DEATH // SENTENCE

Is Elon Musk just a guy who can't post, or is he the avatar of Muskism - a new philosophy for our postliberal age? Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's book Muskism: A Guide For the Perplexed argues the latter, taking us through techno-fascist South Africa to Silicon Valley - and along the way we find out that two of the most insightful critics of technology and neoliberalism know a *lot* about anime. Music by Neurosis: https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-world You too can become meme by joining our Discord (it's free): https://discord.gg/mk928WGds

Langdon and Eden dive into the collapse, tackling Event Factory, the first book from Renee Gladman's Ravicka novels. Meaning disappears, rituals empty of signal, and the malaise of our urban existence is revealed. But also, potentials are exposed, connections are made, and understanding hinted at. Music played: Ordh - Apis Bull https://ordh.bandcamp.com/track/apis-bull

Sports betting, crypto, predictions markets, Buy Now Pay Later, getting a credit card to pay off your credit card - what if we said that isn't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nihilism and finance? Amin Samman joins us to talk about his book Currency of Nihilism, punk rock, the abyss of meaning that is money and why French poststructuralists are Like That. Music by Warning: https://warningdoom.bandcamp.com/album/rituals-of-shame Give us your money: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence Hang out with us on Discord (for free!): https://discord.gg/zHBV9qCE

This time around, we go back to the early 20th century to discuss a foundational work of British Weird - The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood! We survey the cultural trends of the 19th and 20th century literary and occult scenes in general, the gripping power of this tight and precise novel, and the feeling of dread and awe so often invoked by the weird. Music played: Cryptic Shift - Hyperspace Topography https://cryptic-shift.bandcamp.com/track/hyperspace-topography-2

All books are bad but Langdon and Eden have stumbled on one that SHOULD have been good but is actually awful - PKD and Roger Zelazny's Deus Irae. Confused theology, mish-mashed desert journeys, and more questions without answers than a church all blend together in a collaboration that should, and almost did, stay unpublished. Music played - Exxûl - Blighted Deity https://productionstso.bandcamp.com/track/blighted-deity

Eden launches into Hiron Ennes' The Works of Vermin, using it as a platform to explore ideas around the potentials and contradictions of living in modern cities. He also discusses the influence of the French Second Empire (yes) on the New Weird, why that period of time holds so much of interest, and sketches an upcoming essay on these ideas. Music played: Pallbearer - The Ghost I Used to Be (2025 Mix) https://pallbearer.bandcamp.com/track/the-ghost-i-used-to-be-2025-mix

Langdon and Eden meet to discuss a smörgåsbord (say it with us) of topics like mental health, the uses of online discourse, and a collection of books they've been reading. Music played: The Holy Pale by Wildhunt https://jawbreakerrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-holy-pale

Eden is joined by friend of the cast Jesse Kohn (The Book of Webs) to talk about Leonora Carrington's beguiling and dense The Stone Door. Unfortunately, this episode is marred by the Brown University and Bondi Beach shootings. A better world is possible. Demand utopia. Music played: The Tea Club - The Bell Ringer https://theteaclub.bandcamp.com/track/the-bell-ringer

Langdon conjures forth the Wizard's Castle once more, this time trapping Branson Reese (HELL WAS FULL, SWAN BOY, Rude Tales of Magic, and more) within its sorcerous corridors. While there, the two discuss what makes jokes funny, the impact of the morality of art, and The Simpsons (among other things). Music played - Yellow Eyes - Brush the Frozen Horse https://yelloweyes.bandcamp.com/track/brush-the-frozen-horse

Langdon and Eden kick things off by talking about the uses of awards - how to follow them, what they're good for, and why! Then, they dive into John M. Ford's parallel reality version of cyberpunk with Web of Angels, his debut novel. Phone lines that span galaxies, crazy weird space opera, and a rough book that brims with passion! Music played: Heruvim - Arammu https://heruvim.bandcamp.com/track/arammu Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - Radioactive Dreams https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/track/radioactive-dreams

Naruto run with us to the local picture house to watch a double bill of Ari Aster's Eddington and Zack Cregger's Weapons, with Kayte Terry of the excellent Tender Subject podcast. Music by Umulamahri: https://umulamahri.bandcamp.com/album/learning-the-secrets-of-acid-2

Langdon and Eden discuss the too-often bland and safe nature of science fiction and fantasy before diving in to a work that's anything but, "One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve"! Body horror, familial obsession, and finally being at peace with yourself mix in this arresting and clever novella about a man sawed in half! Music played: Rintrah - Fearful Symmetry https://rintrahmusic.bandcamp.com/track/fearful-symmetry Kayo Dot - Oracle By Severed Head https://kayodot.bandcamp.com/track/oracle-by-severed-head

