ReImagine Value

On 28 April 2025, Max Haiven presented an outline of his forthcoming book "The Player and the Played: Gamification, Financialization and (anti-)Fascism" at Brussels' Au JUS space. If fascism names a form of tyranny that incubates within capitalism and bears its' traces, what kind of 21st century fascism emerges from financialized capitalism? 1. Why do we feel trapped in an unwinnable game? 2. How can we think about fasicsm? 3. What is financialization? 4. What is gamification? 5. What is "derivative" and what is new about today's fascism? 6. How can we make sense of gamified fascist violence? 7. Why do fascist cheats succeed (and why is cheating so central to their rhetoric?) 8. What is fascist worldbuilding (and worldrazing)? 9. What is the antifascist game?

In this episode we talked with Luce about her latest work on digitalised tyranny. About how private property structures the terms of the contract and gives rise to ever more terms; how the far right are both breaking the rules and playing by the rules to break the game; and about the overall structure of desire across society and what it'd mean to exit the transsexual contract of libidinal intelligibility, towards a horizon of hospitality and indeterminacy, driven by joy. Luce deLire is a ship with eight sails and she lies down by the quay. As a philosopher, she publishes on the metaphysics of infinity and early modern philosophy but also on art, queer theory, anti-racism, postcolonialism, and political theory. In her performances, she embodies figures of the collective imaginary. She is currently an assistant professor at the department of philosophy at Humboldt University, Berlin. For more (including booking), see getaphilosopher.com and IG :@Luce_deLire Against the Fascist Game is the second season of The Exploits of Play, a podcast about games and capitalism. Join host Max Haiven and producer Faye Harvey as they interview game designers, critical theorists and grassroots activists struggling with games to understand, confront and abolish the rising threat of fascism in our times. We ask questions including: how is the far-right around the world using games as platforms for ideology, recruiting and violence, both close to home and around the world? How have vicious reactionary politics emerged from a form of capitalism where most people feel trapped in an unwinnable game? What do fascism and antifascism mean today? And what role, if any do play and games have in confronting the fascist threat and creating a new world? The Exploits of Play is a production of Weird Economies, a platform for exploring the intricacies and excesses of our economic imaginaries, in cooperation with RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab.

In this short bonus episode...

The world is giving fascism in 2025, so we've been away writing, reading and getting ready to serve up more on that topic.  Meanwhile, here's a chattier, less-structured version of our usual schtick - recorded over the holidays, live in front of a studio (well, living room) audience.  Tune in to hear: * Sarah talk about why we shouldn't argue with our relatives and why fascists are much like guys who send dick pics. * Max explain how games influenced fascists like Steve Bannon and why he's obsessed with a rat. We also get asked questions from the living-room-and-online-studio audience.  For more information, visit: https://senseandsolidarity.org/

Live, in front of a seductive studio audience, Sarah and Max bring to a climax the first intoxicating season of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) with an episode on PLEASURE. They are joined by dazzling special guests Sita Balani and Zrinka Balo, to explore salacious questions including: Should we prioritize activism being pleasurable? In a world of work and worry, is taking pleasure itself an important form of activism? And in our quest for collective liberation, what kinds of sacrifices can and should we expect of ourselves and others? It's podcasting that goes beyond the pleasure principle and puts its finger right on the most sensitive questions. For more information, visit https://senseandsolidarity.org/

Why do so many people insist on believing in systems that hurt them? Why do so many of us dwell in fantasy, rather than facing reality? (Wait, is dwelling in fantasy an option? Why weren't we told?) In this episode of WHAT DO WE WANT? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) Max and Sarah dive deep into the murky waters of FANTASY, desire and illusion to ask questions like: How do we break through destructive ideologies? How can we win arguments (and when should we)? And should we just abandon activism? Then we're joined by veteran Toronto-based activist, movement trainer and editor Sharmeen Khan, who tells us about the state repression that broke her fantasies and what she dreams of now. It's podcasting that accompanies you right to the precipice of Mount Doom and helps you throw away your Precious. ACTION ALERT! Our guest, Sharmeen, is facing outrageous, repressive charges for standing up for Palestinian human rights. Read Naomi Klein's summary of the case (https://breachmedia.ca/naomi-klein-calls-on-heather-reisman-drop-charges-indigo-11/), and please consider donating to the legal defence fund (https://www.tcjf.ca) or signing the letter demanding the charges be dropped (https://www.cjpme.org/drop_the_charges). To learn more about the many things we do and support us financially or otherwise, visit us at Sense and Solidarity .org

