PODCAST · society
Literate Machine
by Eric Rosenfield
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.
Episodes
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The Technofeudal Roadmap to Socialism
What if they were already giving us the tools we need to beat them? Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield where you can get early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, and more for only $1/mo Video version: https://youtu.be/QaDtAOWgKdQ Text version:...
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50k Subscriber Q&A
I hit 50k subs! Here's some questions and answers! Join my Discord server: https://discord.gg/sfHRjccnt9 Support this channel at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, bonus essays, and more for only $1/mo. Bibliography: Video about the problems...
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The Medievalization of Work and the Cooperative Cure
With the economy getting more technofeudal, work is getting more medieval. What if this could play into the hands of creating a more cooperative economy that's better for everyone and not just the rich? Text version:...
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Is Ground News a Right Wing Psy-Op?
There's some evidence this was done on purpose Text: https://literatemachine.com/2026/08/16/is-ground-news-a-right-wing-psy-op/ Bibliography: https://literatemachine.com/2026/08/16/is-ground-news-a-right-wing-psy-op/#bibliography Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for…
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Ground News and the War on Truth
Ground News bills itself as a way to evaluate bias in the news, but the way it does so plays into the hands of those who have a reason to make you think all news bias falls into a simple left-right spectrum Bibliography:...
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25k Subcribers Q&A
Here's the 25k subscriber Q&A! Passion Project vs. Ambition, Democratic Socialism vs. Market Socialism, Predictions for 2028, 3 Crises that worry me, and the story of the channel. Relevant links: How Can I Save You? Gravity's Rainbow Over Palestine Mooks Clip of Hasan Piker saying Fox News is...
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Why Infinite Growth is not Possible
Innovation and the stars will not be enough to give us infinite growth in a capitalist economy and all you have to do to know why is look at the evidence Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get early, ad free episodes, exclusive author's notes, and more for only $1....
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Anti-Life or How Capitalism Will Die (with Math)
It seems like the entire economy is being sucked up into the realm of the ultra-rich. Let's explore why this looks like the beginning of the end. Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, and other extras for...
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Mooks
Let me challenge your assumptions Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield where you can get early, ad-free episodes, exclusive author's notes, exclusive content and more for only $1. Full text: https://literatemachine.com/2026/04/30/mooks/ Bibliography:...
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Anarchy and the Promise of Revolution (V for Vendetta)
The book V for Vendetta posits a battle for the soul of the country between Anarchism and Fascism, freedom and oppression. But what if revolution doesn't happen the way we think it does? Bibliography:...
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Superman and the Case for Open Borders
What does Superman tell us about the ethics of closed borders? Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield Especially since at this moment Warner Brothers did a copyright claim on this video to take all the revenue despite the fact that I only use small clips for the...
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Gaiman/Trump and the New Thought Behind the Abuse
How the New Thought and Positive Thinking movements helped create Neil Gaiman and Donald Trump and undermined our economy and lives Support this project on Patreon at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield Thanks to all my Patrons! Full bibliography at:...
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Our Coming Cyberpunk Dictatorship (Snow Crash)
There's a worst case scenario looming here, isn't there? Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, Curtis Yarvin, Freedom Cities, "Anarcho-Capitalism", and the Neofeudal Order Still to Come Special thanks to my Patrons Support this project at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield for exclusive author's notes,...
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Gravity's Rainbow Over Palestine
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:...
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What Do We Do Now?
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:...
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10,000 Subscriber Q&A
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...
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How Capitalism Becomes Feudalism (Severance and Technofeudalism)
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...
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Elon Musk, Wokeness, and the Myth of Meritocracy
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...
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How Will Capitalism End? The Orville, Eduard Bernstein, and What is to Be Done?
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…
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Star Trek into Socialism: or Who Deserves the Future
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…
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Loki and How Conservatives Become Fascists
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…
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The Confused Ideology of Schitt's Creek
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...
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Defund the Paw Patrol
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...
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How the Hippies Became Yuppies: The Trial of the Chicago 7
How Aaron Sorkin whitewashes the story of hippy activism, and how the hippy activists whitewashed themselves. Text and video version of this episode, as well as how to get it in your inbox, can be found at: https://literatemachine.com **Bibliography and Further Reading** * Abbie Hoffman testimony...
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Pixar's Soul: Finding Yourself Under Capitalism
Pete Doctor takes us into the meaning of life, but is there something hollow at its center of it? Bibliography and Further Reading * Soul using uncomfortable blackface: https://noripatterson.medium.com/whats-wrong-with-pixar-s-soul-animation-racism-and-blackface-c9a7709cd50f * Tom Wolfe's famous...
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Why Stories? Henry Fool and What the Artist is For
What does it mean to be an artist? Corrections: * The high school students put one of Simon's poems into their high school yearbook, they don't post it up everywhere. Henry puts the poem up in the mute woman's store at her request. * Fay puts Simon's poem on the internet after Henry asks her to....
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Doom, Myst, and the War for the Soul of Video Games
In the 1990s, Myst and Doom fought a war for the soul of video games. Myst sold almost twice as many copies. Within ten years, the entire industry had remodeled itself around Doom. Special call out to Jimmy Maher at the Digital Antiquarian (https://filfre.net) whose work covering early video…
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Cerebus: Misogyny and Madness
For 30 years, Dave Sim engaged in one of the most remarkable ongoing artistic endeavors ever while he gradually lost his mind. Bibliography and Further Reading * A collection quotations of Dave Sim's most misogynistic writing: https://www.theabsolute.net/misogyny/sim.html * An account of Sim's…
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Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Rise of the Alt-Right
How the worms ate into my brain, what I did and did not understand about The Wall, and what it tells us about the rise of the Alt-Right. Follow me on Twitter at @ericrosenfield Support this show on Patreon for as little as $1 an episode at https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield and get access to show...
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Superheroes and the Police
What do you do when the authorities have been compromised? If you enjoyed this please tell someone about it, word of mouth is how projects like this grow. Bibliography and Further Reading More general information about abolishing the police:...
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How Can I Save You?
Let's go back in time, to before the Pandemic, and see if we can change anything. You can support my Patreon for as little as $1 an episode: https://patreon.com/ericrosenfield Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericrosenfield Join the newsletter and get this in your inbox:...
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There is No Alternative: Doctor Who, "Kerblam!", and the Specter of Technological Unemployment
In the 2018 Doctor Who episode "Kerblam!", something is killing workers off at a far future Amazon analogue. Is it Capitalism? Or is the system not the problem? In this episode, Doctor Who is used as a lens to understand the history of technological unemployment and what it means for our…
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A Mind Forever Voyaging into Neoliberalism
In 1984, Ronald Reagan won reelection in a landslide and one man responded the only way he knew how: by channeling his horror into a video game. My favorite video game. So let's leap through time as the artificial intelligence Perry Sim and see what A Mind Forever Voyaging tells us about our...
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Vintage Season
In the premiere episode of Literate Machine, a look at the so-called "Golden Age" of Science Fiction through the lens of one of its finest practitioners, C. L. Moore. Her story (and the story of her husband, Henry Kuttner) in the science fiction mills of the mid-twentieth century is the story of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Eric Rosenfield
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Literate Machine have?
Literate Machine currently has 34 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Literate Machine about?
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...
How often does Literate Machine release new episodes?
Literate Machine has 34 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Literate Machine?
You can listen to Literate Machine on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Literate Machine?
Literate Machine is created and hosted by Eric Rosenfield.
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