Matthew Miller

The evidence of the past decade and a half argues strongly that platform corporations are structurally incapable of good governance, primarily because most of their central aims (continuous growth, market dominance, profit via extraction) conflict with many basic human and societal needs.

Ask Pug who his influences are, and you won’t get a list of aging rockers. “When I wrote my first album, Walt Whitman was the biggest influence. ‘Hymn 35’ ‘is the palest imitation of ‘Leaves of Grass’ in recorded history!” says Pug. “But part of being young is wearing your influences on your sleeve, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it if I could. The biggest influence on the latest album is probably Raymond Carver. The remarkable thing about his writing is when you return to a piece of his that you read long ago and realize just how much of your own detail was placed in the gaps.”