Do you sometimes feel like a little cartoon dog, surrounded by flames? Is the dog also our movements for justice? Are the flames systems of domination? Is nothing, in fact, at all “fine”? Then break out the marshmallows and join us for an episode of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) about despair! This time Sarah and Max go deep and dark with questions like...  Should we just give up hope?  Should we embrace nostalgia? And should we stop being sad and… just do something? But wait! Who is that on the bleak horizon? It's climate-corruption journalist Rachel Donald of the Planet Critical podcast, joining us to deliver the tough love and a shot of common courage! It's podcasting that will make you feel cruelly optimistic or your money back (it's also free).   Fore more information, visit https://senseandsolidarity.org/podcast/#despair

We, an unnamed collective, must sanctimoniously inform would-be listeners that the SHAME episode of WHAT DO WE WANT? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart) has been summarily cancelled. The hosts, Sarah and Max, have been found preemptively guilty of causing grievous harms to the left by asking questions including: Is pride enough? Should we wield shame? And should we cancel ourselves? (Also, did you hear that they invited a response from the scandalous radical writer Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family and Enemy Feminisms? OMG!). ...And by the way, “comrade,”… what made you want to listen to this f*cked up podcast anyway? Don't you think that kind of behaviour is a little… problematic? To learn more about the many things we do and support us financially or otherwise, visit us at senseandsolidarity.org

Unless you are a lizard person hiding under a tin-foil rock, you, dear activist, have met your fair share of conspiracists.What the f*ck is wrong with these people? And why are they so damn successful in attracting others when their stories are so implausible? In this episode of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart), Max and Sarah sail to the farthest reaches of our beautiful flat earth to answer questions about CONSPIRACY like… What actually separates us radical malcontents from conspiracy theorists? Should movements have better enemies? And should we bother trying to drag people out of the rabbit-hole? Then ex-conspiracist and anti-conspiracy podcaster Brent Lee of Some Dare Call it Conspiracy patiently explains all the things we got wrong.It's podcasting that wakes up the sheeple. For more information, visit: https://senseandsolidarity.org/podcast/

“Heartbreak is at the heart of revolutionary consciousness” writes Gargi Bhattacharyya. So let's get used to it!  In this episode of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart), Sarah and Max ask the tear-jerking questions about movement breakups, wounded hearts and petty revenge fantasies. Should we try and hit on (recruit) everyone? How can we keep our movement romance alive (or should we fight about the kitchen)? And should we utter goblins have more schisms (and can we even help it)? Then, thank god, Black feminist writer and activist Lola Olufemi joins us to set the record queer. It's podcasting that hits you like cheap wine and a romcom. Get back out there, tiger. For more information, visit: https://senseandsolidarity.org/podcast/

In this trailer, Max and Sarah discuss what motivated them to produce WHAT DO WE WANT? (a podcast about what draws movements together... and drives them apart) and what they're looking forward to in season 1, with episodes on heartbreak, conspiracy, despair, fantasy, shame and pleasure and special guests including Rachel Donald, Lola Olufemi, Brent Lee and Sophie Lewis. For more information, visit http://senseandsolidarity.org/podcast

