The End of the World with Michael and Stu

Episodes

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  Ep 145 An Unfathered Vapour That Enwraps 03.11.2026 1h

  We're talking about William Wordsworth this week, his biography, his poetry, his apocalyptic confrontation with the power of the imagination—all the key themes you know and love. We connect his concept of "spots of time" to an idea of wish fulfillment that becomes associated with catastrophe, and think about how LLMs offer something similar, a kind of instant gratification that in its instantness devalues gratification itself, both aesthetically and psychologically. We cover some key moments ...
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  144: All Alone You Say That You Don't Want No Other 27.10.2026 56m

  This week we are discussing Alenka Zupančič's 2024 book Disavowal, which looks at the psychological phenomenon of disavowal as a way of understanding what is going on in modern culture, with particular attention paid to the way disavowal functions in politics and conspiracy thinking. It's a really fascinating, sharp book, and anyone with an interest in psychoanalysis or what is going on in the contemporary political moment should really give it a read. It's one of the works we've been mo...
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  143: It's Been Two Years and Counting 20.10.2026 45m

  This week we are catching up on recent news, including the White House Press Secretary Fiasco, the Russian plague outbreak, as well as a general conversation about the upcoming midterms. If the Democrats take back both houses of congress, will we see a cornered Donald Trump lashing out even more? And if the Republicans maintain some measure of power, will this encourage more of Trump's worst impulses? Seems like it could be bad either way, but who knows?! NY Times on the fall of Katie Zachari...
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  142: Without a Dream in my Heart 13.10.2026 44m

  This week we are covering the Manchester City crisis in the English Premier League. Michael leads us through the scandal in order to demonstrate the enormous scale of the corruption that went on over the last fifteen or so years, during an unparalleled period of dominance for the club. We also consider the political implications of sportswashing, when a country like the UAE is able to burnish its image through team ownership. The Athletic on the Scandal The Premiere League's Statement on the ...
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  141: You Got Sun In Your Eyes 06.10.2026 57m

  We're covering Michelangelo Antonioni's scene-dividing 1970 film, Zabriskie Point. What does this extremely vibey, mostly plotless, beautifully shot film tell us about America, as seen from the European perspective? What are we to make of the many dangling plot threads that do not cohere? What is going on with the exploding house at the end? We answer all of these questions, definitively. Once and for all. We open the episode discussing the latest developments in AI and religion...everyt...
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  140: I Dream of Rain 29.09.2026 1h 4m

  This week we are talking about Jean Baudrillard's 1986 text, America. An impressionistic, vibes-based take on America at the heights of its 1980s powers, the book is at times hilarious, at other times maddening, and at still other times powerfully insightful. We go over his hatred of jogging, his love of deserts, as well as his predictions for the eventual downfall of American power. Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwM...
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  139: They are Messing with my Heart 22.09.2026 58m

  This week we are discussing Anton Jäger's new smash hit, Hyperpolitics, which looks to diagnose the ills of our contemporary political era from a leftist perspective. We go over Jäger's use of periodization, consider his analyses of contemporary fiction, and look at his suggestions for how we should proceed in an ear marked by intense political activity without institutional organization. While we both have some reservations about the book, we agree that diagnostically it is a useful text for...
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  138: I Reached Out for the One I Tried to Destroy 15.09.2026 46m

  This week we are talking about the recent hype surrounding an AI that might, by 2030, "kill us all." This is somewhat familiar territory for the pod, but it is once again relevant after "whistleblower" Jacob Coxon's emergence with his dire prognostications for our earthly futures in the light of AI's startling advancements. We discuss Stu's recent article on this phenomenon and also draw on a recent piece by Richard Seymour to discuss what is "really going on" with all of this doom talk...
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  137: I Can't Seem to Face Up to the Facts 08.09.2026 54m

  This week we are discussing Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho in light of Stu's recent article on the film's resonance with a cybernetic conception of the environment. We discuss whether the crimes depicted in the film should be understood literally or as hallucinations, and how regardless of their reality they offer us telling insights on the nature of the neoliberal turn in American life and the commodification of everything. Check out Stu's art...
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  136: Blinded by the Light 01.09.2026 49m

  This week we are discussing José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindness. We consider what the central theme of the novel, a world in which virtually everyone suddenly goes blind, says about the way society is set up and how quickly it might descend into chaos were such an event to occur. We also compare Saramago's style with that of Thomas Bernhard, whose prose we determine to be "even more exhausting" than that of Saramago. Michael also offers up one of his patented hypotheticals about a key moment...
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  135: Over the Hill or Underland 25.08.2026 50m

