The Other Stuff #30 — Andrew McLuhan: The Medium Is The Message

Andrew McLuhan (@amicusadastra) is a poet, artist, and punk-rocker. In this conversation, we spent over three hours on five words: the medium is the message. Andrew explained why his grandfather saw the medium as an environment rather than just an instrument, and why environments shape us most when we’re not paying attention to them. We talked about the miracle of language—how one person can push sounds out of their mouth and another person can understand them—and how each new technology quietly redefines what it means to be human. We explored figure and ground, oral versus literate culture, the shift from mechanical to electrical ages, and why hip hop and punk rock share the same irreverent impulse. Despite everything, Andrew is an optimist. He sees the beauty around him. He also brought homemade maple syrup from his farm and we discussed whether shawarma was the medium or the message. This is a conversation about media, perception, and how we might not always be aware of the things changing us. The Other Stuff is hosted by internetVin⁠, filmmaker and entrepreneur and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. — Timestamps 00:00:00 Introduction 00:04:30 Prince Edward County & Main Duck Island 00:07:10 The Marysburg Vortex 00:16:50 What Does “The Medium Is The Message” Actually Mean? 00:36:24 The Smartphone Exercise 00:44:26 Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man 01:08:56 Buckminster Fuller & Interdisciplinary Thinking 01:25:56 Marshall’s Journey to Cambridge 01:43:06 Why This Work Matters 01:51:53 AI, Privacy & Feeding Context to LLMs 02:00:17 Media Ecology vs Media Literacy 02:08:12 Making Maple Syrup 02:23:44 Sandwiches as a Medium 02:34:35 The Polydicks & Punk Rock 02:45:51 Wu-Tang & Poetry 02:53:42 Leaving Literacy Behind 03:06:08 The Future of Technology — The Other Stuff Podcast: https://otherstuffpod.com  YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK0osV4LBB6zLfDk-KDV9FtDg7y0bJ3AW Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kImmU1R1DYTeM1AKZRWkx?si=2feeadb93ad4419f Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-other-stuff-with-internetvin/id1828762531 Twitter: https://x.com/otherstuffpod Instagram: https://instagram.com/otherstuffpod internetVin ⁠ https://x.com/internetvin New https://x.com/newsystems_ https://instagram.com/newsystems_