DEATH // SENTENCE
Episodes
Phil Burton-Cartledge - Falling Down
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
NORMAL ISLAND RIGHT? Britain has been even more NORMAL than usual lately, so we invited Phil Burton-Cartledge on the show to talk about his book Falli...
The Putrescine/Kosmogyr Interview
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hark, wary traveler: Today, Langdon ventures out alone to feast, to hunt, to kill. Also they interview a returning Trevor from Putrescine and Ivan fro...
Susanna Clarke - Piranesi
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We've got all three of the podcast's Toxic Litbros on the pod today because we want to talk about Susanna Clarke's incredible Piranesi, the long-await...
Alex Pheby's Malarkoi
03 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Discourse Labyrinth has once again trapped Langdon and Eden! First, they must do battle with online """Leftists""" to defend a Marxist reading of ...
Lud-In-The-Mist - Class, Center, Periphery, and Faerie
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate 3,000 followers on Twitter, Eden sits down for a solo episode exploring Hope Mirrlees' "Lud-In-The-Mist", a forgotten classic of faerie m...
Elle Nash - Gag Reflex
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elle Nash is back with another banger: Gag Reflex, a story of eating disorders and nu metal told in Livejournal posts and chatlogs. Along the way we d...
Moderan - Flesh-strips Toned Down
24 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Langdon and Eden must first do battle with, and slay, the ancient demon known as "comps" by wielding the mighty sword of post-modern Marxism (real). T...
Ottessa Moshfegh - Lapvona
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Returning guest Alison Rumfitt (whose book Tell Me I'm Worthless you need to read) is back to get elbow-deep in medieval pee-pee and poo-poo as we imm...
Yara Rodrigues Fowler - There Are More Things
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There are more things, but how many more? Let's find out by reading Yara Rodrigues Fowler's There Are More Things, a multi-generational story of queer...
Olga Ravn - The Employees
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We are escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... Space! Unfortunately, it has been corrupted by capitalism. Olga Ravn's bo...
Steve Erikson - Shadowbahn
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Dakota, the twin towers reappear. Inside them Elvis' still-born brother is resurrected. Elsewhere, JFK loses the election and siblings roam the US ...
Elden Ring with Matt Calquhoun
01 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Foul Tarnished, we have Matt Calquhoun with us to extinguish the meagre flame of your ambition by talking about the games of Hidetaka Miyazaki - Demon...
Sam Moore & Alex Roberts - The Rise of Ecofascism
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by one-half of the excellent podcast Twelve Rules for What to talk about their jointly written book The Rise of Ecofascism. We have a wid...
Subverting the Dying Earth and Vancian Fantasy
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In an episode that's been a long time coming, Langdon and Eden tackle Vancian fantasy, the Dying Earth sub-genre, and how these might be subverted to ...
Jonas Ceika - How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The philosophy world has turned on poor, innocent Freidrich Nietzsche, calling him a 'reactionary' and 'proto-fascist' and 'incel' (probably), but You...
Samantha Hunt - The Seas
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This time around, Langdon and Eden dive face first into Samantha Hunt's heart-breaking, magical realist, water drenched "The Seas". They discuss topic...
Gretchen Felker-Martin - Manhunt
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We have the indomitable Gretchen Felker-Martin back on the show to talk about her major-publisher debut, the first ever mainstream horror novel by a t...
Sean Thor Conroe - Fuccboi
20 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Railed a whack book Feel real bad about it Feel like it might 'say something' about 'late capitalism' Just wanted to create 'content' to 'go viral' H...
Catherynne M. Valente - Radiance
19 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eden is back on the solo episode grind, this time covering the beautiful, wonderous, and deco-punk "Radiance" by Catherynne M. Valente. Phantasmagoria...
John Darnielle - Devil House
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The best ever death metal and/or literature podcast out of three different countries is talking about John Darnielle's book Devil House, which dissect...
Spotify, NFTs, and Capitalist Accleration: A Conversation With RSH
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A Marxist analytical conversation about the current state of music distribution. Langdon invited RSH, a pop music critic for Billboard as well as a wr...
David Wengrow and David Graeber - The Dawn of Everything
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This time around, Langdon and Eden dive deep into the early stages of human development, the Enlightenment and our political predicament with Wengrow ...
The Alison Rumfitt Interview
11 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Whoa! Death // Sentence is back, baybee! And so is Gareth! Langdon is also here but Eden is not. What mysteries are revealed with this conjunction, na...
The Book of the New Sun - Episode 4
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Winged angels fight with cocky birds. Swordsmen plague the land, looking for a lark. A sailor returns, reincarnated as a soldier. Or does he? That's r...
