We did it. We drove from London to Edinburgh with all our equipment in tow, climbed a fucking medieval staircase in a downpour, got soaked to the damn bones, and then played a (sold out!!!!) show at the Edinburgh Fringe. We only had a 50 minute time slot, so this was a short one. Thank you so much to all the fans who came out in the garbage weather to see it. This show was a blast and we think you'll really enjoy it! Get the full thing here on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29164609 *COM...
Aug 18, 2019•11 min•Ep. 184
It's a special episode featuring only the loveliest of accents. This week's bonus features Milo with guests Aidan 'Taco' Jones, Dan Muggleton, and Pope Lonergan. It's a bunch of comedians telling some damn jokes -- about Australia, about fancy words, about rugby -- and so much more. Hope you enjoy! If you want to hear the whole thing, get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28990329 *COME SEE MILO* If you're in Edinburgh for the Fringe, come see our boy perform his (highly acclaime...
Aug 14, 2019•11 min•Ep. 183
A broad swath of modern reactionary and xenopobic sentiment tries to employ fake medieval history to create a fantasy version of Europe. Whether it’s Middle Earth or some bullshit about Agincourt, the British right can’t stop making stuff up. So, to dispel this, Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ) spoke with academic Dr Eleanor Janega ( @goingmedieval ) about actual medieval history. And guess what, folks? We used it as an excuse to ...
Aug 12, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 182
Why call it history when you can call it ‘progress studies’? This week, Riley ( @raaleh ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum join writer and PhD student Annie Kelly to discuss Steven Pinker-ized airport books, tech positivity, and Annie’s research into women members of the alt-right. You’ll love it. Annie’s New York Times article that gets referenced in the piece is available here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/opinion/sunday/tradwives-women-alt-right.html If you like this...
Aug 05, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 181
You wanted to hear more Quillette close-reads, so here it is. We discuss the most bootlicking of all pro-Amazon pieces to ever appear, plus a bizarre 2006 op-ed about shoes from Rafael Behr. Our special guest Juliet Jacques ( @zinovievletter ) helps us break down just how brain-melt it all is. You'll love it, folks—you'll absolutely love it. If you want to hear the whole episode, get it on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28767126 *COME SEE MILO*If you're in Edinburgh for the Fringe, come ...
Aug 02, 2019•11 min•Ep. 180
We’ve all written something that was maybe a little over the top, though mercifully none of us has written for Quilette. This week, Riley ( @raaleh ), Olga ( @rocknrolga ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum join Novara Media’s Eleanor Penny ( @eleanorkpenny ) to discuss brain impresario Toby Young’s recent paen to Boris Johnson’s skull shape and neck thickness. It’s weird! It’s abnormal! It’s the state of things in British politics! If you like this show, sign up to the Patreon an...
Jul 29, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 179
Did you know that Riley's hometown newspaper is run by horse people? Did you know that there's a Code Pink-style group that stalks people who work at the Seattle Zoo's elephant enclosure? Did you know that Fiverr wants to drive down your wages but also want to make you feel empowered? Did you know that the Telegraph has found a way to get mad about black people in Bond films? Yes. It's all true. Enjoy this bonus episode with freelance writer and editor Nathan Ma ( @nthnashma ), and rejoice in th...
Jul 25, 2019•3 min•Ep. 178
Okay, some housekeeping: this might be the episode where you can hear our brains breaking. Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice @AliceAvizandum discuss Elon Musk’s strange fixation on preventing SkyNet, new revelations that place Steven Pinker in Jeffrey Epstein’s plane on multiple occasions, and a Guardian article in which Alastair Campbell devotes an entire column to someone who was nice to him in the comments section. Seriously. Amid all this majestic...
Jul 22, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 177
Riley's cousin lives in London and got the absolute worst tinder-date breakup message. It was so bad, so painfully long-form and weird, that we had to convene a session of Balthasar Speedboat to discuss it. So, we brought on Riley, Milo, Olga, Alex Kealy, and Rajiv Karia ( @RajivAKaria ). Hope you enjoy it! If not, we're breaking up with you (in over 1000 words). Get the full episode here on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28450760 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* We’ll be performing at the Birmingham T...
Jul 18, 2019•11 min•Ep. 176
Our beautiful son Riley is still in New York, a city famous for being ‘alright’ if you ‘like’ ‘saxophones.’ In the interim, Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice are here to hold down the fort. We’ve uncovered a startup that wants to scan your licence place and use it to order McDonalds. We’ve read an op-ed encouraging the securitisation of water scarcity. We’ve blanched upon contact with a James Dellingpole op-ed about his daughter’s ‘virginal beauty...
