Anna Kornbluh on the prevalence of aesthetic immediacy and why we need climate counteraesthetics.

Events (from the introduction):

at the Zollo Collective:

https://www.instagram.com/zollo.hamburg/?hl=enat La Band Varga:

https://labandavaga.org/?page_id=102

Rethinking Economics Summer School Switzerland:

https://resuso.ch/

 

Shownotes

Anna Kornbluh’s personal website (including all her publications):

http://www.annakornbluh.com/

Anna at the University of Illinois Chicago:

https://engl.uic.edu/profiles/kornbluh-anna/

Kornbluh, A. (2024). Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism. Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3031-immediacy-or-the-style-of-too-late-capitalism

Kornbluh, A. (2023). We Didn’t Start The Fire. Death Drive and Ecocide. Parapraxis Magazine Issue 3.

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/we-didnt-start-the-fire

Kornbluh, A. (2020). Climate Realism, Capitalist and Otherwise. Mediations. Journal of the Marxist Literary Group. Vol. 33. No. 1-2. P. 99-118.

https://mediationsjournal.org/articles/climate-realism

Kornbluh, A. (2019). The Order of Forms. Realism, Formalism, and Social Space. University of Chicago Press.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo44521006.html

Groos, J., Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction. Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

on Alexis Pauline Gumbs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Pauline_Gumbs

https://www.alexispauline.com/

her essay on the Maui wildfires:

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a44819303/climate-crisis-maui/

 on climate fiction (cli-fi):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_fiction

Rebecca Saltzman:

https://rebeccasaltzman.net/

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble

Tsing, A. L. (2021). The Mushroom at the End of the World. On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691220550/the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world

on the genre of the Heist film:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_film

on “Logan Lucky”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Lucky

Strange, S. (2015). Casino Capitalism. Manchester University Press.

https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784991340/

Edward Morgan Forster on Narrative:

https://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/04/e-m-forster-the-difference-between-story-and-plot/

on climate/eco-anxiety:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-anxiety

Spufford, F. (2012). Red Plenty. Graywolf Press.

https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/red-plenty

explanation “hypersititon”:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyperstition

on Kim Stanley Robinson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson

Robinson, K. S. (2020). The Ministry for the Future. Orbit.

https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/the-ministry-for-the-future

Robinson, K. S. (2017). New York 2140. Orbit.

https://store.orbit-books.co.uk/products/new-york-2140

on the Inflation Reduction Act:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act

on the Green New Deal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal

website of Daniel Aldana Cohen (including all his publications):

https://aldanacohen.com/

Climate & Community Institute:

https://climateandcommunity.org/

“A Message from the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” video from 2019:

https://youtu.be/d9uTH0iprVQ?si=8O-M_fS2iO_AQhiL

Aronoff, K., Battistoni, A., Cohen, D. A., & Riofrancos, T. (2019). A Planet to Win. Why We Need a Green New Deal. Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/2546-a-planet-to-win

Klein, N., Taylor, A. (2025). The Rise of End Times Fascism. The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

on the Zohran Mamdani campaign:

https://www.zohranfornyc.com/

on Social Realism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism

on Brandon Taylor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Taylor_(writer)

his website:

https://brandonlgtaylor.com/

on Colson Whitehead:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colson_Whitehead

his website:

https://www.colsonwhitehead.com/

on “Succession”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_(TV_series)

on “Somebody Somewhere”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Somewhere_(TV_series)

on public luxury:

https://communia.de/en/project/public-luxury/

https://autonomy.work/portfolio/public-luxury-in-practice/

Nunes, R. (2021). Neither Vertical nor Horizontal. A Theory of Political Organization. Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/772-neither-vertical-nor-horizontal

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s website:

http://www.olufemiotaiwo.com/

Táíwò, O. (2020). Who gets to feel secure? On Liberty, Security, and Our System of Racial Capitalism. Aeon.

https://aeon.co/essays/on-liberty-security-and-our-system-of-racial-capitalism

Boston Review issue on “What is the State for?”:

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/from-the-editors-what-is-the-state-for/

on Freud’s concept of the Death drive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_drive

Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics

S3E32 | Jacob Blumenfeld on Climate Barbarism and Managing Decline

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e32-jacob-blumenfeld-on-climate-barbarism-and-managing-decline/

S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e30-matt-huber-kohei-saito-on-growth-progress-and-left-imaginaries/

S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e23-andreas-malm-on-overshooting-into-climate-breakdown/

S03E03 | Planning for Entropy on Sociometabolic Planning

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e03-planning-for-entropy-on-sociometabolic-planning/

S03E02 | George Monbiot on Public Luxury

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e02-george-monbiot-on-public-luxury/

S02E27 | Nick Dyer-Witheford on Biocommunism

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e27-nick-dyer-witheford-on-biocommunism/

S02E18 | Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e18-drew-pendergrass-and-troy-vettese-on-half-earth-socialism/

S01E16 | Richard Barbrook on Imaginary Futures

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e16-richard-barbrook-on-imaginary-futures/

---

If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

https://www.democratic-planning.com/

Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.

https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1

Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

https://www.indep.network/

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

https://www.planningresearch.net/

---

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Episode Keywords

#AnnaKornbluh, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #FutureImaginaries, #Art, #Literature, #Representation, #Immediacy, #ClimateChange, #ClimateBreakdown, #ClimateCollapse, #Capitalism, #Economics, #Collapse, #GreenNewDeal, #ClimateAnxiety

Episode ID: 1000720456211

GUID: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/knph8vys5gudjwc5/future_histories_s03e44_anna_kornbluh_final.mp3

Release Date: 03/08/2025, 04:30:00