What can speculative fiction offer today's movements for collective liberation? On this panel, assembled to celebrate the launch of The World After Amazon: Stories from Amazon Workers (http://afteramazon.world), four activist writing facilitators share their perspectives: Max Haiven (editor of the collection), Lola Olufemi, Phil Crockett Thomas, Sarah E. Truman, and Jamie Woodcock. This is a recording of an event that took place on 15 September 2024 at London's Pelican House. This event is presented by RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, Red Futures and Notes from Below. Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination. His most recent books are Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022) and Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020). He is editor of VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL). Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and Stuart Hall Foundation researcher from London based in the Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media at the University of Westminster. Her work focuses on the uses of the political imagination and its relationship to cultural production, political demands and futurity. She is author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power (Pluto Press, 2020), Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Hajar Press, 2021) and a member of ‘bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective. Phil Crockett Thomas writes fiction and poetry, and teaches sociology and criminology at the University of Stirling. Her research focuses on social harm, justice, and creative and collaborative methods. Her fiction has appeared in Granta and on BBC Radio 4. She is the editor of Abolition Science Fiction (2022) a collection of creative writing by activists and scholars involved in the movement for prison abolition in the U.K, and of The Moon Spins the Dead Prison (2022) with Thomas Abercromby and Rosie Roberts. Associate Professor Sarah E. Truman is a trans-disciplinary scholar in literary education, cultural studies, and the arts, and co-director the Literary Education Lab at University of Melbourne. From 2022-2025, Dr. Truman is an ARC DECRA Fellow, their project ‘Speculative Futures' focuses on speculative fiction as an interdisciplinary method for thinking about the world and mode of literary engagement in diverse pedagogical settings (high schools, universities, and interdisciplinary scholarship). Truman is also PI on the ARC Linkage Grant ‘Reading Climate' (2024-2026) which focuses on the relationship between Indigenous climate fictions, literary education, and climate justice. Jamie Woodcock is a senior lecturer in digital economy at King's College London. He is the author of various books, including the recent Star Wars Andor collection. He is an editor of Red Futures, Notes from Below, and Historical Materialism.

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

The World After Amazon is a collection of 9 short speculative stories, written by rank-and-file workers at the corporation that has transformed the way we read and so much more. Amazon's sci-fi propaganda tells the story of a company using cutting-edge technology to deliver a utopia of cheap consumer convenience. But its workers pay the price, toiling in dystopian conditions to create a future that will exclude them.  What happens when those workers reclaim the radical imagination and their power to tell their own stories? The World After Amazon can be ordered in print or read or downloaded online for free, and is also available as a podcast and audiobook. For more information, visit http://afteramazon.world.    Book editors: Xenia Benivolksi, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola and Graeme Webb Narrator: Sook-Yin Lee Editing and music: Robert Steenkamer Illustrations: Amanda Priebe Publisher: RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

This podcast is a collaboration with Stefan Christoff of Free City Radio (freecityradio.org/) ======================== Capitalism's sacrifice of humanity: An interview series produced for broadcast on Free City Radio by Stefan Christoff in consultation and collaboration with Max Haiven, for broadcast on Free City Radio. This program is the second in a series of 3 interviews that aim to examine contemporary capitalism as dependent on economic models that necessitate large levels of human sacrifice. These programs are supported by the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. A series of voices that speak to both the frontlines of struggles that are confronting the realities of colonial capitalism that speaks to the fact that humans are being rendered up for sacrifice to capitalism. Palestine is an example and also the prison industrial complex. On this edition we speak with Max Haiven who outlines some of the research shared in "Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire" a book published by Pluto Press. Max also speaks about the importance of building cultural understanding around the fact that capitalism in the current format is inherently tied to a reliance of sacrificial populations and looks into the example of prisoners. For more information on Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire visit: www.plutobooks.com/9780745345826/palm-oil Accompanying music is by Anarchist Mountains. Thanks to the Social Justice Centre for supporting my work on this weekly program. Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

