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Radiolab

In the Dust of This Planet

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.643.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Horror, fashion, and the end of the world … In this episode, first aired in 2014, but maybe even more relevant today, things get weird as we explore the undercurrents of thought that link nihilists, beard-stroking philosophers, Jay-Z, and True Detective.

Today on Radiolab, a puzzle. Jad’s brother-in-law wrote a book called 'In The Dust of This Planet'.

It’s an academic treatise about the horror humanity feels as we realize that we are nothing but a speck in the universe. For a few years nobody read it. But then …

It seemed to show up on True Detective.

Then in a fashion magazine.

And then on Jay-Z's back. How?

We talk nihilism with Eugene Thacker & Simon Critchley, leather jackets with June Ambrose, climate change with David Victor, and hope with the father of Transcendental Black Metal - Hunter Hunt Hendrix of the band Liturgy.

Also, check out WNYC Studio's On the Media episode Staring into the Abyss, in it Brooke Gladstone and Jad Abumrad continue their discussion of nihilism and its place in history.

You can find Eugene Thacker's 'In The Dust Of the Planet' at Zero Books

Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today.

Radiolab is on YouTube! Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past — like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features, Radiolab live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Wait, you're listening to radio lab from WNYC.

0:19.4

Hey, it's like this radio lab.

0:22.5

I'm just going to kick it over to Chad.

0:24.3

This is a rerun from several years ago, but it's a weird one.

0:28.7

It's not a typical radio lab episode.

0:32.0

And yet, like every great radio lab episode, it feels like it's about now somehow more

0:37.9

than things that are being made now that are about now.

0:41.9

I don't know, whatever.

0:43.6

You listen to it and yeah, enjoy.

0:47.2

Okay, this is Chad Abumrah.

0:49.5

This is Radio Lab.

0:50.5

The podcast of Robert is out of town today.

0:53.8

So it's just me.

0:55.3

I thought in this podcast, I'd wander a little bit.

1:02.3

Generally, and that should be in front of your mouth.

1:07.4

Okay.

1:08.4

So I'm going to start with a conversation that Brooke Gladstone and I, this is Brooke from

1:12.5

on the media, the scene I had with my brother-in-law, Eugene.

1:16.6

I'm Eugene Thacker.

1:17.6

I'm an author and professor at the New School in New York City.

1:21.4

We talked about this very weird thing that happened to Eugene and I asked Brooke to join

1:26.4

me because it just felt like her kind of story.

...

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