Urgent Futures with Jesse Damiani

I’ve talked about AI a good deal in past episodes—and I continue to believe it’s a subject of critical discourse, even (and perhaps especially) as it’s ever more riddled with outstated hype. That’s why you’ll notice I’ve framed today’s conversation in the title as a contrast between large AI models and the little database, a term coined by today’s guest, Danny Snelson—but this conversation is so much more than that. In fact, he wrote a whole book about the subject—and it’s superb.This notion of the little database draws on the lineage of the “little magazine,” a type of publication popular in the second half of the 20th century for cheaply and rapidly distributing written works, especially experimental literature that didn’t quite fit in with existing literary norms. The little database is an archive that similarly embodies this DIY spirit—a curated (though not always too heavy-handedly) digital archive. Just as material realities fostered the possibilities and framed the constraints of little magazines in, say, the 1970s, so too do the material realities of digital media in little databases. The analysis Danny conducts in The Little Database doubles as an examination of how the rise of the web fostered and constrained the media that could circulate—and how and why.A whole lot more in this episode, including games, social justice, the poetics of search, and more!Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).Daniel Scott Snelson is a writer, editor, and archivist working as an Associate Professor in the Departments of English and Design Media Arts at UCLA, where he serves as faculty for the Digital Humanities, the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies, and the UCLA Game Lab. His online editorial work can be found at PennSound, Eclipse, UbuWeb, Jacket2, and the EPC. Published books include Elden Poem (Hysterically Real, 2022), Full Bleed: A Mourning Letter for the Printed Page (Sync, 2019), Apocalypse Reliquary: 1984-2000 (Monoskop, 2018), Radios (Make Now, 2016), EXE TXT (Gauss PDF, 2015), Epic Lyric Poem (Troll Thread, 2014), and Inventory Arousal with James Hoff (Bedford Press/Architectural Association, 2011). With Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and Avi Alpert, he performs as one-third of the academic performance group Research Service. His recently published book, The Little Database: A Poetics of Media Formats (University of Minnesota Press, 2025), examines the networked afterlives of media-reflexive works of art and letters in search of contingent methods for reading ordinary digital collections.CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.Amid CDC upheaval under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., there's a lot of medical mis- and disinformation flying around—especially about the Covid-19 vaccines. It felt critical to have a conversation with an actual subject matter expert to get to the bottom of it, and Dr. Lucy McBride graciously agreed to join me for this Rapid Response episode on Substack Live.If you want to participate in future Lives, please subscribe to https://www.realitystudies.co/ to stay in the loop.Audio versions of this Rapid Response can be found here on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If you prefer video, check out the episode on YouTube.Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).Dr. Lucy McBride is a practicing internal medicine physician in DC who has been seeing patients for over 20 years. During the pandemic, she became a nationally recognized voice on the importance of addressing mental and physical health. She is the author of the popular medical newsletter, Are You Okay?, now reaching over 36,000 people a week and is the author of a forthcoming book about whole-person health with Simon & Schuster. She hosts a top-rated podcast called Beyond the Prescription where she interviews guests like she does her patients, pulling the curtain back on what it means to be healthy. She has been published in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, USA Today, and has appeared on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS NewsHour, providing evidence-based medical advice, advocating for a holistic approach to health care, and helping redefine health as more than our cholesterol and weight. Health, she argues, is not an outcome; it's a process. It's not fixed; it's dynamic. It's about awareness of our medical facts, acceptance of the things we cannot control, and agency over what we can change. You can find her on Substack at: https://lucymcbride.substack.com Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

