Without, new podcast from Sony Music and Hyperobject Industries, explores everything we can't imagine losing

Today Sony Music Entertainment and Hyperobject Industries announced the launch of Without, a new podcast hosted by international bestselling author Omar El Akkad that takes listeners on an exploration of the things we stand to lose, the things we should be losing, and what might still be saved.

Every episode of Without is a thought experiment – what would the world look like if something we’ve become used to were no longer around? In some cases, it’s something we’re already losing – species, natural phenomena, places. In other cases, it’s things we probably should learn to live without – fossil fuels, nuclear weapons. In other cases, it’s purely a speculative thesis – what would happen if the internet totally collapsed tomorrow? Available today, episode one digs into the surprising significance of sand, uncovering its looming scarcity and the unexpected underworld of sand crime.

El Akkad is an author and journalist whose debut novel, American War, is a prophetic and haunting allegory for a very near dystopian future: a United States ravaged by climate change and disease. In Without, El Akkad continues his thought experiment around what our future could look like. From antibiotics to glaciers to public spaces, the podcast tackles how we process a world that’s changing faster right now than any other time in human history.

“Without is in many ways a show about the end of certainty. If there was ever a time when we could rely on the load-bearing beams of the world to stay unchanged, that time is over,” said El Akkad. “From glaciers to seasons to the continued availability of a resource as common as sand, the Anthropocene is ridding us of our communal belief that some things will always be around, always be the same. This isn’t a show meant to scare people or scream that the end is nigh, it’s about how we think and behave in a world that’s changing faster and more fundamentally than at any other time in our history.”

Without is a Sony Music Entertainment and Hyperobject Industries production. It is written by Omar El Akkad. Executive Producers are Clare Slaughter, Harry Nelson, and Adam McKay.