Dystopia Now

A spirited take on a new papal encyclical about AI, probing its pro-human message and possible AI authorship. They debate Catholic anthropology, human dignity, and whether humans must control AI. The Vatican’s decision to share a stage with an AI company sparks scrutiny of tech ties, politics, and corporate behavior.

Austin Ahlman, an independent congressional candidate and anti-monopoly commentator, describes his run fueled by local crises and political frustration. He digs into breaking up tech monopolies and treating platforms as infrastructure. He warns about tech carve-outs threatening Nebraska public power and urges a moratorium on AI data centers to protect water and local control.

Oliver Larkin, activist and union organizer running for U.S. House in Florida, talks about why he chose to run and owning the democratic socialist label. He discusses tech firms moving into South Florida, Palantir and surveillance ties, and threats from AI data centers to the Everglades. Campaign strategies for supporting working people and challenging corporate influence are also covered.

Zephyr Teachout, Fordham law professor and anti-monopoly advocate, explores moral history of pricing and how market power warps fairness. She digs into surveillance pricing, secret individualized rates, and how data-driven practices can exploit urgency, poverty, and racial inequities. Short, provocative conversation about the ethics and power behind modern price and wage setting.

A lively debate about whether current AI merits attributions of consciousness, sparked by Richard Dawkins' claim about a chatbot. They unpack cognitive biases like the ELIZA effect and hyperactive agency detection. Conversation then shifts to data center politics, weighing environmental costs, governance proposals, and the role of protests in slowing tech expansion.

They unpack a recent Molotov cocktail attack and the rhetoric that may have inspired it. They trace media coverage and legal questions around the incident. They debate whether property damage counts as violence and compare private threats to state violence. They interrogate apocalyptic AI visions, elite survivalist fantasies, and the social harms driven by corporate AI decisions.

Ben Tarnoff, writer and technologist exploring tech, labor, and the internet, and Quinn Slobodian, historian of neoliberalism, discuss Muskism versus Fordism. They cover vertical integration, state symbiosis, SpaceX’s military ties and market dominance. Conversation turns to Neuralink, AI safety strategy, long‑termist currents, pronatalism, and how South African roots shaped Fortress Futurism.

Alex Hanna, sociologist studying AI’s political economy, and Emily M. Bender, linguist who coined 'stochastic parrots,' discuss how AI hype is marketing and ideology. They map different AI systems, explain why chatbots seem intelligent, critique AGI talk and eugenicist echoes, and highlight labor, education, misinformation, and present harms from automation and hidden human work.

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

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