Verdurin

Pierre d'Alancaisez
  • 4.5 (2)
  • Arts

Events at Verdurin, London and interviews hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez. Verdurin /vəʁdyrɛ̃/ is a cultural project in London. It presents an idiosyncratic mix of events, courses, and exhibitions addressing urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture. Verdurin is also a concept store and publisher, providing the essentials an aesthete will need to survive cultural doomsday: daring literature, artefacts deserving of perdurance, and artisanal provisions. https://verdur.in https://petitpoi.net

  1. Oct 28

    The National Interest: Philip Cunliffe

    The peak of globalization is behind us, and not merely due to the Trump administration’s trade and foreign policies. With states being forced anew to earn their position in the international order, a new debate about the meaning of their national interest is urgently needed. The concept of ‘national interest’, however, is conspicuous from public life by its absence. All too often, the question is seen as parochial. Even political leaders, more used to making their case to the world at large than to their fellow citizens, treat the question of the national interest as an embarrassment. In The National Interest, Philip Cunliffe suggests that states will not be able to rise to present challenges without the legitimacy conferred by the pursuit of the national interest. Philip Cunliffe is Associate Professor in International Relations at UCL, co-founder of Bungacast, and author of multiple books on international politics and security. This conversation was recoded at Verdurin in July 2025. ⁠⁠ Get a copy of The National Interest. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠BSky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠.

    The National Interest: Philip Cunliffe

  2. Oct 21 ·  Bonus

    Shakespeare, Elites, Power: audience discussion with Neema Parvini

    This bonus episode is the audience conversation at ⁠Shakespeare, Elites, Power⁠ with Neema Parvini and Oliver Bennett. It was recorded at Verdurin in March 2026. Get a copy of ⁠The Populist Delusion⁠ and ⁠Applied Elite Theory⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠BSky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠.

    Shakespeare, Elites, Power: audience discussion with Neema Parvini

  3. Oct 21

    Shakespeare, Elites, Power: Neema Parvini with Oliver Bennett

    Shakespeare weighs heavily on the British political imagination. The Shakespearean ‘living tradition’ has seen his plays adapted to contradictory ideas and adopted by warring ideological factions. The playwright is as often construed as a proto-liberal as his plays are taken to be the foundation of an English concern with the social order.  Neema Parvini, also known as Academic Agent, has gained prominence, if not notoriety, as a political commentator. On social media and in YouTube videos, he applies ‘elite theory’ to modern politics and culture. Parvini suggests that democracy is an illusion and that, instead, we should view history—and culture—as a contest between power elites.  But Parvini’s background is in Shakespeare studies. In six influential books, he has examined Shakespeare’s moral and political compass, and argued against recent trends in the discipline. What use is the canon to contemporary political analysis? The publication of Parvini’s two new works, Applied Elite Theory and Foundations of Shakespeare, invites a look into the overlap between the author’s two preoccupations. Are Shakespeare studies—and the plays themselves—a bellwether for the culture and political stage at large? Oliver Bennett is an actor and director and co-founder of The Base.   Get a copy of The Populist Delusion and Applied Elite Theory. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠, ⁠⁠BSky⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠.

    Shakespeare, Elites, Power: Neema Parvini with Oliver Bennett

  4. Oct 14

    Progressive Agendas: Ben Cobley, Fraser Myers, Rupert Read

    The idea of progress is one of the animating concepts of Western civilisation. It permeates our understanding of history and shapes the way we imagine the future. From Marxism and neoliberalism to today’s identity politics, progress offers a framework of knowledge and confidence: an assurance that things can get better and a justification for our desires. What determines whether the ideas of progress give rise to, well, progress, or merely the substitution of the old? In June 2025, we convened a conversation between author of The Progress Trap Ben Cobley, Spiked magazine’s deputy editor Fraser Myers, and environmental philosopher and former Extinction Rebellion spokesman Rupert Read. Ben Cobley is a writer and journalist specialising in progressivism and identity politics. His first book, The Tribe: the liberal-left and the system of diversity (2018) examined contemporary diversity as a system of conformity, including some groups while excluding others, notably the white working class. His latest, The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History, explores the idea of progress as a tool of domination and colonisation, grabbing authority based on apparent knowledge of history and the future. Fraser Myers is deputy editor for the online magazine spiked and host of the spiked podcast. He campaigns for democracy and free speech. He also appears regularly in the media, including on the BBC, Sky News, ITV, and GB News. Eco-philosopher Rupert Read is Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future, and his latest, Transformative Adaptation – Another world is still just possible. Find out more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠Progressive Agendas. If you enjoyed what you heard, do get a copy of Ben’s The Progress Trap, or The True and Only Heaven : Progress and Its Critics by Christopher Lasch. The next event at Verdurin will be Disenchantment, a conversation with the author and philosopher Peter Rollins on the liturgy of lack and a religionless form of Christianity. Join us on 28 October 2026.  Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠BSky⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠Substack⁠.

