Khans & Cosmonauts

Hello, and welcome to Khans & Cosmonauts (K&C).

I am Darmon Richter, and for the last decade I've been writing about architecture, heritage and psychogeography.

I run a site called Ex Utopia – about “forgotten, improbable, repurposed, haunted, frozen, contested, and disappearing places” – and since 2015 I've led “monument tours” in 10 different countries. I also wrote Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, which Financial Times called one of the "Best books of 2020.”

K&C is going to be both an index to my work elsewhere, and also a sandbox for new ideas. It has two components:

Newsletter

On the first day of every month, my newsletter will feature links to my latest writing and photography (both on Ex Utopia and elsewhere), and news about upcoming projects, books, and tours.

Meditations

K&C will also be a home for work that didn't fit anywhere else. Micro-essays, musings, and anecdotes on a variety of topics. Unpolished behind-the-scenes stuff. Occasionally it’s going to get weird.

These will go out on Wednesdays, but not every Wednesday.

Subscriptions

You can subscribe to my Newsletter, or Meditations, or both.

K&C doesn't have a paid plan right now, everything is free. If you'd be interested to see something like that though, you can pledge a subscription now and if there's sufficient demand, I may give it thought in future.

But the Newsletter will always be free, and delivered straight to your inbox on the first of the month.

“Darmon Richter really likes monuments … His passion is infectious.” - Forbes

“Travel writer and Pokémon Go enthusiast.” - New York Post

All photographs on K&C are my own, unless otherwise stated. Get in touch if you want to use them. To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.