Paris Marx is joined by Molly White, Brian Merchant, and Eric Wickham to discuss the highs and lows (mostly lows) of this year in tech news.

Molly White is the creator of Web3 is Going Just Great and Follow the Crypto. Brian Merchant is my co-host on System Crash, a new podcast we?re hosting. He?s also a longtime tech journalist and author of Blood in the Machine. Eric Wickham is the producer for Tech Won?t Save Us, along with a bunch of other podcast, and an independent journalist.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Molly joined Brian and Paris on System Crash.Peter Thiel made some dumb remarks about Luigi Mangione on the Piers Morgan show while looking very shiny.Apple sold fewer than half a million Vision Pro headsets this year.

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Paris Marx is joined by Amanda Mull to discuss the data-informed decisions that are changing the way we all experience air travel, mostly for the worse.

Amanda Mull is a senior reporter and Buying Power columnist at Bloomberg Businessweek.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Amanda wrote about the changing flying experience for Bloomberg and the big investments being made in airport lounges for The Atlantic.Legacy airlines are taking budget customers with the ultracheap fares.In the US, budget airlines are beginning to offer premium seats and other amenities to attract more premium customers.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn?t go to waste. We?re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here?s a preview of this week?s premium episode with Aurora Gomez Delgado of Tu Nube Seca Mi Río. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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Paris Marx is joined by Cam Wilson to discuss Australia?s plan to ban under-16s from social media, the interests driving it, and whether it?s the right approach to tackle the harms of those platforms.

Cam Wilson is associate editor at Crikey.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Cam wrote about the under-16 social media ban for Crikey.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn?t go to waste. We?re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here?s a preview of this week?s premium episode with Brid Smith, a former TD or Member of Parliament in the Irish Parliament in Dublin. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn?t go to waste. We?re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here?s a preview of this week?s premium episode with Sebastian Lehuede, a lecturer at King?s College London. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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Paris Marx is joined by MV Ramana to discuss the tech industry?s push to have nuclear energy power its data centers and why the reality of nuclear power isn?t as great as its promoters often make it seem.

MV Ramana is a Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Nuclear Is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Langdon Winner wrote The Whale and the Reactor and Do Artifacts Have Politics?. Timothy Mitchell wrote Carbon Democracy.Microsoft made an agreement to try to restart Three Mile Island, but it?s not a done deal yet.Data centers are fueling fossil fuel use, despite claims about nuclear and renewables. Leaked documents in October confirmed Israel has nuclear weapons.

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Paris Marx is joined by Becca Lewis to discuss the right-wing project to shape the internet in the 1990s and how we?re still living with the legacies of those actions today.

Becca Lewis is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen mentioning the Italian Futurists in his Techno-Optimist Manifesto.Ruth Eveleth wrote about the Italian Futurists in the context of Silicon Valley.In 1995, Wired published a story on how ?America?s futurist politicians? Al Gore and Newt Gingrich were in an epic struggle to shape the internet.Becca mentioned the work of Nicole Hemmer and Patricia Aufderheide.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn?t go to waste. We?re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here?s a preview of this week?s premium episode with Cecilia Rikap, an Associate Professor in Economics at University College London. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant to discuss the fallout from the US election, what it means for the tech industry, and more importantly, what it might mean for all of us. They also celebrate the show hitting 250 episodes!

Brian Merchant is a longtime tech writer and author of Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Brian wrote about the results of the election on his newsletter.Paris wrote about why we need to remember who enabled Elon Musk to obtain his power.There are already reports of advertisers returning to Twitter/X to gain favor with Musk and Trump.OpenAI is moving away from its original non-profit status.Uber chief legal officer Tony West told Kamala Harris to stop attacking big business.

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Our Data Vampires series may be over, but Paris interviewed a bunch of experts on data centers and AI whose insights shouldn?t go to waste. Starting this week, we?re releasing those interviews as bonus episodes for Patreon supporters. Here?s a preview of this week?s premium episode with Ali Alkhatib, Logic(s) data editor and former interim director of the Center for Applied Data Ethics. For the full interview, support the show on Patreon.

