Podcasts by This Machine Kills
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies
Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.
Further podcasts by This Machine Kills
Podcast on the topic Technologie
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*Unlocked* – 303. Israel’s AI-Powered “Mass Assassination Factory” from 2023-12-11T20:24:04
We dive into a new report that details Israel’s military strategy of wiping out “power targets” and “family homes,” which is bolstered and justified by an artificial intelligence system (Habsora, o...
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Patreon Preview – 303. Israel’s AI-Powered “Mass Assassination Factory” from 2023-12-10T01:31:07
We dive into a new report that details Israel’s military strategy of wiping out “power targets” and “family homes,” which is bolstered and justified by an artificial intelligence system (Habsora, o...
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302. God is the Machine from 2023-12-07T20:47:36
We talk about the history of AI by drawing out the often very explicit millenarianism that undergirds so much of this technology and its culture over the last 70 years. This strange brew of Eschato...
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Patreon Preview – 301. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 7 from 2023-12-03T01:17:11
We discuss Chapter 6 — Capitalism and Difference — and get deeper into the relations between the social logic of capital and social structures of difference like gender, examining how they manifest...
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300. Wait, You’re Telling Me the Capitalists Now Control AI? from 2023-11-29T20:07:44
With the dust settling, we can take a broader view of the whole OpenAI debacle, what likely caused an internal culture war to boil over into a corporate coup, how OpenAI’s convoluted governance str...
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299. Stories About Ordinary People (ft. Joanne McNeil) from 2023-11-26T01:22:30
We are joined by Joanne McNeil to discuss her new novel Wrong Way, which skillfully blends a beautiful literary style — focused on characterization, inner life, human relations — with a sci-fi stor...
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Patreon Preview – 298. Ways of Seeing Infinite Art from 2023-11-22T22:45:03
We step into the art world by way of a long profile of Holly Herndon, an experimental artist and musician who works with artificial intelligence to create provocative, strange, and deeply personal ...
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297. The Unbearable Existence of Insurance from 2023-11-17T02:04:57
We kick off with a talk on insurtech that Jathan gave last week on the politics of machine learning and actuarial science, then get deeper into dynamics of speculative asset bubbles, why insurers l...
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Patreon Preview – 296. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 6 from 2023-11-15T03:16:36
We discuss Chapter 6 — Transcendental Class Domination — and get deeper into an analysis of class relations, the nature of economic power, and how capital wields this form of “impersonal domination...
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*Unlocked* – Kill the Ecomodernist in Your Head from 2023-11-09T18:11:05
[We are traveling and other stuff, so enjoy this exceptional episode from our Patreon archives] We jump off the absurd twitter debate about degrowth and bananas in global communism to discuss much...
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Patreon Preview – 295. Accelerate the Eschaton from 2023-11-08T02:50:05
We dive into effective accelerationism—its cult of personality, capitalist metaphysics, techno-theology, and lukewarm manifestos. We connect it to previous movements like Singulatariansim, strip aw...
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294. The Material Power That Rules Computation (ft. Cory Doctorow) from 2023-11-02T23:42:17
Returning champion Cory Doctorow joins us to discuss his latest book, The Internet Con, which lays out how the basis of so much material power in the world exists at the intersection of information...
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Preview – 293. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 5 from 2023-10-31T21:25:14
We discuss Chapter 5 — Metabolic Domination — which brings us to the end of the first section outlining the material conditions (of human nature, society, life) that allow for the existence of some...
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292. On Strikes and Solidarity (ft. Alex Press) from 2023-10-26T01:29:04
We are joined by Alex Press — labor reporter for Jacobin — for a broad survey of the very large, active landscape of labor union actions happening in the United States. After updates on strikes, we...
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Patreon Preview – 291. The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried (ft. David Z. Morris) from 2023-10-23T22:40:37
We are joined by David Z. Morris, a crypto journalist who has been covering the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. We hear from David about what’s been revealed and made clear during the trial as major wi...
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290. Luddite Tribunal (ft. Paris Marx) from 2023-10-19T10:05:17
Paris joins us to recap the Luddite Tribunal that happened last week with an all star lineup of generals in the Ludd Army passing judgment—and bringing down the hammer—on technologies. Then we talk...
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Patreon Preview – 289. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 4 from 2023-10-12T04:48:31
We discuss Chapter 4 — The Human Corporeal Organisation — and look more deeply at how, as Mau writes, “The double mediation at the heart of the human metabolism—the mediation of tools and the media...
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288. A Hive of Fraud and Dishonesty from 2023-10-07T03:30:33
We take a deeper dive into the intellectual chicanery, moral corruption, and sociopathic tendencies at the heart of behavioral economics and its most famous “experts.” This is truly one of those ca...
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Patreon Preview – 287. Never Trust a Wunderkind from 2023-10-05T07:00:43
We check in on a forgotten friend, Sam Bankman-Fried, on the eve of his big trial for one of the largest frauds in history. But this time with a nice addition of the freak beat as SBF’s parents ent...
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286. No King But Ludd (ft. Brian Merchant) from 2023-09-28T21:21:38
We are joined by Brian Merchant—LA Times tech columnist, author of Blood in the Machine, dear friend of TMK, general in the Ludd Army—to talk about his extraordinary new book. Brian has produced a ...
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Preview – 285. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 3 from 2023-09-26T03:36
We discuss chapter 3 of Mute Compulsion – The Social Ontology of Economic Power – and get into questions about the structure of social reality, why it is necessary to crack into these philosophical...
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*Unlocked* – 259. The Forever Polymers in Our Blood from 2023-09-21T23:12:09
[Due to illness, we are unlocking this classic episode — which has only become more relevant as the news coverage and regulatory response to PFAS forever chemicals has only increased since our reco...
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Patreon Preview – 284. The Techno-Jingoism Will Continue Until Morale Improves from 2023-09-19T21:42:48
We discuss an interview with the latest tech billionaire, Alexandr Wang of Scale AI, to push the jingoistic position that Silicon Valley has a duty to ensure American supremacy in every domain—mili...
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283. Nerds of the Lowest Order (ft. Quinn Slobodian) from 2023-09-14T21:09:33
We are joined by Quinn Slobodian — author of Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy — to discuss the libertarian extremism that forms the intellectual found...
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Patreon – 282. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 2 from 2023-09-12T22:23:05
We discuss chapter two – Power and Marxism – which offers a survey of how Marxist theories of power have largely been caught between the two poles of violence and ideology. With power-as-violence, ...
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281. The Smoking Gun of Techno-Capitalism (ft. Meredith Whittaker) from 2023-09-07T21:07:59
We are joined by one of our favorite friends — Meredith Whittaker — for a giant discussion that bridges her two latest articles. First a historical analysis of Charles Babbage and the smoking gun t...
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Preview – 280. Step into the Saudi Zone from 2023-09-04T23:52:53
We start with news about the latest attempt to build a smart city from scratch as a collection of venture capitalists have been secretly buying huge amounts of land near San Francisco to finally re...
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279. The Power of Wellness Capitalism (ft. Tamara Nopper, Eve Zelickson) from 2023-08-31T21:42:33
We are joined by Tamara Nopper and Eve Zelickson —— from the Data&Society Research Institute —— to discuss their excellent primer on Wellness Capitalism. This is the pure ideal of TMK crossovers as...
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Preview – 278. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Ch. 1 from 2023-08-29T22:01:21
We discuss chapter one – Conceptualising Power and Capital – which lays the groundwork for analyzing these two fundamental concepts and their relation. Mau goes through mainstream social and politi...
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*Unlocked* – 275. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Introduction from 2023-08-24T01:40:03
[We are unlocking the intro episode for the new book club. The first taste is free, find the rest on the premium feed.] We kick off the TMK book club with the excellent new book – Mute Compulsion ...
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Patreon Preview – 277. All the World’s a Casino / And All the People Merely Gamblers from 2023-08-22T01:42:15
In another instalment of What the Fuck is Happening in America, we talk about how sports betting has totally saturated society since the Supreme Court overturned a ban in 2018, then we discuss the ...
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276. China’s Zombie Economy and Capital Crackdown from 2023-08-18T23:48:26
We start with a visit to that smart city we all love, New Orleans, and see how the police department’s facial recognition surveillance is going. Then we revisit China, this time to lay out the broa...
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Patreon Preview – 275. TMK BC5: Mute Compulsion, Introduction from 2023-08-15T23:18:33
We kick off the TMK book club with the excellent new book – Mute Compulsion by Søren Mau – which offers a foundational analysis of power, value, capital, and social reproduction. Mau’s book is writ...
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274. Uber’s Politics of Low Expectations (ft. Katie Wells, Kafui Attoh) from 2023-08-12T23:13:23
We are joined by Katie Wells and Kafui Attoh to discuss their new book – Disrupting DC: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City – which offers a rich analysis of Uber and its operations in Washin...
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Patreon Preview – 273. Checking on Enemies, Old and New from 2023-08-07T22:38:24
We check in on some enemies of the show to see what’s new with them. Uber has finally posted an operating profit for the first time in history – and it only took more than $31 billion in losses, pl...
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272. Locked into Starlink’s Low Earth Iron Cage from 2023-08-04T11:28:21
We dig into the a new investigation on the exponential growth of Starlink – Elon Musk’s satellite internet communication network – its geopolitical centrality to the war in Ukraine and internationa...
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Premium – 271. Kill the Ecomodernist in Your Head from 2023-08-02T06:12:29
We jump off the absurd twitter debate about degrowth and bananas in global communism to discuss much deeper issues about why any alternative to capitalism cannot simply be premised on being better ...
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Patreon Preview – 270. The Kayfabe of Climate Capital from 2023-07-26T01:16:21
We talk about the kayfabe of the green transition as the woke capitalists at Blackrock appoint Aramco to its board of directors, meanwhile the social justice warriors in the mining industry are doi...
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269. The Mythology of Cybersyn (ft. Evgeny Morozov) from 2023-07-22T23:12:41
We are excited to be joined again by Evgeny Morozov, host of The Santiago Boys, a new narrative podcast series about the history of Cybersyn, the geopolitics of its creation in Cold War Latin Ameri...
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268. High Quality, Certified Organic, Entertainment Product from 2023-07-21T02:38:49
We start chatting about Jathan going on television to talk about AI – friend or foe? hype or hysteria? – then discuss SAG-AFTRA going on strike and the potential future divisions between artificial...
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*Unlocked* – For a Political Theory of Insurance from 2023-07-14T22:46:29
[Unlocking this one from the paywall] We start by talking about Ed’s new sci-fi / cosmic horror story in the latest issue of Logic(s). We cruise by the aborted cage fight between Zuck and Musk. The...