Ishiguro season is done now that we've reached 2022's Klara and the Sun, the heartwarming story of a M3gan learning what it is to love. We also talk about Anime, for Satan. Music by https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/changelings

This time around, Langdon and Eden peer into the world, which is actually many things and not just one (and that's good!) Then, they take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin award nominee, Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon! Weird spaceships, radical politics, interesting AI, and a lot of emotions mix in this short story suite! Music played: Hypomanic Daydream - Dissociative https://hypomanicdaydream.bandcamp.com/track/dissociative Editrix - The Big E https://editrix.bandcamp.com/track/the-big-e

Langdon and Eden kick things off by asking the important questions: which member of the Friends cast would you follow into battle? They also discuss the inherent futility and horror of war. Then, they tackle Roger Zelazny's weird and feverish Creatures of Light and Darkness, touching on elements of myth, explosive prose, attention to detail, and Zelazny's unfortunate misogyny. Music played: Mathilde - Kepler- 186f https://mathilde-blackmetal.bandcamp.com/track/kepler-186-f Imipolex - Martian Blood Mother https://imipolex.bandcamp.com/track/martian-blood-mother

We made it - the podcast's personal favourite Kazuo Ishiguro book, The Buried Giant. It turns out a book about memory and genocide is kind of relevant to the world today, but we set it as part of Ishiguro's grand project of showing how Britain is bad and should sink below the waves. Music by Planning for Burial Theme tune by Caina

Gareth and Eden explore Nisi Shawl's Everfair, a mostly successful attempt at writing better, less racist, and more "complete" historical fiction. Nuclear dirigibles, proto-socialist societies, cool knife-hands, and lots and lots (and lots) of character PoVs mix and mingle with geopolitics and complex racial identities! Music played: Knives - PHD https://knivesnoise.bandcamp.com/track/phd

Eden flies solo on this episode, diving deep into the masterful, subtle, and rich Growing Up Weightless by the criminally under-read and under-recognized John M. Ford. Lunar politics, coming of age, and weird interstellar drives clash in this unique, hard sci-fi bildungsroman! Music played: Changeling - Changeling https://changelingofficial.bandcamp.com/track/changeling

Langdon and Eden kick things off by discussing their favorite Metallica tracks and also how good Metallica really are. Then, they dive into Oliver K. Langmead's "Calypso", a beautiful, if limited, verse novel about terraforming, memory, personhood, and endings. Music played: Slave Agent - Forced to Suffer https://slaveagent.bandcamp.com/track/forced-to-suffer Grails - Silver Bells https://grails.bandcamp.com/track/silver-bells

The Kazuo Ishiguro season continues with maybe his least known, maybe his least liked work: Nocturnes. Sitting between the mega-hit Never Let Me Go and the critical blockbuster The Buried Giant, this book is often overlooked and, maybe, it kind of deserves to be? But first, we talk GAMING - specifically Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, because our woke Marxist schools taught us that everything is a text. Music by Hedvig Mollestad Trio, theme tune by Caina.

Are books... dangerous? A lot of people think so, from Moms For Liberty to the mostly-imaginary internet spectre of the censorious Puriteen. Lyta Gold joins us to talk about which books are most dangerous and which might be able to redeem the act of reading. Theme tune by Caina: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/ Danger is our Patreon's middle name: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

Eden and Langdon both exist (maybe) and with this snippet of existence, they discuss the historiography of the Paris Commune on the left and suggest a proper position (empathy) towards its hopes and failures. Then, they discuss the beautiful and problematic "Five Ways to Forgiveness" by Ursula K. Le Guin, a short story suite about slavery, feminism, war and Hain. Music played: Object Unto Earth - Alas I Hop Along https://objectuntoearth.bandcamp.com/track/alas-i-hop-along Cave Sermon - Hopeless Magic https://cavesermon.bandcamp.com/track/hopeless-magic

Olga Tokarczuk's first book since winning the Nobel prize in Literature is deeply feminist folk-horror with more than a little influence from Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Is it just a fun ghost story or a warning about how the Male Loneliness Epidemic(tm) will end in tragedy. More importantly, does Langdon yearn for the production lines?