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Paris Marx is joined by tante to discuss troubling developments in the open source world as Wordpress goes to war with WP Engine and a new definition of open source AI doesn?t require being open about training data.

tante is a sociotechnologist, writer, speaker, and Luddite working on tech and its social impact.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

tante wrote about the problem with the Open Source Initiative?s definition of open source AI.Check out this link for the full breakdown on the Wordpress drama.Wordpress changed its trademark guidelines on September 19 regarding the use of the WP abbreviation.Tumblr and Wordpress started selling user data for AI training earlier this year.A lot of the controversy around Richard Stallman started blowing up in 2019.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss all the money Elon Musk is pouring into the US election and what Silicon Valley?s political influence will mean regardless of who becomes president.

Jacob Silverman is the author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, coming in September 2025 from Bloomsbury. His book Easy Money is now available in paperback.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

The New York Times reported on Elon Musk?s efforts to get Trump elected in the final two weeks of the campaign.The Pennsylvania district attorney sued Elon Musk?s PAC to stop his $1 million giveaways.Marc Andreessen wrote the Techno-Optimist Manifesto and the Little Tech Agenda.FTX was up to way more shady things that didn?t make it into the first trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. The second didn?t go ahead after he was found guilty in the first.The canvassing operation for Trump by Elon Musk's PAC has been flagged as potentially fraudulent.The US Supreme Court?s Chevron decision will have significant consequences for federal regulators.

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Tech billionaires are embracing extreme right-wing politics. It?s not just to enhance their power, but to try to realize a harmful vision for humanity?s future that could see humans merging with machines and possibly even living in computer simulations. Will we allow them to put our collective resources behind their science fiction dreams, or fight for a better future and a different kind of technology to go along with it? This is episode 4 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won?t Save Us.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The show is hosted by Paris Marx. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Postdoctoral candidate at Case Western Reserve University Émile P. Torres, features reporter at The Information Julia Black, Goldsmiths University lecturer Dan McQuillan, and former head of the Center for Applied Data Ethics Ali Alkhatib were interviewed for this episode.Pieces by Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, and an interview with Elon Musk were cited.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry to discuss how Silicon Valley's extractive data collection regime and the power it grants them resembles a much older form of exploitation: colonialism.

Ulises A. Mejias is a professor of Communication Studies at SUNY Oswego and Nick Couldry is a professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics. They are the co-authors of Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back and among the co-founders of the network Tierra Común.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Read an excerpt of Ulises and Nick?s book.Ulises has helped advance the Non-Aligned Technologies Movement.The World Economic Forum and Accenture published a report on governance of AI.Geoffrey Hinton was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics. Paris wrote about why we shouldn?t trust his assessment of AI.Google told the UK Labour government it will be left behind in the AI race if it doesn?t do what the company demands.Data centers use 21% of electricity in Ireland, and number that could jump to 31% within the next three years.Home building in West London could be restricted until 2035 because data centers have used up the available energy.Kenya is being drafted into the US?s anti-China tech alliance, which includes building data centers while ignoring the poor working conditions of data labelers and content moderators.

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Sam Altman is clear: he?s ready to sacrifice anything for his AI fantasies. But are we? We dig into why generative AI has such extreme energy demands and how major tech companies are trying to rewrite climate accounting rules to cover how much their emissions are rising. AI isn?t just churning out visual slop; it?s also being used to transform how our society works and further reduce people?s power over their lives. It?s a disaster any way you look at it. This is episode 3 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won?t Save Us.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The show is hosted by Paris Marx. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Hugging Face Climate Lead Sasha Luccioni, Associate Professor in Economics Cecilia Rikap, former head of the Center for Applied Data Ethics Ali Alkhatib, Goldsmiths University lecturer Dan McQuillan, and Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute Alex Hanna were interviewed for this episode.Interviews with Sam Altman and Brad Smith were cited.

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Paris Marx is joined by Julia Black to discuss who Curtis Yarvin is and how his anti-democratic, far-right writings have influenced the politics of Silicon Valley and the wider American extreme right.

