This is (not) America

Some of these futures are only a few years away. Others are already here.

A celebrity preacher has built an empire by turning faith into subscriptions, investments and engagement metrics. Then the Algorithm decides it no longer needs him.

 Two British men travel to New York for an anniversary weekend and discover that freedom can disappear between one nightclub and the next.

A gay driver breaks down in the Alabama town of Salvation, where every house flies the flag and staying alive may depend on performing the right version of himself.

A television presenter makes one human mistake in a country that has abolished forgiveness. An educational charity is acquired by a corporation capable of rewriting its employees' memories. A teenager searches through thousands of possible lives for one future in which he can safely tell the truth.

Moving between America and Britain, the near future and the painfully familiar present, these fourteen stories explore authoritarianism, artificial intelligence, queer survival, corporate control, grief, love and the private bargains people make to get through the day.

Some are savage and funny. Some are tender. Some are brief enough to leave a bruise.

Together, they ask what freedom means when the rules are being rewritten by people who already own the microphones.

Read This Is (Not) America before the future catches up.