Hi Nerve folk,

It’s Sarah here bringing you the latest edition of the Nerve. We’ve got our columnist Stewart Lee on Farage’s Cameo videos; cultural tips from Bait star Himesh Patel; a report on how AI is slowing down housebuilding; a five-star review of Robyn’s new album; and our Weekend Dish is a recipe for a herby, hearty Kurdish stew.

An accidental theme has evolved in the Nerve’s content this week: the state – and future – of our media now that we are firmly in the age of AI. We published a fascinating three-minute film by Doc Society co-founder Beadie Finzi, who asked Anthropic’s AI, Claude, to predict what public interest media will look like in four short years. The answers are pretty bleak. See the film here:

On Wednesday, we hosted a Nerve members’ screening of director Raoul Peck’s thought-provoking new documentary Orwell: 2+2=5, which contains a number of AI-generated scenes to illustrate the abuse of technology by those in power – a theme that was central to George Orwell’s writing back in the 1940s. When the film ended, Raoul came onstage to answer questions from our own Dorian Lynskey, himself an Orwell expert (read the interview here). Raoul pointed out that it’s the political system’s control – or lack of it – of AI that is the problem, not the tech itself: “We live in a capitalist world built on profit, and as long as it's the corporation that is [selling AI], you're bound to have all these abuses.” 

Totalitarianism, fascism, technology, media – the film illustrates how clearly Orwell understood these systems, and how, as a civilisation, we continue to play their worst abuses on repeat. (A little aside – this is a fascinating read by scholar Darcy Moore on an Orwell quote that our former newspaper, the Observer, has chosen as its new slogan. Could “the enemy of nonsense” be, erm, nonsense?) 

And to round off today’s theme, our co-founder Carole Cadwalladr has written a blistering column about the naivety of appointing a former Google exec as the new BBC director general. Is an AI apologist the right person to protect our most important news provider from the threats posed by AI? Why does everyone still think tech will be the saviour of media?

Before today’s links, a heartfelt thank you to Stewart and the hosts of Pod Save the UK, Nish Kumar and Coco Khan, for discussing the Nerve on this week’s episode (the clip is here – or you can listen to the whole show here) and a big welcome to the hundreds of you who then signed up. 

As Stewart said on the show, we don’t yet have the reach of an establishment media brand. But here’s where you can help! Do you know anyone who might like our mission of providing an independent, progressive and radically transparent news and culture title? One which is absolutely not interested in being part of the Westminster/media political class, but instead wants to be part of a community with you – our like-minded readers? Please send them this email, or a link to our homepage, and ask them to sign up. Thank you for your support – it's absolutely what keeps us going. (And please click on the Protonmail ad at the end of this email to help us raise some extra funding.)

Favours over! Here’s the weekend edition – we hope you enjoy.

What will Reform’s leader and party do for money now that their dubious income streams are being shut down, asks our weekly columnist Stewart Lee. The government is clamping down on cryptocurrency donations and Farage has closed his Cameo account, where he was  “a speaking Hallmark greeting card for racists and morons, the human equivalent of a tiny Clinton’s Cards fluffy birthday bear with a plush fabric heart on its chest that reads ‘Send Them Back!’” Does the opening of a far-right sex shop emporium beckon? Read it here.

The Bafta-winning director Raoul Peck’s latest film Orwell: 2+2 = 5 opens in cinemas today. He talks to the Nerve’s Dorian Lynskey (author of Ministry of Fear - a biography of 1984) about the persistence of fascism and how Orwell was drawing from lived experience not prophecy. Read the interview here.

Does the UK need more housing or more AI? The government appears to have opted for the latter. Their plan to fast-track grid connections for AI data centres is pushing housing developments further back down the queue – some councils have already been told there are no connections available for residential projects. The cause is a creaking grid due to decades of underinvestment: two-thirds of a typical electricity bill goes on catching up with infrastructure spending. But the US offers a potential solution: Trump has made Big Tech sign a pledge to fund their own power infrastructure. Here Nicole Kobie asks if Britain should do the same.

“A quick one first about tits. Is it me or are there a lot about lately?” writes Nerve music critic Kate Hutchinson in her joyous review of Robyn’s highly anticipated ninth album, Sexistential, for which the singer bares all on the album art. Don’t worry – this is not us going all 90s lad mag. Kate describes how the Swedish pop star, now 46, took time out to have a baby via IVF and why the new album is a euphoric dive into motherhood and messy, middle-aged female desire. Find Kate’s must-read review here.

This week the BBC announced that an ex-Google executive Matt Brittin will take over next month as director general at the BBC. Carole Cadwalladr writes: “It’s not just that Brittin has never made a TV programme or dealt with editorial conflict; he’s also never led an organisation. Brittin was a tech suit… His career as a yes man running interference for a predatory, extractive monopoly that preyed on news journalism in order to destroy it is precisely why he should be nowhere near the shortlist, let alone the winning candidate.” Read her column here on why Brittin “represents a real and present danger to the future of the corporation.”

Himesh Patel was cast at the age of 16 in EastEnders, where he stayed for the next nine years. Known for his leading role in the Beatles romcom Yesterday, he now appears in Riz Ahmed’s six-part comedy Bait, which is gathering stellar reviews this week. Himesh shares his cultural tips, including why he’s “a real sucker for melancholy boys with electronic instruments”, one of the finest examples of British TV in ages and a “quiet, lovely little corner” in a Soho gallery. Read his full list here.

Affectionately known as “London’s queen of Kurdish cooking”, the restaurateur Pary Baban was just 18 years old when, in the 1980s, her family was forced to flee their hometown in southern Kurdistan by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces. The kitchen had been the centre of her loving family home, so it’s fitting that her newly published debut cookbook is called Nandên – “kitchen” in Kurdish (also sometimes spelled “Nandine”, the name of her restaurant). Today she shares a fresh and hearty spring recipe for tarêh kurdi, a lamb stew which she says is full of herbs, spices and happy memories. Get the recipe here.

Thank you for reading and see you again next week.

Sarah

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