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Patreon Preview – 267. Psychonauts for Capital from 2023-07-13T00:02:02
We start off with the very funny legal letter that Musk’s lawyers sent to Zuckerberg threatening legal action for Threads stealing IP from Twitter. Then we get into reporting on the rampant use of ...
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266. Your Own Personal Intelligence from 2023-07-07T00:03:32
We look into a new startup – Inflection AI – that has raised $1.5 billion, was co-founded by tech elites, and just released an AI chatbot, Pi, that is meant to be your ultra friendly, personal comp...
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Patreon Preview – 265. For a Political Theory of Insurance from 2023-06-30T22:42:48
We start by talking about Ed’s new sci-fi / cosmic horror story in the latest issue of Logic(s). We cruise by the aborted cage fight between Zuck and Musk. Then somehow make our way to a long discu...
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264. Every Dealership a Fiefdom, Every Middleman a Lord (ft. Alex Sammon) from 2023-06-27T23:58:40
We are joined by Alex Sammon – politics reporter at Slate – to discuss one of the best pieces of gonzo reporting in recent memory. Alex journeyed into the heart of darkness at the center of America...
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Patreon Preview – 263. Running Wild from 2023-06-22T22:43:06
We get into Ed’s new column for The Nation, what he’s got planned, the long arc of arguments he’s building, and how the key to good tech criticism is to talk about technology by using it as a way t...
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262. – How Israel Battle Tests Occupation for the World (ft. Antony Loewenstein) from 2023-06-19T22:21:29
We are joined by Antony Loewenstein — author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World — to discuss his extensive reporting on the Israeli occupa...
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Patreon Preview – 261. The Reality Distortion Field Comes For Us All from 2023-06-15T02:23:15
The tech asset bubble is now so massive that its reality distortion field is affecting the major indices like the S&P 500, warping their ability to serve as useful signals and indicators about the ...
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260. Organizing Tech Labor (ft. Alphabet Workers Union) from 2023-06-08T23:13:53
We are joined by Auni Ahsan and Stephen McMurtry – organizers with the Alphabet Workers Union – to talk about the nuts and bolts of organizing at a major tech company, the development of AWU and it...
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Patreon Preview – 259. The Forever Polymers in Our Blood from 2023-06-07T07:36:07
We take a deeper look at the political ecology of the “forever chemicals” that are integral to the existing microchip manufacturing process, the very serious damage they are wreaking on human healt...
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*Unlocked* – The Tescreal Theology from 2023-06-01T23:28:01
We dig into the technological theology that has been taking hold in Silicon Valley and its orbital communities – in various ways, different degrees, and over time. The components of this theology a...
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Patreon Preview – 258. A Writer, Producer, and Robot Walk Into a Mini-Room… from 2023-05-30T07:20:08
We get into the Writers Guild of America strike, why this is an important labor action to watch, the terrible conditions they are striking again, the mindset of the professional class of capital ma...
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257. Red Team Blues (ft. Cory Doctorow) from 2023-05-24T21:48:27
Cory Doctorow — returning champion, friend of the show, and author of the new novel Red Team Blues — joins us to chat about fiction (science), finance (crypto), forensics (accounting), and much mor...
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Patreon Preview – 256. The Tescreal Theology from 2023-05-19T23:38:48
We dig into the technological theology that has been taking hold in Silicon Valley and its orbital communities – in various ways, different degrees, and over time. The components of this theology a...
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255. Saudi Arabia x Silicon Valley (ft. Jonathan Guyer) from 2023-05-16T07:47:54
We are joined by Jonathan Guyer – senior foreign policy writer at Vox – to discuss his reporting on how the intimate relationship between Silicon Valley and Saudi Arabia is getting even deeper and ...
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Patreon Preview – 254. The Healthcare System Works, It Just Doesn’t Work For You from 2023-05-14T00:09:36
We spike our blood pressure with a discussion about recent reporting on the systems used by health insurers to automate rejecting claims. It’s one of those classic situations we all know and love: ...
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253. The Cold War Origins and Future of Today’s AI from 2023-05-06T02:30:27
We get into Evgeny Morozov’s latest essay on the geopolitical interests and military neoliberalism that’s really driving the AI arms race. Morozov traces today’s developments back to the Cold War –...
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Patreon Preview – 252. Taco Bell Sublime from 2023-05-03T06:01:20
We cruise into the drive-thru of Taco Bell’s Innovation Lab and discuss the strange sublime of food that has been industrially engineered to hit every pleasure center in your brain, while also prof...
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251. The Triforce of Corporate Power in AI (ft. Sarah Myers West) from 2023-04-28T10:19:09
We are very pleased to be joined by Sarah Myers West— managing director of AI Now Institute and former Senior Advisor on AI to the FTC—to discuss their excellent new report, 2023 Landscape: Confron...
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249/250. We Built This City on Authenticity (ft. David A. Banks) from 2023-04-23T04:52:32
Returning champion David A. Banks joins us for a supersized discussion about his new book, The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America. How do cities have to act like social ...
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Patreon Preview – 248. Capitalism With All the Cheat Codes from 2023-04-18T05:18:22
We talk about the federal intelligence agencies being big fans of great books and movies, and writing about them in their little newsletters. Then move on to a big discussion about how the tech ind...
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247. Automated Welfare – the Simple Violence of Complex Machines from 2023-04-14T23:01:54
We go in-depth on an article that has not received the attention it is due: an investigation into an automated welfare fraud system in the Netherlands, which is based on unprecedented access to the...
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Patreon Preview – 246. American Psycho 2.0 // SPAC Jesus Returns from 2023-04-11T00:04:02
We cruise through a few topics: talk about the anti-China alliance between Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill pushing to ban TikTok; the bizarre post-mortem on SPACs published by their biggest booster...
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245. Shook Ones (Tech Style) from 2023-04-07T00:40:47
It’s a fan cam episode for our favorite tech columnist, Brian Merchant, who had two pieces come out recently that are back-to-back bangers. First is about why all the people making and selling AI k...
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Patreon Preview – 244. Using Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Hack Civilization from 2023-04-04T01:20:34
We give ourselves a concussion by talking about yet another opinion essay about AI written by three “experts” and published by a major newspaper. How is AI doing neuro-linguistic programming? What ...
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243. GPT-4 and the Politics of OpaqueAI (ft. Abeba Birhane) from 2023-03-30T05:48:42
We are joined by Abeba Birhane — Senior Fellow in Trustworthy AI at the Mozilla Foundation — for a critical discussion about the release of GPT-4 and OpenAI. We also get into the excellent work tha...
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Patreon Preview – 242. Time Bombs in the Financial System from 2023-03-23T02:19:14
We discuss the clear and present danger throughout the global financial system, with crises happening in the banking sector that have not been seen since the 2008 crash. However, these are not sudd...
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*Unlocked* – 241. Euthanasia of Silicon Valley Bank (ft. Brian Merchant) from 2023-03-23T02:06:23
We've unlocked this episode for the free feed. It's been a long time since we’ve seen a good old fashioned bank run lead to the collapse of a venerable financial institution, but leave it to Silico...
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Patreon Preview – 241. Euthanasia of Silicon Valley Bank (ft. Brian Merchant) from 2023-03-18T02:12:05
Been a long time since we’ve seen a good old fashioned bank run lead to the collapse of a venerable financial institution, but leave it to Silicon Valley to rediscover something old and call it new...
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240. Anthropology of Algorithms, Ethnography of Engineers, Theory of Traps (ft. Nick Seaver) from 2023-03-17T04:41:23
We are joined by Nick Sever – author of the new book Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation – to discuss his excellent ethnographic research on the creation of algorithm...
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Patreon Preview – 239. Ventures in Capitalist Innovation, Part 2: Constraints and Consequences from 2023-03-14T00:26:36
Disclaimer: this episode was recorded before Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. We will do a post-mortem on that debacle in the next premium episode. In part 2 of our discussion on venture capitalism,...
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238. Ventures in Capitalist Innovation, Part 1: History and Mechanics from 2023-03-09T07:12:24
In this week’s episodes, we dig into an excellent (and very long) new law article, which is crucial for understanding the history, mechanics, constraints, and consequences of venture capitalism. Ho...
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Patreon Preview – 237. Kissinger Has Seen the True Face of AI God from 2023-03-06T03:56:41
Now we know why Henry Kissinger looks the way he does. He peered into the true face of the New God // New Technology. He is paying the price for this forbidden glance – cursed to live for eternity ...
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236. Butterflies on History’s Collage (ft. Malcolm Harris) from 2023-03-02T20:40:43
We are joined by Malcolm Harris—author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World—to discuss his magisterial book on how a hellmouth in Northern California has, for the last t...
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Patreon Preview – 235. Fired By an Al-guy-rithm Named Bob from 2023-02-25T00:19:32
We look at the latest way bosses are outsourcing the dirty work of owning capital and managing workers to techno-consultants. Then see why venture capitalists are loudly crying about a light touch ...
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234. Supermarket Data Sweep! from 2023-02-22T20:08:45
We discuss the supermarkets for data – giant grocery chains like Kroger have created powerful capacities for data extraction and monetization. This forces us to expand our analysis of data surveill...
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Patreon Preview – 233. Floating Objects, Vinyl Chloride, Buy American from 2023-02-18T02:20:46
In this installment of What the Fuck is Happening in America: floating “objects” keep getting shot down; a train carrying the toxic gas vinyl chloride has turned Ohio into a sacrifice zone; the Bid...
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232. 400 Hundred Years of Capitalism Led Directly to Microsoft Viva Sales from 2023-02-15T00:41:21
Jumping off an FT op-ed on venture capital and tech hype – which aligns great with TMK thought – we discuss the value and risk models of venture capitalism, then get into the emerging market struct...
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231. Paris Syndrome from 2023-02-10T04:42:43
We get some Parisian updates and stories from Ed. Then we enter the mind palace of a libertarian who, with all the annoying pretension of a philosophy major, tried to make ChatGPT say the word. We ...
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229. Capitalist Manufacturing // Manufacturing Communism – Part 1 (ft. Nick Chavez) from 2023-02-05T23:34:59
Part 1 –– We welcome returning champ Nick Chavez – mechanical engineer, marxist political economist – for a long conversation about his new essay examining the real nitty-gritty aspects of producti...
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Patreon Preview – 228. “Big” “Ideas” in “Tech” for 2023 from 2023-02-01T09:37:36
We dip into the a16z omnibus of predictions for the tech industry in 2023. Time to learn what the thought masters of the universe are trying to wishcast into existence because they have a material ...
