LiteralMayhem Podcast
LiteralMayhem Podcast
Podcast Description
Corrupt storytelling and doing violence to language (aka "spin") has real consequences in the real world.
This anti-spin project is for anyone who questions the narratives we are told - and those we tell ourselves - about the world. literalmayhem.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores the relationship between narratives and their impact on our understanding of the world. Key topics include the psychology of storytelling, the dangers of spin, and the influence of hype in technology and politics, with episode examples such as the impact of hype on artificial intelligence and societal narrative shifts.
Corrupt storytelling and doing violence to language (aka “spin”) has real consequences in the real world.
This anti-spin project is for anyone who questions the narratives we are told – and those we tell ourselves – about the world.
LiteralMayhem is a podcast about how the stories we’re told, and the stories we tell ourselves, shape the world.
Our guest is Andrew Belsunces Gonçalves: a lecturer in Science and Technology studies at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where he focuses on the relationship between power, technology, and what he conceptualizes as socio-technical fictions. He’s also a co-founder of the interdisciplinary Hype Studies Group, which is holding a Hype Studies Conference in September 2025, also in Barcelona.
Our topic is, of course… HYPE! What is it? Where does it come from? And how do hype narratives affect us and our world?
The conversation covers a lot of ground, from technology to social media to politics, with a special emphasis on artificial intelligence as a form of necessary “socio-technical fiction.”
Boosters of AI need hype to bring a not-yet-existing technology into existence by attracting investment and by reducing the likelihood of regulation. So they use hype to play up its potential benefits while downplaying its potential harms.
It’s just one example of how hype almost always comes with a financial and political agenda, and when we buy into the hype, we’re tactically endorsing the agenda of the people creating the hype–always to their benefit, not always to ours.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit literalmayhem.substack.com
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