Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations Audiobook

In this rich dialogue on surveillance, empire, and power, Roy and Cusack describe meeting with National Security Agency whistleblower Ed Snowden.

In late 2014, Arundhati Roy, John Cusack, and Daniel Ellsberg traveled to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden. The result is a series of essays and dialogues in which Roy and Cusack reflect on their conversations with Snowden.

In these provocative and penetrating discussions, Roy and Cusack discuss the nature of the state, empire, and surveillance in an era of perpetual war, the meaning of flags and patriotism, the role of foundations and NGOs in limiting dissent, and the ways in which capital but not people can freely cross borders.

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“On its surface, the essay collection offers an account of Edward Snowden’s 2014 meeting with John Cusack, Arundhati Roy, and Daniel Ellsberg. Things That Can and Cannot Be Said is less about Snowden’s 2013 decision to leak classified NSA data than it is about the context of that decision, offering a statement on the surveillance state as it relates to war and peace in the twenty-first century…‘It definitely cannot not be written about…because the world is a millipede that inches forward on millions of real conversations.’ Things That Can and Cannot Be Said is an unapologetically radical account of several such real conversations aiming to do just that: inch the world forward.”

— Shelf Awareness