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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 wrote about technology and degrowth and the objectives of democratic ecosocialism for Monthly Review.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
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.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.”
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.”
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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).
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
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.
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:Support the Show.
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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 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.”
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:Support the Show.
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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.
An excerpt of A City on Mars was published by Space.com.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
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.
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:Support the Show.
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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.
You can watch the entire livestream over on YouTube.For Disconnect, Paris wrote about how the digital revolution has failed.
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:Support the Show.
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