The Book of the New Sun - Episode 3
19 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A wind blows through a cruel city. The mountains sing with rain. Ancient tyrants awaken in their holds and everywhere war and the rumors of war leap b...
The Book of the New Sun - Episode 2
24 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The past bubbles up from within forgotten caves. The light that once shined bright now falls and we feel our bodies give way to darkness. Who will sav...
The Book of the New Sun - Episode 1
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The future continues to unfold. Swords continue to sing. Prophets continue to roam the land. The past continues to collapse. The present continues to ...
The Book of the New Sun - Episode 0
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At last! The fated prophecy has been completed and the first episode of the Book of the New Sun arrives! Spaceships fly to the forested moon! Swords a...
Sofia Samatar - A Stranger in Olondria
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Smelling faintly of roses and holy words, Eden conjures forth this solo episode. He tackles one of the most beautiful, delicate, and magical books he'...
Keller Easterling - Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space
25 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On a blazing steed of heat and light, Death // Sentence arrives once again. This time around, Langdon and Eden navigate the post-modern labyrinth that...
M. John Harrison - Light
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After recovering from falling out of two buildings consecutively, Langdon finally posts the newest episode. In it, Eden and Langdon tackle NFTs, the n...
Suzette Elgin - Native Tongue
14 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's death sentence, Eden and Langdon tackle Suzette Elgin's ambitious linguistic-feminist science fiction novel/project NATIVE TONGUE. But ...
B. Catling - The Vorrh Trilogy
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Langdon and Eden tackle The Vorrh trilogy by B. Catling, a wild lysergic absinthian literary feast combining shards of magical realism, avant-garde li...
Kij Johnson - At the Mouth of the River of Bees
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this new Death//Sentence Solo Series, Eden explores award-winning author Kij Johnson's AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES, a collection of magical r...
P. Djeli Clark - Ring Shout
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Langdon and Eden tackle the universe's most pressing issue: the nature of the Grinch, the contradictions of the Grinchgeist, and the ...
Mark Z Danielewski - House of Leaves
12 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Langdon and Eden do the long-threatened and discuss House of Leaves, both as a cultural object and as a novel, especially as it pertains to literalizi...
Brooke Bollander - The Only Great Harmless Thing
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Recovered from Langdon being extremely bad at technology comes an episode long in the making. We actually started prep for this episode over a month a...
Andrew Krivak - The Bear
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On our newest Death Sentence Solo Series, Eden (@tallesteden) discusses Andrew Krivak's THE BEAR, a heart-wrenching and powerful book that peers deepl...
Jeff Noon - The Nyquist Mysteries
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On our newest Death Sentence Solo Series, Eden discusses Jeff Noon's series The Nyquist Mysteries. Jeff Noon is a remarkable figure in the field, sitt...
Becky Chambers - To Be Taught, If Fortunate
29 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Langdon and Eden tackle Becky Chambers' Hugo-nominated novella TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE, a work which grapples with the holocratic and highly mediat...
The Kazuo Ishiguro Oeuvre 1 of 8 - A Pale View of Hills
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A solo episode! Langdon launches a new sub-series working through analysis of all of Kazuo Ishiguro's body of work in chronological order. This time i...
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Langdon and Eden breakdown the glittering poetic beauty of Roger Zelazny's seminal science fiction novel LORD OF LIGHT. But first, we have to talk abo...
SEASON PREMIERE: Jeff VanderMeer - Dead Astronauts
05 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DEATH // SENTENCE returns after a brief hiatus. Between COVID and life changes for our hosts, Gareth has had to step away for the foreseeable future, ...
The Margaret Killjoy Interview
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Returning champion Margaret Killjoy joins us to talk about her incredible, possibly album-of-the-year album as Feminazgul, No Dawn for Men, the uprisi...
Alex Pheby - Mordew
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You're going to thank us for this one. Mordew is acclaimed author Alex Pheby's first foray into fantasy, and it's incredible. Imagine Gormenghast, Chi...
The Thou Interview
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
WE GOT THOU. Mitch and Bryan from one of the greatest metal acts on the planet join us to discuss pop-punk, coughing, fantasy, comic books and not bei...
Michael Seidlinger - Dreams of Being
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Returning guest Michael Seidlinger joins us to talk about his new book Dreams of Being, sushi, wrestling and Meltdown May. Music by FLUIDS: https://...
Brendan Joyce - Unemployment Insurance
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Poet Brendan Joyce is on the show to talk about his new chapbook (available here on May 1st: https://gumroad.com/nicetryofficer). We talk about our o...
Starling Days, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Down for a quiet, sad book about maybe or maybe not getting your life together? Yeah you are. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's Starling Days, the follow-up to ...