    Progressive Agendas: Ben Cobley, Fraser Myers, Rupert Read

  5. Oct 9

    Out of Print: Edmund King on the fantasy of reading's power

    The anxieties around the decline of reading and literacy paradoxically give rise to outsized fantasies of the power of reading. As humanists feel increasingly under threat in the institutions, they attribute to reading (particularly the reading of fiction) miraculous and healing powers. In this, the final part of Out of Print, Edmund King reflects on bibliotherapy and some of the symposium's highlights. Edmund King is a writer and senior lecturer in English Literature at The Open University. He writes on the history of books and reading, contemporary literary sociology, and the culture wars. With Thomas Prosser, he is the author of Beyond Woke and Anti-woke. He is known online as Christopher Lasch’s Angry Ghost. If you liked what you heard, may enjoy the just-published ⁠The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society⁠ by James Marriott, whose commentary is pertinent to Kit’s argument.  Find out more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠BSky⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠Substack⁠.

    Out of Print: Edmund King on the fantasy of reading's power

  6. Oct 8

    Out Of Print: Nick Hostettler on the loss of value in the written word and beyond

    Is the loss of value of literacy as symptomatic of a devaluing of human minds, experience, and relations. This devaluing is expressed in the dominant culture of technicist materialism.  Does the devaluing of literacy coincide with a devaluing of human minds, experience, and relations, a devaluing expressed in the dominant culture of technicist materialism? Nick Hostettler explores how the personal inner conflicts experienced by teachers and students caught up in the deepening corporatisation of schools and universities can be translated into resources for defending the truly human. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠⁠⁠ was held at Verdurin in June 2026. The symposium was organised with Edmund King. Nick Hostettler is a Reader in Politics at Queen Mary University of London. He is a social and political theorist of modernity working to develop the critical Aristotelian traditions of Alasdair MacIntyre and Marx in the context of the deepening practical, intellectual, and ethical disorders of contemporary higher education. Find out more about ⁠⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠⁠. Check out ⁠⁠⁠events⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠publications⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠courses⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠more⁠⁠⁠ from Verdurin. Join our ⁠⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠⁠. If you liked what you heard, may enjoy The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose, whose commentary lies in stark contrast to the predicament of the contemporary educational institution which Nick describes.

    Out Of Print: Nick Hostettler on the loss of value in the written word and beyond

  7. Oct 7

    Out of Print: Kit Wilson on the tyranny of reading

    What if the problem of literacy is not its decline, but rather our hyper-literate state? The written word has become a bulwark against experience, with the reading of social media posts or Substack essays is at best a distraction. In this, the third part of Out of Print, Kit Wilson explores the confusion of the ‘map’ with the ‘territory’ that occludes access to an understanding of things outside of language itself. ⁠⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠⁠ was held at Verdurin in June 2026. The symposium was organised with Edmund King. Kit Wilson is a writer and musician in London. He frequently writes for the Times, The New Satesman, The Critic, and The Spectator. He is currently doing an MA in Philosophy at King’s College London. Find out more about ⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠. Check out ⁠⁠events⁠⁠, ⁠⁠publications⁠⁠, ⁠⁠courses⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠more⁠⁠ from Verdurin. Join our ⁠⁠newsletter⁠⁠. If you liked what you heard, may enjoy the just-published The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society by James Marriott, whose commentary is pertinent to Kit’s argument.

    Out of Print: Kit Wilson on the tyranny of reading

  8. Oct 6

    Out of Print: Alison Brady on Vilém Flusser’s challenge to writing

    Is writing under threat from AI? Is reading a lost art? Did the invention of writing itself  irrevocably change human nature? And are we entirely proscribed by language? Concerns like these have a long history, and how we address them is not without consequences.  ⁠Out of Print⁠ was held at Verdurin in June 2026. The symposium was organised with Edmund King. In this second presentation of the event, Alison Brady challenges concerns about digitalisation as a threat to literacy. Arguments in favour of “slow reading”, for example, overlook that reading and writing have always been technological. As the phenomenologist and provocateur, Vilém Flusser, discussed in his book “Does Writing Have a Future?”, writing technologies, from chisels to smart pens, have always been central to literacy practices, conditioning what is possible in the first place. Alison M. Brady is an Associate Professor at the UCL Institute of Education. Her work focuses on phenomenological and existential philosophy as that which can offer rich descriptions of teaching and learning. Her current research picks up Flusser’s question and considers the pedagogical nature of writing in an age of AI.  Find out more about ⁠Out of Print⁠. Check out ⁠events⁠, ⁠publications⁠, ⁠courses⁠, and ⁠more⁠ from Verdurin. Join our ⁠newsletter⁠.

    Out of Print: Alison Brady on Vilém Flusser’s challenge to writing
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About

Events at Verdurin, London and interviews hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez. Verdurin /vəʁdyrɛ̃/ is a cultural project in London. It presents an idiosyncratic mix of events, courses, and exhibitions addressing urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture. Verdurin is also a concept store and publisher, providing the essentials an aesthete will need to survive cultural doomsday: daring literature, artefacts deserving of perdurance, and artisanal provisions. https://verdur.in https://petitpoi.net

Information

  • Creator
    Pierre d'Alancaisez
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Pierre d'Alancaisez
  • Show Website
    Verdurin

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