Whatever happened to the guys who put LED lights in their forearms? 💉 A look at the rise and fall of the fringe biohacking scene, and how the vibe shifts from microchip implants to mainstream self surveillance.
Read "Under the Skin" here: emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/going-unde...
Been watching @channel4news.bsky.social's #DirtyBusiness with infuriation. We've been paying to be poisoned. Essential watching and a case against privatised water.
Everyday I say I need to write my book proposal.
My next essay will be a result of a 2 hour train journey, a 13 year old laptop and a suitably sized croissant.
I really enjoyed this German spy thriller on Netflix, called Unfamiliar. Honestly just love seeing older actresses in badass roles while being desirable and cool af.
100% of proceeds from these tees will be donated to Prostate Cancer Research. Whether you run 5k or 42 this is for you: everpress.com/sports-outdo... #runningclub
My sleep paralysis demon
Hidden Valley Road by @robertkolker.com deserves a mention on #WorldBookDay. I unashamedly brought it because a Tiktok creator recommended it as one of the best non-fiction books, and he was right. I was deeply moved by this book and I write about it here: emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/stale-beer...
Need, want, must have.
Continuing the revisitation of my Substack posts from last year. This is the one where I confess to being featured on Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/millennial...
The British public would have more satisfaction about #UKpolitics and feel the country was improving if our public roads weren't like the surface of the moon. Crater size pot holes are an everyday complaint. Money should be given to councillors to fix our roads and train fares need to be reduced.
The techno-apocalypse feels like a stale-beer after party. My latest post dives into the social bonding behind Nick Land’s "prophecies," the empathetic writing of Robert Kolker, and why I can’t stop listening to the podcast What Went Wrong. emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/stale-beer...
Who wants to live forever? “A future that eradicates ageing might also be an unequal future. Thomas Ramge addresses whether longevity is for everyone with cynicism and caution.”
Emily Elizabeth Hoyle @emilyehoyle.substack.com reviews The End of Ageing. @anthempress.bsky.social
buff.ly/ttTlzUW
Re-reading my piece I feel it's a strong critique of how the documentary seeks to shock the audience with no exploration of gender and sexuality. Reflecting on it now I wonder how Living Dolls contributed to the coming culture wars. thefword.org.uk/2014/02/livi...
I was reminded of this article I wrote over a decade ago for The F-Word (kind of amazing I found it) about the Channel 4 documentary Living Dolls. I am really grateful to the editors of F-Word who helped shape my early writing. I learnt a lot from them.
thefword.org.uk/2014/02/livi...
In the depths of tidying I discovered this from the 2019 Intellectual Party. Includes an abstract from my early research. The title was "Under the skin: self-tracking, biohackers and human enhancement" and I used @dalupton.bsky.social's Quantified Self to analyse biohacking and transhumanism.
Given Kemi Badenoch's farcical comments about "scam" tuition fees and "crap" degrees I'm sharing this podcast episode from @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social about how universities are in a doom spiral. The tory party helped kick universities into a state of collapse.
open.spotify.com/episode/3uWt...
In addition to my essay on time ("The Longest Distance"), this month's issue of the Writer's Chronicle also has a short excerpt from She's Under Here. It's about forging documents to assume a new identity.
awpwriter.org/TWC/2026-feb...
Can Replicants Read? is a deep dive into the messy intersection of tech, culture, and power. I deconstruct the stories we tell about the future and explain why they matter today. If you want sharp, critical analysis that cuts through the AI hype, subscribe and read for free: emilyehoyle.substack.com
emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/male-seeds...
Relates to analysis from @emilyehoyle.substack.com regarding transhumanist and pro-natalist imaginaries amongst sections of the Tech Right.
CN: discussion of sexual violence
Grim but useful read on connections between Epstein network and reconfigurations of eugenics and race science by contrarian pundits, scientists and psychologists since the 1990s.
Through a feminist lens my latest Substack discusses the promise of cryonics. By enforcing a very literal mind/body split, cryonics discards the "abject" corpse to preserve the head in the hope their mind will be revived in the future. 10 minute read:
open.substack.com/pub/emilyeho...
It is my birthday today so I popped into Waterstones as I had a voucher to spend and I picked up Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. A family are the caretakers of a seed bank on small island and during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore.
"After reading The End of Ageing, you would be forgiven for believing the dragon is the immortal tech billionaire burning our earthly resources for his own individualistic gain". Read my full review on @thesociologicalreview.org: thesociologicalreview.org/reviews/the-...
Our latest #bookreviews explore artificial intelligence, South Africa’s prisons, seafarers, care, ageing and feminist walking. Read The Sociological Review magazine’s February issue. #OpenAccess. buff.ly/mdRHaCQ
Indignity by @leaypi.bsky.social is one of the announced books on the 2026 @womensprize.bsky.social non-fiction longlist. I loved this book and I wrote about why on my latest Substack: emilyehoyle.substack.com/p/the-presen...
I am thrilled to be a contributor to the February issue of The Sociological Review magazine. My review of Thomas Ramge's "The end of ageing: How biotechnology is redefining human life and what it means for us" is now available to read here: thesociologicalreview.org/reviews/the-...
The February 2026 issue of The Sociological Review features Karl von Holdt on activism and the anti-apartheid struggle, plus we look at teachers under pressure, gender perceptions in past societies, copywriters facing the threat of AI and more.
Read it here:
buff.ly/tyue9Zd
I have curated a bookshop based on my Substack, "Can Replicants Read?". It feels like a natural extension of my newsletter, considering the name. It includes books on tech culture, feminist theory and the books I recommend on Future Relics. What other books should I add? uk.bookshop.org/shop/1991
Oh thank you for the memoir, I am in awe.
