Posts
Posts are syndicated across various social media networks—find them here and join the discussion. For just full blog articles, see here.
-
Happy 100th, Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich was born 100 years ago today. This is a picture I took in April of the door to the house where he once lived. There is no better place to start getting to know him than this Lost Prophets podcast: https://www.lostprophets.org/p/4-ivan-illich-ft-david-cayley Or his smile: https://vimeo.com/66948476 Rest in glory.
-
Come study with me!
Are you looking to deepen your thinking and practice in transforming media systems? Consider coming to grad school with me and my colleagues. Let me know if you have questions:) MA: https://www.colorado.edu/cmdi/mdst/maPhD: https://www.colorado.edu/cmdi/mdst/phd
-
Illich gatherings
Oh goodness, people are hosting gatherings to celebrate Ivan Illich around the world! I just signed up to host. https://aschoolcalledhome.org/illich-at-100/
-
Against commune-ism in cooperatives
I once wrote a book about cooperatives called Everything for Everyone; the title is a reference to an old Christian doctrine that the world is the shared inheritance of us all. But the title is dangerously close, I have since realized, to a tempting error for many new co-ops: the urge to be everything to…
-
The Beautiful Solutions toolbox is now online
You might remember that I co-edited a book, Beautiful Solutions, that tells stories of solidarity economies around the world. Well, now it is A FREE, ONLINE TOOLBOX, thanks to the good folks at Beautiful Trouble: https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/bsol Use this, share this, teach with this. I have long used BT’s website in my classes, and I love…
-
What is to be done with the perpetrators of climate change?
During a spell of thick wildfire smoke this summer, I was driving my kids toward the afternoon sun; it was a pale red, and we could look right at it—only a little brighter than the moon at dusk. I muttered about how I didn’t think I’d experienced this as a kid. One of them said,…
-
OCCUPY podcast from Future Hindsight
Next month, it will be 15 years since Occupy Wall Street took over Lower Manhattan and other bits of the world. I was anxious to revisit it, but I’ve really been appreciating this new podcast on the story from Future Hindsight: https://www.futurehindsight.com/occupy I also wrote a book on it:) https://nathanschneider.info/books/thank-you-anarchy/
-
The Conflict Systems zine is out!
The Conflict Systems zine, on designing online communities with conflict in mind, is NOW OUT. The digital version is here: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/2026/08/12/conflict-systems And there are still a few print copies available here! https://cloud.medlab.host/apps/forms/s/4Ys2HkNo23WB9pBn2cX8kef7
-
AI, I tried to love you
Among my peers who study the cultures and economies surrounding technology, I often find myself more tech-positive than most. On the whole I like computers, like the internet, and like in general the emergent human creativity that these things have enabled and revealed. A source of my appreciation is that I expend a lot of…
-
Conflict Systems drops Wednesday
MEDLab’s new Conflict Systems zine drops Wednesday—all about the need for building habits and tools for conflict into online spaces. Celebrate the launch: https://luma.com/vqlxb7dy Request a print copy: https://cloud.medlab.host/apps/forms/s/4Ys2HkNo23WB9pBn2cX8kef7