N°105 - Small Stuff with Ian Bogost
About this episode
Julian Bleecker discusses with Ian Bogost the themes of his book about finding gratification in everyday life.
In this episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, I talk with my old friend Ian Bogost about his new book, “The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life” — a funny (like..I laughed out loud) , generous, and quietly radical invitation to recover the sensory enchantment of everyday life.Ian’s book begins with ordinary things: stick shifts, toasters, paper cups, plastic film, doorknobs, faucets, pre-ordering shirts, Diet Coke cans, plunger force cups when they are missing their handle, the texture of a phone case, the sound of ice in a motel ice bucket. Of course our conversation quickly opens into something larger, which I think Ian has been asking for awhile: how modern life has dematerialized so many of our encounters with the world, replacing small tactile gratifications with convenience, automation, frictionless interfaces, and screens.What I especially loved about this conversation is that Ian is not making a nostalgic argument for going backward. He is not saying we need to abandon technology or recreate some lost analog past. Instead, he is asking us to accept what the world is already offering everyday: these small, recurring, very much embodied encounters that…
More episodes of Near Future Laboratory Podcast
- N°104 - Marina Zurkow & Sarah Rothberg
- N°103 - Tom Guarriello The Meaning of Branded Objects
- N°102 - The Art of Possible with Dave Gray
- N°101 - Kirby Ferguson Infinite Remix
- N°100 - N O R M A L S Futures Are Boring
- N°099 - Outgoing
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