Julia Black is a features reporter on The Information?s Weekend Team.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Julia wrote about Curtis Yarvin and his ideas for The Information. She also wrote about the Musk-aligned tech CEOs trying to shape how we think about the future.Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen?s Techno-Optimist Manifesto.The Dark Enlightenment is an anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian political project.Gil Duran wrote about the Reboot Conference and how it put the connections between the tech industry and the Heritage Foundation on display.The Heritage Foundation is flooding federal agencies with thousands of information requests to identify government employees to be purged under a second Trump administration.Peter Thiel wanted Balaji Srinivasan to become head of the Federal Drug Administration under the Trump presidency.According to Nick Land, hyperstition refers to ideas that bring themselves into being.

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As hyperscale data centers move into communities, they come with significant water and energy demands that some are not willing to put up with. We go to Ireland, Spain, and Chile to learn about the effects of data centers on the ground and why some communities are fighting back. They?re asking whether the tradeoffs they?re being expected to make are really necessary. This is episode 2 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won?t Save Us.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The show is hosted by Paris Marx. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

People Before Profit TD Brid Smith, Tu Nube Seca Mi Río organizer Aurora Gomez Delgado, and King?s College London lecturer Sebastian Lehuede were interviewed for this episode.Some pieces by Dara Kerr in NPR, Sarah Emerson and Emily Baker-White in Forbes, and Hannah Daly in The Irish Times were cited.A full transcript can be found on the show?s official website.

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Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the past year of Israel's actions in Palestine and the innovations in war technology being used to carry out what the ICJ has deemed a "plausible" genocide in Gaza.

Spencer Ackerman is a Pulitzer-prize winning author of Reign of Terror. He?s a contributor at Zeteo and publishes the Forever Wars newsletter. He?s also writing a new series of Iron Man comics that come out very soon.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Spencer wrote a piece marking a year since October 7 for Zeteo. He?s also written about the Lebanon pager attack and Israel?s innovation with quadcopters.Yuval Abraham has written about the use of AI in Gaza and how Israel is relying on US cloud companies for military purposes.Roberto González wrote a paper about the links between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex.

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Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are the dominant players in the cloud market. Around the world, they?re building massive hyperscale data centers that they claim are necessary to power the future of our digital existence. But they also increase their power over other companies and come with massive resource demands communities are getting fed up with. Is their future really the one we want? This is episode 1 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won?t Save Us.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The show is hosted by Paris Marx. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Senior cloud consultant Dwayne Monroe and Associate Professor in Economics Cecilia Rikap were interviewed for this episode.Interviews with Jeff Bezos and The Oregonian journalist Mike Rogoway were cited.

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Paris Marx is joined by Karl Bode to discuss how Mark Zuckerberg's makeover and the PR campaign that?s accompanied it shouldn?t distract from the ongoing harms of his company.

Karl Bode is a freelance tech journalist and consumer rights reporter.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paris wrote about the problem with the ?Zuckessance? for Disconnect.The New York Times published an article about the political evolution of Mark Zuckerberg.Facebook?s Free Basics was widely called out for being a form of digital colonialism.Joel Kaplan was a key figure within Facebook defending right-wing content from effective moderation.Neil Postman wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985.

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Paris Marx is joined by Tamara Kneese to discuss the difficult question of what happens to our digital presence after we die and why some tech billionaires are so desperate to make themselves into chatbots.

Tamara Kneese is a researcher, organizer, and author of Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Tamara wrote some pieces on AI and death for Wired and The Baffler.

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Paris Marx is joined by Rob Larson to discuss the recent ruling that Google is a monopolist, what consequences it might face, and what lessons we can learn from the Microsoft antitrust case in the early 2000s.

Rob Larson is the author of Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More and Professor of Economics at Tacoma Community College.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Rob has written about the Google antitrust case and its likely outcomes.Paris also wrote about why it won?t solve the problems with the internet.Watch a highlight reel of Bill Gates' deposition on YouTube.Google has been deemed to have an illegal monopoly in online search.A second trial over Google?s monopolistic position in the online ads market is ongoing.The Obama administration let Google off the hook a decade ago.Some tech billionaire donors are pushing Kamala Harris to remove Lina Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission if she becomes president.

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Paris Marx is joined by Matt Pearce to discuss how Google sidestepped two California bills aimed at funding journalism and how major tech companies are transforming the web to make hyperlinks less relevant.

