In this first episode of 2026, I speak with Am Johal and Matt Stern, authors of the "O My Friends, There Is No Friend: The Politics of Friendship at the End of Ecology" (2025) to better understand what friendship means these days... at the "end of ecology". Is friendship political? Can an AI chatbot be a friend? Recorded Jan 16, 2026. Released Jan 19, 2026. Matt Hern, Am Johal O My Friends, There is No Friend (pdf)<a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/022e1f6f-f14a-4c11-a94c-c95610919f8c/9783839470268.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/022e1f6f-f14a-4c11-a94c-c95610919f8c/9783839470268.pdf</a> Below the Radar podcast:<a href="https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast.html</a> *** New Cover art by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/oonaode/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oona Ode</a>! <hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Containment, with Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingrid Richardson

Hi everyone, my name is Mél Hogan and I’m a critical media studies scholar based in Canada. I’m working on a project called The Data Fix through a series of conversations with scholars, thinkers, and feelers. Together we explore the significance of living in a world of data, and especially the growing trend of “digital humans” in the form of chatbots, holograms, deepfakes, ai images and videos, and even tech that revives the dead. The conversations are minimally edited, and serve as an archive of the collective thinking and feeling that is going into the Data Fix project. Please see thedatafix.net for more details and show notes. Thank you so much for listening.&nbsp;Cover art by Oona Ode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.