This podcast is a collaboration with Stefan Christoff of Free City Radio (freecityradio.org/) ======================== Capitalism's sacrifice of humanity: An interview series produced for broadcast on Free City Radio by Stefan Christoff in consultation and collaboration with Max Haiven, for broadcast on Free City Radio. This program is the second in a series of 3 interviews that aim to examine contemporary capitalism as dependent on economic models that necessitate large levels of human sacrifice. These programs are supported by the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. A series of voices that speak to both the frontlines of struggles that are confronting the realities of colonial capitalism that speaks to the fact that humans are being rendered up for sacrifice to capitalism. Palestine is an example and also the prison industrial complex. On this edition we speak with scholar Keren Wang, author of "Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism." Keren points to layers of analysis in relation to the world economy today that illustrate the inherently sacrificial nature of capitalism, specifically we speak about the fast fashion industry and the example of the textile industry fires at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. Also we speak about the ways that the military industrial complex corporations benefit from the brutal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Learn more about Keren's book here: www.routledge.com/Legal-and-Rhetor…ok/9780367727826 Accompanying music is by Anarchist Mountains. Thanks to the Social Justice Centre for supporting my work on this weekly program. Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

This podcast is a collaboration with Stefan Christoff of Free City Radio (https://freecityradio.org/) ======================== Capitalism's sacrifice of humanity: An interview series produced for broadcast on Free City Radio by Stefan Christoff in consultation and collaboration with Max Haiven, for broadcast on Free City Radio. This program is the first in a series of 3 interviews that aim to examine contemporary capitalism as dependent on economic models that necessitate large levels of human sacrifice. These programs are supported by the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. A series of voices that speak to both the frontlines of struggles that are confronting the realities of colonial capitalism that speaks to the fact that humans are being rendered up for sacrifice to capitalism. Palestine is an example and also the prison industrial complex. On this edition we speak to activist scholar Nick Partyka who works with the Hampton Institute. In this conversation we review some of the main ideas that Nick articulated in an excellent article entitled "Capitalism as a Form of Human Sacrifice: The Comedy of Innocence and The Comedy of Guilt." Read the full article here: www.hamptonthink.org/read/capitalis…omedy-of-guilt Accompanying music is by Anarchist Mountains. Thanks to the Social Justice Centre for supporting my work on this weekly program. Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

What is the anti-capitalist game? For several decades, Jay Jordan and Isa Fremeaux of the game-changing Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination have been using play and games as methods of class war: from the disruptive frivolity of Reclaim the Streets marches to a Carnival Against Capitalism that shut down the London Stock Exchange; from the Climate Games that crowdsourced playful interventions against greenwashing to the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. On the final episode of "The Exploits of Play" we speak to Jay and Isa about their past “work” as well as their current activities, including at the ZAD: the autonomous “zone to defend” at Notre Dame de Landes, near Nantes, France, the subject of their 2021 book We Are Nature Defending Itself. Jay Jordan is co-founder of Reclaim the Streets (1995-2000) and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and co-author of We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism (Verso, 2003) and A User's Guide to Demanding the Impossible (Minor Compositions, 2011). Isabelle Fremeaux is a popular educator and action researcher. She was formerly Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck College London. Along with Jay Jordan, she is a coordinator of The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. Together, they are the authors of "We Are 'Nature' Defending Itself: Entangling Art, Activism and Autonomous Zones" from Pluto Press in 2021. That book details their role in the struggle for the ZAD: an autonomous community in Western France that for decades fought back against state repression and is today a beacon of hope for radical ecological activists in that country and around the world. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

What if we handed some of the most consequential decisions about the future of humanity and the planet to a bunch of game-obsessed nerds? From artificial intelligence to the future of money, from the way we find love to the way we come to know our bodies and communities, Silicon Valley has become one of the most revolutionary and transformative forces of our times. What games do they play? In this episode Christian Nagler helps us understand with a deep dive into the ideology and fantasy of the “longevity community” seeking to leverage unimaginable wealth and technological utopianism to beat death at its own game. Christian Nagler is a writer and artist. His work looks at (and performs) the imbrications of embodiment and global economics both in his everyday life and in projects like Market Fitness, and Yoga for Adjuncts he researches critical ethnography, political theory, and media and cultural studies at UC Berkeley. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

