Dystopia Now

Florida Man Runs for Congress as a Democratic Socialist (ft. Oliver Larkin) 28.05.2026 48min

Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Oliver Larkin, activist, union organizer, and Democratic Socialist, joins us this week to discuss his run for election to the U.S. House as a Florida representative. We talk about Oliver's campaign, how South Florida and Greater Miami are becoming new headquarters for tech companies including Palantir, and what we can do electorally to support working people instead of billionaires. Further Reading Find Oliver's campaign at https://www.oliverforcongress.com https://theintercept.com/2026/02/26/iran-war-powers-vote-democrats-gottheimer-moskowitz

PATREON PREVIEW: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout 21.05.2026 11min

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! On this special Patreon episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout about surveillance pricing and surveillance wages. From airlines charging us more to fly home if they see we've recently searched "funeral arrangements" to rideshare companies paying less per ride if your bank account is low, we explored the present and future possibilities of data as a tool for economic and labor exploitation. Book Mentioned Karen Levy, Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance Further Reading FTC Report, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-surveillance-pricing-study-indicates-wide-range-personal-data-used-set-individualized-consumer ACLU Report, https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/surveillance-pricing Electronic Frontier Foundation on surveillance pricing, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/fight-surveillance-pricing-we-need-privacy-first Maryland ban on surveillance pricing, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/29/maryland-grocery-stores-ban-surveillance-pricing New York legislation, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2026/05/19/surveillance-pricing- Cory Doctorow on surveillance wages, https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-04-06-empiricism-washing-veena-dubal-d63fef485503

Of Dawkins and Data Centers 14.05.2026 1h 5min

In this week's episode we begin to go into the philosophy around consciousness and AI as New Atheist relic Richard Dawkins recently claimed "Claudia" was conscious. What are the merits and issues of thinking about consciousness in the context of AI? Later we discuss a recent piece in Jacobin arguing against data center resistance. Further Reading Richard Dawkins in Unherd, https://unherd.com/2026/05/when-claudia-met-claudius Holly Buck in Jacobin, https://jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-data-center-moratorium-democracy Émile in Salon, https://www.salon.com/2017/07/29/from-the-enlightenment-to-the-dark-ages-how-new-atheism-slid-into-the-alt-right/ Taylor Lorenz podcast episode, https://sites.libsyn.com/566555/site/big-tech-is-watching-you-with-taylor-lorenz Brian Merchant on Substack, https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-data-center-rebellion-is-only

Altman Attack: What is Violence? 07.05.2026 40min

In this week's episode, we explore a question no one has ever thought of before: "What is violence?" We unpack the recent Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's home and how his own rhetoric about (checks notes), "killing every human on earth with AI", may be leading people who take him seriously to act in extreme ways. We explore Altman's vision for the future and the violence inherent within it. Further Reading "The Merge" essay by Sam Altman, December 2017: https://blog.samaltman.com/the-merge https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/18/sam-altman-house-attack-ai https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/sam-altman-attack-ai-silicon-valley.html https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altman-home-attack-openai-san-franisco-office-threat/

From Fordism to Muskism with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff 30.04.2026 53min

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Quinn Slobodian, historian of neoliberalism, and Ben Tarnoff, internet and technology writer, join us to unpack how Musk's fears and fantasies are shaping our world. Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed is available now in the United States (Harper) and UK (Penguin). Quinn Slobodian is professor of international history at Boston University, and the author or editor of seven books translated into ten languages including, Hayek's Bastards: Race (winner of the NBCC award for criticism), Gold, IQ and the Capitalism of the Far Right, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy, and Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. In 2024, the Prospect Magazine (UK) named him one of the World's 25 Top Thinkers. Ben Tarnoff is a writer and technologist based in Massachusetts and is the author of Internet for the People and the co-author of Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do—And How They Do It. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, and has also written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New Republic, among other publications.

The AI Con with Alex Hanna and Emily Bender 23.04.2026 48min

Prof. Emily M. Bender, linguist, and Dr. Alex Hanna, sociologist join us to discuss their 2025 book The AI Con and how Big Tech spun marketing around "stochastic parrots". Find lots more from Emily and Alex on their podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 from the Distributed AI Research Institute! Books Mentioned Emily Bender & Alex Hanna, The AI Con Rua M. Williams, Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI Further Reading Bender, et. al, "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?", https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

Big Tech is Watching You with Taylor Lorenz 04.04.2026 1h 5min

Journalist Taylor Lorenz joins us to discuss Section 230, how Big Tech is already tracking everything from eye movements to finger presses, the ongoing erosion of online privacy through right-wing tech policy and identity verification. Find Taylor on YouTube @TaylorLorenz and her publication UserMag on Substack. Further Reading Taylor Lorenz, Usermag, The Media Lied About the Social Media Addiction Trial Taylor Lorenz, The Biggest Lies About Section 230 Mick Masnick, TechDirt, Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They're Actually Cheering For KWCH, AI-powered cameras on Wichita school buses raise privacy concerns for one driver WBAL, 'Just holding a Doritos bag': Student handcuffed after AI system mistook bag of chips for weapon

Understanding the U.S. Blockade on Cuba with David Ramírez Álvarez 25.03.2026 55min

David Ramírez Álvarez, secretary at the embassy of Cuba in the US, joins us to understand the escalating blockade on Cuba.

