Long-time readers of Psychopolitica will remember my occasional forays into the topic and territory of news. I looked through the archives and found some examples.
In 2020, I wondered about the future of deep fakes and LLMs, including as an intermediary for real-time human-to-human interactions and then a gradual replacement for them:
In 2021, I was brainstorming genres to play with at Substack, and got inspired by the idea of Psychopolitica as a newspaper:
I’ve come back to this idea several times over the years, iterating on the title, format, and feel.
There was What’s Going On:
End Times News & REALITY, complete with a news anchor audition:
Then Weird Times:
…which had a second issue, devoted to China:
…and even a video episode hosted by a cartoon version of
:In 2023, there was The Kali Yuga Chronicle:
…and a three-day live coverage of one of the more bizarre developments in the Russia-Ukraine war, Evgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny against Russia’s armed forces: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.
I wanted to take another shot at this last Monday, in a live broadcast; but the streaming software failed, and I, somewhat relieved, ended up chatting one-on-one with
, a friend and one of the most lucid writers on Substack. We talked about the news and our changing relationship to it, war/revolution in Syria, Trump as a simulacrum that took over reality, evolution of the Internet, power dynamics in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia, and more.I’m hiding the second half of the conversation behind the paywall, because I’m not very happy with how I articulated my thoughts and feelings on the Ukraine war and power struggles in Russia and neighboring countries. These are topics that have more weight for me than for most of my readers and listeners; talking about them is a bit of a private mine field for me. In this episode, I feel like I didn’t get through the field — I moved a little too carelessly, stumbled over some wires, and so what I was trying to express, if not died, was severely injured; so I’d rather keep this attempt within Psychopolitica’s inner circle. I’ll keep talking, and learning how to talk, about this in the weeks and months and years to come.
I will also keep experimenting with live broadcasts, mixing and melding different genres.
To this end, let me ask you a question:
Classifieds
Jeremy N. Smith is a very accomplished coach, creative consultant, and writer acclaimed by CNN, the New York Times, Bill Gates, and Jane Goodall, among others.
He offers a complimentary coaching session to any PsyPol subscriber.
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