McKenzie Wark is an Australian born writer, critical theory professor, and 61-year-old trans-femme techno raver currently living in NYC. Her latest book, Raving, thinks deeply about dancing, dissociation, drugs, bodies, and identity as McKenzie, recently transitioned, navigates the queer techno spaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. On the line from Berlin, we talk about experimenting with language and writing, bodies and the beat, smart vs. stupid drugs, cultural theory, rave utopias, and McKenzie's extraordinary journey from growing up in an Australian mining town to dancing on the bleeding edge of the NYC underground.

Seana Gavin is a London-based visual artist who spent 10 years immersed in the free party culture in the UK and beyond, traveling to week-long parties in the Czech countryside, the mountains above Marseille, or Berlin squats with soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Desert Storm, and Hekate. Her photos and diary entries of the adventures of these roving cyberpunks are collected in books like Spiral Baby and Spiralling, and we sat down to talk about border crossing, squat raves, politics, drugs, freedom, and just how dirty things can get.

Elijah of Butterz on UK Grime History, Bad DJ Gigs, and How to Run a Successful Brand

Harry Harrison from Nottingham’s DiY Sound System on the Dawn of UK Rave Culture, Free Parties, and Fusing Anarcho Punk with Acid House