In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Alan Turing’s 1950 essay, “Computer Machinery and Intelligence” and discuss whether or not Turing’s concept of machine intelligence is a contradiction in terms.By Michael Repici

After 15 years on the federal food and agriculture policy beat, perhaps no other American of her generation has a better perspective on what might or might not happen under the new Administration. RFK Jr and the MAHA movement are having an impact. What could it all mean?By Michael Reid Dimock

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “The Indoor Plumbing Test” by cultural critic Freddie deBoer and ponder the question: Is AI only hype?By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Derek Thompson’s Atlantic essay, “The Anti-Social Century.” They discuss how the evolution of media technologies over the last 50 years, culminating in the development of AI have produced our current state of technologically enhanced solitude. The Anti-Social Century I'm In Love With Chat GPT…

The author, musician, homestead farmer, and host of the Full Expression podcast Dan Imhoff flips the table on Michael Dimock to explore the origins of Michael’s interest in and career path within the good food movement.By Michael Reid Dimock

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Wai Chee Dimock’s PMLA editor’s column, AI in the Humanities. After a brief summary of her argument they focus on the practicality of a humanistic approach to designing AI and its possible impacts.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Matteo Wong’s Dec. 9th article in The Atlantic, “The GPT Era Is Already Ending.” They trace the algorithmic shift from Chat GPT to 01 and discuss whether this transition gets any closer to genuine intelligence. We encourage you to listen to the previous episode on Benjamin Labatut’s “The Gods of Reason” as a p…

Diana Donlon has cultivated, mentored and inspired a growing community of regenerative agriculture activists through her leadership of SoilCentric. She reveals how she remains optimistic despite the challenges ahead.By Michael Reid Dimock

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Benjamin Labatut’s essay, “The Gods of Logic: Before and After Artificial Intelligence. In tracing his historical approach to the development of AI, Barry and Mike highlight the unpredictability of language as opposed to the certainty of mathematics. Link to article.…

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Jodi Dean’s book, “Blog Theory.” They focus on her notion of “communicative capitalism,” treating the book as a time capsule of sorts. They take her arguments from 2010 and suggest their relevance to our current situation in 2024.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss chapter one of Bolter and Grusin’s book and attempt to define their foundational term, remediation.By Michael Repici

Are tariffs good for American Agriculture? It is a very important question given the new administration's pledge to add tariffs to imported goods. Hear a large-scale, no-till, commodity soy bean farmer, describe his experience and knowledge about the impact of tariffs on the nation’s farmers. A special broadcast provided by Rodger Wasson from his s…

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin’s introduction to their 1999 Media Studies book, Remediation. In particular, they discuss the four key concepts that Bolter and Grusin introduce: mediation, remediation, immediacy, and hypermediacy.By Michael Repici

In the follow up to their previous episode, Barry and Mike discuss how Kember and Zylinska use Steigler’s notion of an “originary technicity” to articulate a third position between the philosophy Raymond Williams and Marshall McLuhan.By Michael Repici

Animal right activists placed the terribly written anti CAFO Measure J on the November 2024 Sonoma County ballot. It threatens the future of this small and mid-scale farming community and others like it across the nation. Professional Ducati motorcycle racer, organic dairy woman and Covergirl model Shelina Moreda is co leading a campaign to stop th…

This is the first of two episodes on Kember and Zylinska’s essay “Mediation and the Vitality of Media” from their book, Life after New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process (2012). Barry and Mike discuss the problems with and reasons for the binary divisions in media theory, particularly the way in which the field understands the relations between “o…

Barry and Mike discuss Bruno Latour’s essay, “On Actor-Network Theory: A few clarifications.” They work through his key terms in an attempt to better understand the new meanings he ascribes to actors and networks and what this theory allows us to do with media theory.By Michael Repici

Cole Mannix’s family has ranched in the Black Foot Valley of Montana since 1882. Even with thousands of acres and hundreds of cattle, the return on investment is bleak. Learn how his family and four other ranches have come together to create the Old Salt Co-op and beef brand with two restaurants, online sales and an annual ranch event all in order …

In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion of William Burroughs’ cut-up method. They introduce Alex Kitnick’s arguments about the Media is the Massage from his book Distant Early Warning: Marshall McLuhan and the Transformation of the Avant-Garde in order to illuminate Burroughs’ practice.…

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss William Burroughs’ 1963 manifesto “The Cut-Up Method.” We worry over some contradictions and tensions in his “new” method of writing.By Michael Repici

#73 In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “Panglossian Neoliberalism,” a term that Evgeny Morozov uses to describe the place of generative AI in the hands of venture capitalists. Can AI Break out of Panglossian Neoliberalism? The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence a sense oF rebellion podcastBy Michael Repici

This is a look back at our 3/3/23 episode on Simone Weil.By Michael Repici

Today Michael talks with Lisa Hamilton, a great chronicler of uncommon agrarians, and the author of the new book, The Hungry Season. Agrarians are those who live from working in agriculture. With only 2.2 million agrarians are less than 1% of the US population. These few feed our nation and much of the world. An even smaller percentage of those few…

In this episode Barry and Mike return to Bernard Steigler’s What Makes Life Worth Living: On Pharmakology. They tease out Steigler’s terms proletarianism and disintoxification, as well as our possible roles in resisting the poison and fostering the growth of the cure in the pharmakon.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Bernard Steigler’s 2010 book, What Makes Life Worth Living: On Pharmacology. They reconsider their understanding of the pharmakon from Steigler’s other work and discuss the significance of care in pharmakology.By Michael Repici

