Doomscroll is a podcast about online culture and politics in the 21st century. Joshua Citarella is an artist and internet culture writer. joshuacitarella.substa...
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 platforms during the 2010’s, which now encompass nearly all aspects of social life, represented a blindspot for the political left. To understand how this happened, we need to retrace the history of the 60’s counter-culture and the embrace of libertarian philosophies amongst the New Left.Since 2011, Mike Pepi, Brad Troemel, myself and other artists and writers have been engaged in an on-going dialogue that explores the ideological roots and design of platform technologies. Mike writes:“We have been taught that digital technologies are neutral tools, transparent, easily understood, and here to serve us. The reality, is that they are laden with assumptions and collateral consequences – ideology, in other words. And it is this hidden ideology that must be dismantled if we are to harness technology for the fullest expression of our humanity.”Get the book:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/761644/against-platforms-by-mike-pepi/If you’re all caught up on last week’s episode of Doomscroll, there is a subscribers only episode that can tide you over until next week. Below you can watch part 2 of my conversation with Dasha Nekrasova:We’re already moving full speed ahead, shooting and editing new episodes. You can expect to hear a lot from us in the coming weeks and months. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshuacitarella.substack.com/subscribe
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Doomscroll 12: Daniel Keller
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. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshuacitarella.substack.com/subscribe
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Doomscroll 11: Jack Wagner
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. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshuacitarella.substack.com/subscribe
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Doomscroll 10: Caleb Cain (aka Faraday Speaks)
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 by the New York Times in the popular Rabbit Hole podcast. Today, he joins us to tell his side of the story. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshuacitarella.substack.com/subscribe
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Doomscroll 09: Amber A'Lee Frost
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? This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshuacitarella.substack.com/subscribe
Doomscroll is a podcast about online culture and politics in the 21st century. Joshua Citarella is an artist and internet culture writer. joshuacitarella.substack.com