In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Ivan Illich’s 1982 talk “Silence is a Commons.” They focus on the ways the enclosure of the commons inaugurates a new “ecological order” in which the environment becomes a resource in the service of “progress.”

In this episode, Barry and Michael discuss Sheila Esposito’s 2008 essay, (Title). They discuss Esposito’s Luhmann-inspired take on the relation between memory and forgetting and the role of media technologies in creating the modern system of social memory.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Hans-Georg Moeller’s book, Luhmann Explained: From Souls To Systems.They explore the agents of change in communication systems as theorized by Luhmann.

In this episode Barry and Mike continue their discussion of Luhmann. They talk, specifically, about the “recursively stabilized functional mechanisms” of mass media and their relevance to our 2026 media ecology.

In this episode Barry and Mike discuss Niklas Luhmann’s 1996 book, “The Reality of the Mass Media”. After unpacking Luhmann’s model of modern media, they question the role of truth in media and ponder if our current understanding of mass media is compatible with Luhman’s model.