Lit Hub Daily July 23, 2026: capitalism, censorship and audiobook debates
Philosopher Kōhei Saitō argues that capitalism is structurally incapable of stopping climate change, describing the human-nature relationship as a one-way movement of capital. Maris Kreizman examines whether authors or actors make better audiobook narrators. Isaac Butler and Rosa Campbell discuss censorship, porn and capitalism in the context of the culture wars.
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TODAY: In 1888, Raymond Chandler is born.
Kōhei Saitō examines why solutions rooted in capitalism will never stop climate change : “The metabolic relationship between humans and nature was once a cycle—a process that could be represented as a circle. But the movement of capital is one-way.” | Lit Hub Climate Change
Should an author narrate their own audiobook, or should an actor? Maris Kreizman explores the importance of a good performance. | Lit Hub Criticism
Isaac Butler and Rosa Campbell, authors whose recent books focus on the culture wars, discuss censorship, porn, capitalism, and art . | Lit Hub In Conversation
“People are objects, terrified of one another as they wake up to nightmarish scenes.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week . | Book Marks
Jim Downs Considers the work of Heather Cox Richardson, Jill Lepore, Kevin Kruse, and other public historians who remind us why we shouldn’t repeat humanity’s mistakes . | Lit Hub History
Victoria Chang’s TBR includes work by Amina Cain, Karen Solie, Cecily Parks, and more! | Lit Hub Criticism
Here are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction and nonfiction . | Lit Hub Bookstores
“When Dad and I went to Dallas for Mom’s funeral, Dad gave me my own disposable camera with twenty four pictures on it.” Read from Meg Richardson’s new novel, Paradise Pawn. | Lit Hub Fiction
Carey Baraka revisits The Gods Must Be Crazy , the most successful African movie ever made. | Equator
Katie Porter is “closing the door” on her gubernatorial aspirations, and pivoting to… Bookstagram . | The Cut
Oscar Duffield looks at recent English translations of two eighteenth century epic poems originally composed in Gaelic . | Asymptote
As early Nancy Drew and Miss Marple books enter the public domain, it’s time to ask who owns the stories of women detectives. | Los Angeles Review of Books
How backlash to a teen journalist’s reporting forced the staff of a high school paper to lawyer up. | Wired
Emily Laskin translates two pieces from Russian : one by Lesya Lapina on the homophobia of Putin’s Center for Combating Extremism, the other by Sergey Hyugge on “an older, more chill version of the internet.” | The Dial
📚 Books
Best Reviewed Books of the Week: Whitehead, Cunningham, and Watkins Lead the List
Literary Hub · 6h ago
🌍 World
India's Gen Z protesters use memes and videos to pierce Modi's media control
NYT World · 8h ago
💻 Technology
The KIDS Act Is Mass Surveillance in Disguise, Says EFF
CoinDesk · 1d ago
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