Matt Pearce is the President of Media Guild of the West and a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Matt wrote about the disingenuous arguments against the California Journalism Preservation Act and the changing nature of hyperlinks online.Google sidestepped the two California bills to carve out a separate deal that includes funding for an AI initiative.When you compare per capita public broadcast funding across wealthy nations, Canada is near the bottom, but the United States is barely on the chart.Google will distribute $100 million to news publishers in Canada after a bargaining process there.Digital media companies have been doing layoffs and shutting down in droves.The New York Times used AI to assist in identifying the deadly weapons Israel is using against the people of Gaza.The Media Ecosystem Observatory looked at the effects of Meta's news ban on its platforms in Canada.

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Paris Marx is joined by Taylor Welling and Kathryn Friesen to discuss how they formed wall-to-wall unions in the video game industry and their thoughts on broader challenges like layoffs and corporate consolidation.

Taylor Welling is a producer and union member at OneBGS and Kathryn Friesen is quest designer and member of the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

OneBGS and the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild each won their union votes in July 2024.More video game workers have already been laid off in 2024 than did in all of 2023.Microsoft and the Communication Workers of America signed a labor neutrality agreement in 2022, to take effect 60 days after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard closed. In May, that agreement was extended to ZeniMax Studios.Microsoft laid off 1,900 gaming workers in January and closed four internal studios in May.Blizzard provides swords, shields, and helmets to employees celebrating 5, 10, and 20 years at the company.The ZeniMax Workers Union struck an agreement with their employer on the use of AI.Nicole Carpenter at Polygon put together a list of video game unions and an explainer on the rise of video game unions.Communication Workers of America has more information on unionizing as part of their CODE-CWA campaign.

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Paris Marx is joined by Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner to discuss the complicity of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in Israel?s ongoing genocide in Gaza and how tech workers are organizing to stop it.

Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner are former Google software engineers and organizers with No Tech for Apartheid.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about No Tech for Apartheid from their website. Microsoft workers have also launched No Azure for Apartheid.Yuval Abraham reported on the Israeli military?s use of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft?s cloud services and AI in Gaza.Mohammad wrote about being fired by Google in The New Arab.Gabi refers to JWCC, with is a reference to the Department of Defense Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle.Google fired 50 workers earlier this year for organizing over its ties to Israel.The Information reported on how many Arab Americans in tech are scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.In 1970, Polaroid workers under the banner of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement began the first anti-apartheid boycott of a US company by organizing against their employer?s complicity in South African apartheid.The IBM Black Workers Alliance was central to the anti-apartheid campaign at that company.

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Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss why the crypto industry is spending millions on this election cycle and Coinbase?s potential breach of election finance law.

Molly White writes the Citation Needed newsletter. She is the creator of Web3 Is Going Just Great and Follow the Crypto.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Molly wrote about the Coinbase campaign finance violation and Donald Trump?s Bitcoin conference speech in her newsletter.Paris wrote about some of the concerns about Kamala Harris? stance on tech.Fairshake spent $10 million on attacks ads against Katie Porter in California. It spent millions more targeting Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.The crypto industry hates SEC head Gary Gensler, who is leading the regulatory effort against cryptocurrency.

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Paris Marx is joined by Hussein Kesvani to discuss the far-right attacks that happened after the Southport stabbing in the UK and how larger structural issues in media, politics, and tech laid the groundwork for violence against visible minorities.

Hussein Kesvani is a co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

The stabbing in Southport resulted in the deaths of three children and injuries to eight children and two adults.After days of far-right attacks, there were large anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrations across the UK.Some fascists attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, but in places like Bristol, locals started defending the hotels.In 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell delivered the ?rivers of blood? speech.Elon Musk has been sharing a series of incendiary posts and false information that have helped fuel these attacks.The billionaire?s changes to Twitter have helped fuel right-wing misinformation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Luke LeBrun and Rachel Gilmore to discuss Shopify's connection to right-wing politics, through its interpersonal connection to a far-right news outlet and its reluctance to enforce its content policy on users selling hateful merchandise through their platform.

Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress and Rachel Gilmore is an independent journalist.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian?s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian ?news? website called True North.Rachel reported on Shopify?s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that?s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a ?founder?s share,? guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company?s Slack system.Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.

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Paris Marx is joined by Chris Carlsson to discuss Processed World, a tech-critical, anti-capitalist magazine that satirized the absurdity of work in its publishing run between 1981 and 2005. 

Chris Carlsson is the author of many books, including most recently When Shells Crumble. He?s the director of Shaping SF and a cofounder of Critical Mass. He was also one of the people behind Processed World.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

You can find the full archive of Processed World on the Internet Archive.Chris wrote about his experience making Processed World in Notes from Below.Jacob Silverman wrote a great piece on the legacy of Processed World for The Baffler.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss why tech billionaires have become more supportive of  Donald Trump in the upcoming US election and whether Kamala Harris? candidacy will disrupt their plans.

Jacob Silverman is the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud and is working on a new book called Gilded Rage that is scheduled for Fall 2025.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Jacob wrote about Silicon Valley?s embrace of Trump for The Nation.Paris wrote about what Silicon Valley wants from Trump in Disconnect.Molly White?s new project is called Follow the Crypto.Elon Musk is reportedly committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.Mark Zuckerberg called Trump a badass, while saying he won?t endorse any candidate.Eric Schmidt is pushing the Pentagon?s embrace of AI for war.Peter Thiel says he?d vote for Trump this cycle if there was a gun to his head.Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote a Little Tech Agenda containing a basic policy program.Reid Hoffman funded a disinformation campaign in Alabama.Reed Hastings has already put $7 million into a pro-Kamala Super PAC.

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Paris Marx is joined by Sasha Luccioni to discuss the catastrophic environmental costs of the generative AI being increasing shoved into every tech product we touch.
 
Sasha Luccioni is an artificial intelligence researcher and Climate Lead at Hugging Face.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Sasha published a paper looking at the climate impacts of generative AI.Paris wrote about the increased emissions at Google and Microsoft, and the consequences of the growing data center buildout.Google?s emissions are up 48% in five years, while Microsoft?s are up 30% between 2020 and 2023.Bill Gates is telling governments not to ?go overboard? with concerns about AI energy use. He?s been much more active in Microsoft?s AI strategizing than he?s admitted publicly.Microsoft President Brad Smith says its carbon ?moonshot? is much farther away because of generative AI. The company is accelerating its data center construction plans.Sam Altman says we can geoengineer the planet if we can?t develop an energy breakthrough to power AI.

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Paris Marx is joined by David Gerard to discuss Jack Dorsey?s decision to leave Bluesky, his obsession with Bitcoin, and his contributions (or lack thereof) to modern technology.

David Gerard is the author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and Libra Shrugged. He also makes Pivot to AI with Amy Castor.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

David wrote about Jack Dorsey abandoning Bluesky on his blog.Business Insider reported on how Dorsey gave money to the far-right founder of Nostr.Dorsey was interviewed by Mike Solana on Pirate Wires.Dorsey has posted in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the response to it is why he deleted his Bluesky account.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the AI-generated spam filling Facebook, how the platform seems to have given up trying to stop it, and where the internet goes from here.

Jason Koebler is the co-host of the 404 Media Podcast.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Jason wrote about his theory of the zombie internet and what he?s been seeing on Facebook.Back in 2018, Motherboard reported on the rules Facebook gave its content moderators.Users of Facebook Free Basics and Wikipedia Zero in Angola found out how to make their own video streaming service for free.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jason Hickel to discuss how technology would change in a degrowth society and why it doesn?t make sense to organize society around profit and infinite expansion.

Jason Hickel is the author of Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. He?s also a Professor at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Jason wrote about technology and degrowth and the objectives of democratic ecosocialism for Monthly Review.

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Paris Marx is joined by tante to discuss why it?s hard for Europe to challenge the US and China on tech and why we should change how we think about innovation.

tante is a writer, speaker, and Luddite working on tech and its social impact.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

tante spoke about innovation at re:publica 2024.Paris also gave a presentation on data centers.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote an op-ed about shared priorities in the Financial Times.Sam Altman successfully lobbied to water down the EU?s AI Act.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nitasha Tiku to discuss how US tech companies are flocking to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fund their expensive AI ambitions.

Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Read the pieces Nitasha contributed to on Silicon Valley getting funding from Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and its embrace of the US military.Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia?s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. There?s still be no accountability.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with many Silicon Valley CEOs months before Khashoggi?s murder.The United Arab Emirates launched its own AI strategy in 2018.The UAE also put Pegasus spyware on the phone of Khashoggi?s wife months before his murder.Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was photographed signing a woman?s chest on June 4.Many Arab Americans in Silicon Valley have reported being scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Joseph Cox to discuss how the FBI created an encrypted phone company called Anom to read criminals? messages and eventually carry out the largest international sting operation by law enforcement.

Joseph Cox is the author of Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever and the host of the 404 Media Podcast.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Read an excerpt of Dark Wire at Wired.Joseph wrote about the revelation that Lithuania hosted the Anom interception server and provided the intercepted messages to the FBI.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nora Kenworthy to discuss how people rely on GoFundMe to access healthcare and the further inequities that adds to an already deeply unequal healthcare system. 

Nora Kenworthy is the author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare and an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Nora is doing an online event with the Debt Collective on June 13.GoFundMe bought many of its competitors through the 2010s.In 2020, GoFundMe posted in a campaign it set up in response to Covid: ?We?re in a growth industry: pain.?

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Paris Marx is joined by Gil Duran to discuss Balaji Srinivasan?s plan to implement ?tech Zionism? in San Francisco and the threat posed by Silicon Valley's growing opposition to democracy.

Gil Duran is an independent journalist and former editorial page editor for the Sacramento Bee.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry. 

Also mentioned in this episode:

Gil has written about Balaji?s Network State, Garry Tan of Y Combinator, and the plan to build a tech city in Northern California.Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen?s Techno-Optimist Manifesto.Peter Thiel no longer feels ?freedom and democracy are compatible.?Elon Musk claimed he sent ventilators to hospitals. They received biPAP and CPAP machines.Gil mentioned Quinn Slobodian?s ?Crack Up Capitalism.?

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Paris Marx is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo to discuss how Chinese electric car maker BYD operates, its growing international success against Tesla, and whether it will be able to move into the North American market.

Paolo Gerbaudo is the author of The Digital Party and The Great Recoil. He?s a senior research fellow at the Department of Political History, Theories and Geography of Complutense University in Madrid.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paolo analyzed the business model of BYD in Phenomenal World.The New York Times wrote an in-depth piece on BYD back in February.Foreign Affairs published an article on the success of the Chinese tech industry in the face of US dominance.After recording, the United States announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan put quotas on Japanese car imports, making them more expensive to US consumers to help domestic automakers like GM and Ford.BYD is increasingly challenging on Tesla?s position as top seller of electric vehicles.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss Tesla's stagnation as an electric vehicle manufacturer and what that could mean for its future as competitors cut into their market share.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and co-host of the Autonocast.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paris wrote about the problems facing Tesla, written before Musk began the mass layoffs.Ed wrote at the end of last year about the lies that underpinned Tesla?s story being exposed.The Cybertruck is facing significant manufacturing issues in Austin, and recently they all had to be recalled for issues with the accelerator pedal, which caused the company to reveal that only 3,878 vehicles had been delivered to customers.Tesla is laying off a large number of staff, including the Supercharger and new vehicle teams.Elon Musk is doing mass layoffs to reestablish his power over the company, but it?s destabilizing the actual business.Reuters reported that Musk cancelled plans for a low-cost car in favor of robotaxis.Automakers were warning they couldn?t phase out Chinese minerals from the battery supply chain by 2025. After recording, the Biden administration announced some rules would be delayed until 2027.BYD has been looking to build a factory in Mexico.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nicole Lipman to discuss SHEIN?s rise to the top of the fast fashion industry and how it exacerbates the sector?s labor and environment problems.

Nicole Lipman is a writer and assistant editor at n+1.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Nicole did a deep dive into SHEIN and how it operates for n+1.Paris wrote about the Shut Down Shein campaign.Amazon benefits immensely from the US de minimis rule.Ten years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, many problems remain. 