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227. Don’t Bootstrap the Eschaton from 2023-01-28T00:28:04
Ed takes us on a guided tour of Odin Intelligence, SweepWizard, CloudFactory and other tech bullshit that sounds like embarrassing nonsense while also contributing in their own way to monetizing, m...
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Patreon Preview – 226. Changing the World, One Rogue Geoengineer at a Time from 2023-01-24T20:12:24
It’s been a while since we’ve done a real reading series. So we spend time with a group of rogue entrepreneurs who are taking it upon themselves to save the planet by geoengineering the atmosphere....
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225. How AI Makes Living Labor Undead from 2023-01-19T20:53:37
We spend more time talking about the political economy of AI – the production and application of AI within a capitalist system and how it might (and should) differ within a socialist or communist s...
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Patreon Preview – 224. The Bleakness of Low Expectations from 2023-01-17T23:14:08
They don’t make things like they used to… No really. They don’t. We discuss how a perfect storm of things like stagnant wages, rising inflation, declining profits, expedited production, among other...
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223. Money for Nothing? In this Economy? from 2023-01-13T00:46:13
We offer some thoughts on where the tech sector is heading right now, how the markets are performing amidst a down turn, and what big trends for tech and capital are looking strong in the new year....
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Patreon Preview – 222. Weird That All These Canaries of Tech Capitalism Keep Dying from 2023-01-08T03:31:55
We do a postmortem on 2022, the year of Web3, talking about the goofs and grifts, speed and scale, crashes and canaries, with our major takeaway and theme being that just as FTX is not anomalous fo...
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*Unlocked* – The Insurtech Will Continue Until Morale Improves from 2023-01-05T21:14:34
We give some personal updates, then get distracted talking about a new survey on consumer sentiments and insurance technology. It turns out that actually the vast majority of people *do not* want t...
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Patreon Preview – 221. ChatGPT: From Fetish Object to AI Oracle from 2023-01-03T04:29:38
We breakdown ChatGPT, the conversational large language model created by OpenAI. How this system works. How it has been fetishized by consumers and reporters, critics and advocates. Why most of the...
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220. The Landlords Who Own the Internet (ft. Dan Greene) from 2022-12-30T08:37:48
If we want to understand the cloud, then we need to study real estate. We are joined by Dan Greene—from the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies—who has written the premier analy...
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Patreon Preview – 219. The Insurtech Will Continue Until Morale Improves from 2022-12-27T20:35:32
We give some personal updates, then get distracted talking about a new survey on consumer sentiments and insurance technology. It turns out that actually the vast majority of people *do not* want t...
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218. Ecosystems-as-a-Service (ft. Mél Hogan) from 2022-12-20T20:34:16
We take a look at the critical ecologies of the cloud with Mél Hogan – Director of the Environmental Media Lab at the University of Calgary – who researches the environmental politics of server far...
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Patreon Preview – 217. How ESG Investing is Making Capitalism Sustainable from 2022-12-19T01:32:50
We continue our analysis of all things green by looking deeper at the operations of a core mechanism directing cash flows into sustainable investments: ESG. What is ESG? How does it work? You think...
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216. How Green Finance is Making an Investable Future from 2022-12-16T06:37:11
With the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) recently happening, we dig into the political economy of green policy, green investing, green finance, green technology, green capitalism. What is driv...
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Patreon Preview – 215. Ed, Ed, and Aaron’s Shitposters Party (ft. Ed Zitron, Aaron Thorpe) from 2022-12-13T00:33:11
While Jathan is busy with his day job, Ed and Jereme are joined by Ed Zitron and Aaron Thorpe for a shitposters party. Topics include: dystopias, cat ownership as praxis, conspiracy theories about ...
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*Unlocked* – 202. New Guy Who is Going to Hell Just Dropped from 2022-12-07T20:50:23
We are taking a break to catch up on stuff. Enjoy this classic (and infuriating) premium episode. Take beta blockers before this episode. In a companion piece for our episode on Health Communism, ...
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Patreon Preview – 214. The People’s Ledger (part 2) from 2022-12-06T09:31:35
We continue our deep dive into a provocative, radical blueprint for democratizing finance and taking control of the economy. We detail Omarova’s detailed proposal for turning the Federal Reserve in...
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213. The People’s Ledger (part 1) from 2022-12-02T20:10:03
We dive deep into a provocative, radical blueprint for democratizing finance and taking control of the economy. A recent paper by law professor – and a favorite thinker of TMK – Saule Omarova offer...
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Patreon Preview – 212. TMK BC4: Can’t All Be Winners from 2022-11-29T06:43:28
We’re pulling the ripcord on this book. After slogging through five chapters, we discuss why this book just isn’t working for our needs with the TMK Book Club and why we are abandoning it. Despite...
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211. Living in the Aftermath // Death of Dark Stores, Ghost Kitchens (ft. Aaron Shapiro) from 2022-11-24T22:49:40
As the tech economy faces a massive turn down, we dig deeper into a market segment that experienced meteoric overcapitalized growth, a huge pandemic boost, and an immediate collapse: instant delive...
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Patreon Preview – 210. worldoptimization.tumblr from 2022-11-19T22:05:55
We riff on the artisanal race science of Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, the crypto hedge fund linked to FTX. Then we introduce you to the Harman Ready Care system, yet another of the wo...
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209. NOFTX from 2022-11-16T21:00:58
We dig into the details of FTX’s collapse. FTX is not an isolated event. FTX is not a bad apple. FTX is not uniquely mismanaged. FTX is not a cautionary tale. FTX is not a stunning surprise. FTX i...
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Patreon Preview – 208. TMK BC4: An Engine, Not a Camera (Chapter 3) from 2022-11-15T00:02:44
We dig into Chapter 3 – Theory and Practice – and look at how, in the 1960s and 1970s, theories of finance like random-walk hypothesis and efficient market hypothesis, started leaking out of the un...
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207. Rent High? Blame Bob from 2022-11-11T01:57:10
We discuss a recent investigation by ProPublica into the convergence of real estate, private equity, and algorithmic pricing as they profile a particularly odious company (RealPage) that is selling...
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Patreon Preview – 206. Chief Twit and the Hostile Takeover from 2022-11-08T06:19:58
We talk about the chaos at Twitter as Elon drives the company into the ground, merging classic techniques of a private equity takeover with his patented impulsive incompetence. Stuff we referenc...
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205. Profits of Doom (ft. Jacob Silverman) from 2022-11-04T00:21:15
We are joined by Jacob Silverman – contributing editor at The New Republic – to discuss his profile of David Sacks, a venture capitalist and right-wing media personality who has been on the vanguar...
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Patreon Preview – 204. TMK BC4: An Engine, Not a Camera (Chapter 2) from 2022-11-02T01:10:34
We dig into Chapter 2 – Transforming Finance – and look at how, in the 1950s and 1960s, the economic study of finance started shifting from merely descriptive approaches to engaging in more analyti...
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203. Saving the Planet with Green Crypto Arbitrage (ft. Avi Asher-Schapiro) from 2022-10-28T06:24:19
We are joined by reporter Avi Asher-Schapiro who, along with his colleague Fabio Teixeira, has published an investigation into the crypto carbon credits markets. This collision between green financ...
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Patreon Preview – 202. New Guy Who is Going to Hell Just Dropped from 2022-10-24T21:09:37
Take beta blockers before this episode. In a companion piece for our episode on Health Communism, we dig into a concrete case that exemplifies everything we talked about with the production of surp...
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201. We Are All Surplus (ft. Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant) from 2022-10-19T20:27:36
We are joined by Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant — co-hosts of Death Panel — to discuss their truly excellent new book, Health Communism, which offers a searing analysis of how our concept...
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Patreon Preview – 200. TMK BC4: An Engine, Not a Camera (Chapter 1) from 2022-10-18T04:00:15
After an extended riff, we kick off the new TMK Book Club on An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie. In the first chapter we get an intro to some of the big...
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199. The CIA is a Land of Contrasts from 2022-10-15T03:21:59
We check in on our old friends/enemies at the New York Time, then get to some listener mail about effective altruism, all before offering a smart, nuanced, and critical defense of the CIA. You see,...
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Patreon Preview – 198. The Eye of Sauron is Ethical from 2022-10-11T20:35:30
We take a hard look at the White House’s new AI Bill of Rights and discover that the Eye of Sauron is actually ethical according to its principles. We then go in on academia and journalism for, in ...
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197. The Limits of Tech Inquiry from 2022-10-06T23:10:25
We discuss recent events of a report by Tech Inquiry about big tech’s military contracts was pulled by its funders — a major union and a major social democratic party — over Tech Inquiry’s refusal ...
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Patreon Preview – 196. Rich, Powerful, Idiotic, Pathetic from 2022-10-03T03:38:04
Jathan debriefs on the insurtech conference. Then we discuss Elon Musk’s texts and emails that were made public during discovery for his litigation with Twitter, which show just how idiotic, pathet...
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*Unlocked* – 185. In the Long Term We Are All Dead from 2022-09-27T23:55:06
We are unlocking a recent episode about a topic that remains very relevant. We dig deep into Effective Altruism and Longtermism, laying out the origins, beliefs, and actions of this ideological mo...
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Patreon Preview – 195. Vegas, Baby! from 2022-09-25T00:56:03
It’s TMK Live in Vegas! Well, in real life recording live to tape in the same room for the first time ever. We talk about our adventures in Las Vegas. A city that is constituted by many forms of to...
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194 – Cultural Capture by Chokepoint Capitalism (ft. Rebecca Giblin, Cory Doctorow) from 2022-09-22T17:29:24
We are joined by Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin – authors of the excellent new book Chokepoint Capitalism – to discuss how creative labor markets are tightly squeezed on all sides by massive mono...
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Patreon Preview – 193. We Live in a Surveillance Society from 2022-09-19T20:07:29
We cruise through recent stories about how our surveillance society continues developing. We’ve got biometric fingerprint scanners to enter the bathrooms at a high school ••• police have decided th...
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192. Why the Trains Don’t Run on Time (ft. Justin Roczniak) from 2022-09-16T11:43:43
We are joined by Justin Roczniak—of the excellent engineering disasters podcast, Well There’s Your Problem—to talk about the potential freight rail strike that has been brewing for a long time and ...
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Patreon Preview – 191. Family Policing Services from 2022-09-14T00:01:35
We discuss a powerful new essay on the multiple violences – domestic, data, administrative, racial – wrought by the state family police, aka “child protective services,” which uses an array of tool...