In an age when our most intimate connections with others are mediated by gamified interfaces, it's high time to revisit how the game of love became the plaything of capital. Alfie Bown joins us for episode 8 to explore the joys and horrors of the ero-tech and the burning question: can hookup apps, dating sims and thirst traps can be reclaimed for the common good? Alfie Bown is editor of "Everyday Analysis" and "Sublation Magazine". His books include Post Comedy, which is forthcoming in 2024, Dream Lovers, Capitalism and the Gamification of Relationships from 2022, Post Memes from 2019 and the PlayStation Dream World from 2017. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

On the blockbuster "reality" tv show "Love Island," an even number of conventionally attractive cis men and women compete to partner up and win the audience's affection in a spectacle that, like most of its kind, sees producers push heteronormative cliches to their absurd and humiliating limits. On this episode, theorist and author Sophie Lewis joins us to explore the show's popularity in a late capitalism era marked by pervasive "heteropessimism" and the relentless gamification of romance. Sophie Lewis is an ex-academic, freelance writer, and independent scholar with teaching affiliations at Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. In 2022, they published Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation from Verso and they have an upcoming book called Enemy Feminisms set to be published in 2025 from Haymarket Books. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

The worldwide gaming market is estimated at $347 billion. That's a hefty chunk of change, power and influence which lies in the hands of an exceptionally few game makers primarily in the global north. How does the culture of an industry like gaming leak into the broader political sphere? Episode 6 of "The Exploits of Play" features guest Thiago Falcão who is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Digital Media at the Federal University of Paraíba. He is the current president of the Brazilian chapter of the Digital Games Research Association - Digra, which he helped found in 2022. He researches the relationships between entertainment, video games, and neoliberal capitalism, with a broad focus on issues related to work, politics, and financialization dynamics in these media. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

Race and capitalism have always shaped one another, but what do we make of their relationship in an age when both systems increasingly toy with our lives in apocalyptic ways? How has the rhetoric of the cheat become part of a vicious racist reactionary politics, and what's the role of humour and fun in the struggle for a better world? Gargi Bhattacharyya lives and works in London. She writes on issues of systemic injustice, racial capitalism, social reproduction, climate crisis and collective survival and is the author of The Futures of Racial Capitalism (2024), Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018) and Dangerous Brown Men (2008). THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY is a 10-episode podcast about how games and play have moved from the margin to the centre of global capitalism. It is produced by Weird Economies and hosted by Max Haiven. For full transcript and show notes please visit weirdeconomies.com. Credits: Founder and organizer of Weird Economies: Bahar Noorizadeh Host: Max Haiven Producer: Halle Frost Sound editor: Faye Harvey Sponsor: Canada Council for the Arts

Leading game scholar, game designer and game company impresario Mary Flanagan joins us to talk about themes in her new book (co-authoered with Mikael Jakobsson) Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games. Along the way we speak about the yet fully realized potential of games to transform society. Mary Flanagan is an artist, author, educator, and designer who pioneered the field of game research with her ideas on critical play. She is the founding director of the research laboratory and design studio Tiltfactor Lab, a professor of Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College and the CEO of the board game company Resonym which publishes original games and goods for social innovation.

From Squid Game to Hunger Games to Fortnite, how did the trope of cruel, inescapable games become so central to the stories that animate 21st century neoliberal capitalism? With tom Boland We explore how the game changes the player and how this fits into western literature's beloved 'character arc', as well as the new-age obsession with personal transformation. More information: weirdeconomies.com/podcasts/exploits-of-play THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY is a 10-episode podcast about how games and play have moved from the margin to the centre of global capitalism. It is produced by Weird Economies and hosted by Max Haiven. Tom Boland is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University College Cork. His main research interests are in critique, culture, unemployment and welfare though recently Dr. Boland has been interested in the proliferance of dystopian games media such as The Hunger Games and “Squid Game”.

