
The Cluster F Theory Podcast (Timotheus Vermeulen and Gia Milinovich)
Explore every episode of The Cluster F Theory Podcast
Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
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20 Mar 2024 | The Cluster F Theory Trailer | 00:00:53 | |
Coming soon… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 1. Eugenics Redux- Adam Rutherford | 00:48:41 | |
Adam Rutherford is a scientist, writer, broadcaster and President of Humanists UK. He is a Lecturer in Biology and Society at University College London, where he teaches the history of eugenics, race science, genetics, and science communication. He is one of the UK's most well-known science communicators and in 2021 was awarded The Royal Society David Attenborough Award in recognition of his contribution to strengthening public confidence in science through radio, TV, films, talks and books, and in particular, for challenging racist pseudoscience. His BBC programmes include Start The Week, Inside Science and The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry. He's written several books including 'A Brief History Of Everyone Who's Ever Lived', 'How To Argue With A Racist' and 'Control: The dark history and troubling present of eugenics'. https://www.adamrutherford.com/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences/people/dr-adam-rutherford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Rutherford https://twitter.com/AdamRutherford https://www.youtube.com/live/hIIgAIB5AWw?si=Cgj0Q8DATkF2ucRd NOTES: When Adam mentions 'the Hammersmith Apollo with Brian and Robin', he's talking about an annual science, comedy and music charity event in London held at the Eventim Apollo (which depending on your age you actually refer to as the Hammersmith Odeon or the Hammersmith Apollo, rather than its current name) or at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince. Trump’s Obsession with Genetic Superiority and Bloodlines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6iSgqFahoM Nick Bostrom's paper ‘Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards’ (pdf): https://nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.pdf Elon Musk Is Totally Wrong About Population Collapse (paywall): https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-population-crisis/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe for free to The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 2. Foreplay|Endgame - Joseph Koerner | 00:46:52 | |
Professor Joseph Koerner is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University, where he is also a senior fellow at the prestigious Society of Fellows. Koerner is one of the most renowned art historians and critics working today, and the world’s leading specialist on Northern Renaissance and 19th Century Art, in particular German and Netherlandish painting. He has written multiple books, amongst them volumes on Caspar David Friedrich, Albrecht Durer and recently Bosch and Brueghel. Koerner has also written and presented various documentaries including ‘Northern Renaissance’ and ‘Vienna: City of Dreams’, both produced by the BBC. In 2018 he released his most personal film yet: ‘The Burning Child’, which traces his search for the fate of his grandparents and their Vienna home, known only through a 1944 painting by his exiled father. Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights hi-res: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights Joseph Koerner's faculty page: https://scholar.harvard.edu/jkoerner/home Joseph Koerner's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Koerner The Vienna Project: https://viennaproject.fas.harvard.edu/ Review of 'Bosch and Bruegel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life' in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/01/bosch-bruegel-joseph-leo-koerner NOTES: Bosch's Last Judgement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_(Bosch,_Vienna) Pieter Bruegel the Elder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder The strawberry/Madroño tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_unedo The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe for free to The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 3. War Games - Annabel Daou | 00:37:58 | |
Artist Annabel Daou was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, she is now living in New York. Her work takes place at the intersection of writing, speech, and non-verbal modes of communication. Her paper- and tape-based constructions, sound pieces, and performances explore the language of power, intimacy, and self-encounter across time and space. Her works involve friends, acquaintances, and random strangers. She has asked people questions and given them imperatives. She has read people’s palms – and she's read the Declaration of Independence. There are few artists whose practice resonates more with me, makes me understand what I have long felt; and few who have the power to change my perspective entirely, make me see and experience the world in ways I would have never even intuited before. Annabel’s work has been exhibited around the world, from Beirut to Baltimore to Munich and from New York to Istanbul to Enschede. Her newest project is called War Games, in which she asks people who grew up in war zones about the games they used to invent as kids to cope with their experiences. War Games viewing room (sign-up required, free): https://tanjawagner.com/viewing-room/annabel-daou-war-games/ Annabel Daou’s previous exhibitions at Galerie Tanja Wagner: https://tanjawagner.com/artists/annabel-daou/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annabeldaou/ NOTES: 'Which Side Are You On?' https://annabeldaou.com/Which-side-are-you-on Tim's article on 'Which Side Are You On?': https://www.metamodernism.com/2012/06/19/which-side-are-you-on/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Thank you for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 4. The Science of Happiness - Bruce Hood | 00:44:58 | |
Professor Bruce Hood is Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol in the UK. His research focuses on cognitive development in children, spatial representation and action, the origin of adult magical reasoning from children’s natural intuitions and for the past several years has been running a course at Bristol called the Science of Happiness. Apart from his academic work, he is very well-known for his public communication of science and has appeared on various radio and tv programmes in the UK, presented the Royal Institutions Christmas Lectures and has written several popular science books including 'SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable', 'The Self Illusion: Why There Is No 'You' Inside Your Head' and 'Possessed: Why Do We Want More Than We Need?' Bruce Hood's Faculty Page: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Bruce-Hood-6de6dd5c-4eb7-4d97-bb22-31aba1416ffc/ 'The Science Of Happiness' publisher's page: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Science-of-Happiness/Bruce-Hood/9781398526372 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Hood_(psychologist) Twitter: https://twitter.com/profbrucehood Alumni blog post on Science of Happiness: https://alumni.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2019/10/11/the-science-of-happiness/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thank you for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 5. Living With Death - Francesca Stavrakopoulou | 00:41:17 | |
Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a biblical scholar and broadcaster. She is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter in the UK. Her research is on ancient Israelite and Judahite religions, and portrayals of the religious past in the Hebrew Bible. Her most recent book deals with ancient constructs of God's body, it’s called ‘God: An Anatomy’. It won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for non-fiction; was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize; named a best book of the year in both the Economist and Sunday Times, and was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Francesca is also very active as a public speaker and in the media, appearing on and presenting various tv shows in the UK including ‘The Bible: A History’ and ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’. She is an atheist and a Patron of Humanists UK… and as you can imagine that really pisses off a lot of people interested in her work. Francesca Stavrakopoulou’s faculty page: https://theology.exeter.ac.uk/staff/stavrakopoulou/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProfFrancesca Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Stavrakopoulou ‘God: An Anatomy’ publisher’s page: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/francesca-stavrakopoulou/god/9781509867370 NOTES: In Indonesia, a Blurred Boundary Between the Living and the Dead (New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/travel/torajan-death-rituals-indonesia.html Hans Holbein’s The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_of_the_Dead_Christ_in_the_Tomb Why Greeks are exhuming their parents (BBC) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34920068 The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the show. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
28 Mar 2024 | 6. Ritual- Andy Nyman | 00:42:36 | |
Andy Nyman is a multi-award winning actor, director, writer, author and magician. As an actor his credits include things such as playing Winston Churchill in ‘Peaky Blinders’, and Dan in the Oscar winning film 'Judy'. He starred in Charlie Brooker's 'Dead Set'. Has appeared on stage on Broadway and in the West End in shows such as ‘Fiddler on The Roof’, ‘Assassins’, ‘Hangmen’ and ‘Ghost Stories’, which he also wrote and directed. He is the co-creator and co-writer of several tv shows with illusionist Derren Brown, as well as co-writing and co-directing several of Derren Brown's stage shows. The paperback of his book ‘The Warlock Effect’, written with Jeremy Dyson, is out spring 2024. And he is returning to the West End in the summer in Hello Dolly. He also organises and runs the (awesome) London Magic Convention with his son Preston. Twitter: https://twitter.com/andynyman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andythediamond The London Magin Convention: https://www.londonmagicconvention.co.uk/ Andy Nyman’s IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638762/ Andy will be appearing in Hello Dolly summer 2024: https://hellodollyldn.com/ The Moment by Andy Nyman with Matthew Macfayden: https://youtu.be/4OGk373kKFA?si=pfWfEavi_LA22j5q Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman on ‘Ghost Stories’: https://youtu.be/McQE5tCPDHg?si=ST_iJkTx5_o-qiSR The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
04 Apr 2024 | 7. Negotiating the Long Term - Catherine Ashton | 00:43:55 | |
Catherine Ashton, or The Right Honourable, The Baroness Ashton of Upholland, LG GCMG PC was created a life peer by Tony Blair in 1999. In the Blair government she was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills, and in the Ministry of Justice. During Gordon Brown's government she became Leader of the House of Lords, Lord President of the Council, the British European Commissioner and the Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission. She was appointed a Privy Councillor in May 2006. She served as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and was the First Vice President of the European Commission between 2009 and 2014. In 2013, she worked as a negotiator between Serbia and Kosovo, bringing them to an agreement, and she worked alongside John Kerry in the talks with Iran which led to the interim agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2023, she released her memoir titled 'And Then What? Inside Stories of 21st Century Diplomacy', about her time as a diplomat... Oh also, she's a big Doctor Who fan. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Ashton Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-Ashton-Baroness-Ashton-of-Upholland 'And Then What?: Inside Stories of 21st-Century Diplomacy' publisher's site: https://eandtbooks.com/books/and-then-what/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
04 Apr 2024 | 8. Bonoboism - Martin Surbeck | 00:39:39 | |
Our guest today is Martin Surbeck. An assistant professor in evolutionary biology at Harvard University, Surbeck is one of the world’s foremost experts in primatology. He is interested in questions of social behavior in animals: competition but also cooperation, a skill and strategy often considered unique to humans. His main research object? Apes and monkeys, chimpanzees and bonobos especially, our cousins from 8 million years ago. Chimpanzees, as anyone who has ever been to the zoo knows, are experts at competing - with each other and seemingly everyone else. But what Surbeck and his team have shown is that bonobos are skilled at cooperation, too. And not just amongst their close relatives and peer groups, but across them, too. That’s better than most of us can say these days. In a New York Times article devoted to Surbeck’s study, his co-author Dr. Liran Samuni said that these bonobos are teaching us about our past. But maybe they’ve got a few things to learn us about our future as well. There’s more to these bonobos that is interesting, but we’ll get to that. Much of his research takes place at his research lab at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the DRC, but we’re finding him in his office in Cambridge today, a few blocks away from Tim. Faculty page: https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/martin-surbeck 'Scientists Find First Evidence That Groups of Apes Cooperate' (New York Times): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/science/bonobos-cooperation-study.html Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve: https://www.bonobo.org/programs/kokolopori-bonobo-reserve This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
04 Apr 2024 | 9. War and Peace - What Is It Good For? - Philippa Perry | 00:31:13 | |
Philippa Perry- or to use her proper title, Philippa, Lady Perry - is an author, psychotherapist and artist. She has written several books including a graphic novel titled 'Couch Fiction: a Graphic Tale of Psychotherapy', the #1 Sunday Times Best Seller 'The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read...' And her current book called 'The Book You Want Everyone You Love To Read...' She has presented various documentaries on British tv and during Covid she co-hosted three seasons of Grayson's Art Club on Channel 4. Since 2021 she has been writing The Observer newspaper's ‘Ask Philippa’ column in which she provides advice on personal problems sent in by readers. https://www.philippaperry.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Philippa_Perry Philippa Perry's Observer columns: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/philippa-perry The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