It is well-documented that the polycrisis is intensifying across scales. It’s also well-documented that humanity is not doing nearly enough to preserve the habitability of our planet. It will be demanded of us to engage in extensive mitigation in order to rise to the stakes of this crisis, but mitigation alone isn’t enough. We also have to adapt—in ways across the scales of micro to macro, from a renewed meaning of what we mean when we talk about “the good life” for ourselves, to an overhaul in our collective practices and policies.Earlier this year, today’s guests, Morgan Phillips and Manda Scott—along with former Urgent Futures guest Rupert Read—published an incredible book called Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible, a quick read faces this reality head on. It is a clear guide to the array of transformations that we humans necessarily must undertake if we’re going to make it.The book has been wisely picked up for distribution in the US by Penguin Random House, and is out with all US booksellers now, so these two graciously agreed to sit down for a sort of companion episode to Rupert’s. Given the subject, there’s inevitably some overlap in the conversations, but by and large I see them as complementary, foregrounding Manda’s and Morgan’s respective viewpoints and experiences, for a conversation that gets into everything from relocalization and regenerative agriculture to how folks who get the gravity of the crisis can meaningfully engage with their own confusion, grief, and rage toward healing ends.Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Over the weekend, I published a post outlining how Trump’s rebranding of the Department of Defense to the Department of War ties in with a phenomenon known as the "Imperial Boomerang." This is the podcast episode version. If you’d prefer to read the piece, find that here. If you'd prefer to watch, check out the video on YouTube (and subscribe while you're at it! Your support is vital in helping this channel grow).Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans). Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Today’s guest has ideas that are going to be a jolt for many of you. An easy example? His ongoing worldbuilding project, Planet City, which proposes that one response to climate change and biodiversity loss would be to compress the entire future global population of 10 billion people into a contiguous “planet city” roughly the size of the state of Texas—thereby letting the rest of the world rewild. Another? The idea that controversial and likely problematic geoengineering and carbon capture technologies are going to be vital in preserving habitability of life on Earth—at least the life that exists today, including us. As they say, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”Amid cascading crises, art & storytelling must provoke new ways of thinking about the human enterprise. Across his work as an artist, filmmaker, architect, & educator, Liam Young embodies this spirit.Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).BIO: Liam Young is a designer, director and BAFTA nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. Described by the BBC as "the man designing our futures," his visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today. As a worldbuilder he visualizes the cities, spaces and props of our imaginary futures for the film and television industry and with his own films he has premiered with platforms ranging from Channel 4, Tribeca, Venice Biennale, the BBC and the Guardian and they have been collected by institutions such as MoMA, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, SF MoMA, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria amongst many others. In parallel to his work in entertainment he is in demand as one of the worlds foremost futurists consulting on next generation technologies and designs for clients such as Nike, BMW, Google, Sony, Mitsubishi, Wired, Showtime, Microsoft, Ford, NASA JPL, L’Oreal, the Dubai Government, DHL and numerous others. His work is informed by his academic research and has held guest professorships at Princeton University, MIT, and Cambridge and now runs the groundbreaking Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI Arc in Los Angeles. He has published several books including the recent Machine Landscapes: Architectures of the Post Anthropocene and Planet City, a story of a fictional city for the entire population of the earth.CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! I’m happy to share the video here, as it continues to (unfortunately!) be a subject of critical importance for Internet freedoms. But if you want to participate in the Lives, ask questions of the guests I bring on, etc., do us both a favor and subscribe now and make sure Reality Studies isn’t getting filtered in your inbox. That way you can join me for my next live video in the app:Audio versions of this Rapid Response can be found here on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If you prefer video, check out the episode on YouTube.Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).My guest today is Noelle Perdue.Noelle Perdue is a writer, producer, and Internet porn historian with nearly ten years of experience working platform-side for multiple mainstream and independent adult companies. Having written everything from Food Network porn parodies to legally binding terms and conditions, much of her current work explores obscenity law and how pornography’s history can influence our digital and political futures. Noelle’s writing work has been published on Wired, Washington Post, Pornhub, Slate, Brazzers, Input, etc., she’s also been featured as an industry expert on multiple programs including the BBC, CBC, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and on Netflix's 2023 documentary Money Shot.Perhaps most impressively, Noelle is the first-ever third-timer on the Urgent Futures Podcast! She also runs the excellent Porn World with Noelle Perdue newsletter—so pop over there and subscribe for smart takes on spicy topics! This essay is a great companion piece to the episode, charting what makes age verification laws so fraught:In this Rapid Response episode, we got into all things age verification laws—a wave of legislation spreading across the U.S., Europe, and beyond. These laws, often framed as protecting children online, require platforms to verify a user’s age before allowing access to adult content. But the implementation varies widely: from Louisiana’s driver’s license–based verification to the UK’s repeated attempts at a national age-check system, to France’s ongoing court battles over platform compliance.Supporters see them as necessary guardrails in an age of ubiquitous digital media, especially with regard to “protecting minors” from “harmful” content. Critics (like Noelle and myself) argue these measures threaten user privacy, create massive data-collection risks, and risk handing governments or private companies unprecedented power over what people can see online.While this might seem like an isolated issue in the adult industry, it’s anything but; age verification have become a frontline issue in the larger fight over Internet freedoms, online anonymity, and the future of digital rights. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Nora N. Khan, an independent critic and essayist based in Los Angeles, dives into the intricate relationship between language and technology. She discusses the necessity of crafting new vocabularies for better understanding AI's societal implications. Khan shares insights on how technology shapes identity through digital media and gaming, emphasizing the vital role of criticism in a world overwhelmed with information. The conversation touches on the authenticity of AI-generated art, the emotional ties we have to technology, and the hidden costs of creative decisions.

