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the-syllabus.bsky.social
The Syllabus
@the-syllabus.bsky.social
1.1K followers 890 following 780 posts
Knowledge Curation Done Well. Non-Profit. Podcasts, videos, books, academic articles, and more. Subscribe: https://www.the-syllabus.com/
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the-syllabus.bsky.social
The global rush for low-carbon technologies now mirrors the old colonial logic of resource extraction. Our book of the week examines how Congo’s critical minerals have condemned it to inequality, instability, and armed conflict.

By Nicolas Niarchos on @penguinpress.bsky.social

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February 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
By tracing Kodak's evolution from film pioneer to supplier of military materials, this conversation reveals how film production intersected with forced labor in Nazi Germany, nuclear fallout, and U.S. Cold War imperialism.

W/ @alicelovejoy.bsky.social on @amprestigepod.bsky.social
E233 - Film and Cold War Industrial Power w/ Alice Lovejoy
Podcast Episode · American Prestige · 20/01/2026 · 55m
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February 2, 2026 at 2:02 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
The forgotten history of the Ladino Left unveils an alternate legacy of Jewish radicalism. Overlooked by dominant Ashkenazi-Yiddish narratives, this movement fought for socialism and solidarity with marginalized communities.

By Devin E. Naar in @jewishcurrents.bsky.social
Reclaiming the Ladino Left
The early 20th century saw a flurry of left activism by Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews in the US. Recovering their legacy can enrich the Jewish left of…
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February 2, 2026 at 12:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Zohran Mamdani’s story is a challenge to rigid identity boxes, argues this essay. As a Ugandan-born, Indian American democratic socialist, he weaves his unique migration history into a political identity that celebrates transnational belonging.

By Trishula Patel in @historians.org
“Mixed Masala” – AHA
A historian of the Indian Ocean world contextualizes Zohran Mamdani’s family history and complicated identity.
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February 1, 2026 at 2:00 PM
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This episode is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Technology: buff.ly/kimAC5Z
February 1, 2026 at 12:00 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
This dialogue focuses on the use and role of AI in healthcare, and how therapists fear automation will degrade patient care and erode labor conditions, turning treatment into a factory-like process while leaving workers vulnerable to replacement.

With Ciara Keegan et al.

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441. The Fight Over AI Use in Mental Healthcare (ft. Ciara Keegan, Ilana Marcucci-Morris)
We chat with Ciara Keegan and Ilana Marcucci-Morris from the National Union of Healthcare Workers about their ongoing contract dispute with Kaiser Permamente over the use and role of AI in healthcare,
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February 1, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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This document is part of this week's edition of the Best of Technology: buff.ly/kimAC5Z
January 31, 2026 at 2:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
While platforms like M-Pesa appear to uplift a fraction of users in Kenya and South Korea, this paper shows how they exploit working-class wages through debt traps, algorithmic experimentation, and unregulated lender practices.

By @scotttimcke.bsky.social

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The Neo-Colonial Tendencies of FinTech: Evidence from Kenya and South Africa
The character of uneven and combined development means metropolitan capital structures colonized economies. Accordingly, this paper attends to how Northern plat
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January 31, 2026 at 2:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
What does culture actually do for everyday life? Our open-access article of the week interrogates the methodological straitjackets that confine culture within neoliberal quantification.

By Abigail Gilmore et al. in @ejcs-journal.bsky.social

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January 31, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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This essay can be found in this week's edition of the Best of Technology: buff.ly/kimAC5Z
January 30, 2026 at 2:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
AI "answer engines" like ChatGPT are gutting the internet's ecosystem by siphoning value from creators without compensation. The result, as this piece details, is shrinking information diversity and a fragile knowledge base.

By @hamiltonmann.bsky.social in @noemamag.com.web.brid.gy

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The AI-Powered Web Is Eating Itself | NOEMA
Without a framework of “Artificial Integrity,” AI search platforms risk collapsing the information commons that made the web possible.
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January 30, 2026 at 2:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
China’s competitive college entrance exam—the gaokao—is not a mere educational hurdle, but the organizing logic of social order and state power. Our video of the week reveals how the exam reflects China’s own social divides.