  This week we're finally talking about The Matrix, which is arguably the most culturally influential film of the last 30 years. We discuss the various ways the "red pill/blue pill" moment has been ingested by the culture, and we also get into the film's undeniable influence on the now widespread belief in "simulation theory." Despite the heavy handedness of some of the metaphors here, we both agree that the film is still, after 27 years, completely awesome. This episode contains spoilers...
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  134: A Palazzo of Some Fantastic Proportion 18.08.2026 54m

  This week we are delving into Stu's new article on Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity. What are some of the consequences of the potential merger of our brains with superintelligent AI? Are they good? Are there any downsides? What about immortality? Should we want to live forever? We get into all this, while also making a comparison to a vision of a kind of immortality expressed in Mark Frost's and David Lynch's brilliant series, Twin Peaks. Subscribe to Stu's new substack, Cybernetic...
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  133: Now I Can't See, I Just Stare 11.08.2026 50m

  This week we are covering the 1993 film, Alive, directed by Frank Marshall and starring Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton. A sort of apocalypse in miniature, the movie depicts the miraculous survival of sixteen members of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains in 1972. We talk about the film's reputation, which perhaps surpasses its dramatic merits, while also considering the choices one would be forced to consider making were one to find oneself in ...
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  132: Sleep with One Eye Open 04.08.2026 55m

  This week we are tackling The Odyssey, both the ancient Greek epic and the recent adaptation directed by Christopher Nolan. We go over the context of the poem's composition and dissemination, its significance to the Greeks, and give a broad outline of the major incidents in the poem. Fear not, Zeus's Law is mentioned! We discuss how the film compresses the twenty-four book epic into a three hour movie, as well as Nolan's use of Vergil's Aeneid as a kind of narrative supplement. We also t...
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  131: The End of Laughter and Soft Lies 28.07.2026 1h

  This week we have a two pronged episode. We open up discussing the suit four states have brought against Meta, alleging the company has knowingly caused irreparable damage to millions of teens in promoting its harmful and addictive products to them. The bulk of the episode then looks at a recent, brilliant essay by Mathias Fuelling from Cosmonaut magazine on three works of non-fiction, Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Bel...
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  130: When You Wish Upon a Star 21.07.2026 59m

  We're going back to where it all began; that's right, it's aliens, this time those friendly aliens from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We talk about the general optimism and lack of paranoia in the film, contrasting it with more recent "first contact" narratives. We also get into the grittiness of Spielberg's early films, a texture he seems to have mostly outgrown by his 1990s blockbuster era. While the movie may have less to say about politics and the hard realities o...
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  129: With the Tolling Tolling Bells' Perpetual Clang 14.07.2026 1h 18m

  In honor of America's 250th birthday we are covering one of the landmark events in the nation's history, namely the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We discuss why the assassination was so significant, the context of the recently concluded Civil War, and the precise nature of the conspiracy led by famous actor John Wilkes Booth. We detail Booth's outrageous actions after shooting President Lincoln, his attempts to flee "to Mexico" on a broken leg, and his eventual killing by the unforgettabl...
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  128: Everybody Won't Be Treated All the Same 07.07.2026 47m

  This week we are using a novel format to explore recent Supreme Court decisions. Stu presents Michael with a brief sketch of the case, Michael decides how he would rule, and Stu then reveals the actual decision arrived at by the justices. Topics covered include: gun rights, pollution, temporary protected status, immigration, transgender athletes in school sports, birthright citizenship, and internet age verification. Is Michael in step with the court, or is he just a bleeding heart liberal? T...
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  127: Nothing Gold Can Stay 30.06.2026 45m

  This week we are discussing the recent New York congressional primaries which have announced Zohran Mamdani's arrival as a new political "kingmaker" in the Democratic Party. We discuss the three candidates, Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier, go over the politics, and then chart the response from the centrist wing of the party, as led by Hakeem Jeffries. Is this a sign of hope for a more progressive moment in American politics? Perhaps! Stu also gives a brief overview o...
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  126: We're on the Highway to Hell 23.06.2026 59m

  This week we are talking about the so-called utopian promise of the internet, the "information superhighway" as it was once known, and how it has, over the last thirty years, transformed into an information superhighway...to HELL. We look at some predictions and early ideas about the internet from the 90s before considering the critiques brought by Astra Taylor in the 2010s regarding the way the internet had been subverted by corporate interests. We also look at Lawrence Lessig's analys...