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Usually I really don't like karaoke, because it can be hard to listen to drunk people singing. But I got to thinking about how beautiful karaoke––and other group singing situations, like live concerts––can be. Everyone's feeling a single vibe and expressing themselves in a way they don't usually. It got me thinking, in general, about how beautiful the human voice is and how much power it has. For example, think of a time you heard someone with a really beautiful voice singing in a way that just got you going. What is that? I tried to collect singers from all over the world who I thought harnessed that power. They make you want to sing along even if you don't know the words, or else they make you totally speechless with how much power is in their voice. Maybe ironically, I didn't do any talking or introducing this time. Just wanted to let the voices speak for themselves.

"The Future Is Sited in a Barren Wasteland" is a conglomeration of tunes by contemporary, experimental Black and brown musicians, musings on the future, original poems, readings of letters from host Anaïs Duplan's friends, and interviews. Playing into the points of intersection between wellness practices, theories of liberation, and the avant-garde, these transmissions will survey a range of sounds from around the world and bring together poetry and theory, music, and speech.