11 Apr 2024 | 10. Laughter - Sophie Scott | 00:36:57 | |
Professor Sophie Scott CBE is the Director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, as well as the Head of their Speech Communications Group. Her research interests include the neural basis of vocal communication - how our brains process the information in speech and voices, and how our brains control the production of our voice. She is also interested in the expression of emotion in the voice, especially laughter. She is very active in the public communication of science and presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2017, has appeared on loads of TV and radio shows in the UK, she regularly performs standup comedy. Faculty page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/icn/people/sophie-scott Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiescott Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scott Royal Institution profile: https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/explore/person/sophie-scott TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sophie_scott_why_we_laugh?language=en NOTES: Parasocial relationships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thank you for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
18 Apr 2024 | 11. Contingency- Hanneke van Laarhoven | 00:43:38 | |
Professor Hanneke van Laarhoven is professor of translational medical oncology at the University of Amsterdam and head of the Department of Medical Oncology of the Amsterdam University Medical Center. She is a world-renowned specialist on gastrointestinal cancer, but her interests reach far beyond the body, including psychology, AI, philosophy and theology. She is also known for helping develop the first large-scale databases collecting tumour and blood samples, archives which hopefully will one day provide a key to unlocking the mysteries still surrounding the disease today. Van Laarhoven calls herself a “staunch advocate of interdisciplinarity”. She certainly has the credentials to back it up: she has PhDs in both Medical Oncology and Religious Studies, and has long been involved with spiritual and artistic projects. Not the most obviously related disciplines, you might say, but it has offered her a uniquely important position from which to understand the concerns of her patients, many of whom find themselves unexpectedly faced with questions of uncertainty, and, indeed, mortality. Faculty page: https://researchinformation.amsterdamumc.org/en/persons/hanneke-w-m-van-laarhoven European Society for Medical Oncology page: https://www.esmo.org/about-esmo/biographies/hanneke-van-laarhoven The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
25 Apr 2024 | 12. Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez | 00:44:13 | |
Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, speaker and feminist campaigner. She successfully campaigned to put a woman on the British £10 note in 2013 and campaigned to put a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square in 2018 thereby making Parliament Square a little bit less of a sausage fest. Her book 'INVISIBLE WOMEN: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men' was a Sunday Times #1 best seller, and won both the Financial Times Book of the Year Award and the Royal Society Science Book prize. Caroline’s Invisible Women Newsletter: Caroline’s website: https://carolinecriadoperez.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCriadoPerez Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ccriadoperez Sexist snow ploughing https://www.thelocal.se/20131211/snow-plowing-should-be-gender-equal-greens Notes: The book Caroline mentioned that opened her eyes to sexism: 'Feminism and Linguistic Theory' https://www.waterstones.com/book/feminism-and-linguistic-theory/deborah-cameron/9780333558898 Author of 'Feminism and Linguistic Theory', Deborah Cameron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Cameron_(linguist) The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-cluster-f-theory-podcast/id1736982916 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4bBn54hiImeoyDNmTcIr?si=729367e48b0940d9 Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new episodes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
02 May 2024 | 13. Parafiction - Carrie Lambert-Beatty | 00:44:59 | |
Professor Carrie Lambert-Beatty is a contemporary art historian. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard. She's the author of some of the most influential arts writing of the 21st century, including the award-winning book Being Watched, Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s and the essay, Make Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility (pdf). Carrie is also a co-editor at the illustrious arts theory journal October. Her current research is on 30 years of fiction presented as fact in contemporary art, asking what happens when artworks deceive their audiences? What do the experiences of artists’ trickery teach about contemporary ways of knowing? And how can contemporary art help in developing a progressive epistemic set, one able to counter the culture of post-truth and to resist an epistemic return to order? Artworks mentioned: A Tribute to Safiye Behar (2005) by Michael Blum Nike Ground (2003) by Eva & Franco Mattes He Named Her Amber (2007) by Iris Häussler Carrie Lambert-Beatty: What Happens When an Artwork Deceives Its Audience? Faculty page: https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/people/carrie-lambert-beatty Website: https://scholar.harvard.edu/lambert-beatty The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: Subscribe on Spotify: Thank you for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
09 May 2024 | 14. Scenes - Adam Thirlwell | 00:49:37 | |
Adam Thirwell is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Among his best-known books are Lurid & Cute, Politics, Multiples and Kapow!. His latest novel is The Future Future, which Salman Rushdie described as "A dazzling performance, unlike anything else you'll read this (or any other) year". He has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, received a Somerset Maugham Award in 2008, and was a recipient of the EM Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2015. He wrote and directed Utopia, a short film starring Lily Cole and Lily McMenamy, for Channel 4; and wrote another short film, Everyday Performance Artists – featuring Shia LaBeouf, Gemma Chan and James Norton, and directed by Polly Stenham – which was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2016. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books. He is Advisory Editor at the Paris Review, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
16 May 2024 | 15. Social Mediocrity - Katrin Tiidenberg | 00:45:24 | |
