Joshua Citarella
Artist and internet culture writer.
patreon.com/joshuacitarella
joshuacitarella.substack.com
An extra-long bonus episode to explore: class dealignment, the (very) early years of DSA, the rise of Swedish social democracy, and the historical differences between communism and socialism. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder of Jacobin Magazine he president of The Nation and the publisher of Catalyst: Journal. He is a former vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. Bhaskar Sunkara is a co-author of “The Blueprint: How Socialism can Work in the Real World”, published by Verso Books. We discuss the history of the 20th century and the possibilities for a more egalitarian future. This program is part of the 82nd Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, recorded live at the Whitney Museum in New York City. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We discuss the looming crisis of AI, the rise of China, the little known but very important work of economist Piero Sraffa and (of course) the origins of marmalade. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is David Harvey, a scholar, geographer and social theorist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University and held the Halford Mackinder Chair in Geography at the University of Oxford. David Harvey has received the Vautrin Lud International Prize in Geography, the Anders Retzius Gold Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and many other awards. In 1998, he became a fellow of the British Academy and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007. Harvey is perhaps most well known for his university course on Marx’s Capital. For over 50 years, he has taught and studied these foundational texts. He is considered by many to be the most influential Marxist scholar alive today. We discuss his 29th and most recent book The Story of Capital. Our conversation explores the inequality and economic crises of the 21st century. What are the defining features of this new era? What forces might intervene to correct our faltering economic systems? You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We discuss Jason’s background in music and his early political experiences. Are we being radicalized by mass media? Or are we being radicalized by real life? We explore the 90s era crack epidemic, de-industrialization and PC culture.
My guest is Jason Myles, a writer, musician, and podcaster. He is the host of This is Revolution. We explore the overlapping spheres of online politics and music subcultures. In the mid-2010s, political factions on social media replaced musical genres as the primary mode of youth subculture. But can a subculture ever scale to a mass politics? We discuss the related themes of identity formation, rebellion and revolution. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We explore Hito Steyerl’s recent work, soviet infrastructure, bitcoin mining, civil war and the (slim) possibilities of data centers or AI for the left. We get into the details about AI energy consumption and discuss the potentials for alternative models of data and training. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is Hito Steyerl, a filmmaker, author and professor of digital media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. We explore the ideology of AI, automation, and the rise of reactionary politics across the advanced world. Neoliberalism might be over. But whatever comes next could be worse. In this conversation, we attempt to forecast what culture and politics may look like beyond the 2020s and after the end of globalization. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We discuss strategies of: reform vs revolution, electoralism vs internationalism, and more. Our conversation continues behind the paywall. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is Julian Feeld, an author, journalist and co-founder of the QAA podcast. He is the host of Superstructure with comedian Jon Gabrus. Our conversation explores the impact of media, political speech and “influence” in our extremely-online society. What do we hope to accomplish through content? When does education and information impact real material forces in the world? From differing viewpoints, Julian and I explore the theory and practice of political-education. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
Doomscroll Dialogues is series of round table discussions, featuring returning guests alongside new and familiar faces. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
➡️ follow NEW MODELS The Online Marketplace of Ideas (2026) is an expansive survey of the present and recent history of Internet culture. Today, alt-media has become quantitatively larger than legacy publications. As a result, any consensus or “mainstream” has fragmented into a chaotic digital landscape. The cultural and political fringe is now co-mingled with the establishment. Challengers have become incumbents and vice versa. Within the exhibition, each carefully selected item has been purchased online and is shown without the knowledge of its creator or author. Contributors range from canonized artists to podcasters, influencers, bloggers, memers, musicians, and even politicians; each represents an accidental avant-garde for 21st century media. Created by Joshua Citarella & NEW MODELS (Caroline Busta & Lil Internet) with architectural design by sub, The Online Marketplace of Ideas brings together traces of the digital layer into the physical world. The installation includes more than 400 pieces of creator merch (t-shirts, hats, and other drop-ship basics), printed matter (books, journals, zines), and ephemera (nicotine pouches, Modafinil blister packs, mewing gum, etc), plus a small number of artworks. A Call Her Daddy baby doll tee sits opposite a Joe Rogan Experience shirt, draped over Charlie Kirk’s MAGA Doctrine. Fanged Noumena shares a shelf with Abundance below a Chapo Trap House hat. The bazaar includes a broad canon of accelerationist writings and maps the vast memeplex of ideas that drive attention and ideology on social media. Shown together, these objects convey the cultural and political incoherence of the present moment; infinite consumer choice with limited or no political agency. Viewed as a whole, The Online Marketplace of Ideas becomes greater than the sum of its individual parts. Similar graphic motifs emerge from disparate editorial voices. Colorways, typefaces and aesthetics flow seamlessly between opposing factions. Generic stockpiles of Gildan tee shirts or Yupoong hats are adorned with alternating logos through DTG printing or machine embroidery. These identical modes of on-demand production and just-in-time delivery evidence an unseen relay of logistics churning beneath the digital content layer. Across the political spectrum, the same physical warehouses (in Texas, Ohio and elsewhere) are linked to re-skinned e-Commerce storefronts. Within the exhibition, this wide gamut of political positions is contrasted against an underlying uniformity of material supply chains. While recent commentary has focused on the controversial opinions of online personalities, it has often overlooked the platform’s reorganization of work and materials