Critical Media Studies

In the second part of their discussion Barry and Mike talk about Rose Horowitch’s ideas about reading and what it means to be post-literate in the digital world.

Barry and Mike begin a two-part discussion of Rose Horowitch’s investigation into post-literacy.In this episode we discuss her November 2024 article in The Atlantic Monthly, “ The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. ” Our next episode will discuss her more recent article from the July 2026 issue of The Atlantic, “The Age of Reading is Over.”

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Ted Gioia’s “ What You Won’t Learn About the Odyssey From the Movie .” They debate the significance of the “magical mystery song” at the heart of literature.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Daniel Roher’s 2026 documentary, The AI Doc: Or, How I Became An Apocaloptimist. They apply Bernard Stiegler’s concept of the pharmakon to understand the various positions on the development of artificial intelligence presented in the film. Link to Lawrence Lessig’s 3/29/26 Substack review

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Louis Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere” (March, 2026) and address the question: What does the Manosphere tell us about our current media environment?

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the idea of “frictionless” relationships in the age of artificial intimacy. ErikaHayasaki – “What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers? The New York Times Magazine 7/20/2025 TED Radio Hour -- How our relationships are changing in the age of “artificial intimacy" Friday, August 2, 2024

In this episode Barry and Mike resume their discussion of Mark Fishers’s 2013 blog post, “Exiting the Vampire’s Castle”. They discuss the five laws that govern the castle and wonder if it is possible to exit the castle, as Fisher hoped.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss writer/music critic/cultural theorist Mark Fisher’s 2013 blog post, “Exiting the Vampire Castle”. They look at the essay, 13 years after its posting, and provide context as to what the Castle is, how it came to be, and how it functions. The next episode will focus on Fisher’s laws of the Vampire Castle.

In this episode Barry and Mike conclude their discussion of Althusser’s seminal essay, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”. They focus on Althusser’s concept of interpellation and discuss whether he believes it’s possible to get outside of ideology. The conclusion of the discussion asks how Simone Weil, who served as the genesis of this series, conceives of an outside to propaganda and politics.

This is the first of a two part discussion. In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Louis Althusser’s Essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” in relation to Simone Weil. Here, they discuss the state apparatuses and place them in dialogue with Weil’s discussion of party politics and attention. They close this episode by investigating the tension between the individual’s imagined and real relation to existence.

In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion on Simone Weil’s essay, “On The Abolition of all Political Parties.” They discuss the opposition between the truth seeking individual and the party member, and then pivot to what this question looks like in the current day.

This is the first of two episodes on Simone Weil’s 1943 essay, “On the Abolition of all Political Parties. In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the distinction Weil draws between “truth” and “ideology”.

This is a repost of the Guy Debord episode that was originally posted on 3/15/23. In This episode of the Critical Media Studies podcast we discuss Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. As the book is aphoristic, rather than trying to address the work as a whole, Barry and Mike look at what Debord means by Spectacle and hone in on a few particular sections (24-28). The focus of this episode settles around the question of whether or not there is a continuity between Debord's mediated society and our own digital mediasphere. We hope you enjoy and welcome any feedback or suggestions.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Federica Merenda’s essay, “Reading Arendt to Rethink Truth, Science, and Politics in the Era of Fake News”. They discuss Arendt’s distinction between factual truths and rational truths and how they reveal of the interplay of truth and politics.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss the uncanny ways that Sigfreid Kracauer’s 1927 essay, Photography, anticipates the modern media landscape.

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.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss “If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All” by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. They discuss the main arguments about the inevitability of our demise at the hands of superhuman intelligence and present a few alternatives to this doomsday scenario.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Rachel Bitecofer’s substack article, “The Whole World is Getting Dumber (And the Smartphone Did It.)” We question whether her solution of banning smart phones from the classroom will make much of a difference or if we just have to go “scorched earth” on technology to regain our attention and focus.

In this episode we discuss Alberto Romero’s Substack article on AI video . While Romero argues that perhaps we should seek legal remedies to the problems of deepfake video, Barry and Mike consider an alternative. They discuss the issues that deepfake video brings to the fore and wonder whether the problems caused by deepfake technologies can be resolved by law or if these technologies should be engaged pharmacologically.

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.