
Hacking State
Exploring how technology changes our relationship to power, each other, and ourselves.
Alex Murshak conducts in-depth interviews on the philosophy of technology. Hacking State is about doing more with less, pushing limitations, and finding gainful exploits at every level of the human operating system; from minds, to bodies, to tools, organizations, governments, and higher order social systems.
Heidegger describes the nature of technology as a kind of revealing. It remains to be seen where and whether technology gives us Nietzschean will-to-power-like mastery over nature and ourselves or, as Plato warns, we are liable to be lead astray by novel ideas. Our capacity to harness nature has never been greater. Science and technology have unlocked immense power. Yet the human animal remains remarkably similar across millennia. In such a situation, discernment is our greatest asset. It is our relationship to ourselves, our systems, and one another, that will determine our future.
Latest episodes

Dec 26, 2024 • 1h 27min
41 - Thom Ivy: The State of Persuasion
The enlightening Thom Ivy joins me to discuss pheromones, bioenergetics and Peating, state management, hypnosis, and propaganda.
Thom Ivy on X: https://x.com/thom_ivy_1
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Dec 19, 2024 • 1h 12min
40 - Cody Moser: Systems Intelligence and the Mysteries of Life
Cody Moser is a PhD candidate in Cognitive Science at the University of California, Merced studying collective intelligence, system collapse, complex systems, and networks.
We cover the challenge of integrating humanity into science, the collapse of public spaces, consequences of social institutions moving online, how network structures optimize innovation, how AI reveals the anti-human incentives of many of our systems, living things and the theory of dissipative systems, and the mystery of life for statistical physics.
My AI For Government Affairs Startup https://lawgiver.ai
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Dec 12, 2024 • 1h 1min
39 - Nathan Worcester: American Dynamism
Nathan Worcester covers national politics and energy for The Epoch Times.
We talk about
- Views from the 2024 Presidential Campaign trail
- Prospects for American Re-Industrialization
- Nuclear deregulation and the future of American energy
- DOGE
Nathan on X: https://x.com/nnworcester
My AI For Government Affairs Startup https://lawgiver.ai
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Dec 5, 2024 • 1h 9min
38 - Logan Allen: Zorp, NockChain, A Market For Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Logan Allen is the CEO of Zorp, an applied research company building NockChain and the Nockstack.
We discuss how NockChain combines proof-of-work with zero-knowledge proofs, creating incentives for proof generation at scale. The conversation covers how zero-knowledge proofs enable state compression for large computations and Zorp's approach to building secure infrastructure for network tribes. We explore practical applications like verifying computations in nuclear reactors and power stations, the economics of zero-knowledge proof markets, and how the Nockstack provides tools for high-security production environments. Nock's minimal instruction set makes it simple enough for one person to understand, forming the foundation for this secure computing infrastructure.
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Nov 19, 2024 • 1h 3min
37 - Jessica Solce: Forging A Country
A Maverick Director on Documenting Nayib Bukele's Re-Election.
Director & Producer Jessica Solce joins me to discuss Forging A Country, her latest film documenting Nayib Bukele's 2024 re-election in El Salvador.
We cover why Western liberalism's playbook is insufficient for El Salvador's problems, her approach to documentaries with ideological implications, reflections on her opus, Death Athletic, film and propaganda, streaming platform politics, filming over long timelines, accessing high profile documentary subjects, and discovering a film's aesthetics.
My AI For Government Affairs Startup https://lawgiver.ai
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Oct 25, 2024 • 1h 7min
36 - Eric Kaufmann: Breaking Taboos to Win the Culture War
Eric Kaufmann is a professor of politics and Director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. He is also Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
We talk about his new book "The Third Awokening" and cover: how quasi-religious left-wing liberalism bears more responsibility for Wokeness than “radical neo-Marxist” Theory, the weaponization humanistic psychotherapy and trauma, “Be kind” as an ideology, the simple emotional structure behind it: minorities good, majorities bad—the making sacred of historically marginalized race, gender, and sexual minorities as a structure of taboos, conservatives' failure to win culture, his defense of negative liberty, Wokeness as a meme, Gen Z’s shift to the right, comparing the free speech climate of the US, the UK, and Canada, and the coming intensification of cultural politics.
My startup: https://lawgiver.ai
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Oct 10, 2024 • 53min
35 - Ben McCormick: Getting to Know Kinode
Kinode is a decentralized operating system, peer-to-peer app framework, and node network designed to simplify the development and deployment of decentralized applications.
Ben McCormick, a lead developer at Kinode, joins me to discuss the birth of Kinode, the need for backend tools in crypto, choosing Web Assembly for peer-to-peer computing, breaking out of the Feudal structure of Web 2.0 and creating coordination power outside Big Tech oligopolies, how to popularize permission-less infrastructure, getting started developing on the network, and the grand vision that is Kinode.
The Kinode Book: https://book.kinode.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/mYDj74NkfP
Kinode on X: https://x.com/kinode
Dartfrog: https://kinode.org/blog/hello-dartfrog
My startup: https://lawgiver.ai
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Sep 26, 2024 • 1h 28min
34 - Charles Haywood: Political Action, Foundationalism, Advice for Ambitious Young Men
Charles Haywood is the Maximum Leader of The Worthy House, publisher of over 600 book reviews, and creator of a framework for the renewal of society called Foundationalism.
We talk about how buying machinery from a defunct hair products manufacturer made him tremendously wealthy, The Worthy House and refining his politics by writing hundreds of book reviews, the (im)possibility of political action today, Foundationalism, right wing "elites", the meaning of left wing violence, why Europe is over, the fertility crisis as an existential threat to civilization, and advice for ambitious young men.
The Worthy House
X: https://x.com/TheWorthyHouse
Site: https://theworthyhouse.com/ Foundationalist
Manifesto: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/17/the-foundationalist-manifesto-the-politics-of-future-past/
WAITLIST for my AI Legislative Startup, Lawgiver: https://lawgiver.ai
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Sep 12, 2024 • 1h 8min
33 - Nina Power: Defamation and Free Speech in the Internet Age
I speak with Nina Power about her harrowing defamation suit court battle, the narrowing window of free expression in the West, novel problems of anonymity, pseudonymity, and identity presented by the internet, the antagonism of the philosopher and the city, and the need for cultural tools to push back against authoritarian overreaches in free expression.
Nina Power on Substack: https://ninapower.substack.com/
Read the court judgement yourself: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Miller-and-Power-v-Turner-08.11.23.pdf
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

Jun 11, 2024 • 1h 2min
31 - Nick Simmons: Octu Ventures + Urbit, Building the Pillars of a Digital Civilization
Nick Simmons is Cofounder and member of Octu Ventures, a member-driven venture DAO investing in teams building on Urbit.
Urbit comprises a decentralized network of personal servers, a unique digital ID system, and a decentralized peer-to-peer networking protocol. Altogether, these constitute load-bearing pillars of a truly digital civilization.
We talk about the Urbit stack, Octu's thesis behind a member-driven venture DAO, Urbit as a new coordination technology, the importance of persistent digital identities that are not real names, encoding offline social technology in digital online network technology, the robustness and fault-tolerance of the Urbit network, and building the load-bearing pillars of a digital civilization.
Find Nick on Urbit: ~simfur-ritwed
Octu: https://octu.ventures/
Hydra Ventures: https://www.hydraventures.xyz/
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly: https://www.amazon.com/What-Technology-Wants/dp/B00476WM36/ref=sr_1_1
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
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