Jul 15, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 175
Tony Blair, what a guy! Am I right, folks? He can't stop whining about how we need fewer houses and more apps. He can't stop pointing a finger at the Labour party and saying that it was better when we were pro-privatisation and pro-bombing. And now, of course, his institute has a great plan -- a policy paper full of nothing but management consultant speak -- with one sole defined policy goal: national ID cards. Yes, he still wants them. Enjoy this dang podcast! In this preview we discuss Tony's ...
Jul 11, 2019•3 min•Ep. 174
We did it. We played another show outside of London—this time at Wolfson College in Cambridge—and we made sure to prep only the best. Did you know Boris Johnson wrote a horny, frustrated novel about terrorism called '72 Virgins'? Well, we read the damn book so you didn't have to. Enjoy! If you want to listen to the whole thing, sign up on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28163493 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* We’ll be performing at the Birmingham Transformed festival on 8th August. Details to com...
Jul 09, 2019•11 min•Ep. 173
You’ve heard the expression that while the cat’s away, the mice will play? In this case, while the cat’s away, the mice got in the studio and recorded their own podcast. Yes, friends, Riley was away on holiday and so was Nate, leaving only Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ) and Hussein ( @HKesvani ) to host an episode entirely of their own making, with special guest and [Canadian voice] returning podcast champion India Block ( @indiablock ). This episode discusses Trump’s stupid parade, white British idiots...
Jul 08, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 172
Well - we did it. We hit $2500 a month of funding, so as promised a special 4th of July edition of Riley's Commie Book Club on graduate politics seminar standby - Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities. The “nation” is a concept much beloved of reactionaries and dismissed by Marxists as mere ideology. But it has serious psychological power nevertheless. Anderson’s book asks what is a “nation,” where did it come from, and how has the concept been used and misused over time? Riley then applies A...
Jul 04, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 171
What if an app made you pay $30 a month for some email hotkeys? What if Britain stopped burning coal only to build 30 gigawatts of gas-burning power? What if Justine Greening wasn't a reliable source on anything, but certainly not social mobility? Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ) join special guest and feature writer Tom Usher ( @tom_usher_ ) to discuss these possibilities. You know you love it, folks! If you like this show, sign ...
Jul 01, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 170
As of next month, all episodes of Commie Book Club will be published on on our Patreon feed... BUT without any paywall in front of them at all. So they'll be free each month with no delay. If you nonetheless want to support us anyway and get next month's book club early, check out www.patreon.com/trashfuture/ Another instalment of Riley's Commie Book Club delivered to you, our delightful and beloved patrons. This month, Riley decided to take it in a bit of a different direction, and talk about a...
Jun 27, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 169
Every outbreak has its patient zero. New York's Typhoid outbreak had Typhoid Mary. Springfeield's Infectious Diptheria problem had Jebediah Springfield. Britain's most tedious faux-progressive centrists have the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Novara Media's Ash Sarkar joins the lads to discuss a skydiving monarch, fifty dancing industrialists, and a salute to the Windrush Generation that actually involved dozens of British citizens at risk of deportation because of the race. It is the fu...
Jun 24, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 168
The UK can't get enough of border forces. We want to fund them in our own country and in other countries, even when those countries want visa-free regional travel. We love making everyone a cop, and we're joined this week by Zoe Gardner ( @ZoeJardiniere ) from Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants ( @JCWI_UK ) to discuss this. However, we also have a terrible startup to review, and a great (by which we mean insane) article about why National Service would be a good thing. It's bad, folks! ...
Jun 20, 2019•10 min•Ep. 166
America desperately wants to go to war with Iran, so much that it's willing to engineer some extremely fake circumstances under which it can claim to be the victim of aggression. Why is that? Well, according to Bret Stephens, it's because they hate Ben Franklin, or something. To discuss this, we bring on Sina Rahmani, host of the The East is a Podcast , and ask him why the US can't seem to stop broadcasting its war horniness. This originally appeared last month on our Patreon -- and there are pr...
Jun 19, 2019•59 min•Ep. 167
This week, we're talking Logic Guys with Aisling McCrea ( @ambientGillian ), the author of a great Outline piece about debate and a canny observer of terrible Mind-Boomers online. Why is Andrew Doyle so angry and unfunny? Why does Stephen Crowder always ambush college students with his dumb garbage? All this and more is yours. If you want to hear the full version of this episode, get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/jonathan-pie-27574234 *WATCH THIS SPACE* We’ll be performing at...