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190. Beta Meta Mindset from 2022-09-09T23:43:33
We get an update on Jathan’s journey into the heart of darkness as he returns to suburban America after a four years absence – a stranger in a strange homeland. Riffs and distractions ensue until w...
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Patreon Preview – 189. Return of the Grift from 2022-09-06T14:09:48
We discuss a great new essay from Noah Kulwin that situates the modern crypto grift economy as a reincarnation of the Savings and Loans Crisis of the 80s – as a way of arguing for a longer view of ...
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188. Using AI to Say the Word from 2022-09-02T13:03:31
We discuss a new startup doing the rounds called Sanas that uses AI “accent translation” to make"non-white"call center workers speak English with a white American accent. This is some real retro th...
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Patreon Preview – 187. The Mass Upgrading of Landlords from 2022-08-30T21:30:21
We talk about the booming market for – and community organizing against – landlord technologies that use invasive surveillance to terrorize tenants and automate evictions. In addition to discussing...
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186. Refusing the Everyday Fascism of Artificial Intelligence (ft. Dan McQuillan) from 2022-08-26T05:08:28
We are joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss his great new book Resisting AI. As Jathan wrote in a blurb for the book: “With analytical and moral clarity, McQuillan makes the case for recognising the ...
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Patreon Preview – 185. In the Long Term We Are All Dead from 2022-08-21T04:31:27
We dig deep into Effective Altruism and Longtermism, laying out the origins, beliefs, and actions of this ideological moral system and the networks of influence and wealth that it’s plugged into. A...
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*Unlocked* – Thiel’s Number One Boy (ft. Noah Lanard) from 2022-08-16T21:25:58
[We are unlocking this episode to share the interview with the main feed. Apologies for the feedback from Noah's audio causing a slight digital buzz when he talks, Jereme cleaned it up as best he c...
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Patreon Preview – 184. Who Hunts the Hunters from 2022-08-15T23:17:54
We melt our brains discussing two reality tv shows that are taking copaganda to the next level. First up is Ring Nation, a new show produced by Amazon-owned MGM Studios that’s like America’s Funnie...
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183. The Nightmare of Ambient Computing (an Amazon Company) from 2022-08-11T11:10:05
Based on Amazon’s recent acquisitions of One Medical and iRobot—just the latest in a shopping spree of vertical integration—we analyze how these seemingly disparate things all plug into Amazon’s br...
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Patreon Preview – 182. Thiel’s Number One Boy (ft. Noah Lanard) from 2022-08-07T21:31:12
Ed is joined by reporter Noah Lanard to talk about his recent profile of Peter Thiel’s apostle: Blake Masters. We track the origins and development of his ideology: from his childhood flirtation wi...
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181. Two Bodies, One Brain, No Idea from 2022-08-05T03:41:12
We dig into a convoluted and confused scheme for people selling shares in their future to venture capitalists, which pushes logics of hyper-financialization in even more perverse directions—all pro...
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Premium – 180. TMK BC3, Ch.12, Dawn of Everything from 2022-07-31T22:08:47
At long last, we dive into the last chapter of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We reflect on this odyssey of a book, pulling out its major themes, discussing the baseline freedoms th...
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179. Welcome to the Jüngle (ft. Jörg Tittel) from 2022-07-27T22:40:16
We are joined by Jörg Tittel, creator of the new video game The Last Worker, which is part social satire, part interactive narrative, part adventure game. We discuss the ideas, story, design, and p...
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Patreon Preview – 178. Fleshing out Fintech as a Systemic Phenomenon from 2022-07-24T21:04:35
Now it’s time to get into the real analysis of fintech as laid out by Saule Omarova’s work. We walk through the dominant regulatory approach to financial markets that came from the New Deal; how th...
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177. A Rosetta Stone for Fintech from 2022-07-21T01:06:20
We set up and begin discussing a paper that can be described as a Rosetta Stone for how to analyze the development, logics, mechanics, and impacts of fintech innovations from the 1980s onward — and...
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Patreon Preview - 176. TMK BC3, Ch.11, Dawn of Everything from 2022-07-18T02:18:02
We dive back into chapter 11 – Full Circle – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We revisit the Indigenous critique of how human civilization develops and where the political values u...
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*Unlocked* – What If An Algorithm Bought Your Home? from 2022-07-13T20:45:17
{For this week we're unlocking a classic episode} We talk about the absurdities of proptech – or the real estate technology sector – which is jam packed with out-of-control purchasing by house-fli...
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Patreon Preview - 175. Why the Electrical Vehicle Won’t Save Us (ft. Paris Marx) from 2022-07-10T03:24:50
Paris Marx is back for part two of our discussion about their new book Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation. This time we dig deeper into the winding h...
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174. Pedal to the Metal (ft. Paris Marx) from 2022-07-07T20:56:39
Dear friend of the show, Paris Marx, has an excellent new book just out from Verso called Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation. Paris is back on the sh...
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Patreon Preview – 173. Stabbed for 9/11 Joke from 2022-07-04T21:19:35
In this real chill episode, the boys get loose, lay back, and just chat. We cover dental work, drug nerds, and oh yeah, that time Jereme got stabbed in Mississippi days after 9/11 for making a joke...
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172. Venture Capital, Chinese Style from 2022-06-30T08:08:14
We have a special investigation from Professor Ed, who takes us on a journey through the history and development of innovation policy and venture capital in China. We begin with the massive governm...
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Patreon Preview – 171. Technology + Capital + Cities from 2022-06-27T03:08:17
Jathan is back from Sweden where he was giving a keynote at a smart cities conference. For this episode, Jathan delivers his keynote here — “State-as-a-Platform” – Sovereignty and Capital in Smart ...
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170. Seasons in the Crypto Abyss (ft. David Gerard) from 2022-06-24T01:30:30
We are joined by David Gerard – longtime critic of blockchain, even before it was cool – to discuss the experience of staring into the crypto abyss and having it stare back into you. Follow, read,...
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Patreon Preview – 169. TMK BC3, Ch.10 (part 2), Dawn of Everything from 2022-06-20T10:27:34
We dive back into chapter 10 – Why the State Has No Origin – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. And finish up our discussion of how different forms of social power based on violence/...
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168. Blockchain Imperialism and the Pacific Ideology (ft. Olivier Jutel) from 2022-06-16T04:16:54
We’re joined by Olivier Jutel to talk about a fantastic paper he wrote on blockchain imperialism in the Pacific. We discuss how blockchain projects and crypto entrepreneurs are partnering with the ...
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Patreon Preview – 167. TMK BC3, Ch.10 (part 1), Dawn of Everything from 2022-06-12T20:54:10
We dive into chapter 10 – Why the State Has No Origin – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. This is a massive chapter that gets deep into analyzing the features of social power and de...
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166. Slumlords of the Internet (ft. Ben Tarnoff) from 2022-06-09T02:20:49
We’re joined by Ben Tarnoff—author of Internet for the People; co-founder of Logic Magazine—to do some historical materialism on the internet. Ben has a great new book coming out that traces the po...
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Patreon Preview – 165. Phillip K. Dick Move from 2022-06-04T21:54:18
We go from talking about how AI/ML research is dominated by the resources, interests, and tradeoffs of “top labs.” Then discuss how our algorithmic agents become active participants in human cultur...
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164. Untethered, Unleashed (ft. Crypto Critics’ Corner) from 2022-06-03T03:17:12
We are joined by Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey, hosts of the great podcast Crypto Critics’ Corner, for a deeper dive into stablecoins—a cornerstone // time bomb of the crypto financial system. The...
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Patreon Preview – 163. TMK BC3, Ch.9, Dawn of Everything from 2022-05-30T06:53:11
We dive into chapter 9 – Hiding in Plain Sight – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We discuss the utopian experiment of Teotihuacan in Mesoamerica 2000 years ago: a city that revolt...
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*Unlocked* – In the Shadow Banks of Silicon Valley (part 2) from 2022-05-25T21:16:19
(While Jereme works to overcome a technical problem from our last record, we are unlocking an episode.)We continue our discussion of Hilary Allen’s paper on DeFi and shadow banking and dive into he...
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Patreon Preview – 162. Bring on the Eternal Winter from 2022-05-24T05:12:43
(Sorry for the delay!) We comb through Andreessen Horowitz’s inaugural 2022 State of Crypto Report, devoting more time and attention to discussing its claims and framing than it should warrant. But...
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161. Visions of Bubbles Dancing in My Head from 2022-05-20T01:41:35
We check in on our old friend / enemy / mentor, Masayoshi Son, and see how the SoftBank Vision Fund has been faring over the last year. The Masa multiplier effect is his ability to amplify the stat...
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Patreon Preview – 160. TMK BC3, Ch.8, Dawn of Everything from 2022-05-16T04:19:37
We dive into chapter 8 – Imaginary Cities – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We talk about the origins of cities and contradict the commonly held belief that proto-state governance...
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159. Big Tech Trouble in China from 2022-05-13T01:31:56
We review China’s hard, fast, and big regulatory responses to big tech’s rising power over the last year, discuss the vastly different political theories motivating tech policy in the US, Europe, a...
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Patreon Preview – 158. In the Shadow Banks of Silicon Valley (part 2) from 2022-05-08T23:38:29
We continue our discussion of Hilary Allen’s paper on DeFi and shadow banking and dive into her comparative analysis between Wall Street and Silicon Valley. We see how there are direct analogues be...
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157. In the Shadow Banks of Wall Street (part 1) from 2022-05-05T07:46:24
We discuss an extremely good paper by law professor Hilary J. Allen – DeFI: Shadow Banking 2.0 – which lays out a very clear, critical, and comparative analysis of the unregulated financial instrum...
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Premium – 156. TMK BC3, Ch.7, Dawn of Everything from 2022-05-01T20:49:45
We dive into chapter 7 – Ecology of Freedom – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. In which we discuss the tragedy of the commons, ecological imperialism, flirtations with farming, dom...
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155. TMK Side Quest from 2022-04-28T05:04:05
We take a walk on the weird side as a brief reference to the novel Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove—a graphomaniac author of alternative histories and all around beautiful mind—leads us down a...
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Patreon Preview – 154. What If An Algorithm Bought Your Home? from 2022-04-25T20:40:56
We talk about the absurdities of proptech – or the real estate technology sector – which is jam packed with out-of-control purchasing by house-flipping algorithms powered by automated valuation mod...
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*Unlocked* – 151. Sharecropping by Another Game from 2022-04-20T20:47:47
We are unlocking a premium episode in which we discuss Ed’s new reporting on the political economy of play-to-earn games, focusing on Axie Infinity and its super-exploitative system of “managers” a...
