In Russia
Friday, September 16, 2022
Listen now (71 min) | We’ve been doing some hard traveling and have been badly sick for the last ten days. But we decided to record an ep anyway. The thing is that we just made it to Russia. Yeah. So want to share our impressions while they’re still fresh, despite our low energy level... .. read more..
The Politics of Technology w/Joe Costello
Friday, September 2, 2022
Listen now | Evgenia and I talk to Joe Costello about the politics of technology — nuclear energy, the internet, Wall Street, American democracy, the Romans, the need for new ways to organize society… .. read more..
Philip K. Dick’s fiction is our nonfiction
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
By the end of his life Philip K. Dick became convinced that all his novels are not fiction but truth — that they weren’t invented by him but rather transmitted through him by a benign entity trying to save humanity from doom — basically by Ubik itself. If what PKD thought was tr... .. read more..
Refugee update
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Listen now | In this ep we talk to Masha Surazhsky to get an update on her Ukrainian refugee saga. Evgenia and I previously talked to Masha in April — when she was going through hell trying to get both her elderly aunt and a family friend, who is a minor, out of Poland and into America. .. read more..
Rebranding Counterinsurgency
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Since we recorded an episode on Stewart Brand last week, I thought I’d throw up a portion of my book — Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet — that deals with him. .. read more..
"We Are As Gods"
Friday, August 19, 2022
Listen now | Evgenia and I talk about “We Are As Gods,” the Stewart Brand hagiomentary that just came out. We were at the film’s theatrical premier in San Francisco — with Brand himself in attendance. .. read more..
The Jetsonian Left w/Anthony Galluzzo
Friday, August 12, 2022
Listen now | Evgenia and I talk to our friend Anthony Galluzzo about his views on the politics of technology, degrowth, and the left’s inability to imagine a way of life decoupled from industrial capitalism and consumerism. .. read more..
Monopolistic nationalisms
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Michael’s comment about the shifting self-identities of Ukrainian immigrants in North America is perfect example of how fractured and regional and, frankly, much more interesting “national” identity was before the big monopolistic mythical nationalisms took over in the early 20t... .. read more..
Fort Ross: Monument to Ecocide
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
One more thing about the last ep we recorded — the part where we talk about Fort Ross. What I find interesting about that place, aside from dumb accusations that it’s all part of some kind of Russian soft power plot, is that sitting in all that natural beauty, amid redwoods and dramat... .. read more..
Solzhenitsyn and Ukrainian independence
Sunday, August 7, 2022
In our last ep Evgenia and I talked about a recent stream of articles that try to problematize previously celebrated Russian and Soviet authors and poets for their Russian imperialism and chauvinistic views on Ukraine. In pretty much every instance Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has been one of the main ... .. read more..
Problematic Russians (preview)
Friday, August 5, 2022
Listen now (15 min) | In this ep Evgenia and I talk about our trip to Fort Ross — Russia’s old colonial outpost just north of San Francisco — and the ridiculous recent attempts here in America to cancel “Russian” authors and poets like Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Solzhenits... .. read more..
Problematic Russians
Friday, August 5, 2022
Listen now (78 min) | In this ep Evgenia and I talk about our trip to Fort Ross — Russia’s old colonial outpost just north of San Francisco — and the ridiculous recent attempts here in America to cancel “Russian” authors and poets like Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Solzhenits... .. read more..
Working the GULAGs: A brief, depressing outline of my grandfather’s life
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
These notes span the time from when my grandfather was born in 1909 in a village near Tambov to when he died as a result of a botched hernia operation in a hospital in Kingisepp in 1967. .. read more..
On Ukraine's "de-oligarchization"
Friday, July 29, 2022
When corrupt American institutions are pushing an anti-oligarch/anti-corruption campaign, run for this hills. .. read more..
"More of the same, except worse."
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Listen now (93 min) | In this ep of The Russians, Evgenia and I talk to anthropologist Jeremy Morris about the internal Russian reaction to the war and how the war’s affecting Russian domestic politics. A couple of notes. I mention Jeremy’s pre-war prediction for what will happen in R... .. read more..
“Who am I? Well, I was born in Ukraine, so I am Ukrainian. But I am from the ...
Friday, July 22, 2022
The muddy issue of identity. .. read more..
A short ethnic history of Ukraine...
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
...courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. .. read more..
Mortals of the Earth Unite!
Monday, July 18, 2022
Listen now (86 min) | In this episode Evgenia and I talk to Anya Bernstein about Nikolai Fyodorov, Cosmism, and Russian/Soviet anti-death utopias of the industrial age. Anya is a Professor of Anthropology at Harvard and the author of The Future of Immortality, a book about cosmism and transhumuan... .. read more..
“To the kikes, flow the riches. And the peasants, they’re treated like bitches.”
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Digging out some anticommunist, antisemitic propaganda I picked up the last time I was in the Old Country. .. read more..
The Holodomor and the erasure of Jewish victims
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
In this installment, I want to write about another big mystery that hangs over that branch of my family: Why did my grandmother Rosa and the rest of her relatives suddenly flee the shtetl and head south to Crimea. .. read more..