From military strategy to the corporate imaginary, from public policy to the worldview of Big Tech, game theory has dramatically reshaped power and the way live. On this second episode of THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY we speak with S. L. Amadae about how game theory and its elemental puzzle, the prisoner's dilemma, won the war for our hearts and minds, and the dire consequences for our world. More information: weirdeconomies.com/podcasts/exploits-of-play THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY is a 10-episode podcast about how games and play have moved from the margin to the centre of global capitalism. It is produced by Weird Economies and hosted by Max Haiven. Dr. Sonja Amadae teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Helsinki and works as a research affiliate at MIT. Dr. Amadae writes on the foundations of liberalism and the philosophy and history of political economy. Her 2016 book, Prisoners of Reason: Game Theory and Neoliberal Political Economy as well as an earlier book, Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism shows us the world that game theory built and how this model of human behavior became so prevalent. Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination. His most recent books are Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022), Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020) and Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization (2018). Haiven is editor of VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL).

On this first episode of THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY we speak with Hugh Davies about alternate reality games and gaming and the paranoid world of conspiracism. More information: https://weirdeconomies.com/podcasts/exploits-of-play THE EXPLOITS OF PLAY is a 10-episode podcast about how games and play have moved from the margin to the centre of global capitalism. It is produced by Weird Economies and hosted by Max Haiven. Dr. Hugh Davies is an artist, curator, and researcher. Working across digital media, academic scholarship, and creative practice, he explores the social, cultural, and political dimensions of art and technology. He's written two books on game culture and ethnographies of play and is currently a research fellow with a focus on Chinese Platform Studies at RMIT in Melbourne. Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination. His most recent books are Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022), Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, and the Settling of Unpayable Debts (2020) and Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization (2018). Haiven is editor of VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL).

This essay, which explores histories of the corporation, race and (intellectual) property regimes, appeared in a catalogue published to accompany Danish artist Hannibal Andersen's 2022 exhibition The Abstract Expression of Privatization. In that work, an installation and a large mural explored corporate claims to the ownership of certain colours. The full essay can be read here:https://maxhaiven.com/colour-corporations-and-other-fictions/

Amazon, a corporation that is by some estimates the world's largest private employer, has succeeded in part because of a kind of sci-fi storytelling that places the firm at the forefront of capitalism, technology and human achievement. But if it presents a utopian narrative of itself, its workers pay the price, many of them toiling in dystopian conditions to create a profit-driven future that will exclude or exploit them. The Worker as Futurist Project supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write and publish short, speculative fiction about "the world after Amazon." It is undertaken in solidarity with workers' and communities' struggles around the world against a corporation whose wealth and power, today, rivals or exceeds that of many states. But beyond just fighting back, the Worker as Futurist project aims to reclaim the imagination of what the world might yet be if workers, rather than bosses, got to decide. In this presentation, the project's initiator, Dr. Max Haiven (Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University) speaks at the 2023 Historical Materialism Conference (London) about the origins, inspirations, goals and progress of the project. In particular, Haiven focuses on the project in the context of methodologies of "workers' inquiry" and militant inquiry more broadly, in which researchers play the role of facilitators creating space and time for an analysis of the changing nature of capitalism to emerge from those who experience its cutting edge directly: workers at firms like Amazon. For more information about the project, visit: https://reimaginingvalue.ca/waf/

Steven Shaviro is a cultural critic and leading theorist of the social roles of science fiction and author of many books, including The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism (2014) and Discognition (2016). His book on science fiction, Fluid Futures, will be published in 2024. In this interview, he helps us understand the history of science fiction and its potentials to critique dominant power relations. *http://www.shaviro.com/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

In the thick of the pandemic, Montreal-based writer and organizer Mostafa Henaway worked at an Amazon fulfillment centre to learn how "essential" workers were made disposable in the name of corporate profits. In this episode, he shares stories and critical reflections on the sci-fi nature of Amazon's brand of capitalism, and the implications for workers' organizing and resistance. He concludes with vital thoughts on how this is connected to a broader story of imperialism that also encompasses the ongoing nightmare in Gaza. Mostafa Henaway, a Canadian-born Egyptian, is a long-time community organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, where he has been organizing for justice for immigrant/migrant workers for over two decades. He is also a researcher and PhD candidate at Concordia University. His book Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class was published in 2023. * https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/essential-work-disposable-workers The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * http://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * http://workersspeculativesociety.org * http://reimaginingvalue.ca

