Paris Marx is joined by Mathew Lawrence and Thomas Hanna to discuss the problems with platforms, why antitrust alone is not enough to fix them, and how we can encourage the creation of democratic platforms that serve the public good.Mathew Lawrence is the founder and director of Common Wealth. He’s also the co-author of “Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown.” Preorder it now from Verso Books and follow him on Twitter as @DantonsHead.Thomas Hanna is the research director at The Next System Project. He’s the author of “Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States.” Follow him on Twitter as @ThomasMHanna.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:Mathew and Thomas wrote a new report with Nils Peters called “A Common Platform: Reimagining Data and Platforms.”Eric Levitz wrote about how venture capitalists are like US central planners.Dan Hind wrote a previous report called “The British Digital Cooperative.”Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Maughan to discuss the exploitative infrastructures that make the modern world possible, how complex technological systems rob us of our power to control our collective destiny, and why predicting trends isn’t hard when you understand capitalism.Tim Maughan is the author of “Infinite Detail” and “Ghost Hardware.” He’s also written for BBC Future, New Scientist, and Motherboard, and is writing a new column for OneZero. Follow Tim on Twitter as @timmaughan.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 about the trip Tim took with Unknown Fields on a container ship, at manufacturing sites in China, and near a toxic lake in Inner Mongolia that’s the product of mining rare-earth minerals.Read the first article in Tim’s new column, No One’s Driving.Kim Stanley Robinson says billionaire space visions are “just a fantasy of our culture right now.”Media mentioned by Tim: Judge Dredd comics, The Running Man, RoboCop, Rollerball, and Ad Astra.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by David Banks to discuss how tech solutions to increase corporate control in cities will be sold to us as fun and convenient, and what that will actually means for access and equity in urban life.David Banks is a visiting assistant professor at the University at Albany. He’s the editor-at-large at Real Life, and has written for The Baffler, e-flux architecture, and Current Affairs. Follow David on Twitter as @DA_Banks.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 David’s articles for Real Life on the subscriber city and e-flux architecture on software as infrastructure.Paris wrote about the end of the Paramount Decrees, including what it could mean for the future of cinemas.How people are fighting back against landlords attempts to use tech against tenants (“proptech”).Slavoj Žižek gives a father/son example of totalitarianism (from ~0:00-3:00).David Harvey’s “Right to the City” essay mentions how homeownership makes people more conservative.Red Vienna remains a great example of public housing.Kevin Rogan wrote about how smart-city technologies are designed to hide human labor.Books in this show: “Radicalized” by Cory Doctorow, “Urban Warfare” by Raquel Rolnik, “Capital City” by Samuel Stein, and “Loft Living” by Sharon ZukinSupport the show

Paris Marx is joined by Emma Kinema to discuss how workers are organizing in the video game and tech industries, the challenges faced by those workers, and the importance of organizing to improve workplaces, but also larger economic structures.Emma Kinema is a former tech and games worker who is a Campaign Lead with the Communications Workers of America on the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. She also co-founded Game Workers Unite. Follow Emma on Twitter as @EmmaKinema.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 and Passage at readpassage.com.Also mentioned in this episode:Emma spoke about labor organizing in the video games industry at XOXO Festival.Paris wrote about why game workers are organizing in Australia, Canada, and France.In January 2020, GDC’s State of Games Industry report found 54% of game workers thought they should unionize.Workers at Riot Games walked out in May 2019. Workers at Blizzard Entertainment walked out in October 2019. Workers at Lovestruck went on strike and got an average raised of 78%.Rockstar’s co-founder said there were 100-hour weeks ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2. Bioware workers said “depression and anxiety are an epidemic” within the company. CD Projekt Red said there wouldn’t be crunch on Cyberpunk 2077, then enforced it anyway.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Wilfred Chan to discuss how gig companies misled California voters to back Prop 22, whether the Biden administration will be an ally to gig workers, and the need for solidarity in the fight to preserve (and expand) labor rights.Wilfred Chan is a contributing writer at the Nation. He has also written for Dissent, The Guardian, NBC News, and more. Read his recent piece on the fight for labor rights after Prop 22. Follow Wilfred on Twitter as @wilfredchan.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.If you want to join the Discord and check out the new supporter tiers, head over to Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:The Economic Policy Institute published an explainer on California’s Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) and worker misclassificationThe gig companies bought endorsements and sent out fake progressive mailers for Prop 22. The head of California’s NAACP stepped down after the election for taking $1.7 million to back ballot measures.VP-elect Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West is chief legal officer at Uber, and now there are calls to make him Attorney General in a Biden administrationBiden’s transition team is full of people from Big Tech with concerning pasts, including from Uber and LyftUber and Lyft’s share prices soared after Prop 22 wonFind out more about Rideshare Drivers United and New York Taxi Workers AllianceSupport the show

