Dialogue, Book Clubs, Feminism and the 6 hour work day, The UK Free Festival Circuit: Ritual Madness at Stonehenge ft. Ozric Tentacles, Utopian Communities during the Great Depression, how labor unions turned into "a carbon copy of capitalism", Taft-Hartley act, Frank Lloyd Wright pt. 2, FDR and the spiritualization of work...

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Musician, artist, and writer Jack Skelley comes on the show to discuss his lost classic work of fiction Fear of Kathy Acker out now on Semiotext(e), William Blake, Los Angeles, Mike Kelley, and more.  

For full episode, library of episodes, music and more consider subscribing as your support makes this project possible!

This is a preview, full episode on Patreon

The ladies from my favorite podcast Texas Overture come on the show to discuss their experience of the Archives of the Impossible paranormal archive conference at Rice University amongst many other things: “In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam” Forrest Bess, Topaz Mining, Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, and the mass turn towards paranormal and celestial interests.

Pt. 2- Applying Baudrillard's concept of the Fatal Strategy. Other topics: ether, anesthesia, The Waste Land, AI, the history of the mini-skirt, Emanuel Swedenborg's skull, Sophie Calle, baroque, alchemy, etc. lots of good stuff in this one.

Follow Emmalea and take one of her courses 

Full Episode On Patreon