Robin James
@robinjames.bsky.social
editor & scholar. Pop music, gender, philosophy. Books: GOOD VIBES ONLY; THE FUTURE OF ROCK & ROLL; THE SONIC EPISTEME; RESILIENCE & MELANCHOLY. Writing a 33 1/3 on The Breeders. Bylines all over, views could only be mine lol. its-her-factory.com
A small bright spot in the Baker & Taylor closure aftermath: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Lakeside Book Company Buys B&T Distribution Arm
The book manufacturing giant Lakeside Book Company has acquired distributor Baker & Taylor Publisher Services, an important asset of the soon-to-be-closed library wholesaler.
www.publishersweekly.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
A small bright spot in the Baker & Taylor closure aftermath: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
100%. Think of eg people you were on a panel with recently, someone who asked a great question about your recent conference paper related to the book, someone whose article you cite a lot in the book...the big senior names are never useful as peer reviewers except maybe for books by other big names
if your press asks for names, give 6 to 8--NOT the biggest, most senior stars in your field. None of them will do it. part of the problem is that the ppl best poised are "mid-career"--i.e. have a book, tenure. TWIST: the mid-career folx, IF THEY EXIST, are so fucking overloaded I can't even tell you
November 25, 2025 at 2:03 PM
100%. Think of eg people you were on a panel with recently, someone who asked a great question about your recent conference paper related to the book, someone whose article you cite a lot in the book...the big senior names are never useful as peer reviewers except maybe for books by other big names
The fact that this is Butler Co is HUGE - they've had/elected an Arpaio-like Sheriff super hard/racist on immigration for decades, was also John Boehner's district.
Page One in Cincinnati:
“.. I need to be able to look my grandkids in the eye and say I did not remain silent.”
#ICE
“.. I need to be able to look my grandkids in the eye and say I did not remain silent.”
#ICE
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 PM
The fact that this is Butler Co is HUGE - they've had/elected an Arpaio-like Sheriff super hard/racist on immigration for decades, was also John Boehner's district.
Reposted by Robin James
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
The vibes book has an estimated pub date! Look for it in October 2026!!!
Do I know anyone at like WIRED or some other venue that would be interested in a pitch for this?
With 2026 around the corner, I wanna pitch a like 3-5k word feature on the Telecom Act of 96 and what's happened to music and media in the 30 years since then, that's also kinda filtered thru my experience as a music writer who is also class of 96.
November 24, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Do I know anyone at like WIRED or some other venue that would be interested in a pitch for this?
Beauvoir starts off The Ethics of Ambiguity showing how the entire history of Western philosophy is an attempt to offload the hard work of making decisions in ambiguous & arbitrary circumstances onto supposedly 'rational' systems - having chatbots think for you is effectively the same thing
November 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Beauvoir starts off The Ethics of Ambiguity showing how the entire history of Western philosophy is an attempt to offload the hard work of making decisions in ambiguous & arbitrary circumstances onto supposedly 'rational' systems - having chatbots think for you is effectively the same thing
Part of why I think existential phenomenology is a very good framework for thinking thru the philosophical problems w AI is bc it has a very clear and direct framework for showing how this is bad faith, a renunciation of your obligation to think and act and participate in society
I'm literally just living a normal life while also experiencing a theophany via communication with the satellite called VALIS.
November 24, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Part of why I think existential phenomenology is a very good framework for thinking thru the philosophical problems w AI is bc it has a very clear and direct framework for showing how this is bad faith, a renunciation of your obligation to think and act and participate in society
and as we are seeing in 2025, many middle class jobs are also effectively being demonetized - so men gravitate toward the place that do promise scalable wealth: gambling, AI, the manosphere...which are all kinda overlapping Venn diagrams.
November 24, 2025 at 1:21 PM
and as we are seeing in 2025, many middle class jobs are also effectively being demonetized - so men gravitate toward the place that do promise scalable wealth: gambling, AI, the manosphere...which are all kinda overlapping Venn diagrams.
The main thing the second edition tracks is the rise of the asset economy and the demonetization of musical labor (including the labor of resilience). Now that there really is no money in making music, it, like teaching, has become a pink collar job.
November 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
The main thing the second edition tracks is the rise of the asset economy and the demonetization of musical labor (including the labor of resilience). Now that there really is no money in making music, it, like teaching, has become a pink collar job.
It was so fun to chat with Dan about what's going on with pop music (and gender) today - have a listen!
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
6 | Resilient Pop and Alt (Right) Rock with Dr. Robin James
Something's going on with men!!
dandipiero.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It was so fun to chat with Dan about what's going on with pop music (and gender) today - have a listen!
Hey pitch me this book
November 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Hey pitch me this book
I did just use Sprints’ “Descartes” and their riff on “je pense, don’t je suis” into “Rene Descartes, fan of local media?”
(It was a big deal he wrote that in French rather than Latin)
(It was a big deal he wrote that in French rather than Latin)
November 23, 2025 at 10:14 PM
I did just use Sprints’ “Descartes” and their riff on “je pense, don’t je suis” into “Rene Descartes, fan of local media?”
(It was a big deal he wrote that in French rather than Latin)
(It was a big deal he wrote that in French rather than Latin)
NOW
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
NOW
I could have never done the weird discipline-defying research I do if I was at a “prestigious” institution bc it wasn’t considered real research at the time I was doing it (eg feminist philosophy in the 90s)
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I could have never done the weird discipline-defying research I do if I was at a “prestigious” institution bc it wasn’t considered real research at the time I was doing it (eg feminist philosophy in the 90s)
TODAY! What are your favorite musical debates in the broad world of modern rock/indie?
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
TODAY! What are your favorite musical debates in the broad world of modern rock/indie?
Reposted by Robin James
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
6 | Resilient Pop and Alt (Right) Rock with Dr. Robin James
Something's going on with men!!
dandipiero.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
"Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern" (Marx, 1845)
Critical theory is no longer enough. It is time for critical practice.
November 23, 2025 at 3:15 AM
"Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern" (Marx, 1845)
Tomorrow!
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Tomorrow!
Thought I wanted to be a conductor. The philosophy dept at my undergrad was less misogynist than the music department and I liked thinking more than the kind of musicking available to me. Got a PhD in philosophy, kind of ended up a musicologist? Taught for a while now do publishing instead.
November 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Thought I wanted to be a conductor. The philosophy dept at my undergrad was less misogynist than the music department and I liked thinking more than the kind of musicking available to me. Got a PhD in philosophy, kind of ended up a musicologist? Taught for a while now do publishing instead.
I am so sorry for your loss.
November 22, 2025 at 7:16 PM
I am so sorry for your loss.
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
Poptimism emerged precisely as formerly prestigious modern rock became Clear-Channeled into Nickleback and Creed…precisely the popular feminist and neoliberalism compliment to alt-rock-y popular misogyny and reaction
November 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Poptimism emerged precisely as formerly prestigious modern rock became Clear-Channeled into Nickleback and Creed…precisely the popular feminist and neoliberalism compliment to alt-rock-y popular misogyny and reaction
Kind of wonder if this is the other beat to the alt-rock-to-alt-right project…
“We have been injured by poptimism” is an apparently more learned way of saying “we have been injured by women/feminism”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
November 21, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Kind of wonder if this is the other beat to the alt-rock-to-alt-right project…
“We have been injured by poptimism” is an apparently more learned way of saying “we have been injured by women/feminism”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
November 21, 2025 at 6:05 PM
“We have been injured by poptimism” is an apparently more learned way of saying “we have been injured by women/feminism”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”