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Patreon Preview – 153. TMK BC3, Ch.6, Dawn of Everything from 2022-04-17T21:37:04
We dive into chapter 6 – Gardens of Adonis – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Here we bust the myth of the “Agricultural Revolution” in two main senses. First, we bust the idea of ...
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152. Mr. Worldcoin and the Orb (ft. Richard Nieva) from 2022-04-14T22:57:57
We’re joined by Richard Nieva, reporter at Buzzfeed, who, along with his colleague Aman Sethi, just published a massive investigation into Worldcoin, a company that aims to distribute crypto to peo...
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Patreon Preview – 151. Sharecropping by Another Game from 2022-04-10T02:27:22
We discuss Ed’s new reporting on the political economy of play-to-earn games, focusing on Axie Infinity and its super-exploitative system of “managers” and “scholars.” Surprise, surprise – the tech...
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Patreon Preview – 149. TMK BC3, Ch.5, Dawn of Everything from 2022-04-07T07:55:48
We dive into chapter 5 – Many Seasons Ago – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thisma...
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150. The Cynics of Web3 (ft. Molly White) from 2022-04-05T23:35:01
We’re joined by one of the best critical observers of Web3 around – Molly White, creator of Web3 is Going Just Great – to discuss what made her, as a software engineer who is immersed in the tech s...
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148. Tesla: The World’s Most Valuable Racism Factory from 2022-03-31T07:35:25
Content warning: this episode has explicit discussion of anti-Black racism experienced by Black workers at Tesla, including racist discrimination, imagery, and slurs. We discuss the details of a cl...
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146. SXSW: Underwhelming, Mundane, and Frankly Pathetic from 2022-03-25T01:26:36
Our intrepid reporter goes gonzo as Ed descends into the doltish phantasmagoria of SXSW. There are nightmares of humanoid rabbits as Web3 meets Midsommar. Spectacles and speculations of all varieti...
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Patreon Preview – 145. TMK BC3, Ch.4, Dawn of Everything from 2022-03-22T21:34:55
We dive into chapter 4 – Free People, the Origin of Cultures, and the Advent of Private Property – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. This chapter is bookended by discussions of two ...
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*Unlocked* – 144. Buy Now, Pay Later, Screw You from 2022-03-15T23:37:53
We're unlocking the latest episode from the premium feed on the political economy of Buy Now, Pay Later companies. What are they, where did they come from, how do they work, why are they booming, a...
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Patreon Preview – 144. Buy Now, Pay Later, Screw You from 2022-03-13T04:48:17
We investigate the political economy of Buy Now, Pay Later companies. What are they, where did they come from, how do they work, why are they booming, and who is winning and losing? We focus our an...
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143. FTC Destroys Algorithms; Uber Drives Down Pay from 2022-03-09T23:42:45
First up is old friend FTC’s recent actions ordering companies to destroy “models and algorithms” derived from “ill-gotten data.” This is a massive regulatory precedent that targets the underlying ...
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Patreon Preview – 142. TMK BC3, Ch.3, Dawn of Everything from 2022-03-07T06:15:53
We dive into chapter 3 – Unfreezing the Ice Age – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We travel back to prehistoric times to learn how the actual archaeological evidence flies in the ...
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141. – The DAOs of War from 2022-03-01T22:20:46
Rather than try to hit you with hot takes and quick analysis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we take a step back and round up of the most craven people in crypto who saw this crisis as a proble...
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Patreon Preview – 140. TMK Mail Bomb from 2022-02-26T20:37:22
You’ve got questions; we’ve got answers! In our first Mail Bomb episode, we riff on some of the excellent questions submitted by subscribers and chat about which dead leftist figures we would bring...
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139. – Infinite Crisis (ft. Phil Neel) from 2022-02-25T00:31:15
We’re joined by Phil Neel, a communist economic geographer, to dig deep into different theories of crisis in capitalism. While theorizing crisis is a core part of the Marxist analysis of capitalism...
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Patreon Preview – 138. TMK BC3, Ch.2, Dawn of Everything from 2022-02-20T22:10:39
It’s time for chapter 2 – Wicked Liberty – of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. We dig deep into the colonial origins of the Enlightenment, the hegemonic historical narrative of Europe...
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137 – Tech Workers of the World (ft. Bjorn Westergard) from 2022-02-17T00:38:46
Continuing our radical tech worker occasional series, we’re pleased to be joined by Bjorn Westergard—senior software engineer at NPR and Marxist union organizer—for a wide-ranging discussion about ...
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Patreon Preview – 136. NFT: ‘Nother Financialization Tactic from 2022-02-12T20:09:23
We dig into the complete disaster that is the NFT ecosystem before zooming out to discuss how the real promise and purpose of NFTs is as an instrument for total financialization of everything. Turn...
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*Unlocked* – Socializing Machines /// Machining Society (ft. Nick Chavez) from 2022-02-08T19:32:22
Because it was so damn good, we’re unlocking part two of our discussion with Nick Chavez, focusing on the possibilities and limitations of reengineering capitalist forces of production for communis...
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Patreon Preview – 135. TMK BC3, Ch.1, Dawn of Everything from 2022-02-06T01:38:18
We kick off the next installment of the TMK book club with The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Join us as we dig into this massive—and massively i...
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134. Morozov Watch! (ft. Evgeny Morozov) from 2022-02-01T22:05:32
Well it’s finally happened. We are joined by Evgeny Morozov—preeminent critic of digital capitalism and founder of The Syllabus—for a very long conversation. Among a great many things, we discuss: ...
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Patreon Preview – 133. Socializing Machines /// Machining Society (ft. Nick Chavez) from 2022-01-29T22:28:01
We pick up on part two of our discussion with Nick Chavez, focusing on the possibilities and limitations of reengineering capitalist forces of production for communist social relations. We discuss ...
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132. Automating Service /// Serving Automation (ft. Nick Chavez) from 2022-01-26T23:17:59
We are joined once again by Nick Chavez, a Marxist mechanical engineer, to discuss the political economy of automation – providing the groundwork for a better understanding of how automation actual...
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Patreon Preview – 131. Slow, Self, Sabotage from 2022-01-23T03:57:18
We talk more about (digital) sabotage, the different scales and intensities these actions can take, and the risks of inconvenience or worse, which sabotage as a form of self-sacrifice might require...
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130. Get Your Ass to Elysium! from 2022-01-19T04:14:02
We dig into the different visions that tech billionaires have for space – whether it’s Elon Musk’s ambitions for lording over Mars colonies or Jeff Bezos’s schemes to monopolize logistics for orbit...
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Patreon Preview – 129. Ecological Leninism, Technological Luddism from 2022-01-17T01:41:23
We discuss recent work Andreas Malm – Marxist historian, ecologists, and radical climate activist – as analysed through a large synthetic review essay by Adam Tooze. We get into capitalism’s climat...
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128. – The Year of Magical Thinking (ft. Wendy Liu) from 2022-01-12T02:40:08
Kicking off the new year, we are joined by returning champion Wendy Liu – author of Abolish Silicon Valley – to look back on all the very dumb things the tech sector has forced us take seriously in...
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*Unlocked* – Rolling-Out Aadhaar from 2022-01-05T19:52:16
We're back next week with fresh episodes! Until then, here's part 2 of our in-depth discussion on Aadhaar. We pick up with part two of our deep dive into Aadhaar, looking at the social issues, pol...
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*Unlocked* – Khan Thought Redux from 2021-12-30T04:34:29
We're taking a break from recording for the holidays. Enjoy this unlocked Patreon episode. As the Federal Trade Commission files suit to block the merger between Nvidia and Arm, we take the oppor...
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Patreon Preview – 127. More Tech Reckoning (ft. Matt Lech, David Griscom) from 2021-12-26T02:56:53
In part two of our discussion with hosts of Left Reckoning, Matt Lech and David Griscom, we pick right back up where we left off. We get into the environmental racism of where Amazon builds its war...
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126. A Tech Reckoning (ft. Matt Lech, David Griscom) from 2021-12-23T02:38:30
Opening song: Venceremos – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MlvWKfL7s We’re very excited to be joined by the hosts of Left Reckoning, Matt Lech and David Griscom, for an action packed double head...
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Patreon Preview – 125. TMK Book Club 2.0, Chapter 5 from 2021-12-19T04:30:18
We wrap up with the last chapter of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book, Control and Freedom. We discuss: the book’s value as a lens for analyzing current developments and discourses about “web3” — conceptions ...
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124. The Assassination of Thinking by the Coward Web3 from 2021-12-16T05:53:24
We do a close reading of a new article in Foreign Policy by futurist Parag Khanna and venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan, which stands as a monument to how “web3” is like a brain worm that destro...
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Patreon Preview – 123. Khan Thought Redux from 2021-12-12T00:03:54
As the Federal Trade Commission files suit to block the merger between Nvidia and Arm, we take the opportunity to revisit the excellent and necessary work of the FTC’s Chair, Lina Khan. We discuss ...
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122. Going DAO the Rabbit Hole from 2021-12-09T06:11:22
We kept ignoring DAOs and web3 hoping it would go away, but sadly it hasn’t. So we pick apart each part of the acronym—decentralized, autonomous, organization—and discuss the techno-politics of the...
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Patreon Preview – 121. TMK Book Club 2.0, Chapter 4 from 2021-12-04T21:01:58
Continuing sci-fi week at TMK, we dig into Chapter 4, “Orienting the Future,” of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book. Grounded in Chun’s in-depth analysis of cyberpunk via two paradigmatic examples—the novel Ne...
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120. The Butlerian Jihad – Why Sci-Fi Needs Luddism from 2021-12-01T06:46:22
We get into a great discussion about the Butlerian Jihad — or the war against all computation that catalyzed the events of the Dune series — and the reactionary politics that inform so much science...
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Patreon Preview – 119. Rolling-Out Aadhaar from 2021-11-28T20:35:30
We pick up with part two of our deep dive into Aadhaar, looking at the social issues, political implications, and street-level implementation. Building on the work of Ranjit Singh and Steven Jackso...
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118. Building Aadhaar, The World’s Largest Biometric Database from 2021-11-24T22:09:49
We start the show looking back at a Wired cover story from 1997 predicting the next 25 years would be The Long Boom. But oops! Turns out all the bad future spoilers came true instead. We dive deep ...
