Countersign Podcast
1) Materialities of State Surveillance
Discussing Bernard Keenan's book 'Interception: State Surveillance from Postal Systems to Global Networks' (MIT, 2025). We discuss the history of state surveillance from the 17th century to the presen...Show More
2) A Burden of Unmourned Deaths
Discussing student protests, killing of protesters, and deployment of the National Guard - Naeem Mohaiemen and I discuss his latest film, 'Through a Mirror, Darkly'. The archival footage concerns the ...Show More
3) The Tyranny of the Deal: Race, Contract, and the Spirit of the Law
What are the origins and implications of hyper-transactional thinking coming out of Trump 2.0? I discuss this and other issues with the eminent critical race theorist and legal scholar Patricia J. Wil...Show More
4) 'When the trees have gone' - Veraibari and the Pacific at the International Court of Justice
Discussion with international lawyers, Alofipo So'oalo Fleur Ramsay and Watna Mori, on the impacts of climate destruction on the Village of Veraibari, Kikori Delta, Papua New Guinea. Veraibari is embl...Show More
'When the trees have gone' - Veraibari and the Pacific at the International Court of Justice
1:04:28 | Feb 12th, 2025
5) 'The Wall': Human/Animal Ethics for Catastrophic Times
Discussing Marlen Haushofer's novel The Wall (1963) with Anna Richards (Birkbeck). What does it mean to survive a catastrophic event? How can we navigate the barrier between human and non-human animal...Show More
6) Animals as Food: Violence, Labour, Capital
Discussing two books by Dinesh Wadiwel on animals as food: The War Against Animals (Brill, 2015); and Animals and Capital (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). Wadiwel examines animal agriculture as sov...Show More
7) Animals, Vivisection, and a Row with Darwin
Discussing Alison Stone's book ‘Frances Power Cobbe’ regarding the 19th C philosopher and feminist who developed a moral theory on the status and treatment of animals; founded anti-vivisection societi...Show More
8) What we talk about when we talk about genocide
Discussing the concept of genocide with international human rights lawyer and social theorist, Vasuki Nesiah (NYU Gallatin). Is genocide event or process? How do we move from idea of genocide as apex ...Show More
9) What is the Matter with New Materialism?
Discussing Richard A. Lee's The Thought of Matter: Materialism, Conceptuality and the Transcendence of Immanence (2016). Thought and matter are distinct, separate. The explosion of new materialisms em...Show More
10) Climate Wreckage, Pagan Vitalities, and Truth
Discussing William E. Connolly's recent books on climate catastrophes; examining geological volatilities; considering pagan thinkers