Acid Horizon

What does it mean to feel outclassed by your own creations? In this episode, host Craig is joined by Christopher John Müller, translator and co-editor of the new University of Minnesota Press edition of Günther Anders' The Obsolescence of the Human, and Penn State Philosophy Professor Nicholas de Warren, to explore the life and work of one of the twentieth century's most prescient and overlooked thinkers. Together, we unpack Anders' core concepts, including Promethean shame, the phantom world of mass media, and the shadow of nuclear annihilation, tracing their remarkable relevance to our present age of AI, algorithmic frictionlessness, and digital spectacle.
Buy the book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517912659/the-obsolescence-of-the-human/
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Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

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Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/
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LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

*Patreon Preview* To access the rest of this discussion, becoming paid subscriber on our Patreon page, or enroll in 'Formless', which begins March 11th. Links are below.
What does Georges Bataille’s Guilty reveal about war, time, and the unstable ground of thought itself? In this episode, Craig and Adam speak with Stuart Kendall about Bataille’s confrontation with catastrophe, the “privileged instant,” and the strange oscillation between order and excess in his writing. The conversation explores how Guilty stages a meditation on war, nonknowledge, and the limits of philosophy at the edge of historical disaster. We also discuss Kendall’s essay “The Exacerbation of Instabilities,” featured in the Acéphalous Compendium, and preview his upcoming course on Bataille through the Acid Horizon Research Commons.
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AHRC

Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

AHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archives

Submit your course proposal: [email protected]

More Links

Website: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast
Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/
Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438

Merch: http://www.crit-drip.com

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438
LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

Adam is joined by Massimiliano Tomba, O.L. Silverman, and Loren Goldman to discuss the biggest series of uprisings in Europe before the French Revolution, the German Peasants' War, which had its 500th anniversary in 2025. In this discussion, we considered what it meant for everyday people to engage in insurrectionary struggle against Pope and Prince alike, the influence of the conflict on Marxist conceptions of history, the apocalyptic communism of Thomas Müntzer in his allegiance with the peasants of Thuringia, and how Martin Luther's counter-revolutionary thought laid the foundations for the concepts of freedom, authority, and rebellion which underlie modern European philosophy.
The introduction of the History of the Present issue on Thomas Müntzer and the German Peasants’ War at 500 Years https://read.dukeupress.edu/history-of-the-present/article/15/1/1/399374/IntroductionThomas-Muntzer-and-the-German-Peasants
Support the show
Support the podcast:

AHRC

Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

AHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archives

Submit your course proposal: [email protected]

More Links

Website: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast
Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/
Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438

Merch: http://www.crit-drip.com

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438
LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

In this free public panel hosted by the Acid Horizon Research Commons, we discuss Digital Theory (University of Minnesota Press) with contributors Alexander R. Galloway, M. Beatrice Fazi, Matthew Handelman, and Leif Weatherby. The conversation reframes the digital not as consumer technology but as a fundamental mode of mediation grounded in discreteness. We explore the provocative claim that theory itself is digital, and that digitality precedes contemporary computation. The panel revisits structuralism, number, abstraction, and dialectics to rethink the relationship between logic and representation. Throughout, the discussion challenges nostalgic appeals to the analog and asks what it means to think from within a digital ontological condition.

Buy the book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517920197/digital-theory/

Current offerings at AHRC: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-courses
Support the show
Support the podcast:

AHRC

Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

AHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archives

Submit your course proposal: [email protected]

More Links

Website: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast
Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/
Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438

Merch: http://www.crit-drip.com

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438
LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

What does it mean to think communism philosophically, and how can a political rupture be understood as an ontological transformation of the conditions of everyday life? Adam is joined by Bruno Gulli and Richard Gilman-Opalsky to discuss their book of dialogues "Communist Ontologies: An Inquiry into the Construction of New Forms of Life" out now with our comrades over at Minor Compositions. They discuss the nature of identity and difference, insurgent ontologies, and how to think of communism as an abolitionist horizon latent in struggles against oppression today. 
Get the book:https://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=1320 
Check out Richard's latest rhythms: edgetonerecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-fierce-and-gentle-force
Support the show
Support the podcast:

AHRC

Current classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.com

AHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archives

Submit your course proposal: [email protected]

More Links

Website: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast
Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/
Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438

Merch: http://www.crit-drip.com

Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438
LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/