Literate Machine

Nov 10 2024 21 ep. 34 mins 23
Literate Machine Podcast artwork

Literate Machine explores media through the lens of culture, history, and politics, examining the ways capitalism, power, and ideology shape and are shaped by the stories we love. Written and performed by Eric Rosenfield, Literate Machine is available as blog entries, newsletter, podcast, and YouTube channel. Literate Machine is available on Apple Podcasts and finer podcast apps everywhere.

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Gravity's Rainbow Over Palestine

Nov 10 2024 193 mins  
How Jewish Socialists Made an Outhouse for the European Soul Apologies I had a cold through part of the recording of this and you can hear that my voice is hoarse Extra content, ad-free content, early access, exclusive authors notes and more at: / ericrosenfield Thanks to my patrons! Tip me: https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine Text of the episode and information about the podcast

What Do We Do Now?

Nov 07 2024 8 mins  
https://literatemachine.com/2024/11/07/what-do-we-do-now/What do we do now that the orange fascist is back? Support me at: https://literatemachine.com Support me at: / ericrosenfield , https://ko-fi.com/literatemachine Sources: People like Biden's policies but not Biden: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio... Bernie Sanders on the election: / dcc3tfubbko Berlesconi's ownersh

10,000 Subscriber Q&A

Sep 24 2024 14 mins  
This a Q&A episode in honor of the YouTube channel hitting 10,000 subscribers. Topics include degrowth and socialism, private cities, anime, Loki Season 2, and my cat In this video I say I couldn't think of a source talking about alienation, work, and mental health, but after I made it I came across this video that does a pretty good job at the basics: https://youtu.be/aNKiBJJFXZI

How Capitalism Becomes Feudalism (Severance and Technofeudalism)

Jun 25 2024 35 mins  
As commerce transforms around the new rent-extracting digital fiefdoms, algorithms and AI become a way to transform skilled labor into machine-learning piecework. In Severance, technology is used to "sever" people's working selves from their actual selves, creating the perfect, dehumanized work force. Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2024/06/25/how-capitalism-becomes-feuda

Elon Musk, Wokeness, and the Myth of Meritocracy

Apr 01 2024 37 mins  
How Tony Stark, the myth of meritocracy, and our unspoken beliefs about genius explain Elon Musk and the (re)turn of eugenics to the right wing Blog version and information about podcast and mailing list: https://literatemachine.com/2024/04/01/elon-musk-wokeness-and-the-myth-of-meritocracy If you enjoyed this, please tell someone, as word-of-mouth is how projects like this grow. F

How Will Capitalism End? The Orville, Eduard Bernstein, and What is to Be Done?

Nov 16 2023 76 mins  
What does comedic science fiction television show The Orville tell us about how capitalism will end? How did Germany go from having the largest and most powerful socialist movement in the world to finding its movement gutted and its country given over to fascists? How did Eduard Bernstein, despite his best intentioned, upend the Marxist movement and provide cover for those who want

Star Trek into Socialism: or Who Deserves the Future

Apr 11 2023 76 mins  
Does Star Trek show us what socialism looks like? What would it look like if we organized society democratically instead of allowing a few people to control most of the resources? Bibliography and Further Reading * Obviously, the work of Marx and Engels is key to this piece. Particular texts I drew on here include The Civil War in France (1871) (modern editions contain the first

Loki and How Conservatives Become Fascists

Aug 21 2022 41 mins  
Marvel's Loki shows us what fascism looks like, and how it comes to take root within innocuous conservatism. https://literatemachine.com https://Patreon.com/ericrosenfield Corrections: • Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Bros are not Jewish. Actual examples of Jewish funders of the right include Sheldon Adelson and Ike Perlmutter. I may upload a revised version of this audio with the

The Confused Ideology of Schitt's Creek

Feb 23 2022 18 mins  
How a show about poverty that can't ever bare to really show poverty illustrates everything we've been blind to. Support the show on Patreon and get early access to episodes and exclusive Authors Notes: https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield Text of the show and more information about other formats it's available can be found at: https://literatemachine.com Bibliography and Further Rea

Defund the Paw Patrol

Oct 12 2021 24 mins  
Is the Paw Patrol an unintentional conservative utopia? What can the show tell us about how the political spectrum views the police, its purpose, and its funding. For as little as $1 an episode (going forward) you can get early access to episodes, as well as exclusive author’s notes at Patreon.com/ericrosenfield. More information about the show and other formats in which it's ava