With each new incident or disaster, a rush to place it within a frame, to enlist it to a narrative. In our eagerness to decipher the meaning of the moment we miss that what is occurring might simply beyond our capacity to comprehend and order, or that it has not yet crystalised. Too soon, not yet at hand.

Much of what we use and touch every day is likely connected to the sea: many items would have been wholly or partially produced abroad, and most – if not all – of the remainder would have relied on commodities that would have arrived on tankers and other ships. Yet this all forms part of that background web of global interconnections that we too rarely recognize or reckon with, but are vital to how we presently live.

Late September, almost a month into autumn. Walking by Kamogawa in Kyoto at night. The air has cooled slightly, the intense humidity has finally lifted. The nouryou-yuka remain, raised wooden decks constructed each summer, allowing people to dine and drink while overlooking the river. This yearly tradition is now extended an extra month, until the end of October. The warm lights from restaurants reflect and shimmer in the water.

Alexander Etkind, Nature’s Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources (2021): - Helen Thompson in ‘The New Age of Tragedy’, The New Statesman (2023): - Adam Hanieh, ‘Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production’, New Left Review (2021): - Laleh Khalili, Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (2021): - Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy:

Heinrich Heine, The Romantic School (1833): - Ken Jowitt, ‘After Leninism: The New World Disorder’ (1991): - Paul Valery, ‘Historical Fact’ (1932): - Vaclav Havel, ‘Speech to US Congress’ (1990): - JP Stern, ‘Havel’s Castle’ (1990): - Bertolt Brecht, Me-ti: Book of Interventions in the Flow of Things (1965):

In conversation again with Pete Chambers. With this episode we have moved to a new recording setup and the audio quality is much better as a result. Thanks for the feedback from listeners and to our producer, Peter Van Hoesen, for his guidance. Our starting point is the extreme weather that has marked this year’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

China and its economy is currently in the news cycle.

The promotion cycle is telling us it is time to be interested in nuclear weapons. That the topic is getting more attention due to the release of a film, rather than because of heightened risks posed by such weapons is a reflection of the general lack of seriousness that permeates our present condition. This is not a note about Oppenheimer , I have not seen it yet, there is no firm release date announced for Japan.

This evening I found myself at the closest convenience store to my apartment, one of four that are within five minutes walk, all of which are open 24-7. How necessary such a situation is, well, that is besides the point, each is slightly closer for someone. Never mind the costs of keeping these places permanently staffed, lit and at the right temperature, just as long as the onigiri and beers are always available.

Many years ago as a graduate student I was reading a great deal of non-fiction thinking that is where I must look to learn about the world. How limited my view was. A dear friend gave me The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and told me to read it, which I did, quickly followed by his other major works.

Last year I produced a series of conversations on thinking through technology and society, including with L.M. Sacasas, David Cayley, and Elke Schwarz. Some of the most productive were with my friend and colleague, Pete Chambers, a scholar based at RMIT University in Melbourne, whose work engages with traditions of critical and social theory.