Verdurin

Pierre d'Alancaisez

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. 5d ago

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. Oct 5

    Out of Print: Daniel Hadas on Homer and the dawn of literacy

    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 the first part of the event, Scholar Daniel Hadas explores Homer’s transition from spoken to written text, as the pivotal moment in ancient Greco-Roman literacy. He thus historicises writing and literacy’s role in the Ancient world. Hadas specializes in early Christian literature, medieval Latin, and the study of manuscripts. Find out more about Out of Print. Check out events, publications, courses, and more from Verdurin. Join our newsletter.

    Out of Print: Daniel Hadas on Homer and the dawn of literacy

  7. Season 2, Episode 1 Trailer

    The Verdurin event podcast returns

    Welcome back, it’s been a while since we posted anything in this channel. If you’re hearing this in September 2026, this is likely because you once listened to my book interviews.  In 2024, I founded Verdurin in London. Verdurin is a cultural project, which offers everything you need to survive the cultural apocalypse. Our events, courses, exhibitions, and publications animate urgent and often challenging aesthetic, political, and philosophical issues affecting today’s culture.  While we did our best to record our nearly fifty events in the past two years, it has not been possible until now to release this audio. Now, my friend, the composer John-Robin Bold, has kindly agreed to edit the best of our archive, for which I’m very grateful. The music you heard is also his work. Starting this week, we will begin releasing recordings from events at Verdurin. These include symposia, book discussion, literary readings, public criticism sessions, and the occasional roundtable. Do check out our archive, as well as our events, courses, and publishing. You can also sign up to our newsletter.  https://verdur.in

    The Verdurin event podcast returns

  8. 06/05/2025

    Paranoia: Justin Smith-Ruiu

    Questions like “What does this mean?” are central to our encounters with art. “How are these signs connected?” or “how do all symbols fit into an unstated scheme?” are the foundational concerns of aesthetics. Yet, when the same concerns crop up regularly in almost any other part of life, we give a clinical, pathological name: paranoia. These questions were the makings of ⁠Paranoia⁠, a symposium held at Verdurin in February 2025.  This episode is a recording of a talk by Justin Smith-Ruiu. Justin reflects on how conspiracy-quashing slogans like ‘trust the science’ are, in fact, only functional under very specific conditions. The procedures invoked by fact-checkers and disinformation specialists may already be in the first phase of their obsolescence.  Justin also touches on his recent dabblings in metafiction – in particular their experimentation with pseudonyms and heteronyms via his publication The Hinternet. This project proposes a way for writers to induce in readers a suspicion that the most basic anchors of a text, like the name of its author, might just be a lie. Justin is a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the Université Paris Cité. He is the author of The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is and Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason. He has authored monographs on Leibniz and Early Modern Philosophy. He is also a contributor to The New York Times, Harper’s, n+1, and The Point. ****** ⁠The Paranoia programme in full⁠. ⁠More events at Verdurin⁠. Justin's Irrationality.

    Paranoia: Justin Smith-Ruiu
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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
    68
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Pierre d'Alancaisez
  • Show Website
    Verdurin

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