This Machine Kills

473. Tech Workers of the World, Unite (ft. JS Tan, Clarissa Redwine)

[We had technical difficulties and had to use a backup recording, sorry!] We chat with JS Tan and Clarissa Redwin — both veteran tech workers and labor organizers — about

Premium – 472. Australia’s AI Pitch Deck

We turn our sights down under by taking a closer look at the new all-of-government strategy for AI in Australia’s Interests. Australia has plotted out a bold, progressive

471. Breaking the Leviathan

We take a deep dive into New York’s police-surveillance infrastructure, a sprawling leviathan that Mayor Zohran Mamdani was outspoken against during his campaign, but has

Patreon Preview – 470. Choking on Data Exhaust

We chat about Ed’s engagement with communities pushing back against data center development in Tulsa, plus some major reporting showing the sheer scale of fossil-fuelled

469. The Maniacs are Running the Asylum (ft. Nikhil Suresh)

We’re joined by Nik Suresh, director of Hermit Tech and excellent blogger on the software industry. You might know Nik for an incredible essay he wrote a couple years ago

Patreon Preview – 468. Vibes Make the World Go Round

First we get into a very circular (the strongest shape in nature) deal between Nvidia, OpenAI, and Softbank to finance a $250 billion 10-gigawatt data center complex, pow

467. Industrial Policy by Other Means (ft. Matt Haugen, Jesse Goldstein)

We chat with Matt Haugen and Jesse Goldstein from the Climate + Community Institute about a new report they co-authored laying out how the US is engaging in industrial po

Patreon Preview – 466. I’m Evil as Shit

We first open a door by talking about the great new ‘right to repair’ ruling from the FTC, which is the result of a long fight against rentier monopolies and digital encl

465. Malcolm X1 Technologies

We chat all about the growing market for humanoid robots. What are the financial incentives and social ideologies driving the creation of technologies designed to directl

Patreon Preview – 464. Pep Rally

Miracle cures! Get your miracle cures! What the hell are peptides? Why is this class of black/gray market drugs on everyone’s lips and being injected into everybody’s vei

463. The Abuse is the Point (ft. Ben Somers)

(Sorry we’re a little late; blame producer pneumonia) We open the nightmare world folder and go through a series of stories about technology, surveillance, and policing.

Patreon Preview – 462. Somebody’s Really Gotta Do Something

If every billionaire is a policy failure, then the world’s first trillionaire is a far more serious omen of collapse. We spend this episode talking about Muskism, reflect

461. The Book of Ludd

“Welcome to the Church of Ludd, it’s nice to see you join our congregation. Please pick up a pamphlet as you walk in, which explains how to set up your religious exemptio

Patreon Preview – 460. Mr. Worldspirit

It’s a news roundup! First, in a duo of stories designed to make Ed jealous, Australia has seized 20 million illegal vapes at the border since January 2024, while the Aus

459. One Border After Another (ft. Gaby Del Valle)

We chat with Gaby Del Valle—policy reporter at the Verge—about her excursion to the Border Security Expo, the new hardware and software being sold to fight the endless ba

Patreon Preview – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami

We chat about how so many people keep getting seduced into thinking chatbots are conscious, or just keep hedging their bets in some kind of Cyber-Pascal’s Wage, or just k

457. DC3: The Terraforming

We’re going in for a threepeat – it’s Data Centers 3, as we continue with our analysis of the data center industry, the opposition to these hyperscale projects, and the r

Patreon Preview – 456. Do Not Question Project Cannoli

We go in for a second helping on analysing the opposition to data centers. After further deconstructing the arguments against opposition, we do what none of them actually

455. The Anti-Anti-Anti-Data-Centers Social Club

We deconstruct the confused arguments – from the left – against moratoriums for data centres. These positions set up a false dichotomy between either pausing or governing

Patreon Preview – 454. The Shocks Keep Coming

We dig into two shocks in international political economy that are each on their way to being complex, interrelated crises. First, the unsustainable system of export-led