Bewitching the Elements - Gabriela Herstik
19 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gabriela Herstick (@GabyHerstik) joins us to initiate us into the mysteries of her new book Bewitching the Elements. We learn about witchcraft, the We...
Ruthless Gods - Emily Duncan
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We've got our first YA novelist on the show: Emily Duncan is mid-way through her Something Dark and Holy series in Ruthless Gods, and she's already ta...
Dorohedoro, with Emma Bowers
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Struggle Session's anime correspondent Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) joins us to discuss Q Hayashida's Dorohedoro in both its anime and manga forms. Fir...
The Earthquake Room with Gretchen Felker-Martin
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I don't want to hit a sore spot, but can we talk about herpes? Writer and Critic Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable)joins us to talk about an obs...
Finna - Nino Cipri
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Nino Cipri's Finna two co-workers, formerly a couple, have to track down a customer who has gone missing from a Scandinavian big-box store... into ...
Sweet Home w/ Shannon Strucci
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Shannon Strucci (Struggle Session, Critical Bits, YouTube and elsewhere) joins us for a COVID-related reading series followed by Sweet Home, a webcomi...
Wendy Liu - Abolish Silicon Valley
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Wendy Liu joins us to talk about her journey into the darkness of tech industry and out into the blinding light of leftist critique, with your hosts f...
Heavy: How Heavy Metal Changes The Way We See The World - Dan Franklin
28 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Franklin has literally written the book on heavy metal, taking us from Tony Iommi's fingertips through to modern bands like Oathbreaker and Conjur...
LIVE from Detroit, home of Robocop with Hether Fortune
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We've got Hether Fortune, formerly of Wax Idols and White Lung, on the line from her bunker in Detroit to talk about what Coronavirus means for the mu...
I Want To Believe (Good Riddance) with Andy Gittlitz
22 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by A.M Gittlitz, producer of The Antifada podcast and author of I Want to Believe: Posadism and Left Wing Ufology. After paying tribute t...
Docile: K M Szpara
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There is no consent under capitalism - that's the bold tagline slash thesis statement of KM Szpara's Docile, which imagines a future world in which yo...
Supermarket by Bobby Hall aka Logic
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You made us do this. We read what is officially the worst thing that either of us have ever read: Supermarket, by Bobby Hall aka also known as Logic....
The Colour out of Space (with J.G Michael)
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by J.G Michael of the Parallax View podcast to talk about Richard Stanley's The Colour Out of Space, based on HP Lovecraft's short story....
Egress: On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're back after an extended hiatus, with a new episode interviewing Matt Colquhoun, author of Egress, on Repeater Books. We talk about the aftermath ...
Hail Mizar! The Blood Incantation Interview
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We got 'em! We scored an interview with Isaac of Blood Incantation, who released what is perhaps the greatest album of the year in Hidden History of t...
The Invisibles Part 1: Say You Want A Revolution
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first part of a seven-part series exploring each of the collected trade paperbacks of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and we've got Pete (...
Interview: Venom Prison
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ash Grey of Venom Prison is on the line to talk about proper British things, like Brexit, Craig Charles liking your band, playing Glastonbury, rain, b...
Death Stranding Is Not a Book
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Death Stranding is not a book or a metal, Bring Me The Horizon's contribution to the soundtrack notwithstanding, so why are we talking about it? Becau...
Steal As Much As You Can: Nathalie Olah
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by Nathalie Olah to talk about her book Steal As Much As You Can, the only book ever written that will make you feel less crazy. It's pri...
Margaret Atwood: The Testaments (with Annie Kelly)
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You probably know that Margaret Atwood's The Testaments won half of a Booker Prize, and you definitely know that we have Takes about that. To help us ...
Interview: Dawn Ray'd
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We got 'em. The undisputed kings (if they believed in kings) of antifascist Black Metal, Liverpool's Dawn Ray'd. We talk with them about Mr. Blobby, t...
Hanna Jameson: The Last
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down with Hanna Jameson, author of The Last to talk about nuclear war, murder mysteries, the horror of a world without Posting, and her excelle...
The Mysterious World of Andy from Caïna
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We get Andy Curtis, the entirety of one-man post-post-post-Black Metal band Caïna, on the line to talk about a little of everything but a lot of high...
This Is How You Lose The Time War: Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We know what you're thinking: *another* lesbian time travel book? Well hold on, because this is a gorgeously written epistolary time-travel romance fr...
Interview: Jay Gambit from Crowhurst
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We've got Jay from Crowhurst on the show for an 'interview' where we don't actually ask questions but more just hang out for an hour. It's fun though ...
Tamsyn Muir: Gideon The Ninth
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tamsyn Muir (@tazmuir), joins us to talk about her sci-fi-fantasy-horror-punk-core book Gideon The Ninth, the story of entitled Goth teens in a creepy...
