Markoff's Branding - Is Markoff Right?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Markoff is doing an approved history, and you can sort of feel broct an looking over his shoulder as he writes it. He'll accidentally say something true, true on a deeper level than he's s'pposed to be writing. There aren't maybe enough accounts of the people around him who have a better perspective of what that shift looked like. His transition was in fitting, in keeping with his mile. It wasn't a strange path for him to get on. Although at the same time, you see some look at something like nuclear energy,. where he used to be like, you know, nuclear waste is bad. We need to go back to the land, now saying,

Paris Marx is joined by Malcolm Harris to discuss the legacy of Stewart Brand and why the myth we’re often told about him overstates the reality of his impact.

Malcolm Harris is the author of Kids These Days, Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit, and his forthcoming book Palo Alto. He also writes for New York Magazine. Follow Malcolm on Twitter at @BigMeanInternet.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Malcolm Harris wrote a critical review of John Markoff’s Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand.
Benjamin Kunkel also wrote a critical review of Whole Earth.
The Stewart Brand documentary We Are As Gods about his quest to bring back wholly mammoths to solve climate change is slowly being rolled out after two years of delay and seeming lack of sales interest.
Brand’s Long Now Foundation is building a 10,000-year clock in Texas that’s funded by Jeff Bezos.
We also mention Fred Turner’s From Counterculture to Cyberculture.

Support the show