23. M.I.A., OHMNI9, and the Evolution of the Audiobook: A Translation For Your Cat

I walked a thousand steps down from God-Warrior to human, verging on animalistic feline…
- M.I.A., OHMNI9, Chapter 7

With literacy on the outs and audiobook usage at an all-time high, artist, musician, and activist M.I.A. has chosen the ideal delivery vector for her psychedelic cosmogony OHMNI9, whose kaleidoscopic, Blake-adjacent mythos tackles the present with all the force of prophecy. Here, civilizations rise and fall; men adopt forms bestial, God-like, and ineffable; and the world's technologies condense into a malevolent singularity, prompting a final confrontation between good and evil – all in a dazzlingly brisk, 90-minute package, passages of which have been translated here for the benefit of your inner feline.

This podcast is sustained by sales of The Meow Library’s debut audiobook, Meow: A Novel.