Galaxy Brain

The internet has warped public life: Politicians behave like influencers, the economy resembles a casino, and people can no longer agree upon a consensus reality. New conspiracy theories, memes, and main characters seem to pop up every day. A constant war is on for your attention, and it’s easy to feel lost. Each week, Galaxy Brain and its host Charlie Warzel invite you into conversations to make sense of the online fire hose. Is AI destroying our ability to think? Do your grandparents have a screen-time problem? Galaxy Brain looks beyond the algorithm and anchors you to the real—however strange it may be.

  1. What Is Twitter’s Legacy, 20 Years Later?

    7 HR AGO

    What Is Twitter’s Legacy, 20 Years Later?

    What is Twitter’s legacy? In this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel traces how Twitter, now called X, evolved from a status-update tool to one of the most culturally and politically influential—and contentious—platforms of the modern internet. Charlie is joined by early Twitter executive Jason Goldman. They explore how Twitter’s core features—many invented by users—reshaped media and politics while also enabling new forms of harassment, misinformation, and attention hijacking. Goldman reflects candidly on the company’s key inflection points—from early free-speech-maximalist decisions and underinvestment in trust and safety to Twitter’s role in events like the Arab Spring and the election of Donald Trump. The discussion culminates in Twitter’s Elon Musk era, where its logic of attention has been weaponized more explicitly. The episode reckons with what Goldman and others ultimately built: a tool with outsize cultural influence that’s broken brains and amplified some of society’s worst impulses. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
  2. Why Is It So Hard to Make a Good Weather App?

    13 MAR

    Why Is It So Hard to Make a Good Weather App?

    How are we still getting caught in the rain? This week’s “Galaxy Brain” explores the world of weather forecasting—specifically the apps on our phones that we have come to rely on. As climate change intensifies storms and smartphones put hyperlocal forecasts in our pockets, we’ve never had more meteorological data. And yet plenty of people lament that their weather apps can’t get it right. Charlie digs into why we obsessively refresh our weather apps, why we blame them when they’re wrong, and what it really means to forecast an inherently chaotic atmosphere. Charlie talks with the physicist Adam Grossman, a co-creator of the cult-favorite weather app Dark Sky that redefined minute-by-minute forecasting before being acquired by Apple. Grossman pulls back the curtain on how weather predictions are made—a process that includes satellites, weather balloons, massive physics simulations, and machine-learning models—and explains why forecasts are improving even if it doesn’t always feel that way Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    36 min
  3. King Gizzard, Spotify, and the Future of Music

    13 FEB

    King Gizzard, Spotify, and the Future of Music

    On this week’s Galaxy Brain, host Charlie Warzel dives into the state of the music industry, where streaming economics, algorithmic discovery, and generative AI are reshaping how music is distributed as well as what it means to make music in this environment. The episode traces how playlists and opaque recommendation systems have left many artists feeling like they’re battling an algorithm. With AI-generated songs now flooding platforms, and even in one case landing on a Billboard chart, the episode examines how automation, impersonation, and synthetic “diet music” are crowding into a system already strained by low payouts and creative burnout. Charlie is joined by Stu Mackenzie, the front man of the prolific Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, to talk about making music in the algorithmic age. From embracing bootleggers to pulling its catalog from Spotify, Mackenzie explains how the band has tried to protect its creative core while the industry transforms around it. Charlie and Stu explore whether we’re witnessing a normal technological shift or something more existential—an era where music is treated as pure commodity. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    42 min
  4. The Manosphere Breaks Containment

    6 FEB

    The Manosphere Breaks Containment

    On this week’s “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel takes listeners deep into the internet’s fever swamps to examine how figures who once would’ve stayed on the fringes now dominate mainstream feeds. The episode charts the rise of Clavicular, a young livestreamer who’s gone from an absurdist curiosity to a fixture in the manosphere and its adjacent right-wing influencer culture. Using Clavicular as a lens—his extreme body modification, relentless self-documentation, and a willingness to do anything for attention—Charlie discusses the rise of nihilistic Zoomer influencers. Then he’s joined by the internet-culture researcher Aidan Walker, who helps situate Clavicular alongside figures such as Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate, revealing how the “looksmaxxing” movement collides with grievance politics and an anti-political, “algorithm-first” ideology. Together they explore what happens when the gatekeepers are gone, and when nihilism becomes a default way for budding attention hijackers to build an audience. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    48 min

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The internet has warped public life: Politicians behave like influencers, the economy resembles a casino, and people can no longer agree upon a consensus reality. New conspiracy theories, memes, and main characters seem to pop up every day. A constant war is on for your attention, and it’s easy to feel lost. Each week, Galaxy Brain and its host Charlie Warzel invite you into conversations to make sense of the online fire hose. Is AI destroying our ability to think? Do your grandparents have a screen-time problem? Galaxy Brain looks beyond the algorithm and anchors you to the real—however strange it may be.

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