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Patreon Preview – 117. TMK Book Club 2.0, Chapter 3 from 2021-11-21T02:41:51
Cold open: MCI “Anthem” commercial (1997): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioVMoeCbrig We dig into Chapter 3, “Scenes of Empowerment, of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book and talk about the pervasive ideolog...
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116. Disability / Tech for Whom? (ft. Britt H. Young) from 2021-11-16T22:57:40
We’re very pleased to be joined by Britt Young, a PhD candidate in geography at UC Berkeley, who works on the intersection of technology and disability. We dive into the militarized R&D for prosthe...
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Patreon Preview – 115. Crypto Colonialism from 2021-11-14T01:16:08
Why don’t people like crypto? Obviously because they’re old fuddy duddies who don’t want to wrap their mind around new technology! We talk about Ed’s reporting trip to Puerto Rico and why the islan...
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114. – Engineering Capitalism /// Communist Engineers (ft. Nick Chavez) from 2021-11-10T20:51:32
We’re joined by Nick Chavez, a mechanical engineer working in R&D, to discuss his incisive essay exploring the capitalist origins and purpose of engineering, the class position and labor process of...
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113. Metastatic from 2021-11-03T20:02:07
Metastasis is the process of cancer cells spreading to other parts of the body. Facebook is in its full on metastatic phase. We talk about the big news of Facebook rebranding as Meta – its impotent...
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Patreon Preview – 112. TMK Book Club 2.0, Ch. 2 from 2021-10-30T01:56:43
We discuss Chapter 2, “Screening Pornography” of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book. Diving into the cultural panic around cyberporn in the 90s, we talk about how porn online was used as an early battleground ...
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*Unlocked* – Waymo Dumber from 2021-10-26T21:49:21
••• Jathan is doing an intensive residency program so we're unlocking an older patreon episode that many comrades in the TMK Discord said was one of their favorites. Enjoy! ••• Rather than our us...
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Patreon Preview – 111. State-as-a-Platform from 2021-10-24T00:10:04
It’s a good old TMK where we get mad talking about two stories. First, the increasingly influential “state-as-a-platform” model of governance that France is leaning super hard into, which goes beyo...
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110. Decolonial Ethic for Tech and Labor (ft. Noopur Raval, Rida Qadri) from 2021-10-21T06:07:51
Outro: Eva B - Mukhtasir Baatein https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T--NV__iJA We’re joined by two excellent scholars — Noopur Raval, research fellow in the AI Now Institute at NYU, and Rida Qadri, ...
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Patreon Preview – 109. TMK Book Club 2.0, Chapter 1 from 2021-10-17T20:12:33
We discuss Chapter 1, “Why Cyberspace?” of Wendy H.K. Chun’s book and dive into the origins, politics, and ideology behind this weird metaphor for the Internet. In the process we trace an evolution...
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108. I Fucking Love Science (ft. Danielle Carr) from 2021-10-13T02:20:15
We are very pleased to be joined by returning guest Danielle Carr, anthropologist and historian of science who is finishing her PhD at Columbia, to chat about her excellent new essay on the (anti-)...
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Patreon Preview – 107. Put Facebook on the UN Security Council from 2021-10-09T03:21:44
Outro: And We Thought That Nation-States Were a Bad Idea by Propagandhi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNWZ6THAUPo We give you our raw reactions to a mind-numbing Bloomberg Opinion piece that ...
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*Unlocked* – 106. TMK Book Club 2.0, Intro from 2021-10-05T23:42:33
For this week's free episode, we are unlocking the first episode of our new TMK Book Club Patreon series, which will be running biweekly for the next few months. If you want to hear more – and chec...
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Patreon Preview – 106. TMK Book Club 2.0, Intro from 2021-10-01T21:12:36
We dive into our next instalment of the TMK Book Club – “Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics” by Wendy H.K. Chun. This is a foundational piece of critical theory and ...
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105. A Netradyne in Every Garage from 2021-09-29T11:44:44
We take a hard look at Netradyne, the latest piece of shitty surveillance tech already forced on Amazon delivery drivers—and perhaps coming soon to your car. First we look at Lauren Kaori Gurley’s ...
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Patreon Preview – 104. The Collapse of Evergrande from 2021-09-25T22:53:05
To quote the headline for Ed’s article, “Ok, what the fuck is Evergrande and is it going to blow up the global economy?” First question: Evergrande is the second largest real estate developer in Ch...
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103. The Venality of Evil from 2021-09-22T23:03:33
outro: https://youtu.be/JanZSDIWpmg We start with a quick moratorium on self-deprecating apologia for doompill. Confronting, with sober senses and ruthless analysis, the material conditions of the...
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Patreon Preview – 102. Rhythms and Flows in Human Society from 2021-09-18T21:00:58
Intro: https://youtu.be/7YynqVvgZYI We spend the first half finishing our discussion of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s essay. Then, in the second half, we switch gears and talk about the video o...
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101. Inequality: The Last 40,000 Years from 2021-09-15T00:13:20
We go back in time—with the help of groundbreaking work by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow—to examine what the history of social inequality can teach us about the polit...
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Patreon Preview – 100. 9/11 20th Anniversary: The Forever War Machine (ft. Kelsey D. Atherton) from 2021-09-11T23:34:34
It’s part two of the Never Forget Extravaganza! We’re joined again by military tech journalist Kelsey D. Atherton to explore the deep and decades long entanglement between Silicon Valley and the Pe...
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99. 9/11 20th Anniversary: Move Fast and Leave Things Broken (ft. Kelsey D. Atherton) from 2021-09-08T22:47:18
It’s the Never Forget Extravaganza! We’re joined by military tech journalist Kelsey D. Atherton to breach the memory hole of forever war and consider the invasions and occupations, technologies and...
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Patreon Preview – 98. Logistics of Tragedy and Farce from 2021-09-04T23:22:09
outro: Funeral Candies – You're Dead https://youtu.be/TjvQPijYEZ8 We start with discussing an investigation into the harrowing—and fatal—working conditions of delivery drivers in South Korea and ...
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*Unlocked* – 95. Everyday Insurtech from 2021-09-01T20:45:55
We're unlocking a premium episode for the main feed this week. We talk about insurance technology as Jathan gives the lowdown on a big grant he just received to do a multi-year project investigatin...
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Patreon Preview – 97. Castles Made of Sand from 2021-09-01T06:49:53
We talk about the geopolitics of microchip manufacturing, the complex factors causing the current global shortage of semiconductors, the centrality of industrial policy and intellectual property to...
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96. Taking Control of the Data Pipeline (ft. Meredith Whittaker, Salomé Viljoen) from 2021-08-25T21:17:03
Intro: Contra – This Machine Kills (remixed) https://contra805.bandcamp.com/track/this-machine-kills We’re joined by two of the sharpest minds on the politics of AI and data governance—Meredith Wh...
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Patreon Preview – 95. Everyday Insurtech from 2021-08-21T22:23:08
Outro: Processory - Take Me To Your Leader https://sugars.bandcamp.com/track/take-me-to-your-leader We talk about insurance technology as Jathan gives the lowdown on a big grant he just received t...
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94. Stripping the Content Mines (ft. Taylor Lorenz) from 2021-08-18T07:28:29
We’re joined by Taylor Lorenz – business reporter at the New York Times, twitter.com/TaylorLorenz – for an excellent discussion about the evolution and rapid growth of the creator economy, the work...
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Patreon Preview – 93. TMK Book Club, part 8 from 2021-08-14T06:11:03
It’s the final chapter of Autonomous Technology: “Frankenstein’s Problem.” We talk for a while about the story of Frankenstein as an allegory for responsibility, neglect, and care for our creations...
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92. Fully Automated Luxury Surveillance (ft. Chris Gilliard) from 2021-08-11T08:38:45
We’re delighted to be joined by Chris Gilliard (twitter.com/hypervisible) – one of the best experts on privacy and surveillance around – for a fantastic discussion laying out his incisive analysis ...
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Patreon Preview – 91. Monsanto Farm of the Future from 2021-08-08T20:35:53
Outro: Mr. Suit by New Bomb Turks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VraBz96VbLAWe get deeper into the political economy of precision agriculture and how these “innovating” are iterating on tradition...
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90. All Data is a Social Construct from 2021-08-04T00:08:26
Outro: St. Lorelei - https://stlorelei.bandcamp.com/track/outside-the-green We kick things off with an announcement about TMK sweeps month. Then we get into a discussion of data politics based on...
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Patreon Preview - 89. TMK Book Club, part 7 (ft. David A. Banks) from 2021-07-31T22:37:09
We discuss Chapter 7 of Autonomous Technology: “Complexity and the Loss of Agency.” Ed couldn’t be here for this episode, so we’re joined again by David Banks, who really stepped up to provide some...
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*Unlocked* – Potemkin AI from 2021-07-27T23:35:23
We're taking a week off recording so we're unlocking one of our favorite episodes from the Patreon feed for you to enjoy. Cold open: Ghost in the Shell.There is a long list of services that purpor...
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88. Bring Down the Hammer (ft. Paris Marx) from 2021-07-21T21:26:46
After way too long, we finally got our friend and comrade Paris Marx—host of the excellent podcast Tech Won’t Save Us—on TMK for a great conversation ranging from the politics of Bitcoin and Tesla ...
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Patreon Preview – 87. TMK Book Club, part 6 (ft. David A. Banks) from 2021-07-17T21:47:12
For a blockbuster of a book club episode, we’re joined by friend of the show David Banks to discuss Chapter 6 of Autonomous Technology: “Technological Politics.” We get into an analysis of reverse ...
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86. Khaaaaan! from 2021-07-14T08:12:52
We do a deep dive into the ideas of Lina Khan, the newly confirmed chair of the Federal Trade Commission. We discuss her large body of scholarship—digging up some of her lesser known, but arguably ...
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Patreon Preview – 85. Waymo Dumber from 2021-07-11T03:18:01
Rather than our usual doompilled analysis, we take a big dose of dumbpill as we spend the whole episode on a reading series of the stupidest article we have come across in a long time. Malcolm Glad...
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84. Killing Us Infrastructurally from 2021-07-07T05:36:34
It’s the tech news roundup, yeehaw! We look at a few recent stories in techno-politics worth discussing. First, businesses are blaming Amazon for draining the labor pool, not being exploitative eno...
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Patreon Preview – 83. TMK Book Club, part 5.5 from 2021-07-03T23:34:38
We discuss the second half of Chapter 5 of Autonomous Technology: “Artifice and Order” — diving deeper into the social philosophy and political theory of technology. You can find a free pdf of the ...