Paris Marx is joined by Liz Pelly to discuss how the Spotify model of streaming music continues a long trend of exploitation in the music industry and why musicians need to organize around a vision for a different world of music.Liz Pelly is a freelance writer and critic who has spent the past decade working with community arts spaces. She is also a contributing editor and columnist at The Baffler. Follow Liz on Twitter as @lizpelly.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.Read the plan for the future of the show and supporter benefits on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:Liz’s work looks at many aspects of Spotify, including the model it’s pushing on musicians and increasingly on podcastersParis has written about how consolidation and the emergence of streaming is having similarly negative effects in film and televisionNaomi Klein explains how New Deal arts programs funded 225,000 musical performances which reached 150 million Americans — and much moreCherie Hu tweeted a diagram showing how different streaming and music companies have stakes in one anotherThe Verge obtained Sony Music’s contract with SpotifyHow Galaxy 500 and Pavement had random songs take off on SpotifySpotify CEO says artists need to record music more frequentlyHenderson Cole’s proposal for an American Music LibraryThe Union of Musicians and Allied Workers launched the Justice at Spotify campaignSupport the show

Paris Marx is joined by Will Evans to discuss how excessive productivity targets are causing high rates of injury at Amazon warehouses, how executives have misled the public about the problem, and what that suggests about the impacts of the company’s “customer obsession.”Will Evans is a reporter at Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read his investigation about Amazon’s safety crisis. Follow Will on Twitter as @willCIR.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.Read the plan for the future of the show and supporter benefits on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:Paris reflected on what Will’s investigation suggested about the relationship between consumerism and workers’ rights for NBC News.Will did an earlier investigation about safety (or the lack thereof) at Tesla.Brian Merchant wrote an “op-ed from the future” looking at how technology hides the harm to workers in a fictional fully automated Amazon warehouse.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Daniel Joseph to discuss the relationship between video games and capitalism, how the gaming experience has become increasingly commercialized, and what the new consoles — Xbox Series X|S and Playstation 5 — herald for the future of the industry.Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Read his articles for Real Life about video games and capitalism and platformization, and for Briarpatch about what better platforms might look like. Follow Daniel on Twitter as @DanjoKaz00ie.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.** Support the show on Patreon and read the plan for the future.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:“If Xbox is Netflix, then Playstation is cinema” by Christopher Dring at GamesIndustry.bizHow PS4 better positioned itself against Xbox One, including a short video about trading gamesNintendo was charged with price fixing in the 1990s in the United States and EuropeIn 2015, Valve and Bethesda had to backtrack on plans to commercialize modding53% of PS4 game sales were digital in 2019. That grew to 74% in the early part of 2020.David Nieborg and Thomas Poell’s work on platforms; Sarah Grimes’ work on commercialization of children’s gaming; the App Studies Initiative; and T.L. Taylor’s “Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming”Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss why jobs are getting worse because the economy’s slowing down, not because technology is speeding up, and why that requires a vision of post-scarcity centered around human relationships instead of technological change.Aaron Benanav is an economic historian and social theorist. He is a post-doctoral researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and author of “Automation and the Future of Work.” Follow Aaron on Twitter as @abenanav.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.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets.Also mentioned in this episode:Prop 22 passed in California, stopping gig workers from becoming employeesParis explains the limits of a basic income, how Aaron’s book helps us think about the future, and the problems with luxury communismAaron explains why automation isn’t wiping out jobsAaron’s science fiction reading list: “The Dispossessed,” “The Word for World is Forest,” and “Always Coming Home” by Ursula K. Le Guin; “Red Star” by Alexander Bogdanov; “Hard to be a God” and “Noon: 22nd Century” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky; “News from Nowhere” by William Morris; “Looking Backward” by Edward Bellamy; “The Conquest of Bread” by Peter Kropotkin; “Trouble on Triton” by Samuel R. Delaney; “Star Maker” by Olaf Stapledon; and “Utopia” by Thomas Moore.Support the show

Paris Marx is joined by Evan Greer to discuss Republican and Democratic desires to amend or revoke Section 230, why the proposals won’t solve problems with Big Tech, and the international implications of US decisions about moderation.Evan Greer is an activist, musician, and writer. She is the deputy director at Fight for the Future, which is currently running campaigns to protect Section 230 called Save Online Free Speech and to ban facial recognition technology. Follow Evan on Twitter as @evan_greer.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.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network and follow it on Twitter as @harbingertweets. Also mentioned in this episode:Evan wrote about the problems with algorithmic amplification for WiredThere is no anti-conservative bias on social media and Facebook’s algorithms connected extremists with hate groupsFacebook removes the accounts of anti-government activists internationally and an internal memo by a former employee says it doesn’t care about its impacts if Western media won’t find out about itSESTA/FOSTA made life harder for sex workers, but has also empowered a movement for decriminalizationZoom deleted meetings discussing its own censorshipSupport the show