Katrin Tiidenberg is a Professor of Participatory Culture at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School at Tallinn University in Estonia. She has held fellowships at Durham University, Aarhus University and Microsoft Research New England. Katrin's research focuses on the hows and whys of people's online and social media practices with a particular emphasis on visuality, sex and political participation. Her research engages the most relevant issues of our day, identity, community, norms and power. How do we present ourselves online? What is normal? Who is in charge? And what happens to sex and to pleasure? She's the author and editor of multiple books on social media and digital cultures and research methods, including Sex and Social Media, Selfies: Why We Love and Hate Them and Metaphors of Internet: Ways of Being in the Age of Ubiquity. https://katrin-tiidenberg.com/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. You can also find us on Apple Podcasts or any other place you listen to your favourite shows. Thank you for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
23 May 2024 | 16. Mortality - Richard Bacon | 00:46:21 | |
Richard Bacon has been a household name for over 25 years in the UK. As a tv presenter he's known for shows such as Blue Peter, Top of the Pops, The Big Breakfast and Good Morning Britain. As a radio presenter he's been on pretty much every channel you can think of. He's started his own production company, Yes Yes Media, creating and producing tv shows, including the very popular I Literally Just Told You. Richard' Twitter post as he was first admitted to hospital. Richard's Instagram post and photo thanking the NHS for saving his life 5 years earlier: “Thanks for everything you did for me 5 years ago today NHS (your 70th).Thanks to the 40 people at NHS Lewisham who worked to save me over 2 weeks.Especially my consultant Vic.Happy 75th.Couldn’t do it* without you.(*Live).The NHS treats more than a million people a day. And we’ve all got our stories.Thank yoooou ❤️.” Presenter Richard Bacon 'getting better' after days in coma (13 July 2018, BBC) Richard Bacon out of hospital after coma scare (19 July 2018, BBC) Richard Bacon thinks about death ‘every day’ as he opens up about nine-day coma (Metro) Richard Bacon on cancel culture, cocaine and his coma: ‘I’m good at getting back up again’ (The Guardian) The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. If you enjoy our conversations, we’d love it if you’d share them with your friends. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
30 May 2024 | 17. Buffering - Tom McCarthy | 00:43:59 | |
Tom McCarthy is a novelist whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and adapted for cinema, theatre and radio. His first novel, Remainder, won the 2008 Believer Book Award. His third, C, was a 2010 Man Booker Prize finalist, as was his fourth, Satin Island, in 2015. Tom is also the author of the study Tintin and the Secret of Literature and of the essay collection Typewriters Bombs Jellyfish. He contributes regularly to publications such as the New York Times, the London Review of Books, Harper's and Art Forum. In 2013, he was awarded the inaugural Windham Campbell Prize for fiction. His latest novel, The Making of Incarnation was published in 2021. Since 1999, Tom has been the general secretary of a semi fictitious organisation that he co-founded with the philosopher Simon Critchley called the International Necronautical Society, INS, which is, "devoted to mind bending projects that would do for death what the surrealists had done for sex". International Necronautical Society The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
06 Jun 2024 | 18. The Weather (not really) - Richard Wiseman | 00:43:31 | |
Richard Wiseman holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, and has published over 100 academic papers examining the psychology of magic and illusion, deception, luck and self-development. He has written several popular psychology books (including The Luck Factor and 59 Seconds) that have been published around the world. Richard has also created psychology-based YouTube videos that have attracted over 800 million views, he is one of the most followed psychologists on social media, and the Independent On Sunday chose him as one of the top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, and acts as a creative consultant on several stage and television projects, including work with Derren Brown. The first season of his On Your Mind Podcast reached No.1 in Apple Podcast’s Science charts, and in 2023 Richard was given the Royal Society’s prestigious David Attenborough Award for his research and public engagement activities. https://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman --------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
13 Jun 2024 | 19. Immediacy - Anna Kornbluh | 00:31:19 | |
Thank you for listening to The Cluster F Theory. If you don’t already subscribe at Substack, please sign up on our page in order to receive an email when new episodes are released. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it or review it wherever you listen and share it with your friends. Thank you! Anna Kornbluh is a professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where she founded InterCcECT, the Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory. Her research and teaching interests center on the novel, film and cultural aesthetics in theoretical perspective, including formalist, Marxist and psychoanalytic approaches. She is the author of Immediacy or The Style of Too Late Capitalism; The Order of Forms, Realism, Formalism, and Social Space; Marxist Film Theory and Fight Club; and Realizing Capital, Financial and Psychic Economies in Victorian Form. Her essays have appeared in various publication such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Diacritics, Public Books and Differences. Anna is also an active community organizer. She's a co-founder of Humanities Works, an initiative to debunk myths about the dire prospects of Humanities graduates, and is an active member of the UIC United Faculty bargaining team. Anna Kornbluh: http://www.annakornbluh.com Anna Kornblum's faculty page: https://engl.uic.edu/profiles/kornbluh-anna/ InterCcECT: http://interccect.com/ Humanities Works: http://humanitiesworks.org/ UIC Faculty: https://uicunitedfaculty.org/ --------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
20 Jun 2024 | 20. Fear and Bravery - Tracy King | 00:52:21 | |
Thank you for listening to The Cluster F Theory. If you don’t already subscribe at Substack, please sign up on our page in order to receive an email when new episodes are released. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it or review it wherever you listen and share it with your friends. Thank you! Tracy King is a writer, producer and consultant based in both Birmingham and London. She has written for publications such as the New Statesman, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The New European. Alongside her writing, she has produced various animations including Tim Minchin's Storm and was the producer and organiser of the charity science and critical thinking conference TAM London. She is currently involved in a campaign to save Birmingham's libraries from closure an her spare time Tracy does stand-up comedy, makes miniature furniture, and plays Minecraft. Her brilliant memoir, Learning To Think, has been published this year. Tracy's website: https://www.tracyking.co.uk/ Tracy's author page at Penguin Books: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/245465/tracy-king An extract from Tracy's memoir Time To Think ("I always believed my funny, kind father was killed by a murderous teenage gang. Three decades on, I discovered the truth", The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/24/funny-kind-father-murderous-teenage-gang-three-decades-on-i-discovered-the-truth The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
