Hi! The world is splitting apart. I hope you’re keeping it together. I wish we could turn it around…
On the eve of the US elections, Sense & Solidarity has released our second episode of our podcast WHAT DO WE WANT, this one, fittingly, on the lure and danger of conspiracy theories. See below.
But first…
Fun and games at Historical Materialism
If you’re in London this week, please join Matteo Menapace and me at Historical Materialism On Thursday, November 7.
Games against empire: a workshop on game-hacking for anti-fascist futures
Thursday, November 7, 16h30-18h15
Join game designers Matteo Menapace and Max Haiven for a hands-on workshop where we explore the dialectical potential of games to disrupt capitalist ideology and model new potential post-capitalist futures.Marxist games night with Max Haiven and Matteo Menapace, 19h onward
Drop in at the SOAS campus pub to play new and classic anti-capitalist board games and to learn more about this exciting emerging front of the cultural struggle. Everyone is welcome!
BONUS: Pluto Books, publisher of my game Billionaires and Guillotines (coming out next year and playable on Thursday) will offer a free drink to the first 20 participants!
Two new VAGABONDS titles, coming in January
VAGABONDS, the series of short, radical books I edit for Pluto Press, is pleased to welcome two new titles to our growing list, both due out in January!
#6 - To See in the Dark: Palestine and Visual Activism Since October 7 by Nick Mirzoeff
#7 - Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity by Valeria Graziano, Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak
More information very soon!
Episode 2 of What Do We Want?: CONSPIRACY
The second episode of Sense & Solidarity’s new podcast, What Do We Want launches on Tuesday, November 5 on CONSPIRACY!
Unless you are a lizard person hiding under a tin-foil rock, you, dear activist, have met your fair share of conspiracists.
What the f*ck is wrong with these people? And why are they so damn successful in attracting others when their stories are so implausible?
In this episode of What Do We Want? (a podcast about what brings social movements together and drives them apart), Max and Sarah sail to the farthest reaches of our beautiful flat earth to answer questions about CONSPIRACY like…
What actually separates us radical malcontents from conspiracy theorists? Should movements have better enemies? And should we bother trying to drag people out of the rabbit-hole?
Then ex-conspiracist and anti-conspiracy podcaster Brent Lee of Some Dare Call it Conspiracy patiently explains all the things we got wrong.
It’s podcasting that wakes up the sheeple.
You can listen to What Do We Want? online or subscribe now via RSS, Apple, Spotify or by searching on your podcast app!
You can also read our blog post about it here.
Rather than making fun of conspiracists, we should be asking: what can we learn from their success? It’s not a matter of emulating their deplorable methods. It’s a matter of asking: what needs are conspiracy theories meeting for people, and how could those needs be met otherwise?
Not enough for you? Good news! Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou and A.T. Kingsmith and I made an entire season-long podcast on the topic in 2022, Conspiracy Games and Countergames.
The Player and the Played, coming soon from MIT Press
In other game-related news, I’m please do say I’ve signed a contreact with MIT Press to publish a book tentatively titled The Player and the Played: Gamification, Financialization and (anti-)Fascism. You can read a little sketch of the book’s main themes here. Hopefully it will be out, and in open-access formats, in 2026.
London events
While all the spots in our Changing Hearts and Minds 3.5-day London workshop are full, we at Sense & Solidarity (me and Sarah Stein Lubrano) are happy to welcome you to two public events we’ll be hosting as part of it:
November 14, 19h - “What Can We Learn from the Radical Imagination?”
November 17, 16h - “Podcast Recording of What Do We Want?: The Pleasures of Activism”
