The Syllabus

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Philip Terry & Marina Warner: Dante’s Purgatorio Podcast Episode · London Review Bookshop Podcast · 07/23/2025 · 1h 5m

Reworking Dante for modern Britain, this conversation critiques power, neoliberal academia, and political failure. The guest's version of Dante's Christian eschatology reconfigures the soul's journey through a psychoanalytic lens of desire.

With @marinawarner.bsky.social

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From appearing on the jerseys and across the stadiums of European football clubs to hosting the Basketball Africa League, our open-access article of the week deconstructs the Visit Rwanda campaign as a sophisticated form of authoritarian image management.

By Itamar Dubinsky

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Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories intertwine oppression with profit. This dialogue exposes how international businesses reinforce apartheid conditions while legal systems fail to deliver justice.

w/ @franceskalbs.bsky.social on @letstalkpalestine.bsky.social

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"Extinction" was forged in the crucible of empire to justify persecution and genocide. Our video of the week explores how settler-colonial logic now haunts the techno-fantasies of de-extinction.

Feat. @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social at @mcrhistories.bsky.social

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Colombia’s cocaine trade is fueled by policy and profit. This conversation dismantles the "narco" myth, exposing how drug policy serves as a geopolitical weapon and hides the systemic roots of the narcotics economy.

With Estefanía C. Rodríguez

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Examining how military technologies are produced and how post-industrial UK regions are drawn into global war supply chains, our podcast of the week interrogates the political economy of organized violence.

With @frankmaracchione.bsky.social et al. at @sperishefuni.bsky.social

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As the climate crisis intensifies, the ultra-rich are increasingly seen as out of touch. Yet as our French pick of the week details, economic elites have been relentless promoters of a form of "green capitalism" that secures their class interests.

With @edouardmorena.bsky.social

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The likes of Zuckerberg and Musk not only admire the Roman Empire but seem hellbent on recreating it. Our essay of the week unpacks the tech-imperialist fantasies of "RomeBros."

By Elda M. Román in @electricliterature.com

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Allende's cyber-socialism and Pinochet's authoritarian neoliberalism were shaped by a shared cybernetic logic of technocratic control. Our hidden gem of the week shows how "freedom" became a managed property of both systems.

By Otto Lehto et al. at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

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Growing techlash has the potential to spill into violent extremism. Connecting insurrectionary anarchists, eco-extremists, and eco-fascists, our book of the week charts the contradictory emergence of "anti-tech extremism."

By @maurolubrano.bsky.social on @politybooks.bsky.social

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Edward Said and the Question of Palestine : Throughline Edward Said brought the question of Palestine into the American mainstream. He taught at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, and today, more than two decades after his death, pro-Palestine…

Charting a lineage from his own institutional battles to his posthumous life as a lodestar for today's campus insurgents, this conversation profiles Edward Said as the intellectual who ruptured the American consensus on Palestine.

With @moustafabayoumi.bsky.social et al.

The Daily Heller: Japanese Design's Schizophrenic Place in History – PRINT Magazine 'Fracture' explores Japanese graphic design from its foundations in arts and crafts, through the industrial, wartime, and commercial periods, to the pre-digital design era.

By showcasing objects from propaganda to feminist and LGBTQ+ zines, this piece traces how Ian Lynam's book and exhibition unveil the intersections of modernity, imperialism, and aesthetics in Japan’s graphic design evolution.

By Steven Heller in @thedailyheller.bsky.social

The Real Story Behind "India's Greta Thunberg" A young climate activist gets mixed up in hindu nationalist politics.

Licypriya Kangujam, once hailed as “India’s Greta Thunberg,” represents a cautionary tale about child activism. She has shifted from climate advocacy to amplifying Hindu nationalism and promoting extremist militias.

By Makepeace Sitlhou in @readlux.bsky.social

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This article contends that Louis de Carmontelle’s portraits of eighteenth-century French aristocratic women, with their powdered faces, reveal a society captivated by the tension between illusion and reality.

By @zarakesterton.bsky.social in @frenchhistory.bsky.social

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Radical Embodied Cognitive Science (RECS) and Marxism might seem worlds apart, but this paper argues their shared focus on embodied, ever-changing lived experience bridges the gap.

By @sunevork.bsky.social

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Moving between multicausal and monocausal explanations, our open-access article of the week theorizes the Industrial Revolution as a unique "piling up" of ideological, economic, military, and political power.

By Michael Mann in @nationsnationalism.bsky.social

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Revealing the complicity of Orientalist scholarship in fascist Italy’s brutal war on Ethiopia, this book dissects how academic expertise was weaponized to rationalize mass violence.

By James de Lorenzi on @columbiaup.bsky.social

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The crisis of the Anthropocene necessitates a rethinking of the modern nature/culture dyad. Our video of the week mobilizes Hegel and Schelling to “denaturalize nature” and “naturalize spirit.”

Feat. Luca Illetterati at @cpkp.bsky.social

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Shade by Sam Bloch: 9780593242766 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An extraordinary investigation into shade, bringing together science, history, urban design, and social justice to change the way we think about a critical natural resource that should be available…

By tracing shade’s historical erasure—a casualty of car culture and the privatization of comfort via air conditioning—this book exposes how U.S. urbanism manufactures vulnerability along class and racial lines.

By @samkbloch.bsky.social on @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

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AI's immense requirements for data, computation, and talent entrench the power of existing tech monopolies. Our podcast of the week frames AI as a general-purpose technology whose primary role is consolidating capital.

With @nsrnicek.bsky.social on @smartcookies.bsky.social

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Driven by efficiency, predictability, and control, streaming platforms have McDonaldized music into “playlist-ready” commodities. Our Italian pick of the week unpacks the algorithmic regime reshaping the political economy of music.

With Massimiliano Raffa

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Capital’s new vanguard pursues a planetary project of jurisdictional arbitrage for the rich. Our essay of the week examines the techno-libertarian fantasy of private sovereignty as the political endgame of neoliberalism.

By @raycraib.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

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Ownership of social media platforms by tech oligarchs like Musk and Zuckerberg has become a decisive force shaping content governance. Our hidden gem of the week shows how individually-owned firms enable direct ideological and political instrumentalism.

By @pjleerssen.bsky.social

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