27 Jun 2024 | 21. Heritage - David Joselit | 00:45:07 | |
David Joselit is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Art, Film at Harvard and the department's current chair. He previously held the chair in Art History at Yale and was a curator at the ICA in Boston. He's one of the editors of leading art and theory journal, October. David is one of the most important, if not the single most important, theorist, critic and historian of 20th century and contemporary art and the cultures and concerns that produce and consume it. David is the author of several books including American Art Since 1945, Feedback: Television Against Democracy, After Art and Heritage and Depth: Art and Globalization, which was awarded the 2021 Robert Motherwell Book Award. His most recent is Art's Properties published in 2023. David Joselit's faculty page: https://afvs.fas.harvard.edu/people/david-joselit Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Joselit This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
04 Jul 2024 | 22. World Building - Vid Simoniti | 00:47:10 | |
Vid Simoniti is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Art at the University of Liverpool, where he also directs the MA in Art, Philosophy and Cultural Institutions. Before joining the department at Liverpool in 2018, he was the inaugural Jeffrey Rubinoff Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, the University of Cambridge. Vid's academic work bridges philosophy, political thoughts and arts criticism. He's interested in how art can bring about social and political change and his most recent book Artists Remake the World offers his answer to that question. And as the title suggests, it's both a hopeful and an ambitious one. Vid has an exciting public profile. He has been the BBC New Generation thinker, presented radio shows, and he has hosted the Art Against the World podcast, a collaboration with the Liverpool Biennial. Art Against The World podcast: https://liverpoolbiennial2021.com/programme/art-against-the-world/ Faculty page: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/vid-simoniti/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. If you enjoy the podcast, it’d be great if you could rate or review it ore reccommend it to your friends! Thanks! Thank you for listening to The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
11 Jul 2024 | 23. FGM - Nimco Ali | 00:55:27 | |
Nimco Ali OBE is co-founder and CEO of The Five Foundation, a global partnership to end female genital mutilation. Nimco is an activist, author and a survivor of FGM. Her tireless work has put FGM front and centre in the feminist campaign to end violence against women and girls. Nimco was awarded an OBE for her trailblazing activism in 2019. In the past 10 years, Nimco was awarded Red Magazine’s Woman of the Year award, placed at No 6 on the Woman’s Hour Power List, named by The Sunday Times as one of Debrett’s 500 most influential people in Britain, as well as one of the Evening Standard’s Most Influential People in London and was placed at number 5 on the BBC’s 100 most inspiring Women in the world list. Nimco’s debate book, What We’re Told Not To Talk About But We’re Going To Anyway, was published by Penguin in June 2019. The Five Foundation https://thefivefoundation.org/ Nimco's Twitter/X https://x.com/NimkoAli Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimco_Ali The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada: https://www.yada-yada.net/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
18 Jul 2024 | 24. Stasis- Jason Farago | 00:53:24 | |
Jason Farago is a critic at large for the New York Times, writing about culture and its place in the wider world. His writing has taken him from wartime Kyiv to the Olympic stadiums of Tokyo to dance parties in Johannesburg. He also is the co-creator of Close Read, a criticism series that delves into a single cultural work, detail by detail. Before joining the Times, he served as a US art critic for The Guardian and was a regular contributor to publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, the BBC, Art Forum, and many others. In 2017 he was named one of the inaugural laureates of the Rabkin Prize for arts writing. In 2022 he was awarded one of the inaugural Silvers-Dudley Prizes for criticism and journalism. And in 2023 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Jason was born in New York and holds degrees in art history from Yale University and the Courtauld Institute of Art. NYT page: https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-farago Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonfarago/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada: https://www.yada-yada.net/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
25 Jul 2024 | 25. The Emotional Aftermath of War Reporting - David Chater | 00:46:16 | |
David Chater is an award-winning British broadcast journalist who has worked in international television news for over 40 years. He has reported for Independent Television News, Sky News and Al Jazeera English from pretty much every conflict you can think of. He's reported on the Falklands War, the Yugoslavian Homeland Wars, the First Gulf War, the Second Gulf War, the Sri Lankan civil war, the war in Afghanistan, the second Chechen War. He's been in the middle of a Scud missile attack, a grad rocket attack was in the middle of Operation Shock and Awe in Baghdad and was shot in the back by a sniper which required life-saving surgery. He has stepped away from international conflicts and is enjoying his new life as an olive farmer. David reporting live on Sky News on April 9th 2003 as US troops occupied Baghdad as part of in invasion of Iraq: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada: https://www.yada-yada.net/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
01 Aug 2024 | 26. Cultural Poisoning - Sarah Ditum | 00:57:17 | |
Sarah Ditum is a journalist for The Sunday Times and has also written for The Guardian, New Statesman, Grazia and UnHerd. She writes columns and features about politics, culture and lifestyle including topics such as violence against women, gender identity and cancel culture. Her book Toxic: Women, Fame and The Noughties, about misogyny in celebrity culture during the 2000s, was published in 2023 and it was announced in spring '24 that one of the book's subjects, Paris Hilton, acquired the option rights in order to turn it into a documentary series. Sarah's Substack 'Tox Report': https://substack.com/@sarahditum Sarah’s book 'Toxic' at Hachette: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/sarah-ditum/toxic/9780349727134/ Sarah's articles at The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/profile/sarah-ditum Sarah's articles at The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/author/sarah-ditum/ Sarah's articles at Unherd https://unherd.com/author/sarah-ditum/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada: https://www.yada-yada.net/ Thank you for reading and listening to The Cluster F Theory Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