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82. Crisis in the Gig Mills from 2021-06-30T05:54:43
Further notes toward a ruthless criticism of digital capitalism — we lay out how the inherent contradictions of the “gig economy” are starting to slip into crisis, the need to recognize and reject ...
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Patreon Preview – 81. TMK Book Club, part 5 from 2021-06-26T23:05:28
We discuss the first half of Chapter 5 of Autonomous Technology: “Artifice and Order.” This is a really juicy chapter where Winner is really laying out fundamentals for his own theory of technologi...
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80. Tech Work and its Discontents (ft. Wendy Liu and Jason Prado) from 2021-06-23T05:39:37
As an antidote to the constant glowing profiles of tech executives and venture capitalists, TMK is starting an ongoing, occasional series where we highlight the stories and experiences of radical t...
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Patreon Preview – 79. The Great Power Competition from 2021-06-19T22:28:56
In an action packed episode continuing our updates on ongoing topics of TMK interest, we deconstruct the political economy of massive health data sharing in the US and UK as hospitals seek to capit...
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78. On Useful Idiots and Snake Oil from 2021-06-16T21:24:25
This week we bring y’all some updates on ongoing topics of TMK interest: things we’ve done whole episodes on in the past but keep rearing the ugly heads in new and horrible ways. First we start by ...
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Patreon Preview – 77. TMK Book Club, Part 4 from 2021-06-12T22:05:39
We discuss Chapter 4 of Autonomous Technology: “Technocracy.” We get into different historical ideas of technocracy – from Francis Bacon to Thorstein Veblen – before digging into the political theo...
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76. Smart City Colonialism, Brought to You By McKinsey from 2021-06-09T06:11:37
We discuss how the failed promises of smart city megaprojects around the world – really honing in on Africa and a case study of Konza City in Kenya – perfectly encapsulate the brand of colonialism ...
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Patreon Preview - 75. Here’s to the Pigs from 2021-06-05T21:12:35
(Jathan's mic is busted for this episode – sorry!) We hit y’all with a double header about what happens when the cop in our mind is allowed to thrive. First is the psychodrama and that led to a suc...
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74. Let’s Talk About Sex Work (ft. Liara Roux) from 2021-06-04T01:38:03
In our mission to analyse capitalism and technology from the experiences of workers, we would be remiss if we ignored a crucial form of labor that people – across the political and social spectrum ...
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Patreon Preview - 73. TMK Book Club, Part 3 from 2021-05-29T22:34:49
We discuss Chapter 3 of Autonomous Technology: “The Flaw and its Origins.” First, we dispel the metaphysical arguments based on assertions about how “human nature” relates to modern technology. As ...
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72. Against Study Without Action (ft. Matt Dagher-Margosian) from 2021-05-26T07:43:09
Open / Outro: United Forever Fight Together by Rebel Riot, punk band from Myanmar – https://therebelriot.bandcamp.com/track/united-forever-fight-togetherWe’re joined by Matt Dagher-Margosian – foun...
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Patreon Preview – 71. Evil Empire from 2021-05-22T21:39:48
We look at two new books about Amazon—Fulfillment by Alec Macgillis and Amazon Unbound by Brad Stone—as an occasion to further consider the galactic expansion of this evil empire, the relentlessly ...
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Solidarity is Contagious (ft. Astra Taylor) from 2021-05-18T21:21:30
Cold open: What is Democracy? Outro: Jeff Mangum and Guy Picciotto at the Rolling Jubilee telethon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztyj7kE9tNcExtremely excited to be joined by Astra Taylor – acclai...
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*Unlocked* 65. TMK Book Club (Part 1) from 2021-05-13T21:21:54
We're unlocking the first episode of our biweekly TMK book club series – only on Patreon! You can get the other episode, plus more premium content every week, by subscribing at patreon.com/thismach...
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68. Fight for Your Right (to Repair) from 2021-05-13T00:36:10
We give y’all a primer on the debates about the “right to repair.” Corporations and conservative think tankers love spouting bad faith arguments that frame the right to repair as an issue of innova...
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67. Klobbering Klobuchar vs. Howling Hawley (patreon promo) from 2021-05-08T06:41:54
We give y’all an update on the state of antitrust politics in the US by riffing on two new books about antitrust that offer two different visions from two senators: Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley. I...
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66. Down and Out in the Neoliberal Code Academy (ft. Daniel Greene) from 2021-05-05T02:13:25
We’re joined by Dan Greene, author of an excellent new book, The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope. Dan’s work provides a deep analysis of how public inst...
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65. TMK Book Club (Part 1) (patreon teaser) from 2021-05-01T21:41:37
The TMK Book Club is now in session! We’re discussing the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought by Langdon Winner. Follow alon...
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64. Platform Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics from 2021-04-29T02:10:08
Cold open: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/13/984994360/he-tried-to-organize-workers-in-chinas-gig-economy-now-he-faces-5-years-in-jail We dig deeper into our explorations of technological and financ...
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63. Prime Labor, Living and Dead (patreon teaser) from 2021-04-24T22:49:01
In part two of our analysis of Amazon, we focus on the labor processes and managerial practices within Amazon warehouses. “Factory work exhausts the nervous system to the uttermost,” Marx wrote in ...
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62. Amazon, Vanguard of Class War (ft. Alex N. Press) from 2021-04-21T00:33:14
To conduct a post-mortem investigation on the Amazon warehouse union vote in Bessemer, Alabama, we’re joined by Alex N. Press—staff writer for Jacobin and one of our favorite labor reporters. As Al...
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61. Potemkin AI (patreon teaser) from 2021-04-17T06:35:25
Cold open: Ghost in the Shell There is a long list of services that purport to be powered by sophisticated software, but actually rely on humans acting like robots. We discuss a critical concept—w...
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60. We Live in a Society (of Control) (ft. Liv Agar) from 2021-04-14T21:20:16
Cold open: Garden Glossary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBMRWwjGJHQ It’s time for theory chat! To analyse the techno-politics of smart systems, we need good theories at hand. And we’re joined...
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59. TMK x 4ZZZ Radio Reversal (ft. Anna Carlson and Natalie Osbourne)(patreon teaser) from 2021-04-09T23:03:03
This episode is from a guest appearance by Jathan on 4ZZZ Radio Reversal, a community radio show in Brisbane, hosted by great friends of TMK and critical scholars: Anna Carlson and Natalie Osbourne...
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58. Suez Canal /// Imperialist Infrastructure (ft. Laleh Khalili) from 2021-04-06T22:58:33
Okay, so the big boat is no longer blocking the Suez Canal. But that doesn’t mean we can go back to ignoring the global networks of capitalism and colonialism that make our world run. Laleh Khalili...
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57. The Arbiters of Asset Allocation (patreon teaser) from 2021-04-03T23:54:43
Premium – 57. The Arbiters of Asset Allocation We pick back up on our discussion of market indices and index providers, honing in on the close relationship they have with asset managers, how they e...
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56. The Kingmakers of Finance from 2021-03-31T04:32
This week’s episodes are part of our ongoing, irregular series where we dive into the deepest, darkest crevices of how financial and technological capital operates today. In a sequel to our episode...
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55. Journey into the Absurd (patreon teaser) from 2021-03-27T22:11:49
cw: we discuss school shootings and sexual assault in the second half of this episode. Cold open: We need to talk about AI ethics (H&M): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0x0zsVlp30 Sometimes you...
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54. Shooting for the Stars (ft. Aaron Thorpe) from 2021-03-24T06:53:28
The great Aaron Thorpe — co-host of Trillbillies, host of A Time of Monsters, the poster formerly known as posadist_trapgd — joins us for an extremely fun episode as we riff about why aliens would ...
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53. Necropolitics of the Techno-Fix (patreon teaser) from 2021-03-20T22:03:57
We go in on the dangerous obsession that billionaires like Bill Gates have with framing the most existential risks in society, from public health to climate catastrophe, as problems of market failu...
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52. Pharma Profiteers, Vaccine Apartheid from 2021-03-17T19:55:08
It’s time for a TMK fact check: coronavirus vaccine edition. We give five out of five pinocchios to the claim that Big Pharma won’t profit hand over fist from the production of vaccines. Five pinoc...
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51. Clover the Big Red Flag (patreon teaser) from 2021-03-13T21:15:44
Cold open: CNBC turns on Chamath and Clover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRWnxUsyVDg We pick back up on the story of Clover Health—which is sure to be a business school case study of investor...
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50. King of SPACs v. Hindenburg from 2021-03-10T03:49:40
Cold open: Chamath, Clover, CNBC https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/video/chamath-palihapitiya-addresses-some-concerns-surrounding-clover-health-spac/vp-BB19KRae SPACs are blowing up. Everywhere you...
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49. Of Mind Control and Revolution (ft. Cory Doctorow)(patreon teaser) from 2021-03-06T00:36:01
Cory Doctorow joins us again for an excellent, wide-ranging discussion about his critique of surveillance capitalism, the mind control fallacy that captures critics, how monopoly jurisprudence is t...
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48. Who Uses the Users? (ft. Cory Doctorow) from 2021-03-03T00:37:10
Cold open: excerpt from UBIK by Philip K. Dick Outro: amazing new track by Jereme,"End of Time"We’re joined by Cory Doctorow — prolific author, longtime activist, friend of the show — to learn abou...
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47. The Leviathan and The Consumer (patreon teaser) from 2021-02-27T22:50:01
Picking back up on the fight between Big Media and Big Tech, we dig deeper into the type of power of platforms wield, how their political influence operates, the prioritization of consumership over...
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46. Banning Australia (ft. J.R. Hennessy) from 2021-02-24T00:50:09
After months of threats, Facebook finally hit the big red off button on the server labeled Australia and Google is making big backroom deals with media barons like Rupert Murdoch. To help us parse ...
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45. Platform’s Republic of Facebook (patreon teaser) from 2021-02-20T04:41:46
We riff on the archetype of the tech guy who can’t bear his California dream being soured by the existence of other people struggling to get by in a city his industry has immiserated. Then dive int...
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44. How to Think About Data (ft. Salomé Viljoen) from 2021-02-18T00:48:18
We discuss the limitations of existing approaches – and democratic alternatives – to data governance in informational capitalism with Salomé Viljoen (https://twitter.com/salome_viljoen_), a legal s...
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43. Libertarian Mind Palace (patreon teaser) from 2021-02-13T20:45:25
It’s part two of us ripping into David Friedman’s anarcho-capitalist fever dream, The Machinery of Freedom. And we get real nutty with it as we detail his libertarian transitional program where sch...
