DEATH // SENTENCE

Langdon and Eden return from the void of unreality to tackle, fight, love, and hate How I Killed the Universal Man by Thomas Kendall. It's an excellent and infuriating cyberpunk/noir book about mind-altering drugs, the violence of infrastructure, and how philosophy sucks, actually.

Music played:

Dissimulator - Alloyed https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/track/alloyed

Eden and Langdon return to disparage Francis Fukuyama (and mispronounce his name, sorry) before moving to lauding Italo Calvino's tongue-in-cheek, sharply constructed The Nonexistent Knight. They explore questions of historical reception, "herohood", identity, and (post)modernism.

Music played:

Papangu - Colosso https://papangu.bandcamp.com/track/colosso

Kayte Terry from Tender Subject podcast joins Langdon to talk about The Singularity, the first serious piece of Italian science fiction and a story of getting yourself all messed up about AI, the cold war and weird Zones.

The song is "Endogenous Polypharmaceutical Communion Rite of the Oracular Virgin Priestess" by Effluence and it's 35 minutes long.

The Chaos Configuration emerges to discuss Missouri Williams' beguiling, frustrating, oppressive, and gorgeous The Vivisectors. A tale of the end of history, the collapse of meaning, how weird gardens are, and a messed up city.

Music played:

Oh Hiroshima - Broken Sunlight https://ohhiroshima.bandcamp.com/track/broken-sunlight

The long and storied career of Anathema is not just a template of the trajectory of a certain type of metal band but also a massive influence on the lives, minds, and hearts of Langdon and Eden. In this episode, we dive into the ways in which Anathema has changed over time, the power of their music, and the personal impact it has had on us.

Music played:

Anathema - One Last Goodbye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znnV1XLLEM
Anathema - Lightning Song https://anathema.bandcamp.com/track/lightning-song