This Week in OUGHH: Turn Off The Night
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We ran out of books to do, but then Metal decided to release all of the new songs at once, so here's the first of two This Week in OUGHH episodes (the...
Philip K Dick: UBIK (with Bryn Nieboer)
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by Bryn from Beepbeeplettuce, Left Trigger and the bands Stay Inside and Vyy to go *deep* into Dick's 1969 book Ubik, which gives us lice...
Interview: Putrescine
29 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes you hear an EP so filthy, so sickening, that it can only be consumed sat atop a toilet while you commit time-theft. That EP is Putrescine's ...
Colson Whitehead: The Nickel Boys
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Trevor from Champagne Sharks joins us to talk about Colson Whitehead's follow-up to The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys. We talk about the long ...
Morgan Giles: Tokyo Ueno Station
18 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We have Morgan Giles, English translator of Yu Miri's masterful Tokyo Ueno Station, a story that is both a tearjerker and a study in understatement an...
Interview: Imperial Triumphant
04 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York bay-be! I'm walking here! We had a sit-down with two of masked jazz-black-metal trio Imperial Triumphant to discuss the truly incredible musi...
FKA USA SUX with Jake Flores
27 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pee-yoo, what is that? Oh, it's 'Reed King' (not an actual person)'s stinker FKA USA, and we're here to read it to absolute shreds with Jake Flores of...
Erik Davis: High Weirdness
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Y'all ready to get a little weird? Erik Davis's High Weirdness explores the lives of Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Terrence McKenna, which m...
Shawna Potter: Making Spaces Safer
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
War on Women's Shawna Potter has taken her decades in activism and 'the scene' and made a how-to guide for not being a dick and dealing with the dick ...
Chris Zeischegg: Body to Job
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Zeischegg joins us to discuss his dark, sexy, DARK kind-of-memoir-only-not Body to Job. We discuss his work, the nature of transgression, Bret E...
Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, with RS Benedict
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Writer and podcaster RS Benedict of Rite Gud podcast joins us to talk about death, and, FOLKS, this one gets raw as we all explore our own brushes wit...
Interview: Will from Redbait
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Will from St. Louis-based proletarian punks Redbait joins us to talk about the band's genesis in activism opposing police violence, the books that ins...
Aaron Bastani: Fully Automated Luxury Communism
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What if you wanted to redefine Communism for the 21st century and accidentally wrote the plot to The Expanse? Novara Media's Aaron Bastani has written...
Hussein Kesvani: Follow Me, Akhi
28 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hussein Kesvani (MEL Magazine, Trashfuture) joins us to discuss his excellent book Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims. Predictably, ...
Jamie Woodcock: Marx At The Arcade
24 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gamers rise up! But in a good way. Like against your bosses. Jamie Woodcock's Marx At The Arcade (Haymarket Books) explores the history of the video...
Natasha Lennard: Being Numerous
19 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined by Intercept columnist and writer Natasha Lennard (@natashalennard) to talk about her book Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life. Wh...
James Bridle: New Dark Age
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
James Bridle's New Dark Age argues for a better understanding of our late-capitalist Hellworld, taking in everything from algorithmically-generated mo...
The Real Golden Kamuy Was The Friends We Made Along The Way (with Emma Bowers)
03 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's another of our 'stuff that's not books but is as good as books' episodes, but this time kind of about a book: the manga Golden Kamuy by Satoru N...
Juliet Escoria: Juliet The Maniac
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We talk to Juliet Escoria about her new book Juliet the Maniac (on Melville House), the story of a teenager with some very severe mental health proble...
The Long Overdue Cancellation of Ian McEwan
16 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
British-Literary-Neocon daddy Ian McEwan has lowered himself to writing a 'scientific fiction' book to show us poor saps that they can have real feeli...
Donald_Trump_Gundam_Vore.divx (With Sarah Horrocks
12 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We've got comics artist, writer and critic Sarah Horrocks on the show to talk about her work so far (which has included The Leopard and Goro) and her ...
David Renton: The New Authoritarians
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What if we're wrong about the current far-right movements in Europe and the US being fascists? What if they're a new, more dangerous phenomena that bl...
UNLOCKED: Rax King: The People's Elbow
16 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is both the first Patreon-exclusive episode and the first time that we've had a poet on the show: Rax King is the author of The People's Elbow: T...
Nicki Minaj's MK-ULTRA Handler, with Djamila from ITHACA
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
South Londoners ITHACA blew everyone away when they released The Language of Injury in February, so we've been waiting, biding our time, holding back ...
Marlon James: Black Leopard, Red Wolf
05 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's barely March and already we've got a book of the year contender: Marlon James' Black Leopard Red Wolf, an epic fantasy that might be the best, an...