Heike Geissler is a prominent German novelist and writer who lives and works in Leipzig, once a major city in communist  former "East Germany." Today, it is a major logistics hub for Amazon and site of the "reunified" country's first strike against the American corporation in 2013. In her 2014 memoir Saisonarbeit (published in English in 2018 as Seasonal Associate), Geissler meditates on the months she spent working at an Amazon fulfillment centre in 2010 and what it tells us about work under capitalism today. * https://www.heikegeissler.de/ * https://spectorbooks.com/de/buch/saisonarbeit * https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781635900439/seasonal-associate/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

Since 2011, the poet Mark Nowak has been facilitating rank-and-file workers' writing through the Workers Writers School. In collaboration with PEN, trade unions and other organizations, the WSS's workshops "create a space for participants to re-imagine their working lives, nurture new literary voices directly from the global working class, and produce new tactics and imagine new futures for working class social change." On this episode, Mark joins us along with long-time participant Lorraine Garnett, who reads several of her poems and discusses the School's impact on her life. https://www.workerwriters.org/ https://pen.org/worker-writers-school/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

How has writing been part of the coming-to-consciousness of the working class and our ability to imagine and fight for different futures? We speak with Jamie Woodcock, senior lecturer of management at the University of Essex about the history of Workers' Inquiry, a method where intellectuals and workers collaborate to learn about the changing nature of capitalism and his own project, Notes From Below, which supports workers to write about their experiences. We also discuss his initiative Red Futures, a magazine of Marxist and radical science fiction. https://www.jamiewoodcock.net/ https://notesfrombelow.org/ https://www.redfuturesmag.com/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

Cory Doctorow is an essayist, novelist, activist, and public intellectual whose work focuses on themes of technology, intellectual property and the prospects for freedom in our digital age. Since the 1990s he's been on the forefront of struggles for the rights of creators, including ongoing work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Today, he is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Locus, and many other publications. In this interview, we speak about his recent book (co-authored with Rebecca Giblin)Chokepoint Capitalism and the grave threats that Amazon and other huge corporations pose to creative freedom and the wellbeing of authors and the world. We also speak about his own career as a speculative fiction writer and the politics of the genre in an age when capitalism is getting pretty dystopian. * https://craphound.com/ * https://chokepointcapitalism.com/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

Co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, Syrus Marcus Ware explores the importance of future imagining for Black, queer, trans, disability and collective liberation projects. He speaks to us about the importance of speculative fiction for social movement organizers and radical dreamers. Syrus is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University whose work in curation, painting, installation and performance has been widely exhibited in Canada and internationally. Their writing (fiction, non-fiction and academic) can be found in many leading and grassroots venues. * https://www.syrusmarcusware.com/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

Léonicka Valcius is a literary agent specializing in championing the work of racialized and equity-seeking writers in genres including YA fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, kid lit, romance and sci-fi. In this interview, Léonicka breaks down how the publishing industry is changing and the consequences, good and bad, for emerging authors trying to disrupt the dominant scripts of the fantastic and futuristic. * https://www.leonicka.com/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

Amazon presents its "revolution" in logistics as a bloodless technological coup against the forces of convention, waged in the name of customer satisfaction. But in Alessandro Delfanti's book The Warehouse: Workers and Robots at Amazon, the University of Toronto professor reveals that its labour exploitation all the way down. In this episode he helps us understand the stakes of a struggle not only for workers' rights, but for the future of technology. * https://delfanti.org/ * https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745342177/the-warehouse/ The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

In his 2020 memoir Black Water, award-winning author David A. Robertson reflects on how his Cree heritage and his family's survival of colonialism has shaped his imagination. In this conversation, he speaks of the joys and challenges of writing speculative fiction for adults and children, informed by Indigenous worldviews and struggles. Approaching fiction as a work of community-building, he speaks to the need for courage to push back against dominant narratives. Robertson is author of numerous bestselling books for readers of many ages in a wide diversity of imaginative genres. In 2021 he received the Writers' Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award and was named Globe and Mail Children's Storyteller of the Year. He has won Canada's prestigious Governor General's Literary Award several times. * https://www.darobertson.ca/ * https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/425-kiwew The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * workersspeculativesociety.org * reimaginingvalue.ca