08 Aug 2024 | 27. Symbiontics - Caroline A. Jones | 00:46:53 | |
Caroline A Jones is Professor in the History, Theory, and Criticism section, Department of Architecture, MIT. She studies modern and contemporary art, focusing on its technological modes of production, distribution, and reception, and on its interface with science. She has also worked as a curator, including three exhibitions at MIT's List Visual Arts Center: Hans Haaken, Video Trajectories, and Sensorium. Her exhibitions and/or films have been shown at NY MoMA, SF MoMA, the Hirshhorn DC, and the Hara Museum Tokyo, among other venues. Publications include Machine in the Studio (1996/98), Picturing Science, Producing Art (co-editor, 1998), Sensorium (editor2006), Eyesight Alone (2005/08), Experience (co-editor, 2016) and The Global Work of Art(2016). Caroline is currently working on the most important and radically original project on Symbiontics. Caroline's faculty page: https://architecture.mit.edu/people/caroline-jones More on Symbiontics: https://brooklynrail.org/2020/07/criticspage/Symbiontics-a-view-of-present-conditions-from-a-place-of-entanglement https://listart.mit.edu/exhibitions/symbionts-contemporary-artists-biosphere https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262544481/symbionts/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
15 Aug 2024 | 28. A Life In Design - Peter Saville | 00:41:20 | |
Peter Saville is an English art director and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of Factory Records in 1978 and designed many record sleeves for their bands including Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' and New Order's 'Power Corruption and Lies'. Outside of Factory he did work for artists such as Roxy Music, Wham!, OMD, Ultravox, Peter Gabriel, Suede and Pulp. He's worked with various fashion houses including Christian Dior, Stella McCartney and Calvin Klein. He was the Creative Director of the City of Manchester, designed the England football team home shirt and in 2020 was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to design. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Saville_(graphic_designer) Work For Sale: https://www.paulstolper.com/artists/28-peter-saville/works/ Fan site: https://petersaville.info/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/ . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
22 Aug 2024 | 29. Hope and Anchor - Tamsin Edwards | 00:49:44 | |
Note: This interview was recorded before the most recent General Election in the UK. Professor Tamsin Edwards is a climate scientist specialising in quantifying the uncertainties of climate model predictions, particularly for the ice sheet and glacier contributions to sea level rise. She was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report published in 2021. Tamsin regularly provides expert advice on climate science to the public, policymakers, media and businesses, and is currently the first Parliamentary Thematic Research Lead for Climate & Environment, advising the UK Parliament on research evidence to better inform scrutiny, legislation and debate. She is an award-winning communicator and co-presents the BBC Radio 4 series “39 Ways to Save the Planet”. Tamsin's faculty page: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/tamsin-edwards Tamsin's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamsin_Edwards All Models Are Wrong: https://allmodels.plos.org/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
29 Aug 2024 | 30. First Nations' Rights - Brenda L Croft | 00:50:41 | |
The artist and thinker Brenda L Croft is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victorian River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese heritage. She has been a key participant in the Australian First Nations and broader contemporary arts and cultural sectors as a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner—artist, arts administrator, consultant, curator, educator and researcher—since the mid-1980s. Brenda is a Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship, Australian National University. In 2023—2024 Brenda is Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Australian National University faculty page: https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/brenda-croft ORCID page: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4913-6238 Harvard page: https://afvs.fas.harvard.edu/people/brenda-croft Australian National Portrait Gallery: https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/brenda-l-croft-1964 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_L_Croft Brenda’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendalcroft/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. Thanks for reading The Cluster F Theory Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support the podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
05 Sep 2024 | 31. AI - Nick Rhodes | 00:45:41 | |
Nick Rhodes is a composer, producer and founding member and keyboardist in Duran Duran. Apart from his work with Duran Duran, he's had several side projects with Arcadia, The Devils and TV Mania and has collaborated with various artists, including Blondie, Mark Ronson and the Dandy Warhols. He's a keen photographer and art collector. Nick's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Rhodes Duran Duran's 'Invisible' video made by AI: Duran Duran's official site: https://duranduran.com/ Duran Duran's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duranduran/ Duran Duran's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Pb3fztIUVLCisYZgygcjg The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
12 Sep 2024 | 32. Ageist Sexism - Kathy Lette | 00:39:25 | |
Kathy Lette is the author of 17 novels, THE woman about town in London and one of the pioneering voices of contemporary feminism. She is well known for her one-liners, wise cracks and witticism and is as close to being the 21st century's Dorothy Parker as anyone else I know. She wrote her first book, Puberty Blues, when she was 17. The book addresses the sexism in teenage culture in 1970s Australia. Her most recent book, Revenge Club, addresses the sexism older women face and has been called 'erotic fan fiction for the peri-menopausal'. Kathy was educated in the school of life and says the only examination she's ever passed is her cervical smear test. Kathy's Official Site: https://www.kathylette.com/ Links to purchase Kathy's books: https://www.kathylette.com/my-books/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Lette Kathy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathy.lette/ Kathy's X/Twitter: https://x.com/KathyLette The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
19 Sep 2024 | 33. Children's Online Rights - Beeban Kidron | 00:47:00 | |
Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE sits as a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords. She is an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, a Commissioner on the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, an expert advisor for the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, and Founder and Chair of 5Rights Foundation. Before taking up her seat in the House of Lords in 2012, Baroness Kidron spent 30 years as a film maker. Her credits include, the BAFTA award-winning 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit', 'Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason' and 'To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar'. She also co-founded the education charity Into Film, which currently engages with over two thirds of schools in the UK offering a wide programme of film clubs, cinema screenings, and resources and training to support classroom teaching. Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE's personal site: https://beeban.com/ Baroness Kidron's Parliamentary page: https://members.parliament.uk/member/4258/career 5 Rights Foundation: https://5rightsfoundation.com/ Into Film: https://www.intofilm.org/ Beeban Kidron's IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452319/ Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeban_Kidron The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
26 Sep 2024 | 34. Architecture - Jimenez Lai | 00:44:23 | |
Architect and theorist Jimenez Lai was born in Taiwan, grew up in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. He holds the Robert Gwathmey chair at Cooper Union, and is the director of architecture agency Bureau Spectacular. Before establishing Bureau Spectacular, Lai lived in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout on the piers of Rotterdam. Lai's first book, Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel, was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Lai has won various awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, the Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale, and the Designer of the Future at Art Basel. Lai represented Taiwan at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. Lai's work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, SFMOMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and LACMA. Jimenez Lai's Instagram (look at his great hair!) https://www.instagram.com/0super/ Bureau Spectacular https://bureau-spectacular.net/ Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimenez_Lai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
03 Oct 2024 | 35. Screen Addiction? - Pete Etchells | 00:49:46 | |
Pete Etchells is a professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University. He researches the behavioural and wellbeing effects of playing video games, as well as metascientific issues regarding best practice in digital technology effects research. He’s written articles for various publications including New Scientist, the Guardian, the Observer, the New York Times, WIRED and the Telegraph. His most recent book, UNLOCKED, investigates the science behind our relationship with digital technology. Pete Etchells' personal website: https://www.peteetchells.com/ Faculty page: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/peter-etchells/ Twitter/X page: https://x.com/peteetchells Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peteetchells/ Articles at The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pete-etchells This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
10 Oct 2024 | 36. Hypochondria - Caroline Crampton | 00:45:58 | |
Caroline Crampton is a writer and a podcaster. She is the creator and host of the award-winning detective fiction podcast Shedunnit. She curates articles as editor-in-chief of The Browser, and she writes reviews and essays for publications like Time, Literary Hub and the Guardian. She writes non-fiction books about the world and how we live in it. Here most recent book A Body Made of Glass was serialised as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, chosen by the Guardian as a literary highlight of 2024 and was one of Nature's 'top reads for summer.' Caroline Crampton: https://www.carolinecrampton.com/ Caroline's newsletter: https://www.carolinecrampton.com/newslettersignup/ Shedunnit: https://shedunnitshow.com/ The Browser: https://thebrowser.com/ The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
17 Oct 2024 | 37. End of Season 1 | 00:22:04 | |
Hello! We're going to take a break for a little while. In this episode, we discuss what the past 7 months have been like for us and what kinds of topics we'd like to cover in our next season. If you have only recently found us, we'd love it if you'd go back to the beginning and listen to earlier episodes. Also, feel free to share the podcast and subscribe to our Substack in order to be emailed with new episodes. Also, rate it and review it or whatever it is you're supposed to do with podcasts. I don’t know… The discussions we've mentioned in this episode are: 6. Ritual- Andy Nyman https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/6-ritual-andy-nyman 2. Foreplay|Endgame - Joseph Koerner https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/2-foreplayendgame-joseph-koerner 13. Parafiction - Carrie Lambert-Beatty https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/13-parafiction-carrie-lambert-beatty 23. FGM - Nimco Ali https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/23-fgm-nimco-ali 17. Buffering - Tom McCarthy https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/17-buffering-tom-mccarthy 14. Scenes - Adam Thirlwell https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/14-scenes-adam-thirlwell 3. War Games - Annabel Daou https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/3-war-games-annabel-daou 25. The Emotional Aftermath of War Reporting - David Chater https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/25-the-emotional-aftermath-of-war 7. Negotiating the Long Term - Catherine Ashton https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/7-negotiating-the-long-term-catherine 12. Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/12-invisible-women-caroline-criado 31. AI - Nick Rhodes https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/31-ai-nick-rhodes 11. Contingency- Hanneke van Laarhoven https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/11-contingency-hanneke-van-laarhoven 36. Hypochondria - Caroline Crampton https://theclusterftheory.substack.com/p/36-hypochondria-caroline-crampton Thank you so much to Julian Mayers from Yada Yada for editing everything. And a big thank you to DC Turner for the theme tune and the logo. See you all soon! Gia and Tim This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
13 Mar 2025 | 38. Dance- Dame Arlene Phillips | 00:46:25 | |
Dame Arlene Phillips is a world-renowned, award-winning choreographer and theatre director. From creating the revolutionary dance group Hot Gossip in the 1970’s to working with stars from film, TV and theatre, Arlene is a household name. Her work includes choreographing Hollywood films such as ‘Annie’, ‘Legend’ and ‘Monty Python's The Meaning of Life’, West End and Broadway musicals such as ‘Starlight Express’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Grease’, and iconic music videos including Duran Duran's ‘Wild Boys’, Tina Turner's ‘Private Dancer’, Whitney Houston's ‘How Will I Know’ and Freddie Mercury's ‘The Great Pretender’. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to dance and charity. Arlene's website: https://www.arlenephillips.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arlenephillips/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Phillips IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0680219/ Interview with Arlene in 1981 about Hot Gossip A showreel of 1970s and 1980s commercials choreographed by Arlene ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/ Thanks for listening to The Cluster F Theory Podcast! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
