Microsoft Excel is the DNA of corporate America. But as AI and new competitors loom, this dialogue suggests that Excel faces an existential question: can a cornerstone of the old digital world adapt to the demands of the new one? With @dinabass.bsky.social & @chafkin.bsky.social

True artistic originality stems from a process of unlearning, self-trust, and radical instinct, argues this piece. Virtuosity alone doesn’t cut it; a personal sound arises when a musician lets go of rules and influences to confront their subconscious. By Matthew Shipp

Marxist theorist Asad Haider leaves behind a legacy of intellectual rigor and political creativity that reshaped contemporary leftist thought. His untimely death is a profound loss, but his ideas remain a call to action. By @buerubner.bsky.social in @histmat.bsky.social

Through meticulous study of Renaissance art, this dialogue shows how pioneering Italian fashion designer Rosa Genoni created historically inspired yet modern designs, winning international acclaim, including the Grand Prix at the 1906 Milan Expo. Feat. Eva Coen buff.ly/dI7w5Rz

Through jazz epistemologies—a way of knowing rooted in improvisation, fragmentation, and fluidity—this lecture shows how artists like Langston Hughes and Romare Bearden mapped Harlem's resistance to dispossession, celebrating its resilience and complexity. Feat. Elleza Kelley buff.ly/GFnIgCF

Europe’s push to arm Ukraine has sparked debates about its defence. Our article of the week outlines two competing visions of EU security: a state-led “war economy” and Silicon Valley-inspired disruptive tech. By @jocelynmawdsley.bsky.social in @geopoliticsjournal.bsky.social buff.ly/AC8otpn

Nick Land’s thought refuses firm diagnosis. This workshop maps Land’s trajectory from academic philosopher to architect of right-wing accelerationism, positioning his work as a zone of contestation rather than a doctrine. Feat. Bruno Belém at @the-new-centre.bsky.social buff.ly/06nQpJv

Who owns the future of artificial intelligence? Our video of the week argues that the true struggle is not just over technological prowess, but over the capture and organization of value across a multi-layered AI “stack.” Feat. @nsrnicek.bsky.social buff.ly/A0doDoI

Amid a rising far right that’s now dictating terms on immigration and the green transition, Europe’s centrist project is unraveling. Our podcast of the week shows how mimicking the right has only emboldened nativist insurgents in France, Britain, and Germany. With David Broder buff.ly/ZwrQAgI

Just two kilometers divide Syrian elite nightlife in Damascus from the ruins of Jobar—an emblem of a country ground down by war, and now, hollow “liberalization.” Our French pick of the week dissects the aftermath of Assad’s fall. By Léonard Sompairac in @orientxxi.bsky.social buff.ly/IskYkLW

Once the punchline of European café culture, American tourists have become a metaphor for global capitalism. Our essay of the week tracks how American consumption turns cities into “made in Italy” theme parks for Instagram selfies. By Francesco Pacifico in @thedialmag.bsky.social buff.ly/918pg3B

From the League Against Imperialism to the International Atomic Energy Agency, our hidden gem of the week excavates the restless spirit of anti-colonial struggle, where hope is not naive but the driving force of utopian politics. By Parashar Das at @lseblogs.bsky.social buff.ly/HkM171G

Tech workers increasingly articulate skepticism about extreme inequality and practice self-care through “mindfulness.” Our book of the week identifies this new middle-class fraction as a contradictory class formation. By @robertdorschel.bsky.social on @mitpress.bsky.social buff.ly/R73OABn

This dialogue exposes how Spotify’s algorithms shape listening habits, erode community, and hollow out music’s cultural connection. Yet, resistance is growing as musicians and listeners imagine alternatives to this monopoly. With @lizpelly.bsky.social on @poltheoryother.bsky.social

Military music has ranged from patriotic anthems to Black swing shows during WWII. This review reveals how music comforts and legitimizes state violence while also reflecting resistance, identity, and trauma. By @jmthompson.bsky.social et al. in @publicbooks.bsky.social

Graffiti is defiance, art, and critique—a fleeting, risky protest against property, privilege, and power. Yet, even as it unsettles, this piece contends that graffiti reminds us of art's purpose: to challenge, inspire, and insist that we don’t look away. By John Kidwell buff.ly/0whkHMy