Ft. Ruixue Jia & Barry Naughton at @gpsucsd.bsky.social

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January 30, 2026 at 12:01 PM
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This video is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Technology: buff.ly/kimAC5Z
January 29, 2026 at 2:02 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
How did books shape the computing revolution and its enduring legacy in understanding technology today? This discussion paints a vivid landscape, from early works like Berkeley’s "Giant Brains" to Nelson’s subversive "Computer Lib."

Featuring @patrickmccray.bsky.social

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CHM Live | Read Me: The Books that Inspired the Computing Revolution
[Recorded January 20, 2026] Whether you're an expert, student, or simply curious, how can you truly grasp what is happening in computing? One powerful answer has endured: “Read a book!” In Readme,…
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January 29, 2026 at 2:02 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Hope is not a policy, nor is “innovation” a magic trick. As our podcast of the week argues, the idea that climate salvation will come through breakthrough technologies is a myth that serves as an alibi for inaction.

With @davidedgerton.bsky.social on @the-breakdown.bsky.social

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January 29, 2026 at 12:02 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
When the universities trade their public mission for market logic, what is truly left? Surveying three decades, our French pick of the week unpacks the corrosive effects of relentless auditing, metrics, and internal competition on French higher education.

By Olivier Cléach et al.

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January 28, 2026 at 2:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Before ascending to the head of the FBI, Kash Patel wrote a children’s book trilogy full of MAGA conspiracy theories. Our essay of the week tracks how right-wing politics pivoted from myth-making to mass-market fantasy.

By @gideonjacobs.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

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January 28, 2026 at 12:01 PM
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A seismic reshuffling is underway in the world of scientific production. Our hidden gem of the week shows how the West’s historic monopoly is giving way to a more multipolar, but also more siloed, global science order.

By Abhishek Nagaraj et al. at @nber.org

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January 27, 2026 at 2:00 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Nairobi has become a test-site for China’s techno-capital. Our book of the week maps how the city's new digital ecosystem challenges both the West-centric script of technological “catch-up” and alarmist tales of neocolonialism.

By @andretwp.bsky.social on @ucpress.bsky.social

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January 27, 2026 at 12:00 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Tracing the postcards of British burlesque performer Miss Kitty Lord, this dialogue uncovers the vibrant culture of Belle Époque Cairo—a city where colonial power collided with local artistry and risqué performances thrived alongside strict social codes.

With Gwendolyn Collaço
A British Burlesque Artist in Belle Époque Cairo
E578 | While killing time at the Booksellers' Row in Westminster, historian and curator Gwendolyn Collaço stumbled on a collection of postcards from early 20th-century Egypt, some featuring the Britis
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January 26, 2026 at 2:02 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
From the iconic "Earthrise" photo to the shifting hues of oceans, Earth's colors have long shaped our political imagination. This essay argues: color is not mere decoration but a mirror of human impact—and an invitation to act.

By @frederic-hanusch.bsky.social in @noemamag.com
The Politics Of Planetary Color | NOEMA
Color once taught us to see and value our planet. It now records how we are altering it.
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January 26, 2026 at 12:01 PM
the-syllabus.bsky.social
Mark B. Smith's "Exit Stalin" captures the Soviet Union’s paradoxical existence post-Stalin: a dictatorship liberalized but not democratic. This review traces how Smith shows a world oscillating between progress and control.

By Owen Hatherley in @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
How the Soviet Union got over Stalin – or thought it did
His successors proclaimed a more liberal socialism. But was it ever real?
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January 25, 2026 at 2:01 PM
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This article is featured in this week's edition of the Best of Arts & Culture: buff.ly/oGGfb7S
January 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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States exploit migrants by devaluing their lives while extracting their labor and vitality. This study demands urgent scrutiny of how policies weaponize precarity, not for inclusion, but for the extraction of life itself.

By @smartitaz.bsky.social in @proghumgeog.bsky.social

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Governing by debasing migrant lives. Reconceptualising biopolitics and extractivism in migration geography - Martina Tazzioli, 2026
This article offers a nuanced understanding of the biopolitics of migration, interrogating the ways in which migrants are object of value extraction by being de...
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January 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM
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This episode can be found in this week's edition of the Best of Arts & Culture: buff.ly/oGGfb7S
January 24, 2026 at 2:02 PM