Jun 19, 2019•11 min•Ep. 165
We’re posting through tears on this one. Our precious boy -- our sweet, beautiful lad himself -- is no longer a candidate for the Tory leadership contest. That’s right, Matt Hancock has stepped down after only four days. It was a truly heart-rending experience for Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ), and Alice ( @AliceAvizandum ). How can we live in a future where the human labrador retriever Matt Hancock isn’t making us appreciate the power of business? How can w...
Jun 17, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 164
We've been monitoring the situation in Hong Kong from our extremely high-tech Amstrad eMailer, but given how fast things are developing, we decided to add some additional (serious) content this week. So, please enjoy this interview between Nate ( @inthesedeserts ) and Brian Hioe ( @brianhioe ), the editor of New Bloom Magazine. Brian is currently reporting from Hong Kong and gave insight into the reasons behind the protest, the results of the attempted general strike, and what to expect in the c...
Jun 13, 2019•22 min•Ep. 163
Metro UK is doing a feature on how the future will be (good? bad?), and in our search to answer that question, we've brought on their deputy editor Alex Hudson ( @alexhuds ) to discuss it. In the future, your boss will watch your irises constantly to see if you're looking at GettingYourDickSucked.com instead of doing your job. It's not looking rosy! If you want to hear the full version of this episode, get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/27413777 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* On June 15, w...
Jun 12, 2019•10 min•Ep. 162
It’s a bit of a smart episode (a dangerous idea). Riley ( @raaleh ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), and Nate ( @inthesedeserts ) speak with economist and returning guest James Meadway ( @meadwaj ) about the logic of socialist government in Britain versus the logic of Blairite neoliberalism. Did you know there’s a Cornish fishing village trying to crowdfund getting a GP? Did you know that Phillip Hammond denies that people in Britain live in poverty? We discuss all of this and more. If you like this sho...
Jun 10, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 161
America desperately wants to go to war with Iran, so much that it's willing to engineer some extremely fake circumstances under which it can claim to be the victim of aggression. Why is that? Well, according to Bret Stephens, it's because they hate Ben Franklin, or something. To discuss this, we bring on Sina Rahmani ( @UrOrientalist ), host of the The East is a Podcast , and ask him why the US can't seem to stop broadcasting its war horniness. If you want to hear the whole episode, subscribe to...
Jun 04, 2019•11 min•Ep. 160
Listen up, you hogs: for those of you who missed the live show in London on May 30, please enjoy this recording. Riley ( @raaleh ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), and Nate ( @inthesedeserts ) are joined by special guest and TF original Charlie Palmer ( @cfppalmer ) for a night of apps for loan sharks, philanthropy for space villains, and a game of pong played against an electrified shelf. You’ll love it! If you like this show, sign up to the Patreon and get a second free episode ...
Jun 04, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 159
Damn, it sure looks like Australia had its UK Labour in 2015 moment this past week, in which the centre-left party favoured to win has instead snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Why did the Coalition win? Why does Bill Shorten want to get rid of the weekend? Why does every Australian deserve a go? In this episode, Riley ( @raaleh ), Hussein ( @HKesvani ), Milo ( @Milo_Edwards ), Nate ( @inthesedeserts ) asked Australia expert Andrew Law ( @IllyBocean ) of the Boonta Vista podcast to expla...
May 27, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 158
Did you know that, despite renting space in basically every building in the world, WeWork incinerates money and cannot ever turn a profit? Did you know that there's an IoT-connected chastity belt that locks your dick to your phone? So much and more is here for you to discover -- and in the preview of this week's bonus episode, you'll hear from the full gang of Riley, Milo, Hussein, Nate, and Alice. If you like this episode, get the full thing on Patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/270814...
May 26, 2019•11 min•Ep. 157
It seems like we have limited choices for the future of humanity. On one hand, we could stop the endless, destructive growth cycle that will ruin our climate, but that might affect shareholders’ portfolios. We could also build hellish capitalism in space, according to Jeff Bezos. This week, Riley, Milo, Alice, and Olga met with IPPR Associate Fellow Laurie Laybourn-Langton to discuss our options. Turns out, capital doesn’t want us to choose the good one! If you like this show, sign up to the Pat...
May 22, 2019•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 156
This week, we speak to jazz saxophonist and MC Soweto Kinch ( @sowetokinch) about big tech's attempts to steal creative idea-generation concepts and apply them to high-stress startup culture. We also talk about certified genius Roger Scruton, and Milo brings back his south-of-south-of-Louisiana accent. You will enjoy this. If you like this episode, you can access it and dozens like it by subscribing to the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture *LIVE SHOW ALERT* We’ll be performing once ag...
May 20, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 155
