The Syllabus

We are now on @bluesky! Follow us and discover the best new books, articles, videos, podcasts, hidden gems, foreign language, and essays of the week, as well as select highlights from our free edition of the week – and much more. buff.ly/4110TwK

Ownership of social media platforms by tech oligarchs has become a decisive force shaping content governance. Our hidden gem of the week shows how individually-owned firms enable direct ideological & political instrumentalism. By @PJLeerssen at @ivir_uva osf.io/bzxs2

Following the Nazi seizure of power, psychoanalysis's political edge was neutralized. Our book of the week argues for psychoanalysis not as therapy for the bourgeoisie but as a vital weapon for social critique. By Florent Gabarron-Garcia on @PlutoPress buff.ly/b4scJ9v

Why do we idolize the Scarfaces of capitalism? This conversation interrogates the myths of unbridled individualism and pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps exceptionalism that fuel this admiration. With @bureaucatliu on @TIRShowOakland buff.ly/Glm7SBG

This piece argues that corporate profits no longer serve society; instead, they accelerate its unraveling. Restoring public accountability is urgent to halt this race to the bottom and protect democracy. By David Ciepley in @hedgehogreview buff.ly/gw3tHsG

Backed by hedge funds, offshore trusts, and shady fintech, this piece details how the porn ecosystem quietly monetizes shame, addiction, and attention, turning intimate user data into a tool for political control. By Richard Marshall buff.ly/ZIy0jLC

Treating data as immaterial fails to capture the material dynamics of data extraction. Our article of the week argues that AI’s total extractive logic is a “real abstraction” that reduces complex realities in the service of capital. By Maximilian Pieper buff.ly/T1DODvd

Journeying from deep human origins to the medieval empires of Mali and Ndongo, our video of the week aims to reclaim a usable past for contemporary African and diasporic identities. Feat. @lukepepera at @YorkFestofIdeas buff.ly/LAEQULc

From covert nuclear aid for Israel to AI partnerships with the UAE, our podcast of the week maps how America’s “liberal empire” wields technology as a primary tool of geopolitical domination. With @LalehKhalili on @techwontsaveus buff.ly/r07wfnz

Using Darcy Ribeiro’s thesis of Brazil as a “new people,” our Spanish pick of the week reads Brazilian literature and cinema as archives of racial formation, class antagonism, and enduring subaltern resistance. By @Lolangarros in @RevSupernova_ buff.ly/mf2XGPA

The "Second Cold War" is being fought for control over the networks of green capitalism. Our essay of the week posits that Global South nations are deploying "polyalignment" as a tool for national development. By @IliasAlami in @break_downradio buff.ly/I2Z4sYq

The Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) sought to forge a transnational “people(s) of the earth” to contest the global capitalist legal order. Our hidden gem of the week explores ALBA's populist approach to international law. By Claerwen O’Hara et al. at @UniMelb buff.ly/lncxUY2

Polemicizing against both neoliberal orthodoxies and the "progressive fantasy" of ecological degrowth, our book of the week champions a materialist egalitarianism predicated on global growth. By @BrankoMilan on @politybooks buff.ly/gwmxF2F