Archive on 4 - Into the Ether - BBC Sounds Unearthing audio treasures from the radiophonic past.

This is great. A beautiful radio programme about radio. @fallingtreeprod.bsky.social

I'm here to disrupt the finance synthesizer scene.

The question of our time is how do you artistically rebel — and win — against a totally flat cultural landscape? And before my readers, who I assume are all approximately 36 years old and very tired, say, “so what, who cares?” This does matter. I mean, just look around right now lol. You know things are bad when even OpenAI President Greg Brockman is posting stuff, like “Taste is a new core skill.” If people had taste, your company wouldn’t exist, Greg. But if everything is just attention now, and attention is completely commodified by algorithmic tech platforms, how can you push back against that? Well, I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself. Culture right now is determined not by human teams of editors and producers picking and choosing what youth culture gets the spotlight, but, instead, by the unthinking algorithms that power YouTube and TikTok. Which means the only things that have the level of scarcity and danger required to be seen as cool by young people will, slowly, but surely, be whatever is unacceptable on those platforms.

A post so smart I'm almost afraid to share it.

www.garbageday.email/p/the-only-t...

As the world burns, let's get one thing straight. A video podcast is just a TV show.

this still slaps youtu.be/ZQ_MEFVx5jM?...

With the Golden Globes, Podcasts Are Ready for Their Close-Up The annual awards show will anoint a best podcast for the first time this year, a sign of the industry’s increasing status in Hollywood.

The Golden Globes will recognize podcasting for the first time on Sunday, a sign of the industry’s increasing status in Hollywood.

TRON but you’re just inside a Google Doc

Anti-ICE protesters are having a rolling noise demo and protest in downtown Minneapolis targeting hotels where federal agents are reportedly staying -- starting at the Canopy by Hilton and going to the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel. Police have just arrived as we are posting this.

“History teaches, but it has no pupils.”

—Antonio Gramsci

podcasts

Does somebody at the DOJ want to tell me why my American Airlines booking information and flights in July 2019 are part of the Epstein files (attached to a grand jury subpoena)? As the flight itinerary includes my maiden name (and I did book this flight) why was the DOJ monitoring me?

INBOX: @jkbjournalist.bsky.social, an investigative reporter at @miamiherald.com who has covered Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking story for nearly a decade, accuses the Trump Department of Justice for tracking her flight history in 2019 and releasing them partially unredacted in the Epstein files

Berry Bars

“It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.” ~ Steven Biko

December 18, 1946 -September 12, 1977

Screenshot from The Onion, originally published October 9, 2002. Headline: Frank Gehry No Longer Allowed To Make Sandwiches for Grandkids Below it, a photo of a plate with multiple deconstructed sandwiches balanced precariously, vaguely resembling a Frank Gehry building.

Frank Gehry, 1929–2025 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...

iHeartRadio Exec Says Company Won’t ‘Play AI Music’ or Use ‘AI Generated Personalities’ in Staff Memo iHeartRadio banned AI music, podcasts and radio DJs with a new program called "Guaranteed Human," programming head Tom Poleman wrote in a staff memo.

I Heart radio has pulled an AI artist from the air and its chief programming officer has started an initiative called “guaranteed human.” He says this also applies to their podcasts. www.billboard.com/pro/iheartra...

Spotify Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Discovery Mode Is A ‘Pay-For-Play Scheme’ Spotify’s Discovery Mode allows artists to flag songs to be boosted in Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations in exchange for a 30% royalty commission—but a lawsuit accuses the streaming company of boosting artists who pay them.

Spotify’s Discovery Mode allows artists to flag songs to be boosted in Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations in exchange for a 30% royalty commission—but a lawsuit accuses the streaming company of boosting artists who pay them.

How to Make Music Popular Again The rise of headphone listening has changed us profoundly—and maybe not for the better.

Headphone listening "is a surprisingly radical invention, and we’re only beginning to contend with its implications," writes Jonathan Garrett. Not only does it isolate the listener; "it shrinks music’s cultural footprint."

"Political violence" is a term that exists to suggest a moral distinction between "violence against politicians" and "violence by politicians" - so that one can be condemned while the other can be normalized. Obviously, no such distinction exists in reality: violence is violence.

once again tapping the sign

An Introduction to Gothic Radio Drama with Alexia Ainsworth Alexia Ainsworth dives into the history of Gothic radio drama

I'm really excited for this free talk tomorrow!

An Introduction to Gothic Radio Drama

Come and join us at 4pm or 9pm BST

4- www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1344352006...

9 - www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1344353761...

Government style ad in watercolour. Image of a burglar stealing a painting from the wall of a home. Tagline: "It's not theft... if you say you're using it to train your AI algorithm". Body text: "Theft is now legal, so we can boost the economy by eliminating jobs. If that doesn't make any sense, ask a chatbot to explain it to you." HM government logo in the corner.

Did a new one

Amazon to Shut Down Wondery Podcast Studio, Reorganize Audio Business As podcasting becomes video-oriented, Amazon is shuffling Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team while cutting approximately 110 staff members

Amazon to close Wondery. 110 people to lose their jobs, including Jen Sergeant.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A twitter post explaining how you can “save PNGs to birds” by converting a drawing of a bird into a spectrogram then playing it to a starling who sung it back, reproducing the PNG.

Can’t wait to introduce bird-based storage into my backup system

Very much time to stop using WeTransfer, with their updated terms that clearly state they have the right to use anything you transfer across their service, to train AI, create derivative works, basically steal and use anything you post through them. This is now laid out in section 6.3, posted below:

Brad Lander, NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate, is arrested outside immigration court New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander has been arrested at a federal building in Manhattan as he was trying to accompany a person out of an immigration courtroom.

what is it called when people who aren't cops and don't have a warrant drag you away, because I don't think "arrest" is the word

My article about the Sonic Legacy of David Lynch is out now, published in the new edition of the MPSE magazine Wavelength. I’ve interviewed three of the sound designers who worked with Lynch – thanks so much to Douglas Murray, Randy Thom and Dean Hurley ❤️🔊

Link: digital.copcomm.com/i/1535880-su...?

An amazing video from a Black man who gets it. Here, he explains how the word "illegal" is based on a lie. A lie that the United States of America (and much of every other western country) tells. A lie built on capitalism, white supremacy, genocide, imperialism, slavery, and land theft.

Watch it.

ICE agents get green light to make unjustified warrantless arrests The agency announced an accountability policy has been rescinded.

SCOOP — ICE employees received an email yesterday telling them the agency's warrantless arrest policy had been rescinded. It's likely part of the Trump administration's efforts to further loosen enforcement restrictions to meet the new quota of 3,000 immigration arrests per day.

My report:

My thoughts on what’s going on in Los Angeles:

A photo of a written section from a map from the forest service (which falls under USDA) has been temporarily altered to adhere to new Trump administration anti-diversity and anti-inclusion policy. A part of the wording of the anti discrimination language has been struck through, by hand, with a pen. The relevant section reads: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, (following portion in this parenthesis has a strike through line -- sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information), political beliefs, reprisal or because all or part of an individuals income is derived from any public assistance program.

A contact sent me this from the back of a forest service map they got on a recent visit. The only maps available had language that does not comply with the anti-inclusion policies of Trump's administration. It's quite something to see the erasure - and what is being erased - laid so bare.