in the world. Seen in totality, the installation points not toward a single dominant voice but toward an overarching hegemony of the market itself. In an era defined by downward mobility and the digitization of culture, millennials are left with fewer cultural artifacts than previous generations. Where Boomers might have purchased property or other physical assets, today’s home prices are unaffordable and goods are increasingly disposable. Where Gen Xers might have accumulated a valuable record collection, Millennials have streaming subscriptions to cloud-based archives. Merch is where the immaterial experience of web 2 culture touches down into our lived human space. It is the physical precipitant of “the digital” into our material world. As an analogue display technology, it works to signal identity in social contexts where the screen cannot reach. These printed objects are worn by community members to signal proof of belonging and to represent the strength of their collective belief. For many of us, it is the only precious cultural artifact we might have. The recent pole shifts between fringe and mainstream also signal a larger transformation that will soon shape the twenty-first-century; the slow emergence of new social institutions. Over the past decade, message boards have evolved into think tanks, content creators have become political actors, and platforms pioneer new forms of sovereignty. Today’s media streams serve as the organizing signals around which we are building new social formations. The content and connections we make online have become fertile ground from which new political organizations, guilds, universities or societies will soon emerge. Already, journalists and critics have dubbed 2024 the “podcast election.” In today’s digital landscape, candidates compete for prime spots on alternative programs. In certain instances, politicians have become successful content creators themselves, such as California’s Gavin Newsom, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, and many others. Stranger still, there appears to be a structural convergence of two previously distinct social forms; media entities and political organizations. Within today’s communication networks, both forms exist as undifferentiated nodes on the same publishing infrastructure. Primarily, media channels seek to shape democratic opinion through the content that they publish. But rolling subscriptions now resemble and often outpace the cost of dues paying memberships to proper organizations. Content creators also demonstrate a greater fundraising capacity than many individual candidates. Most impactfully, when calling upon an audience to take political action (donate, vote, canvass, or protest) the conversion rates of creator communities often outperform legacy institutions. Alt-media channels have reconfigured a pseudo-party newsletter, now contorted by the affordances and utilities of web 2. Similar to the flip of legacy and alt-media, The Online Marketplace of Ideas asks if we might soon see a bizarre transformation; could online media channels and pseudo-organizations one day become more impactful than institutional incumbents? For better and worse, we may soon find out. The Online Marketplace of Ideas (2026) is part of “Strange Rules,” curated by Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon and Hans Ulrich Obrist with Adriana Rispoli for Palazzo Diedo at Berggruen Arts & Culture, Venice, Italy. (May 4 - Nov 22, 2026) Special thanks to sub (Bill Bellingham, Giulia Domeniconi, Christopher Blohm, Niklas Bildstein Zaar), Elena Zaghis, Maria Cecilia Belis and Elena Estratti. Thank you to the Do Not Research & NEW MODELS communities for inspiring and authoring many of these items.
Doomscroll Dialogues is a new format of round table discussions, featuring returning guests alongside new and familiar faces. Catherine Liu is a professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine. Freddie deBoer is a celebrated author and cultural critic. Watch the video episode for free on Patreon. This video is supported by The Palm Springs School for Social Research, an educational and research initiative dedicated to revitalizing critical theory and building new, resilient forms of intellectual and social life. PSSSR is a non-profit organization founded by Catherine Liu in 2026. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We discuss Claire’s background in art, working at Sculpture Center, studying at SAIC and navigating the extreme inequality of American life. I share some war stories about the hazards of DIY creative life, freelancing and healthcare. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is Claire Valdez, a union organizer, artist and democratic socialist running for congress in NY-7. Valdez has garnered an impressive list of endorsements; Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, UAW’s Shawn Fain, DSA, Mahmoud Khalil, Zephyr Teachout, and many others. We discuss the American labor movement and the power of democratic majorities. The NY primary election is on June 23rd. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
Abby and I analyze the new Manosphere doc by Louis Theroux, college campus politics, elite formation, legacy vs alt media, and explore some deeper themes from her new film. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
My guest is Abby Martin, a journalist and documentarian. We explore the early years of internet culture (before big platforms and algorithms) back when Occupy Wall Street and 4chan were on the same side. This formative period gave birth to the first wave of an anti-establishment alternative media, where conspiracy theorists and radical anti-capitalists shared a similar online sphere. We discuss Martin's new film "Earth's Greatest Enemy" (2026), now available to watch online: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/earthsgreatestenemy You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We dive deeper into Natalie’s thinking on Anti-Zionism. Later, we discuss the decade long arc and development of her creative practice; from concept to writing to film-making. We explore the shifting role of cultural institutions in a world of platforms and user generated content, cancel culture and activist blow-back.
My guest is Natalie Wynn, aka ContraPoints, a video essayist and content creator. Our conversation is a sweeping survey of the online media landscape and recent political history. We discuss deradicalization, conspiracy, polarization, persuasion, justice, retribution, psychology, political philosophy and more. After 2024, the so-called “podcast election” cast new significance onto the role and impact of alt-media. We theorize an approach and arrive at strategic implications for how to move forward. You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella
We discuss the distinct but overlapping value systems of art and entertainment. Is an online view count more democratic than an elite institutions? Do we lose a humanistic, intangible quality of art when we begin to put quantitative metrics onto it? Should the museum become another streaming platform? You can get access to the full catalog for Doomscroll and more by becoming a paid supporter: www.patreon.com/joshuacitarella