The Ethics of Human Extinction Part 1 20.03.2026 56min

Find Part 2 coming soon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow This week we dive into Emile's area of expertise, the ethics of human extinction and how these ethics are shaping Silicon Valley. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/making-sense-of-the-human-extinction Books Mentioned The Last Man, Mary Shelley Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation, Émile Torres

Data Centers in My Backyard with Dylan Gyauch-Lewis 05.03.2026 1h 3min

Support the show at https://patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow Researcher and journalist Dylan Gyauch-Lewis joins us this week to discuss the views behind ongoing data center buildout for AI despite community resistance. Find Dylan's work at the American Prospect and https://therevolvingdoorproject.org Further Reading Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The American Prospect: More AI Means More Cancer Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The Revolving Door Project: Support for Data Centers in Shor Supply

Gilded Rage with Jacob Silverman 23.02.2026 1h 10min

Find Jacob Silverman on Substack at https://substack.com/@jacobsilverman or Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/jacobsilverman.com Further Reading from Jacob * The Shady Financial Past of a Major Trump Crypto Investor: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/andrei-grachev-dlw-labs-world-liberty-financial-trump/ * The President Took A $75 Million Bribe And We All Saw It: https://www.jacobsilverman.com/p/the-president-took-a-75-million-bribe Books Mentioned Gilded Rage, Jacob Silverman Easy Money, Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman Survival of the Richest, Douglas Rushkoff More Everything Forever, Adam Becker The Technological Republic, Alex Karp

The Unabomber 05.02.2026 1h 14min

This week, we discussed the biography of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his brand of tech doomerism. Further Reading Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-and-the-unabomber

Four Companies, Under AGI 26.01.2026 59min

While profit motivates all companies under capitalism, why are the wealthiest tech companies so focused on AGI? This week, we dive into the relationships, ideologies, and claims behind the four biggest players claiming to build artificial general intelligence: Google DeepMind, OpenAI (partly owned by Microsoft), Anthropic, and Elon Musk's xAI. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/tescrealism-and-the-race-to-build Book mentioned The AI Con - Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

LARPing into Authoritarianism with Dr. Alexander Thomas 17.01.2026 1h

We're joined again by Dr. Alexander Thomas, author of The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism, to discuss current events and how the Extropians' libertarian transhumanist fantasies connect to today's efforts to meme right-wing authoritarianism into reality. Books Mentioned Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism by Alexander Thomas (open access)

How Tech Bros are Innovating Imperialism 10.01.2026 56min

Welcome to 2026! This week, we took a look at imperialism and how the rotating cast of billionaires discussed on the show are more involved than meets the eye. FURTHER READING: Émile's article "Are You Suffering from Crisis Fatigue?": https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/are-you-suffering-from-crisis-fatigue Gil Duran's article on the Network State and Venezuela (The Nerd Reich): https://www.thenerdreich.com/network-state-comes-for-venezuela/ Prospera: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/magazine/prospera-honduras-crypto.html Honduras: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/04/trump-venezuela-maduro-pardon-honduras.html Greenland: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-freedom-city-rich-donors-push-trump-tech-hub-up-north-2025-04-10/ AND https://www.insidehook.com/internet/peter-thiel-praxis-next-great-city-greenland AND https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html Pardons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2025/12/10/trumps-clemency-machine-deserves-more-right-wing-scrutiny/ AND https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-pro-crypto-or-pro-crime

The Distant Future: 2025 Expectations versus Reality 28.12.2025 1h 20min

Is AGI right around the corner, again? How's the AI bubble doing? What happened to climate activism? We're closing out the year with a round up of the many predictions made about technology by 2025 and share some of our own guesses. Support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow Further Reading Émile's rundown of 2025 predictions: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/what-people-thought-would-happen NYT on the AI bubble: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/business/the-ai-boom-economy.html Book mentioned: The Discovery of the Future - H.G. Wells

Epstein Part 2: Transhumanism & Eugenics with Keira Havens 12.12.2025 1h 1min

This week, we're joined by Keira Havens, director of Citizens' Impeachment and former scientist to discuss Jeffery Epstein's transhumanist, eugenicist beliefs, their roots in hierarchy, and his influence in funding scientific research. Further reading: TBA

Epstein Part 1: Chomsky Struggle Session 04.12.2025 55min

In a 2-part series on Jeffery Epstein, we'll explore Epstein's ties to the TESCREAL ideologies. This week though, we're talking about his ties to one of our intellectual heroes who really let us down. Further reading: Émile's article "Noam Chomsky is a Scumbag": https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/noam-chomsky-is-a-scumbag Jeffrey Epstein Met With Harvard Professor Martin Nowak and Noam Chomsky in 2015 in Harvard Office: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/3/epstein-nowak-chomsky-meeting-2015/ Lawrence Krauss and Epstein: https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/jeffrey-epstein-science-eugenics-sexual-abuse-researchers.html

Escaping Effective Altruism 14.11.2025 1h 4min

Support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/dystopianow How did Émile get involved in Effective Altruism and what was it like beginning to turn away? In this week's episode, we touch on Palantir CEO Alex Karp's political journey, a review of longtermism, and what first sounded the alarm bells on EA for Émile. Further reading: Emile's article "Against longtermism": https://aeon.co/essays/why-longtermism-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-secular-credo Karp's swordsmanship: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/alex-karp-wielding-a-sword

Algospeak, Vibes, and Post-Rats with Adam Aleksic (Etymology Nerd) 07.11.2025 50min

This week, we're joined by Adam Aleksic, also known as @etymologynerd to discuss his new book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. We talk everything from 67, slop, rationalists versus post-rationalists, teleology, vibes, and Silicon Valley slang. Further Reading Buy Adam's book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language at your local book store or online: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/776856/algospeak-by-adam-aleksic/ Find Adam Aleksic @etymologynerd on Instagram and TikTok, and check out his Substack at https://etymology.substack.com/. More on slop: https://etymology.substack.com/p/notes-on-slop Adam's website: etymologynerd.com Book recommendation: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (1998) by James C. Scott