This time around, Langdon and Eden discuss what can be done in our personal lives, regardless of the potential for a revolution or any feelings of hope and despair. Then, they dive into the mesmerizing verse-prose of Jason Guriel's Forgotten Work, a novel in heroic couplets about the power of music, obsession, cult followings, and sick teleportation technology. Music played: Kyros - Esoterica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQGbHdn_SJ0 Max Cooper - The Sun in a Box https://maxcooper.bandcamp.com/track/the-sun-in-a-box-2

One of the greatest fantasy epics of the 21st century ends here, with Alex Pheby's mind-bending Waterblack. We go in-depth into the trilogy and the surprising inspirations behind its central themes. Also, Skibidi Toilet. Music by Homeskin: https://homeskin.bandcamp.com/track/blood-to-disk Theme tune by Caïna: https://cainaband.bandcamp.com/

Ready to get DAMP? Sophie Sleigh-Johnson's Code: Damp explores fucked Anglo vibes through the work of sitcom legend Leonard Rossiter, star of Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Buy it from Repeater Books here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/code-damp-an-esoteric-guide-to-british-sitcoms/

Y'all ready to get DELEUZIAN? Victoria Brooks' Silicon God is a goopy, rhizomatic book about time mistresses from the future and a bunch of stuff that we definitely can't talk about here. Music by Phrenelith: https://phrenelith.bandcamp.com/album/ashen-womb

Why is Guan Yu so powerful? Which Universal Movie Monster tastes best? How can you get somebody to enjoy Brutal Death Metal? Will Communism win? Our audience has asked all of these questions and many more, and we tackle them all with our trademark professionalism and focus. Music by Wrekmeister Harmonies Theme tune by Caina.

Langdon is joined in the Wizard's Tower by Kayte Terry of Tender Subject and Jon Greenaway of Horror Vanguard to discuss Robert Eggers' tale of a Dracula trapped in a world he never made, looking for love in all the wrong places. Music by Ambrose Akinmusire

Langdon and Eden tackle linear time and how World War II, and its retellings, fit in with our cultural memories of the past. Then, they dive into the fragmented, gorgeous, and shocking Unknown Language, a tale shifting rapidly between alternative presents, futures, holy wars, love, and violence, all through the inimitable and kaleidoscopic lens of Hildegard von Bingen, Huw Lemmey, Bhanu Kapil and Alice Spawls! Music played: Tides From Nebula - Fearflood https://tidesfromnebulaofficial.bandcamp.com/track/fearflood-2 Pale - Almost Transparent Blue https://paleofband.bandcamp.com/track/almost-transparent-blue

Kazuo Ishiguro season keeps on truckin' into 2005's Never Let Me Go, perhaps his most widely read and equally widely loved novels. There are brain-donor clones drawing dank pepes, Ruth being a total b-word and -even though we are 100% anti-worldbuilding- some bad worldbuilding. Music by Skagos: https://skagos.bandcamp.com/album/chariot-sun-blazing

ENTER THE WIZARD'S TOWER with this episode in which we stretch the concept of a 'text' to breaking point by talking about a film- specifically 2024's The Substance. Joined by comedian Jake Flores and Tender Subject host Kayte Terry, will we survive the intricate mind maze of feminist discourse?

This time around, Langdon and Eden dive into the question of geo-political narratives and the stories we tell ourselves, specifically about the "American Century" and it's dubious decline. Then, they dive deep into Oh God, the Sun Goes, the debut novel by David Connor. State of mind, Pynchon-esque misconnections, hazy realities, and the power of the desert, combine into a flawed but highly moving book! Music played: Caelestra - Lightbringer https://caelestra.bandcamp.com/track/lightbringer The Great Old Ones - Me, the Dreamer https://thegreatoldonessom.bandcamp.com/track/me-the-dreamer

In the early 20th century Henri Bergson was a rockstar of philosophy, able to pack lecture halls and create the first ever traffic jam on Broadway. Today he's virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, and Dr. Emily Herring is aiming to fix that with her book Herald of a Restless World. Music by Lowen: https://lowen.bandcamp.com/album/do-not-go-to-war-with-the-demons-of-mazandaran-2

John Trefry's Massive is 764 pages of the densest post-everything literary noise possible, a monolith that you don't read, you move through. There's absolutely no way to describe it and it's brilliant. Buy it from Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/massive Music by Sunrise Patriot Motion: https://sunrisepatriotmotion.bandcamp.com/album/my-father-took-me-hunting-in-the-snow

This time around, Gareth and Eden are joined by Marijam Did to discuss her excellent research into the revolutionary and reactionary potentials, avenues, and practices of the video games industry! The three talk the COVID boom and bust, professionalizing esports as a practice of capitalism, and games under future communism! Music played: Solar Wimp - Enhanced Iconography https://solarwimp.bandcamp.com/track/enhanced-iconography

CW FOR BASICALLY EVERYTHING Charlene Elsby is one of the most renowned literary horror writers out there right now, and her two most recent books, the novel Violent Faculties (Clash Books) and short story collection (House of Vlad) are both incredibly intelligent and utterly horrific. Music by Gutless: https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/high-impact-violence