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Paris Marx is joined by Meghan O?Gieblyn to discuss parallels between transhumanism and Christian narratives of resurrection, despite the fact many transhumanists identify as staunch atheists.

Meghan O?Gieblyn is an advice columnist at Wired and the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Meghan wrote about transhumanism and religion for n+1.Paris wrote about the religion of techno-optimism in Disconnect.Amy Kurzweil wrote about her father?s chatbot of his own father.In China, AI ?deathbots? are being used to help people grieve.Richard Dawkins now identifies as a ?cultural Christian? (not Catholic, as Paris mistakenly said in the episode).

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Paris Marx is joined by Alex Shephard to discuss the legalization of sports betting in the United States, the growing influence of gambling in professional sports, and its negative impact on the lives of sports fans.

Alex Shephard is a senior editor at The New Republic.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Alex wrote about sports gambling for The New Republic.The Wall Street Journal recent explored the wider backlash to sports betting in light of the Shohei Ohtani scandal.Last year, the New York Times gutted its unionized sports section to replace it with non-union writers at The Athletic.Psychologist Meredith K. Ginley explained how sports betting apps hook people on regular gambling.

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Paris Marx is joined by Edward Ongweso Jr. to discuss Kara Swisher?s attempt to rebrand herself as the most feared journalist in Silicon Valley, how she spent her career forwarding the industry?s narratives, and the larger problems with access journalism.

Edward Ongweso Jr. is finance editor at Logics Magazine and co-host of This Machine Kills.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ed wrote a critical review of Burn Book in The Baffler.In Disconnect, Paris also wrote a critical review of Swisher?s book and explained his journey to becoming a tech critic.In 2021, Kara told CNBC that just because NFTs are digital ?doesn?t mean it?s not of value.? The following year she also defended promoting investments in crypto for retirement.

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Paris Marx is joined by Kat Tenbarge to discuss the proliferation of AI-generated, non-consensual sexual images, their impact on the victims, and the potential fallout for tech companies who helped make it all possible. Note there is some discussion of self-harm and suicide in this episode.

Kat Tenbarge is a tech and culture writer at NBC News.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Kat has reported extensively on this issue, including stories about fake nude images of underage celebrities toping search engine results, nonconsensual deepfake porn showing up on Google and Bing too, Visa and Mastercard being used to fund the deepfake economy, and why plans for watermarking aren?t enough.Another Body is a documentary that looks at the scale of the problem of non-consensual deepfake explicit images.Microsoft?s Designer AI tool was used to create AI porn of Taylor Swift.Middle and high schools in Seattle, Miami, and Beverley Hills are among those already facing the consequences of AI-generated and deepfake nude images.In 2014, Jennifer Lawrence called the iCloud photo hack a ?sex crime.?

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Paris Marx is joined by Zach Weinersmith to discuss why building space colonies will be much more difficult than the space billionaires want us to believe.

Zach Weinersmith co-wrote A City On Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? with Kelly Weinersmith. He also makes the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

An excerpt of A City on Mars was published by Space.com.

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Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss the motivations behind the proposed TikTok ban and what the effort tells us about US tech policy.

Jacob Silverman is a tech journalist and the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paris will be speaking in Montreal on March 23 and March 26.Jacob wrote about the GOP megadonor who could benefit from whatever happens to TikTok.Paris wrote about the geopolitics of the TikTok ban and what it says about US power.Taylor Lorenz broke down some of the disputed claims being made about TikTok.Sam Biddle wrote about how Facebook knows they violated Palestinian human rights.Byron Tau explained how US government agencies are getting people?s personal data from data brokers.

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In a bonus episode, Paris Marx is joined by Ed Ongweso Jr. and Brian Merchant to share their thoughts on Dune: Part Two, how it relates to the modern tech industry, and whether today?s Luddites can take anything from Dune?s Butlerian Jihad.

Ed Ongweso Jr is finance editor at Logic(s) Magazine and cohost of This Machine Kills. Brian Merchant is a technology journalist and the author of Blood In the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.

Tech Won?t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

You can watch the entire livestream over on YouTube.For Disconnect, Paris wrote about how the digital revolution has failed.

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