Paris Marx is joined by Peter Labuza to discuss how streaming is reconfiguring Hollywood, what that means for the film and television we consume, and whether it’s time to consider antitrust action against the streaming giants.Peter Labuza is a lecturer at San Jose State University whose work focuses on the legal, financial, and political history of creative industries. He’s currently writing a book about the history of entertainment law in Hollywood. Follow Peter on Twitter as @labuzamovies.🚨 T-shirts are now available!Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Peter wrote an op-ed for the LA Times about what streaming is doing to culture and the need for antitrust action.Paris has written about the consolidation in entertainment companies, the need to consider state action, and Amazon’s acquisition of MGM.David Graeber wrote that British culture from the sixties was a product of the welfare state.Joshua Glick wrote about how Netflix is changing documentary production.Jennifer Holt provides an overview of media deregulation in “Empires of Entertainment: Media Industries and the Politics of Deregulation, 1980-1996.”FilmCritHulk wrote about the impacts of streaming and industry consolidation on labor, unions, and more.In 2020, a judge ended the Paramount Decrees.The Writer’s Guild recently went on strike over streaming residuals.Salt of the Earth was a film made by blacklisted filmmakers.Support the show

Paris Marx takes a solo episode to discuss the billionaire space race. Specifically, how billionaires are selling grand futures of space travel as a PR scheme to get huge public contracts that will allow them to control the infrastructure of space.🚨 T-shirts are now available!Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Paris wrote about the billionaire space race, and it was translated into German, Italian, and Turkish.New Mexico’s $220-million Spaceport America that’s used by Virgin Galactic is a joke.SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has been way overhyped.If we went to Mars, we would get cancer.Adam Mann had a great essay on how we should think about Mars, and whether it’s “ours.”Elon Musk says we can be indentured servants on Mars, and people will die.Paris has written about Jeff Bezos’ space colonies, and compared them to Blade Runner and The Expanse.Jeff Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO to take on the role of Executive Chairman.Ursula K. Le Guin argues science fiction isn’t about the future, nor is it predictive.Amazon’s emissions rose 19% in 2020 and it’s helping Big Oil.Paris wrote about the real climate future billionaires are creating.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Alex Rivera to discuss his 2008 film Sleep Dealer and how it imagined exploitative technologies being implemented in a future Mexico of hardened borders and limited migration.Alex Rivera is a filmmaker and digital media artist whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology. His feature films include Sleep Dealer and The Infiltrators. Follow Alex on Twitter as @Alex_Rivera.🚨 T-shirts are now available!Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:You can rent or buy Sleep Dealer from the official website.Paris wrote about Sleep Dealer and what it illustrates about technology for Jacobin.Border walls are still going up around the world.Smart tech is often designed to hide the human labor that makes it work.Kiwibot delivery robots are driven by Colombian workers making $2/hour.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Zachary Loeb to discuss the history of tech criticism with a focus on Joseph Weizenbaum and Lewis Mumford, as well as why the techlash is a narrative that suits Silicon Valley.Zachary Loeb is a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania whose dissertation research looks at Y2K. Follow Zachary on Twitter as @libshipwreck, and check out his Librarian Shipwreck blog.🚨 T-shirts are now available!Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Zachary wrote about Y2K, Lewis Mumford’s criticisms on technology, the life and thought of Joseph Weizenbaum, and theses on techno-optimism.Books mentioned: “Dismantlings: Words against Machines in the American Long Seventies” by Matt Tierney.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by David Golumbia to discuss the ideology of cyberlibertarianism, the right-wing politics of cryptocurrencies and blockchains, and why the left shouldn’t embrace them.David Golumbia is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of “The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism.” He’s also writing a new book called “Cyberlibertarianism” from Minnesota University Press. Follow David on Twitter as @dgolumbia.🚨 T-shirts are now available!Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:David wrote about cyberlibertarianism for Jacobin Magazine.Keith Spencer interviewed David about his book for Salon in 2018.Elon Musk’s tweets affect cryptocurrency prices, while China is cracking down on crypto mining.Marc Andreessen says “crypto is a right wing idea” in an interview with Noah Smith.El Salvador’s right-wing authoritarian president made Bitcoin a form of legal tender.Tether misled people about how much USD was backing its stablecoin.About 20% of Bitcoin — worth billions of dollars — is lost and recoverable.Other resources: Langdon Winner’s “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” and “Cyberlibertarian Myths and the Prospects for Community”; Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron’s “The Californian Ideology”; Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture”; Paulina Borsook’s “Cyberselfish” (article); and John Perry Barlow’s “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.”Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Eoin Higgins to discuss why tech companies and venture capital firms are launching their own media verticals, what Marc Andreessen hopes to get out of Clubhouse and Substack, and why Jeff Bezos may have a better approach to media.Eoin Higgins is a freelance journalist and writes on Substack under The Flashpoint. Follow Eoin on Twitter as @EoinHiggins_.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Eoin wrote about what venture capital firms are doing in media and Marc Andreessen’s favoriting of alt-right tweets.In 2016, Marc Andreessen wrote a tweet about colonialism in India that received a lot of backlash.Coinbase started a “media arm” to “become a source of truth” in the face of critical reporting.Anna Wiener recently wrote about how tech may be shifting from a narrative of disruption to one of building institutions (to serve themselves).Sam Harnett critically examined tech journalism and its history, especially with regard to reporting on the gig economy.Zoe Schiffer and Megan Farokhmanesh detailed how venture capitalists used Clubhouse to organize against critical coverage of the industry and go after journalists like Taylor Lorenz.Ed Zitron wrote about how tech journalism’s shift from an enthusiast press to an industrial press was something venture capitalists and powerful people in the industry were not happy about.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Avi Asher-Schapiro and Maya Gebeily to discuss how Facebook isn’t fully enforcing its ban on conversion therapy in Arabic, what that means for LGBTQ people in Arabic-speaking countries, and how social media has become a battleground.Avi Asher-Schapiro is a journalist covering technology for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Maya Gebeily is the Middle East Correspondent at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Follow Avi on Twitter as @AASchapiro and follow Maya as @GebeilyM.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Avi and Maya wrote about how Facebook is letting conversion therapy posts continue being shared on the platform in Arabic.Maya wrote about social media companies blaming glitches for disappearing posts about Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem.In September, Buzzfeed published an internal letter by Sophie Zhang on how Facebook was ignoring its impacts on the politics of countries around the world. Zhang has gone on to to do work with The Guardian and Rest of World.The United Nations says conversion therapy “may amount to torture” and should be banned.Lebanon provides more freedom for LGBTQ people, but there are still barriers.Saudi Arabia infiltrated Twitter to identify dissidents, and in 2020 convicted a Yemeni blogger for supporting gay rights.In September 2020, Algerian police arrested 44 people for attending a “gay wedding,” using the decoration as evidence against them.Israeli security agencies work to ensure Facebook censors Palestinian content at their request.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Legacy Russell to discuss how glitch feminism challenges existing ideas of what constitutes the body and the effects of having those conceptions embedded within our technological systems.Legacy Russell is the associate curator of exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and will become executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen in September. She’s the author of “Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto” and is currently writing “Black Meme.” Follow Legacy on Twitter as @LegacyRussell.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Donna Haraway, Sadie Plan, and Katherine Hayles on cyberfeminism.Alondra Nelson on afrofuturism.Nathan Jurgenson’s work on digital dualism and IRL.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Richard Barbrook to discuss how the Californian Ideology illustrated the neoliberalism of Silicon Valley, whether it’s still relevant in the present, and how games can be used for political purposes.Richard Barbrook is the author of “Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village” and “Class Wargames: Ludic subversion against spectacular capitalism.” He’s a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Westminster. Follow Richard on Twitter as @richardbarbrook.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Read the original Californian Ideology essay in Mute Magazine and Richard’s thoughts on the 20th anniversary in “The Internet Revolution: From Dot-com Capitalism to Cybernetic Communism.”France Insoumise presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon released a game called Fiscal Combat that helped inspire Corbyn Run.Richard mentions Guy Debord’s “A Game of War” and Bertell Ollman’s “Class Struggle” board games.Other resources: Marshall McLuhan, Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism,” and Guy Debord’s “The Society of the Spectacle.”Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Benjamin Peters to discuss the proposals for national computer networks in the Soviet Union, the challenges they faced in getting approval, and what lessons they hold for how we think about networks.Benjamin Peters is the author of “How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet” and the co-editor of “Your Computer Is On Fire.” He’s also the Hazel Rogers Associate Professor at the University of Tulsa and affiliated faculty at Yale Law School. Follow Ben on Twitter as @bjpeters.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Ben summarized his research on the Soviet network proposals for Aeon.Support the show