/521/ Too Smart to Read ft. C. Derick Varn
On the crisis in literacy. Poet, podcaster and teacher, C. Derick Varn – who has taught in Mexico, Korea, Egypt and the US, at various levels – joins Alex and George to interrogate the coming "post-li...
18 Nov 202559min
/520/ Conspiracy Culture & Paranoid Styles ft. Catherine Liu
In this special episode, we present talks given by contributing editor Catherine Liu and co-host George Hoare on the paranoid style at a recent conference at UC Irvine, co-hosted by the Palm Springs S...
11 Nov 202512min
UNLOCKED: /519/ Reading Club: White Collar & Post-Mass Culture ft. Dustin Guastella
[We are unlocking this episode from the Bungacast Reading Club, originally released Nov 2025, which is normally available only to Reading Club subscribers. If you'd like to join, sign up at patreon.co...
11 Nov 20251h 25min
UNLOCKED: /497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
On technology, transhumanism, and progress. James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and c...
4 Nov 20251h 8min
/518/ We Have Never Been Postmodern ft. Geoff Shullenberger
On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation. Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist. Does...
31 Okt 202543min
/517/ Wonders of the Modern World ft. Pier Paolo Tamburelli
On places of ritual. Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly. For th...
28 Okt 202545min
/516/ France's Two Peripheries: Riots and Insurrection ft. Fred Lyra
On 20 years since the 2005 riots. Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – ri...
21 Okt 202535min
/515/ State Capitalism Is Now ft. Ilias Alami
On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion. Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism. Why is state capitalism not jus...
13 Okt 20251h 14min