I’ve been called a prepper more times over the past few weeks than I have in my entire life. In this Rapid Response episode, I want to explain why. And moreover, I want to explain why I believe we should appropriate, normalize, and broaden the notion of prepping.Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).Relevant links from the show:- https://www.realitystudies.co/p/resilience-faq- https://www.realitystudies.co/p/what-is-resilience-climate-resilience-explained- https://www.realitystudies.co/p/psychological-resilience-explained-counseling-cbt-narrative-therapy-emdr- https://www.realitystudies.co/p/climate-resilience-guideFind video versions of Urgent Futures episodes at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

Once upon a time, the Internet was heralded as a great open space, the utopian dream of free information flow. Obviously those ideas were misguided (at best); the Internet we experience today is a far cry from what Silicon Valley promised us. What went wrong?Today’s guest argues that it's because we’ve boxed ourselves—or maybe more accurately, been boxed into—platforms.The Internet as we understand it is dominated by platforms; in large part they define the logic of digital life. So what can we do about it? Listen on...Get your copy of Against Platforms here!Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).Mike Pepi is a writer and critic exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and politics. His work has appeared in e-flux, Frieze, Art in America, Spike and other publications, where he interrogates the ideologies behind digital tools and cultural production. He is the author of Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia (Melville House, 2025).CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe

As soon as the cost of renewable energy drops to or below fossil fuel levels, we'll easily make the transition away from fossil fuels, right?...Unfortunately, that's just not how things are playing out in practice. Even though wind and solar energy have seen remarkable innovation and rollouts around the world, fossil fuels remain dominant. What gives?Today's guest, Brett Christophers, believes it's because we've gotten it twisted: under the complex, capitalistic infrastructures that define the energy economy, it's not cost that matters—it's price. In fact, he wrote a whole book about it: The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet—which is the focus of our conversation today.Get your copy of The Price is Wrong here!Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourself online, 74% off 2-year plans).Brett Christophers is professor of human geography at Uppsala University’s Institute for Housing and Urban Research. He is the author of 10 books, including Our Lives in Their Portfolios, Rentier Capitalism, The New Enclosure, and most recently, The Price is Wrong. Christophers is one of the world’s most influential geographers. Recognized for his work on land privatization, the growth of rentier capitalism, the role of asset managers in owning housing and other essential infrastructures—and the political economy of climate change and the energy transition—he has written for the Financial Times, The Guardian, London Review of Books, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Washington Post, among many others.CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Get full access to Reality Studies at www.realitystudies.co/subscribe