The Loneliness Industry Podcast

Jordan Reyne is a philosophy graduate from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She works as a public philosopher, writer, and public speaker, and was formerly a professional musician and artist. Jordan has accidentally lived in four different versions of capitalism — from early-stage (Poland) to late-stage (Germany), with New Zealand and the UK slotting in between. Despite a lifelong passion for philosophy, she did not set out to conduct a cross-cultural study of capitalism; it happened unintentionally while trying to navigate a somewhat challenging life as an artist with inconvenient illnesses. When the same ideological machinery shows up in different languages, it does not suffice to hide the pattern.

Jordan’s current work focuses on phenomenology, existentialism, critical theory, and the analysis of power — including the Foucauldian kind that doesn’t yell or point guns, but quietly rearranges your behaviour from inside your skull. She is also completing a degree in Psychology, the institutionally approved perspective that locates all blame, control, and pathology within the atomised individual. Despite this — or because of it — she maintains the heretical view that society, institutions, and power structures do in fact affect human beings (so she may well fail this additional qualification).

Jordan’s early life provided a neat micro-demonstration of power’s two great modes: overt authoritarianism (via a father who favoured the outbursts and rage of a standard totalitarian model) and covert ideological power (via a mother whose preference for guilting and shaming invoked a level of internal surveillance only matched by late-stage capitalism). Jordan later discovered that these dynamics were not unique to her household; the same structures simply reappeared — fluffed to twice their size — in offices, institutions, governments, relationships, and wellness cults with better branding.

Before becoming a public philosopher, Jordan spent over 30 years as a musician in the underground art-rock, goth, and metal scenes. She toured throughout Europe and her home country, playing shows from Glastonbury to the Big Day Out, Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Whitby Goth Weekend, Soundedit and many more, and working on projects ranging from Resident Evil 7 to The Lord of the Rings and Café del Mar. Her artwork has been exhibited in Germany and Poland, and she has released three novels — two of which appear on Choice of Games as interactive fiction works. She has also written for Sound on Sound and Kitmonsters, and presented tech workshops on loop stations and online streaming technology throughout the world.

Yep, none of that last paragraph seems to have much to do with philosophy — but only if your definition of philosophy involves an old white guy, an office in a university, and a grant application. Jordan’s version comes from living an actual life in the wild: working, surviving, and dealing with systems rather than theorising about them from a safe distance. This is precisely why she’s able to make philosophy legible to those who need it most — the people capitalism sidesteps, blames, gaslights, and then tells to “manifest” their way out of structural problems.

Jordan will not insult your intelligence — or scam your wallet — by promising solutions, transformation, realignment, activation, or any other verb favoured by expensive retreats. Instead, she offers clarity, critique, dark humour, and the quiet relief that comes from recognising that loneliness is not a moral failure. It is a structural feature of a world built on control, competition, and the persistent insistence that if you feel alone, it must somehow be your fault.