Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff sits down with scientists, activists, artists, philosophers, and researchers asking the same question: who actually benefits from the way we've built this world — and what do we do about it? Team Human is a weekly podcast about technology, power, consciousness, and what it means to stay human in a world that increasingly doesn't seem designed for us. No corporate backing. No network. No algorithm deciding what gets said. Just honest, rigorous conversation with people working at the edges of the most important questions of our time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. -2 J

    The Lobotomy of History: Reclaiming Our Extraordinary States (w/ Jeffrey Kripal)

    Can we decolonize reality itself? Rushkoff is joined by Jeffrey Kripal, Associate Dean and Professor at Rice University, to discuss his book The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities Kripal argues that by stripping away the impossible parts of our history - visions, precognition, and altered states - we have essentially lobotomized the humanities, leaving us with a depressing, purely political version of ourselves. Together, they explore: The Secular Flatland: Moving beyond a strictly materialist worldview that reduces human beings to data points.The Vertical Dimension: Why extraordinary experiences are more common than we admit and how they serve as a first-person way of knowing the world.The Marketing Problem: Why the humanities should embrace the "Superhuman" to reclaim their transformative, ecstatic power.Reality Hacking: How literature and art function as non-specific amplifiers for consciousness. It’s time to put the weird back on the table and acknowledge that the human experience is far more fantastic than our current systems allow. Support Team Human for access to exclusive Q&As with Rushkoff, early show premieres, bonus webinars, live events, and more: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1 h 2 min
  2. The Holy War Delusion: Is it Time to Retire Our Religions?

    18 MARS

    The Holy War Delusion: Is it Time to Retire Our Religions?

    In this urgent monologue, Rushkoff explores the heartbreaking crisis of modern faith. As religious identities are weaponized by nationalism, literalism, and holy war narratives, from Christian Zionism to the defense of the nation-state, we find ourselves trapped in a linear, Axial Age story that may no longer serve a digital, all-at-once humanity. In this episode, Rushkoff discusses: - The Brand of Religion: How the conduct of states like Israel and the rise of Christian Nationalism are making traditional faith feel untenable for the people who hold it.- - The Literalism Trap: Why treating a transcendental narrative as a "real estate deed" kills the spiritual project. - Media Theory of God: How the shift from the Age of the Book to a new media environment requires us to graduate from religion rather than be destroyed by it. - The Two Anti-Semitisms: Navigating the crossfire between the Right’s hatred of "globalists" and the Left’s critique of colonialism. Is it time to retire these ancient institutional containers before they lead us to a self-fulfilling Armageddon? Or can we retrieve the living, human layers of our faiths and bring them forward into a new, restorative context? Support Team Human and gain access to ad-free shows, exclusive Q&A livestreams, live events, books, and more: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    27 min
  3. Grant Morrison: The Enemies of Humanity Are Wielding Occult Power

    11 MARS

    Grant Morrison: The Enemies of Humanity Are Wielding Occult Power

    The tech elite are wielding occult power, but we have the imagination. Join us in the live chat for our first-ever Team Human Premiere! Douglas Rushkoff sits down with legendary comic writer and chaos magician Grant Morrison for a deeply urgent conversation about reclaiming reality. Morrison argues that magic isn't just the supernatural; it's a mundane, everyday tool of collective agreement that we are all already using. While billionaires use algorithmic binding spells to predict our moves and trap us in a boring, materialist nightmare, we possess the ultimate counter-measure: our collective imagination.Finding the others is no longer enough. It's time to stop being NPCs in someone else's sterile simulation and start authoring our own pro-human reality. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth. Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/ Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/ Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1 h 14 min
  4. The Tech Elite’s “Frictionless” Fantasy (Amd Why It Will Fail)

    6 MARS

    The Tech Elite’s “Frictionless” Fantasy (Amd Why It Will Fail)