The panic over generative AI erasing jobs echoes past fears. This talk argues that while generative AI might help workers collaborate or revolutionize low-skill jobs, its flaws, high costs, and questionable returns suggest it won't justify its hype. Feat. @abenanav.bsky.social buff.ly/XrFNpXi

Google's foray into news has fundamentally reshaped journalism. This book reveals a symbiotic yet adversarial relationship: Google amplified traditional media’s reach while undercutting its business model. By Qun Wang on @columbiaup.bsky.social buff.ly/6kH1rUH

Nietzsche’s ghost haunts the left, but what kind of politics does he represent? Our open-access article of the week historicizes Nietzsche’s anti-egalitarianism, situating his "aristocratic radicalism" as a politics beyond simple bourgeois liberalism. By Jack Graveney buff.ly/Rdxcvg6

This dialogue explores how anti-center activism, cutting across political lines, is reshaping local elections and sparking a bipartisan reckoning. As AI advances, towns resist becoming collateral damage in the race to dominate the digital economy. With Sean Rameswaram & Noel King buff.ly/v3pvePd

Although often considered the quintessential “painter of nature,” Van Gogh was intensely concerned with 19th-century industrialization. Our video of the week reframes the artist's oeuvre as a visual archive of extraction. Feat. @mlobelart.bsky.social buff.ly/PRDC453

Brazil’s public payment system, Pix, has revolutionized financial inclusion. While this has unlocked access for millions, this piece suggests it raises questions about trade law and the tension between public benefits and market rivalry. By Jeff Alvares in @promarket.bsky.social buff.ly/MLfP2Ns

The English Premier League epitomizes how finance capital has colonized even the most storied corners of British public life. Our podcast of the week explores how clubs have become speculative assets, embedded in the logic of global accumulation. With @james7jackson.bsky.social buff.ly/4oq68Tp

Who owns knowledge in a world structured by empire? Putting science and technology at the heart of global inequality, our Spanish pick of the week details how Northern monopolies over critical industries undermine the Global South. By Juan E. Santarcángelo buff.ly/53AwVMY

Tracing a line from Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” to AI-generated waifus, our essay of the week traces how the mass-produced slop that populates our world not only fragments but hollows out the very category of truth. By @harikunzru.bsky.social in @artforum.com buff.ly/C5L6w5u

The U.S.-China AI rivalry is less a faceoff between democracy and autocracy than a multi-scalar tug-of-war. In practice, as our hidden gem of the week reveals, the real drama unfolds among actors at the central, local, and industry levels. By Jason Jia-Xi Wu at @hls.harvard.edu buff.ly/PszJLJH

Beneath Singapore’s hypermodern, financialized surface lies a city haunted by its own engines of accumulation. Our book of the week maps a “ghost economy” where ritual and geomancy shape the flows of finance and real estate. By Joshua Comaroff on @uminnpress.bsky.social buff.ly/qnJhr8B

Generative AI tools like language models frequently make up false information—a behavior termed "hallucination." This talk argues that this stems from training focused on predicting plausible language rather than factual accuracy. Feat. Adam Kalai

Hamm’s glowing “Scene-O-Rama” light box, with its revolving waterfalls and pastoral fantasies, offers more than kitsch nostalgia, argues this essay. Instead, it’s a glimpse into midcentury America’s advertising dreams of escape. By M. P. Kennedy in @publicbooks.bsky.social

Voluntary and community-driven, Tamriel Rebuilt balances an ethos of creative freedom with rigorous quality control, which, as this piece suggests, stands in quiet defiance of today’s profit-driven gaming industry. By Charlie Winstanley in @tribunemagazine.bsky.social

From wage theft on container ships to geopolitical strife, global shipping props up inequality worldwide. Yet, in the face of it all, this dialogue argues that dockworkers hold immense, untapped power to disrupt this machinery and rewrite the rules. With @lalehkhalili.bsky.social buff.ly/P1Q8aWz

Tracking China’s turbulent path from the May Fourth Movement to Mao’s 1949 revolution, this conversation argues that the Communist and Nationalist Parties—often cast as bitter opposites—shared institutional DNA. With @woodpeckerowl.bsky.social on @amprestigepod.bsky.social buff.ly/PbbVRH9

The age of algorithmic capitalism has turned attention into a fiercely contested commodity, with digital platforms engineering extractive ways to monetize our cognitive lives. Our article of the week dissects the philosophical and economic capture of attention. By D. Graham Burnett