20 Mar 2025 | 39. Public/Publics- Merve Emre | 00:50:19 | |
Merve Emre is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Merve is the author of a host of books including Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017) The Personality Brokers (Doubleday: New York, 2018), which was selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times, the Economist, NPR, CBC, and the Spectator, and informs the CNN/HBO Max documentary feature film Persona. She is the editor of Once and Future Feminist (Cambridge: MIT, 2018), The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway (New York: Liveright, 2021), and The Norton Modern Library Mrs. Dalloway (New York: Norton, 2021). She is finishing a book titled Post-Discipline: Two Futures for Literary Study (University of Chicago Press) and writing a book called Love and Other Useless Pursuits (Norton US / Harper Collins UK). She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. Her essays and criticism have appeared in publications ranging from The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and the London Review of Books to New Literary History, PMLA, American Literature, American Literary History, and Modernism/modernity. In 2019, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. In 2021, she was awarded the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle. Her work has been supported by the Whiting Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Leverhulme Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Quebec, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. She has judged the International Booker Prize, the Story Prize, and other major awards and grants. She currently serves on the boards of the Hawthornden Foundation and Connecticut Humanities. Her podcast is called The Critic and Her Publics. Merve's website: https://www.merveemre.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merve__emre/?hl=en Faculty page at Wesleyan: https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/memre/profile.html ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada https://www.yada-yada.net/ You can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Cluster F Theory Podcast! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
27 Mar 2025 | 40. Fandom - Bertha Chin | 00:48:32 | |
Bertha Chin is a Senior Lecturer in Communications And New Media at the National University of Singapore. Her research in fan, media & cultural studies covers fan and celebrity cultures, with a focus on Hollywood film and television. She's published on topics covering transcultural fandom, anti-fandom and fan-producer relationships. She's co-edited two books: 'Eating Fandom' and 'Crowdfunding the Future: Media Industries, Ethics and Digital Society'. She is also co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Popular Communication. Bertha's Faculty Page: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/27241-bertha-chin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transculturalfangirl/ Popular Communication journal: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/hppc20 ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
03 Apr 2025 | 41. Crewlife - Nicole Stott | 00:57:49 | |
Nicole Stott is an author, artist, engineer and veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights and 104 days in space as a crewmember on both the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. In her book “Back to Earth: What Life In Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet – And Our Mission To Protect It”, Nicole presents essential lessons in problem-solving, survival, and crisis response that all of us can learn and practice to make change. Nicole’s website: https://www.npsdiscovery.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astro_nicole/ Twitter: https://x.com/Astro_Nicole NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/stott-np.pdf?emrc=92ab0c Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Stott ‘Back To Earth’: https://www.backtoearthbook.com ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. Thanks for listening to The Cluster F Theory Podcast! If you’re enjoying it, please feel free to share it with your friends. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
10 Apr 2025 | 42. Cultural Diversity - Tomiwa Owolade | 00:38:29 | |
Tomiwa Owolade is a Nigerian-born British journalist, author and critic. He writes about social and cultural issues for many publications, including The Times and The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Telegraph, New Statesman and London Evening Standard. He has also frequently appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Times Radio. His interests cover many topics, including identity politics, freedom of speech, religion, film, poetry, novels, philosophy and history. His first book ‘This Is Not America’ was released in 2023 and The Times, Tortoise Media and The Spectator all chose it as one of the best books of the year. This Is Not America (Atlantic Books) https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/this-is-not-america/ Tomiwa on X: https://x.com/tomowolade Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomowolade/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomiwa_Owolade The Telegraph author page: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/t/tk-to/tomiwa-owolade/ The Times author page: https://www.thetimes.com/profile/tomiwa-owolade ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com | |||
17 Apr 2025 | 43. Negative Psychoanalysis - Julie Reshe | 00:42:33 | |
Julie Reshe is a Ukrainian-born philosopher and the author of a negative psychoanalytic approach. With over 300 patients, she has extensive experience as a negative practitioner. She earned her PhD studying psychoanalysis at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts under the supervision of Alenka Zupančič. She studied existential therapy at the University of Oxford and holds certification as an APPA philosophical counselor. She is a Visiting Professor at University College Cork and University College Dublin and a Director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Global Center for Advanced Studies. Her recent publications appeared in AEON, Springer, Sublation Media, 3:am Magazine, Penumbr(a), The Philosophical Salon, knife.media, among others. Her latest book is Negative Psychoanalysis for the Living Dead: Philosophical Pessimism and the Death Drive (Palgrave, 2023). Website: https://www.juliereshe.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julie.reshe YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChZTaSsd90vDXT1UjccpQ8g Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DrReshe/ Faculty page at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Global Center for Advanced Studies: https://gcas.ie/about/faculty/julie-reshe ---------------------- The Cluster F Theory Podcast is edited by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theclusterftheory.substack.com |