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42. The Machinery of Stupidity from 2021-02-10T06:26:04
Cold open: excerpt from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=6021&v=ZypJn0PgAHA Have you ever considered that the most important human right is property rights? Are your ...
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41. BlackRock: CEO of the World (patreon teaser) from 2021-02-06T20:18:44
After jumping into the abyss of indexation, we’re now smacking directly into BlackRock bottom. The world’s largest asset, which oversees $8.67 trillion, has grown at an unimaginable scale and pace—...
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40. The Boardroom of Global Capitalism from 2021-02-04T07:09:39
{The first 15 minutes or so of this episode is a little glitchy, but it gets better} We could have done a full episode about the GameStop affair, but there’s already so many good (and bad) explaine...
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39. Blueprints for a Better Everything (patreon teaser) from 2021-01-30T03:55:12
Continuing the story of the Lucas Plan, we lay out how this radical blueprint for socially useful production faced opposition at every turn by entrenched interests who saw it as a threat to their p...
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38. Production for the People! from 2021-01-27T05:38:02
We take a deep dive into another example of a real utopian project from the 1970s, this time from the UK, which provided detailed concrete plans for how to actually do radical techno-politics. The ...
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37. Automating the Consent Factory (ft. Riley Quinn)(patreon teaser) from 2021-01-22T22:15:44
We’re joined once again by co-host of TrashFuture, Riley Quinn, as we conduct further investigations into the mind of the Thought Leader. We start with a journey back to some of the Web 1.0 and We...
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36. Theory of the Thought Leader (ft. Riley Quinn) from 2021-01-20T07:21:14
We’re joined by co-host of TrashFuture – and friend of TMK from the start – Riley Quinn as we examine the brain of the Thought Leader. Forged in the fires of the financial crash, driven mad by Inte...
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35. Neoliberal Prices /// Socialist Plans (patreon teaser) from 2021-01-15T20:34:26
How is a neoliberal economy planned? How should a socialist economy be planned? We parse through the “socialist calculation debate.” First laying out the critiques of socialist state planning—and t...
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34. Let’s Get Cyber-Physical from 2021-01-13T01:58:27
cold open: Interview with Eden Medina on Project Cybersyn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSmQCvfT4pU We dig into one of the most interesting and exciting experiments in socialist innovation eve...
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33. Conceptual Hit List Continued (patreon teaser) from 2021-01-09T02:48:57
Continuing the TMK conceptual hit list, we set our sights on more key concepts that have been, to varying degrees, corrupted by capital’s foul influence and weaponized to achieve its ideological an...
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32. Conceptual Hit List from 2021-01-06T06:15:45
We’re kicking off 2021 with a different spin on the standard new year resolutions by drafting the official TMK conceptual hit list. We go through some foundational ideas in digital capitalism that ...
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*UNLOCKED* – Sabotage Feels Good from 2020-12-30T19:04:25
We're unlocking the second half of our exploration into the techno-politics of Luddism. Let us all go forth into the new year with dreams of smashing machines and sabotaging capital. In this episod...
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31. Toward the TMK Syllabus (patreon teaser) from 2020-12-28T00:26:19
With all the end of year reading lists rolling out, we decided to hop on the bandwagon and offer our own recommendations for what to read over the holidays and beyond. Sometime in the near year we ...
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30. Death of the Entrepreneur (ft. Veena Dubal) from 2020-12-23T05:46
We’re joined by the great Veena Dubal (twitter.com/veenadubal), law professor at UC Hastings, for a fantastic discussion about how gig work platforms like Uber have weaponized ideas of flexibility ...
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29. Sabotage Feels Good (patreon teaser) from 2020-12-18T22:29:37
We offer the case for a techno-politics of unmaking — quite literally deconstructing capital — to combat the innovation fetishism that masks the social relationships inherent in all technology. We ...
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28. The Hammer of Ludd from 2020-12-16T00:08:46
At last, the Luddism episode has dropped! We dig into the actual, and massively misunderstood, history of Luddites — not as an insult for people who are deemed “anti-progress,” but as a labor movem...
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27: Music and its Discontents (patreon teaser) from 2020-12-12T01:10:13
Folk, country, punk, rap – these seemingly disparate genres all have deep roots in radical politics of the working class. They each emerged out of particular material conditions and, in turn, sough...
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26. Steal this Podcast! (ft. Alexander Billet) from 2020-12-10T05:58:50
[Oh the irony that, on an episode about music, the sound quality on this episode is a little gritty due to some recording issues – big ups to Jereme for working production magic cleaning up the aud...
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25. Socialize the Eschaton (patreon teaser) from 2020-12-06T05:11:34
Conservative commentators used the phrase “immanentize the eschaton” as a criticism of socialism and communism. For these stooges, who thought they stood at the end of history, any alternative to n...
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24. Utopianism for Cynics from 2020-12-03T05:57:55
TMK is taking a break from our regularly scheduled analysis of the ongoing dystopia by pivoting to utopianism! In this episode, we take seriously the question: What would it mean to do utopianism i...
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23. The Great Decoupling (patreon teaser) from 2020-11-28T01:22:36
We continue our discussion on Huawei by laying out the ways that network infrastructure has become a site for proxy battles as the US/UK and China pursue different agendas for national security and...
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22. Huawei or the Highway from 2020-11-25T19:48:24
Time to get into the 5G! Well, okay, the international political economy of 5G and the new Cold War with China. We trace the history and expansion of Huawei—a hugely important, but greatly misunder...
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21. Military-Civil Fusion (patreon teaser) from 2020-11-21T20:40:22
“Technological superiority is a prerequisite for ethical superiority.” These words by Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, encapsulate a dangerous philosophy underpinning how the bloodless...
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20. War by Other Nerds (ft. Michael Richardson) from 2020-11-18T20:01:40
We jump into the abyss of Anduril Industries—one of the most actually evil, yet little known, technology companies in existence today—and Palmer Luckey, its ultra right-wing founder and Peter Thiel...
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19. Power and Politics at the Endless Brunch (patreon teaser) from 2020-11-13T22:11:39
We discuss the aftermath of the election, including the banner year for the tech sector, the power dynamics of a Biden/Harris administration, the dynastic conspiracy of interests in San Francisco p...
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18. Antitrust in the Aftermath (ft. Marshall Steinbaum) from 2020-11-11T19:51:15
We’re joined by economist Marshall Steinbaum for a post-mortem on the election results as we work through some critical questions: What comes next? What does a Biden/Harris administration hold for ...
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17. The Final Phase? (patreon teaser) from 2020-11-06T23:07:15
We enter Phase 3 in our analysis of the urbanization of technology capital. Planetary platforms like Alphabet and Amazon have reached the point where they possess the power and desire to do more th...
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16. Who Owns the Future City? from 2020-11-04T20:01:08
Cold open: The Ballot or the BulletSo obviously this was recorded before the election, but our topic for this week’s episode is the exact analysis you need to understand how something like Prop 22 ...
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*UNLOCKED* 15. The Extermination (of) Imagination from 2020-10-29T12:00:34
We’re unlocking the Patreon episode this week to give you a taste of that premium content. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to hear more premium episodes every week! We continue the conv...
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14. Deus Ex Growth Machina (ft. Aaron Benanav) from 2020-10-27T19:58:29
We’re joined by Aaron Benanav, author of Automation and the Future of Work, to discuss his excellent and necessary analysis of what the automation discourse gets wrong, the economic history that ha...
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13. - TMK Origins (teaser) from 2020-10-23T22:21:42
In our first Patreon premium episode, the TMK boys get loose and personal while talking about our political origin stories. We chat about our weird and twisting paths to where we are now, drop some...
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12. The E-CONomy (ft. Danielle Carr) from 2020-10-20T23:37
Cold open: Channel surfing We’re joined by Danielle Carr, who wrote a killer essay debunking the myth of Neuralink and Elon Musk, to talk about the broader political economy of shitty"science” and...
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11. Anonymous Authority from 2020-10-13T23:30:55
Cold open: Crazy Currency with Jack Jammer We enter the “parliament of extrastatecraft” and discuss the actually existing world order — we're talking the techno-politics of standardization, the tr...
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10. This Movie Kills: A Scanner Darkly from 2020-10-07T22:51:56
Cold open: What does a scanner see? Welcome to the first installment of This Movie Kills! This week we discuss the film A Scanner Darkly (2006), an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel. What do yo...
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9. Domination Ecosystem from 2020-09-29T21:32:51
Cold open: TMK x SoftBank Main show: Sure you might know all about Amazon’s extensive network of hellish warehouses, its horrendously exploitative labor conditions, its cynical partnerships with ...
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8. VC Mindset (ft. Wendy Liu) from 2020-09-22T22:34:16
Cold open: Bro, have you heard about this new startup called GOO_LOG? Main Show: We’re joined by Wendy Liu (twitter.com/dellsystem), author of Abolish Silicon Valley, to dissect the system of vent...
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7. Black Hole Son from 2020-09-15T20:43:23
Cold open: 1 trillion dollar glitch Main show: It’s finally time to formally introduce the king of kings into TMK canon, into the pantheon of parasites and villains who seek to control the world. ...
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6. Life-as-a-Service (ft. David A. Banks) from 2020-09-08T23:30:29
Cold open: The 79-year-old CEO of AliUber and Senator from California Elizabeth Holmes has announced... Main show: We’re joined by David A. Banks (https://twitter.com/DA_Banks), editor-at-large f...
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5. The Palantir Reformation from 2020-09-01T20:14:05
Cold open: Alex Karp’s manifesto of futurism. Main show: Ring the stock exchange bell: Palantir is going public! We do a deep dive into Palantir’s S-1 filing and uncover an emerging schism in Sili...
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4. Zuboff is a PSYOP from 2020-08-25T20:22:29
Episode now remastered so it sounds 1000x better! Cold open: Agent Zuboff receives her mission.Main show: We politically cancel Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, for a...
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3. Exploitation Über Alles from 2020-08-18T22:59:53
Cold open: You come at the king, you best not miss. Main show: We're locked and loaded with stacks of earnings reports. We've got Uber's finances in our sites. We take aim at the economic underpin...
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2. Safeguardin' ASSets (ft. Shoshana Wodinsky) from 2020-08-11T22:13:28
Cold Open: A message from Mr. Clean Networks. Main Show: We're joined by Shoshana Wodinsky (https://twitter.com/swodinsky) who helps us breakdown the emerging digital cold war between the US and...
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1. Tech Lives Matter from 2020-08-08T02:19:36
Welcome to This Machine Kills! Hello friends and enemies. It's episode one and what a better way to kick things off than by diving into the policing-industrial complex. We get into the intimate cr...
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