A broken BBC reflects a broken Britain. To rebuild trust, this dialogue argues that the BBC must shed its defensiveness, resist fear-driven conformity, and recommit to bold, unflinching public journalism. With @lewisgoodall.com & @dannyhinduk.bsky.social on @lrb.co.uk buff.ly/Q5lrZdc

Fringe is not an aberration, but the inevitable byproduct and shadow of scientific prestige, boundary-making, and social organization. Our video of the week explores the border between science and pseudoscience. Feat. Michael D. Gordin at @wolfhumanities.bsky.social bit.ly/3KhC77r

This conversation roots modern policing in the violence of capital accumulation—tracing its evolution through imperial conquest, anti-Black enslavement, and the suppression of working-class dissent. With Brian Bean on @apublicaffair.bsky.social buff.ly/vcz42Dq

Tracing capitalism’s reliance on nature and reproductive labor as unvalued input, our podcast of the week maps how capital’s drive to commodify everything confronts frictions in biological processes, from farming to childbirth. With @alybatt.bsky.social buff.ly/bsUtSnP

Through the insidious spread of its language, AI is colonizing social and political life. Our French pick of the week builds a “critical vocabulary” to trace how AI’s expansion installs a ruling logic and remakes judgment itself. By Thierry Ménissier on @editionshermann.bsky.social buff.ly/oOpiP1D

A new breed of digital masculinity is taking up residence in Marbella. Our essay of the week details how the Spanish resort town has become a hub for the manosphere—a reactionary online fraternity championing wealth and misogyny. By @pbachlakova.bsky.social et al. at @occrp.org buff.ly/M8keDRW

The AI-fueled data center boom looks less like a harbinger of innovation than a precarious speculative bubble. Our hidden gem of the week exposes how circular financing and mountains of private debt mask endemic cash flow deficits. By Advait Arun at @publicenterprise.bsky.social buff.ly/WATTnd5

The emergence of electronic instruments in 1960s America destabilized agency, subjectivity, and freedom in music. Our book of the week traces how Cold War technoscience underwrote radical new visions of what it means to be a composer. By Theodore Gordon on @ucpress.bsky.social buff.ly/QHCJJNm

Tackling the bloody roots of American football, this interview traces its evolution as a sport that glorifies violence while reflecting broader societal norms of aggression, showing how power, commodification, and brutality have shaped its identity. With Michael Oriard

Riley Gaines has turned into a leading figure of the anti-trans movement. Though widespread bans on trans athletes now exist, this piece shows how Gaines’ sights go further—eroding trans rights under the guise of “protection.” By @msjpauly.bsky.social in @motherjones.com

Indian speculative fiction evolved through Bengali "kalpavigyan" and post-Independence "scientifiction." Today, as this piece shows, Indian SF is finding its voice anew—bridging caste, gender, and global imagination with universal storytelling. By @gautambhatia88.bsky.social

Wage formation isn’t just about supply and demand—it’s about power. This article argues for a bold interdisciplinary approach to political economy, urging economists to center power—political, social, and institutional—in their analysis of wages. By @skvogel.bsky.social buff.ly/289QEmv

The world is shifting into an age of stagnation marked by slowing innovation and rising geopolitical tensions. Unlike the industrial revolution, this conversation suggests that today’s technological advances, like AI, aren't delivering transformative growth. With Michael Beckley buff.ly/2VHFPJg

Democracy is being hollowed out by the very processes of modernization once thought to sustain it. Our article of the week argues that epochal shifts like hyper-individualism have eroded the conditions for democratic self-rule. By Dirk Jörke & @bmstudebaker.bsky.social buff.ly/uNfqXUb

Capitalism’s power comes from its reliance on law. This talk argues that this "code of capital" lets private entities evade public regulations and externalize risk onto society. The speaker calls for reimagining private law to promote mutual respect. Feat. Katharina Pistor buff.ly/QSgAMAA

Direct democracy is neither a utopian fantasy nor mere procedural formalism. Rather, as our video of the week contends, it is a perpetually contested practice that requires international solidarity and the courage to build power from below. Feat. Yavor Tarinski at @firestorm.coop buff.ly/g4wqkOd

Marx offers a radical critique of capitalism’s ecological devastation. By reading 'Capital' as a "natural history," this book uncovers how Marx viewed capitalism as both a historical and natural system, exploiting Earth's ecosystems. By Joel Wainwright on @versobooks.bsky.social buff.ly/RCI0IIF