    The digital world promises a frictionless existence of infinite growth, convenience, and total scale. But what happens when that virtual map starts consuming the real territory? Rushkoff reflects on his recent appointment to the Club of Rome and their legendary 1972 warning: The Limits to Growth. From the massive water and energy drained by AI data centers to Jeff Bezos' intentional dismantling of the Washington Post, Rushkoff breaks down how the tech elite are using the digital simulation to extract the last remaining value from the physical world. The oligarchs want a frictionless reality where they own the platform and avoid the messy negotiations of actual human connection. But reall life, and real democracy, requires friction. It requires the awkward, inefficient, and vital collisions of human beings sharing a local space. It is time to stop confusing the map with the territory. Find the others. Embrace the friction. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth. Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/ Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/ Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    28 min
  5. The Internet Is an Occult Machine (w/ Shira Chess)

    2 MARS

    The Internet Is an Occult Machine (w/ Shira Chess)

    Has the internet always been a magical space? Shira Chess, a Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia and a leading scholar of digital folklore, dive into her new book, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse, to explore the hidden spiritual architecture of our digital lives. From the open-source creation of digital cryptids like Slender Man on early forums to the summoning of AI entities in latent space, Chess argues that technology and magic have become indistinguishable. Rushkoff and Chess discuss how the countercultural, techno-shamanic roots of the 1990s internet (including the Mondo 2000 era) transformed into today’s algorithm-driven corporate landscape, and how we might reclaim our agency by finding subversive ways to use these technologies. They also unpack algorithmic conspirituality, exploring why we treat our social media feeds like modern-day oracles, and how meme magic has evolved from an online joke into a force that shapes political reality. Ultimately, is our digital occultism a path to liberation, or just a new way to decorate our corporate cages? Substack: Subscribe to The Unseen Internet at https://unseeninternet.substack.com/ Book: Get The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse wherever books are sold. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth. Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/ Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/ Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1 h 8 min
  6. My Dinner With Jeffrey: What the Epstein Files Reveal About Us All

    26 FÉVR.

    My Dinner With Jeffrey: What the Epstein Files Reveal About Us All

    "Why are you in the Epstein files?" It is a question Rushkoff received from his own daughter, and in this raw monologue, he gives the full answer. His name appears in the CC field of emails from his former literary agent alongside Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and yes, Jeffrey Epstein. But the story of why those names were grouped together reveals something much darker than a mailing list. Rushkoff recounts a disturbing mid-90s dinner party where he was physically grabbed by a host and scolded for "wasting his plus-one" on a brilliant female intellectual instead of "eye candy" to decorate the room for the male elites. He traces the lineage of this misogyny directly to the "scientism" of figures like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, whose theories of humans as "meat machines" and "survival vehicles for genes" provided the perfect philosophical cover for sociopaths like Epstein to commodify and abuse women. This is not just a story about a predator; it is an indictment of the "permission structure" built by the scientific and tech elite. A worldview that dismisses human soul, consent, and morality as mere delusions. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth. Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/ Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/ Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Support Team Human: Team Human is a listener-supported project. To get ad-free access to this episode, join our quarterly Zooms, and support this work, please visit https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    31 min
  7. Do Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead? (w/ Taylor Lorenz)

    18 FÉVR.

    Do Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead? (w/ Taylor Lorenz)

    Is the online safety legislation moving through Congress actually a Trojan horse for mass surveillance? And do the tech billionaires building our future actually care if the rest of us survive it? Rushkoff sits down with Taylor Lorenz, the internet’s premier culture reporter and founder of User Mag, to discuss her departure from legacy media (The New York Times, The Washington Post) and the dangerous reality of the new tech authoritarianism. From the misogyny of the 2013 "Selfie" panic to the rise of "maximalist" human aesthetics, Lorenz and Rushkoff break down how to reclaim the internet from the billionaires who view humanity as a problem to be solved (or eliminated). Check out User Mag: https://usermag.co Follow Taylor Lorenz: @TaylorLorenz Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth. Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/ Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/ Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/ Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman Follow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff: Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@douglasrushkoff TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/douglasrushkoff Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1 h 9 min

À propos

Douglas Rushkoff sits down with scientists, activists, artists, philosophers, and researchers asking the same question: who actually benefits from the way we've built this world — and what do we do about it? Team Human is a weekly podcast about technology, power, consciousness, and what it means to stay human in a world that increasingly doesn't seem designed for us. No corporate backing. No network. No algorithm deciding what gets said. Just honest, rigorous conversation with people working at the edges of the most important questions of our time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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