American scholar Daniel Marcus and Memefest curator Oliver Vodeb explore the deep ties between capitalism and addiction from the early 20th century to today. They show how capitalism has not only shaped addiction but has actively relied on it as a strategy for growth.Drawing on their chapter “Capitalism’s Addictions” in the book Radical Intimacies, they explain how addiction became capitalism’s answer to a fundamental contradiction: how to keep selling when people don’t need more stuff. From planned obsolescence during the Great Depression to today’s endless cycle of food, technology, and drugs designed to hook us, they trace how pleasure and dependency became central to capitalist expansion.Design plays a crucial role in this story: born within capitalism, it has often been deployed to exploit our vulnerabilities and create new forms of craving. This conversation unpacks how addiction has been used to colonise intimacy itself — and why the rise of AI might push these logics into even more intimate parts of our lives. The episode closes by asking: can Radical Intimacies offer a way out?There is much more in the original written chapter, and If you want to read the whole chapter in Radical Intimacies, Designing Non-Extractive Relationalities, find more about the book: here. PODCAST CREDITS:Hosted by: Oliver Vodeb/ Memefest​. The podcast is a collaboration between Memefest and Intellect publishers.​ Music: Thanks to Bait for their song Property Law. Two best friends meeting seasonally in bucolic surrounds to generate improvised music. Property Law recognises the Indigenous peoples of the world's relationship to land. As in, "we don't own the land. The land owns us." Each of us is only passing through. Empires, Epochs come & go, but the spirit of the land persists.Visit our website: https://memefest.org/knowledge/memefest-radical-design/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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