Writer, speaker, and researcher Erin Kissane joins Jim to trace how the social internet got here, what’s worth salvaging, and how we can do better by listening to people.
adactio / Jeremy Keith
An Irish web developer living in Brighton, England working with Clearleft.
I built Huffduffer.
There are no people in adactio’s collective.
Huffduffed (4989)
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Designing for Uncertainty - AT Protocol
Ethan Marcotte, who first coined the phrase Responsive Design, joins to discuss how to operate in a world defined by uncertainty.
https://atproto.com/off-protocol/2026-08-03-designing-for-uncertainty-ethan-marcotte
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Episode 13: Joanne O’Connor - Irish Tenor Banjo - Inside the Banjoverse
Joanne and I go way back, having come up through the life universities of The Willie Clancy summer school and the Fleadh Cheoil competitions in Ireland. We've had great fun over the years knocking head over our differing opinions on the virtue of playing polkas on a banjo. I'm not a fan, but Joanne finally explains to me how to do it properly!! We take a fond trip down memory lane in this interview, Joanne reminiscing about simpler times playing music as a child growing up in Co Limerick, the "craic" of the fleadhs, the mummers and the wren boys. Joanne is a terrific story teller and even better musician and a truly kind hearted soul.
https://www.ivoox.com/en/episode-13-joanne-o-connor-irish-tenor-banjo-audios-mp3_rf_88087771_1.html
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Craig Mod - Design Matters with Debbie Millman | Acast
Listen to Craig Mod from Design Matters with Debbie Millman. Craig Mod is a writer, photographer, designer, and publisher whose work is rooted in attention—to the roads he walks, the books he creates, and the ways technology shapes our experience of the world. He joins to discuss his memoir Things Become Other Things and how memory, loss, and the paths we travel, both literal and emotional, shape the stories we tell.
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Starship Alexandria
For our June 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria Adrian puts forward the book Piranesi by Susanna Clarke for Emma’s consideration.
Other talking points:
The State of What the F Is Going On
The joy of found document sources
The Triangle of Information ™
Two views of the nicest character in fiction
Analogues with dementia
Shadows on a cave wall
Psychic ideating communion(!)
One author enters, two classics leave
The ignorant unreliable narrator
Media Mentions:
Mythago Wood, novel by Robert Holdstock (and our coverage of it here:
The Magician’s Nephew, novel by CS Lewis
Red Dwarf TV series (very tangentially!)
Wayne’s World sketch series and movies dir. Penelope Spheeris
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, novel by Susanna Clarke
The Life of Brian, movie dir. Terry Jones (also very tangentially!)
Planetfall series of novels by Emma Newman
Next month we look at Do You Dream of Terra Two? by Temi Oh
Adrian’s music recommendation: Damnd Anthem’s cover of Muse’s Uprising
Emma’s latest writing is included in Creative Futures (Beyond and Within) which was recently shortlisted for a BSFA Award
Adrian’s most recent book is the graphic novel Salvation’s Child
If you'd like to support the show, and get an additional monthly patrons-only episode, you can become a patron at
You can buy our official t-shirts and mugs at
Follow us at:
Emma: @emmanewman@bsky.social and
Adrian: @aptshadow.bsky.social and
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Give My Head Podcast - 083. Dónal O’Connor - Podcast
This week Tim and Michael are joined by musican, producer and Belfast TradFest artistic director Dónal O’Connor.
https://podcastaddict.com/give-my-head-podcast/episode/221480254
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41: James Bridle—Questioning Machine Intelligence with Peter Bauman - Pocket Casts
In this podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist and writer James Bridle about what we actually mean when we say "intelligence." They discuss whether building our most powerful technologies around such a narrow version of it is a fundamental mistake.
They also unpack author Bridle's argument from Ways of Being that intelligence has always been a political construct, and that contemporary AI represents a reduction of a reduction. The conversation moves through the three effects Bridle sees AI concretely producing right now: consolidation of power, environmental destruction, and a spreading ontological crisis.
They end by widening to consciousness, ecological thinking, and what a genuinely non-human intelligence might actually require.
It is one of the more skeptical conversations Le Random has hosted on AI, and one of the most clarifying. Enjoy!
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Episode #21 Banríon an Ghrinn - A Conversation with Áine Gallagher - The Language Question
In this episode, I engage in a delightful conversation with Áine Gallagher, known as the "Queen of the Offbeat" in Irish comedy.
https://thelanguagequestion.com/episode-21-banrion-an-ghrinn-a-conversation-with-aine-gallagher/
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Episode #6 - A Conversation with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - The Language Question
In this episode of "The Language Question," I am joined by Irish musician, singer and broadcaster, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh to chat about life music, culture and language.
https://thelanguagequestion.com/episode-6-a-conversation-with-muireann-nic-amhlaoibh/
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Starship Alexandria Episode 11 - The Demolished Man
For our March 2026 episode of Starship Alexandria – and the first our our new season – Emma puts forward the novel The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.
https://starshipalexandria.com/episode-11-the-demolished-man
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