This time around, Eden is joined by Kyle Winkler, author of Grasshands and, more recently, the cosmic horror, punk-infused, metal-slinging tale of a biker who refuses to go quietly. They talk violence, revenge, metal as aesthetics, and more! Music played: Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross https://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/track/neon-cross-feat-brandon-saller

Talia Lavin joins us to talk about her new book Wild Faith, on how the Christian Right is taking over America, but also raw milk, cruelty, demons and more. Also we declare Beef on another podcast. Music by MINTTT The power of Christ compels you to join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

Kazuo Ishiguro season keeps on truckin' to 2000's When We Were Orphans. After the divisive The Unconsoled, Kaz' is getting his groove back with this story of a gentleman detective who is so English that his brain doesn't work right. Music by Pig Destroyer and Streetfighter

Ever wanted to live out your worst impulses in America's sweaty armpit? Of course you have, and debut author Jillian Luft knows this. Her book Scumbag Summer is about failing to live up to your potential in Florida and it is glorious. Music by Full of Hell: https://fullofhell.bandcamp.com/album/scraping-the-divine Our Discord has often been called 'The Florida of Discords', and you can access it through our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DeathSentence

Langdon and Eden travel to a future-past where TV hosts bring nations to their knees (hahahah oh god that's just our present) with Norman Spinrad's controversial (and excellent) Bug Jack Barron! But first, they discuss the fading power of debuts, early works, and the role of passion in art! Music played: Excuse - Sworn to the Crimson Oath https://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/track/sworn-to-the-crimson-oath Frozen Crown - War Hearts https://frozencrown.bandcamp.com/track/war-hearts

There are cars, hyperloops, even blimps - but no form of transport is better than the train. Gareth Dennis has been in the rail industry for a decade and hosts the podcast Rail Natter... and has been targeted by sleazy government officials after speaking up about safety. He joins us to talk about why trains are perfect, why hyperloop will never work and what we do to get a transport system that works. Music by Schammasch Chugga-chugga choo choo! The join our Patreon train has left the station: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

The Wizard's Tower emerges once more, this time gathering in its clutches Donald Ryan, author of Don Bronco's (Working Title) Shell! Meta-narrative, eggs (sort of), truth (not really), experimentation, and more! Music played: "I Cover the Mountaintop" by Elephant9 https://elephant9band.bandcamp.com/track/i-cover-the-mountaintop

Eden is joined by Adam C. Jones of the Acid Horizon podcast to discuss his upcoming book - The New Flesh: Life and Death in the Data Economy! The two discuss cybernetics, the human as battery, data flows as cybernetics, and the fall and fall of cyberpunk. Music played: Graveyard Addicted by Warpstone https://warpstone.bandcamp.com/track/graveyard-addicted

Langdon and Eden happily return to Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall but first must unhappily return to the ongoing and intensifying genocide in Palestine. They discuss ideas that appear in both the book and our lived experiences of culpability, memory, storytelling, and future imaginaries as well as delay on the subject of hype and attention. Music played: Bedsore - Realm of Eleuterillide https://bedsoredeath.bandcamp.com/track/realm-of-eleuterillide Dungeon Crawl - The Arcane Temptation https://dungeoncrawlofficial.bandcamp.com/track/the-arcane-temptation

The Wizard's Tower appears out of the mist once more! This time, Langdon conjures forth Katye Terry of Tender Subjects to dive into The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew Sullivan. Homeliness, horror, DIY, and real estate mix within! Music played: Adorior - "Scavengers of Vengeance" https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/track/scavengers-of-vengeance

Langdon goes into the Wizard's Tower and summons Morgan Giles to discuss the expansive and fantastic The End of August by Yu Miri which Giles translated! Family, memory, loss, betrayal, and war are contained therein! Music played: Floating Points - Vocoder https://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/vocoder

It's chaos configuration as Eden, Gareth and Langdon sit down to discuss the...sort of good and very hyped Between Two Fires! And also argue about dark fantasy, Dark Souls, and listen to some sick doom metal. Music played: The Flight of Sleipnir - North https://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/track/north

On this episode, Langdon and Eden are forced to tackle the so-called "Hegelian E-girl Council" and explain why they suck. While they tackle them. To the ground. Then, they talk about the tantalizing, subtle, and down-right inimitable The West Passage. Weird fantasy, even weirder honey, and the weirdest eldritch beings in the form of Ladies, plus all the occulted, esoteric lore you could crave. Music played: Oh Hiroshima - Swans In A Field https://ohhiroshima.bandcamp.com/track/swans-in-a-field Pinkish Black - Ashtray Eyes https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/ashtray-eyes