What’s that? A role reversal? On this episode, we’ve changed things up and your usual podcast host (me) is in the hot seat! Our fantastic guest-host Benjamin Tan—a PhD Candidate at Cambridge studying race and empire—asks me about my recent publication in the American Political Science Review about “Engineering Territory” and Silicon Valley’s outer space colonization projects.
We discussed what Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are up to in space, why terrestrial and celestial colonization are not as different as they may seem, what the history of the British East India Company can tell us about the Commercial Space Age, and how indigenous conceptions of property and space can problematize outer space, sovereignty, and territoriality—and the way we think about political power and rule today.
As always, you can listen to it here or subscribe here (Spotify) or here (Apple Podcasts). If you like us, please rate, review and share the Anti-Dystopians to help us get new listeners.
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Authors in the Episode:
My article “Engineering Territory: Space and Colonies in Silicon Valley”, American Political Science Review
Read guest-host Benjamin Tan’s articles on race and empire:
Hobson on White Parasitism and Its Solutions, Political Theory
Dissolving the Colour Line: L. T. Hobhouse on Race and Liberal Empire, European Journal of Political Theory
Other Works Mentioned:
What I’ve Been Reading
British Library still unavailable due to a ransomware cyberattack
which is very bad politically and also to me personally, who has been trying to do some archival research there for ages
The Funny Thing About Misogyny
amazing literary essay about jokes and gender oppression
The End of Privacy is a Taylor Swift Fan TikTok Account Armed with Facial Recognition Tech
Patient privacy fears as US spy tech firm Palantir wins £330m NHS contract
DNA Testing Company 23andMe says private user data is up for sale after being scraped
A Shazam for People: Clearview’s AI App Was a Hit Among the Rich and Powerful
How Spotify Is Quietly Supporting the Military-Industrial Complex
Post of the Week
Our episode with Dr Matt Mahmoudi on Automating Apartheid in Palestine.