Nutritionist and leader of the Dairy Council of California, Amy DeLisio, and 6th generation organic dairy farmer from Humboldt County, Cody Nicholson Stratton, dialogue with Michael around the opportunities and challenges related to nutrition and the environment faced by California’s gargantuan dairy industry.…

In this episode, Barry and Mike finish their discussion of Chayka on Han and Benjamin’s essay, “The Storyteller.” In teasing out Han and Benjamin’s ideas about the distinction between narration and information, they land on the problem posed by the contemporary digital campfire.By Michael Repici

In this episode, Barry and Mike focus exclusively on the distinction between the storyteller and the novelist as explained in Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay, “The Storyteller.”By Michael Repici

If you are hearing the news lately you know the campuses, now educating Gen Z, are rocked by angry students on both sides of the war in Israel. This is an energized group and may indicate a sea change in the level and type of activism in the country in the years ahead. In this episode we’ll learn from three members of “Gen Z” if they believe the pa…

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Kyle Chayka’s assessment of the “Internet’s New Favorite Philosopher,” Byung-Chul Han. For those unfamiliar with Han's media theory, we encourage you to click the link above and read the Chayka article before listening to the episode.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the “Sonny Bunch Hosts the Bulwark Goes to Hollywood” episode “The Future of Media is Passive” and the notion of “linear streaming.” The ponder what it says about our distracted worlds.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike talk about Andrew Milne’s essay, “Tourists in our own Reality: Susan Sontag’s Photography at 50” in an attempt to update her arguments for the digital age. They puzzle over what it means to have an authentic relationship to photographs, or to be authentic ourselves.By Michael Repici

Tim Johnson CEO of California Rice Commission shares how rice growers are modeling the future of agriculture by delivering a fabulous array of ecosystem services, wealth creation and delicious, healthy food for California and the world.By Michael Reid Dimock

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss chapter 2 of of Jonathan Crary’s “Scorched Earth.” They focus on social media as a pharmacological problem within the Internet Complex.By Michael Repici

Barry and Mike discuss Jonathan Crary’s critique of the “internet complex” and what it means.By Michael Repici

Alegria De La Cruz has a history of creating spaces and moments for farmworkers and other historically marginalized brown and black people to fairly and wisely engage the powers that be: employers, judges and policy makers.By Michael Reid Dimock

Barry and Mike discuss Siegfried Kracauer's 1926 essay "Cult of Distraction: On Berlin's Picture Palaces." Written nearly 100 years ago, the essay is strangely relevant to our current political landscape. We pay special attention to Kracauer's unique notion of distraction, which contra Stiegler, Kracauer views as a stimulus to thought.…

Barry and Mike discuss Yanis Varoufakis' book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, and the challenge it presents to Marxist theories about global capital.By Michael Repici

As 30-year-old Native American rancher, mother and nonprofit leader, Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott reflects the power of the millennial generation born between 1981 and 1996. Indigenous knowledge, the future of food and her role in the film Common Ground are deeply explored in this episode.

In this episode Barry and Mike relate Evgeny Morozov’s 2013 New Yorker essay, “Only Disconnect” to their previous discussion of A. Romero’s meditation on boredom and distraction and the internet.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “The Most Important Skill in the 21st Century,” Alberto Romero’s polemical defense of boredom in the media entertainment age. They discuss whether it’s possible to be bored today in the way that Romero seems to require.By Michael Repici

In this episode Barry and Mike return to the earlier discussion of Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” and question her conclusion regarding the human/robotic distinction in light of PKD’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”By Michael Repici

A 5th generation commodity crop farmer from Indiana, the Heartland of America, Rick Clark had an awakening during a one-inch rain event in 2007 that washed topsoil from his fields. That moment spawned a ten-year journey during which Rick created rich healthy soil that captures carbon and holds water, diversified his crops and increased his profits.…

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together” and her thesis, that though technology opens new possibilities for communication it simultaneously alienates us from each other, leaving us wanting for emotional connections. We wonder whether Turkle is right and whether authentic relationships are possible.…

In this episode Barry and Mike resume their discussion of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun.” They discuss how differences in class and education determine how the various characters relation to Kara as an embodiment of technology.By Michael Repici

Change is good! Barry and Mike shift the focus of their discussions on technology to look more closely at what it means to be human in a technologically dominated world. This episode looks at Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, "Klara and the Sun" and investigates his questions about the spaces between humanity and technology.…

Farm boy and entrepreneur Jim Kleinschmit started a company called Other Half Processing to ensure that the hides and other byproducts from cattle and bison production are fully utilized. When USDA began its funding campaign to promote regenerative agriculture, he hatched an idea that has bloomed into a $35 million project to build lucrative market…

In this episode Barry and Mike wrap up their discussion of Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects,” focusing on the question of education and media.By Michael Repici

After decades of economic decline around the Harris family’s farm, Will experienced an epiphany that led to a journey to what we now call regenerative agriculture. His story is about a pioneer’s perseverance, love for animals, the land and a community. His example could transform rural America.By Michael Reid Dimock

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Marshal McLuhan’s seminal text, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. They discuss the form of the book and some of the key opening arguments.By Michael Repici