Alex and Liz discuss only some of the works of linguist, philosopher, and academic David Golumbia, including:

• The Cultural Logic of Computation (2009)
• The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism (2016)
• Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology (2024)

Technology and Silicon Valley are often associated with left-leaning politics. Still, various causes (SOPA/PIPA discourse, internet publication and copyright discourse, digital innovation) have roots in libertarian or conservative and reactionary narratives. Golumbia’s work shows that it’s difficult (read: impossible) to divorce reactionary values from Silicon Valley and its staunchest supporters.

Reading list:

• The Great White Robot God
• A declaration of the independence of cyberspace
• The Language of Science and the Science of Language: Chomsky's Cartesianism

Alex and Liz talk about the Glassdoor reviews of their old employer, touch upon the depravity of working for an SEO content mill, and compare monopoly and monopsony.

• The classic Popula article about working at this very content mill.
• What is monopsony?
• Liz's site
• Alex's blog

Alex and Liz take a look at Kate Manne's 2024 book, Unshrinking: How to face fatphobia. Along the way, they examine some of the key assumptions that drive widespread fatphobia in contemporary society, what the point of weight loss is supposed to be, the history of hazardous weight-loss treatments, and how Manne's book intersects with other publications by Ragen Chastain, Abigail C. Saguy, Paul Campos, and Paul Ernsberger.

• Ragen Chastain on weight loss as a prescription
• Chastain on how weight-loss studies are often deliberately misleading
• Abigail C. Saguy's book.
• Paul Campos' book and blog.
• 1989 debate over whether "obesity" is hazardous, with Paul Ernsberger taking the "negative" side.
• Ernsberger's earlier catalog of hazardous "obesity" treatments.