The legendary thinker and radical historian Robin DG Kelley joins us to discuss the importance of the radical imagination and the history of workers' writing. Kelley is author of many books on the history of labour and anti-racist struggles, and about luminary proletarian creative figures. These include: Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class, and Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times. In this conversation, Kelley explains how, in the face of corporate and capitalist power, which has never failed to mobilize racism, working people have consistently turned to the written word as a tool of solidarity and a means to demand a different future. In an age of digital capitalism where corporations like Amazon dominate the market for books, films and other "content," reclaiming the power to create and share works of the imagination are more important than ever. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Kelley * http://www.beacon.org/Freedom-Dreams-P1855.aspx The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * http://workersspeculativesociety.org * http://reimaginingvalue.ca

Amazon's exploitation of data, robotics, and workers has created a breathtaking global empire. Charmaine Chua, a labour organizer with Amazonians United and an assistant professor at University of California Santa Barbara's Department of Global Studies, is uniquely well qualified to guide us through what that means, for workers and for the world. Her work focuses on the ways working people resist and build solidarity against what can seem like insurmountable odds. * https://www.charmainechua.com/ * https://www.amazoniansunited.org/ * https://www.global.ucsb.edu/people/charmaine-chua The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is trying to build and the workers, writers, and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon." It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * http://workersspeculativesociety.org * http://reimaginingvalue.ca

In Marc McGurls " Everything and Less" the Stanford University professor of American literature explores the fate of the novel in the "Age of Amazon." Well known for his illuminating studies of the institutions that surround how we read and write, McGurl turns his attention to what he suggests may be the most important shift in literature in our moment: the fact that, today, one corporation has disproportionate control over the market for books and especially e-books. In this interview, we consider the consequences for readers, writers and the future of the written word. * https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2769-everything-and-less * https://english.stanford.edu/people/mark-mcgurl The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon". It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer. * https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative * http://workersspeculativesociety.org * http://reimaginingvalue.ca

For 15 years Brent Lee not only believed in conspiracy theories but helped produce and popularize them. Today, he warns others about both the danger and the appeal of conspiratorial world-building. We have been taught to imagine that people fall into the proverbial "rabbit hole" because of isolation, idiocy and paranoia. But in this interview, Brent explains how he and many others came to it from through critical thinking, skepticism towards the operations of social power and empathy with those who were suffering. We explore with him why he stayed in the conspiracy world thanks, in part, to the sense of righteous community it provided. And we cover how the right-wing weaponization of conspiracy theories in the mid-2010s triggered Brent's exit from the community. Today, motivated by contrition for what he helped create and compassion for those who, like him, are taken in, he dedicates his time to helping those inside and outside conspiracy worlds understand and challenge them. Brent Lee, a former conspiracist who now seeks to challenge and reveal the lures and dangers of conspiracism, maintains a blog (http://brentleetv.blogspot.com/) and a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/BrentLeeTV) and can often be found on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BrentLeeSDCIC). His new podcast Some Dare Call it Conspiracy, dedicated to reverse-engineering conspiracy theories, launched in June 2022 (https://anchor.fm/somedarecallitconspiracy)

How do today's videogames inherit and reiterate colonial ideologies, tropes and ways of seeing the world? Can such games be played “against the grain" in ways that defy the colonial script? We speak with Souvik Mukherjee. Dr Souvik Mukherjee is assistant professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta, India. Souvik's research looks at the narrative and the literary through the emerging discourse of videogames as storytelling media and at how these games inform and challenge our conceptions of narratives, identity and culture, especially in Postcolonial contexts.  Souvik is the author of two monographs, Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back (Springer UK 2017). He is also the co-editor (with Dr Emil Hammar) of the special issue ‘Postcolonial Perspectives in Videogames'. Souvik was named a ‘DiGRA Distinguished Scholar' in 2019 by the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) For more information, visit http://conspiracy.games