This Machine Kills

This Machine Kills

A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.

  1. 15 hr ago

    Patreon Preview – 482. Be the Investment Risk You Want to See in the World

    Jumping off the downturn in the Australian data centre market, we talk about how susceptible this industry is to investment risk from even localized forms of community resistance and financial skepticism, even despite the sheer force of capital and ideology pushing the data center industry. We then have another entry in our analysis of the Great Degeneracy — or what happens when gambling is the only game in town. Australian data centre group falls 44% on profit warning https://www.ft.com/content/023caf76-40df-485d-8a28-0ff62aa7ec6f AI data centres are springing up in communities across the country. Now, residents are fighting back https://www.theage.com.au/national/ai-data-centres-are-springing-up-in-communities-across-the-country-now-residents-are-fighting-back-20261003-p60xhb.html Insurer Rolls Out Policy to Protect Data Centers Against Growing Backlash https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2026/10/20/889680.htm How Everything Became Gambling https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/magazine/gambling-prediction-markets-statistics.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    Patreon Preview – 482. Be the Investment Risk You Want to See in the World

  2. 30 Oct

    481. The Data of Empire (ft. Roopika Risam)

    We chat with Roopika Risam — author of Data Empire: How Information Shaped Human History — about the very long history of data and the many ways that empires have used data to gain power, exercise control, and enforce order on the world. We discuss the patterns of power/knowledge that persist over time—like the constant rediscovery of race science—braiding together practices of data and power over thousands of years, leading to our current period where we must “let data reign,” as Trump recently proclaimed. ••• Data Empires | Roopika Risam https://www.penguin.com.au/books/data-empire-9781911709824 ••• The Pan-African Data Project https://www.panafricandata.org/en/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    481. The Data of Empire (ft. Roopika Risam)

  3. 23 Oct

    Patreon Preview – 480. We Need to Talk About the Forces of Production

    We discuss and riff on the People’s AI Assembly, organized by AI Now Institute and More Perfect Union, which just happened in New York City. ••• The People's AI Assembly https://www.youtube.com/live/JZ7DnHoPLLQ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    Patreon Preview – 480. We Need to Talk About the Forces of Production

  4. 16 Oct

    479. Trust Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings (ft. Kate Kaye)

    Jathan chats with journalist Kate Kaye about her new podcast series, Trust Control, all about the history and future of trying to measure trust. We get into different ways of defining trust, proxies for turning trust into quantified scores and “objective” models, motivations for making trust into a metric that can be optimised, and ultimately, the anti-social shift from trust as a dynamic social relationship that is a core part of human interactions to trust as an objective feature of systems with or without humans. ••• Trust Control Series | Kate Kaye https://aitrustcontrol.com/ ••• Redtail Media | Kate Kaye https://redtailmedia.org/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    479. Trust Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings (ft. Kate Kaye)

  5. 9 Oct

    Patreon Preview – 478. Keep Honking, I’m Watching Microdramas While Weaving Through Traffic

    We discuss a deep dive into the ascendency of microdramas – the short-form video series that are already bigger than the conventional film industry in China and are quickly taking over studios in Hollywood. We chat about the financial and cultural antecedents of microdramas, and the strange impacts of these videos on media production and consumption today, and the unevenly distributed futures of AI generated entertainment. ••• Are 60-Second Microdramas the Future of Hollywood, or the End? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/magazine/microdramas-tv-shows-hollywood-entertainment.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    Patreon Preview – 478. Keep Honking, I’m Watching Microdramas While Weaving Through Traffic

  6. 1 Oct

    477. Amerikkka Intelligence

    We get into the new decree from Trump that “artificial intelligence” is now called “super intelligence” – it sounds less fake and more powerful — and the broader currents of tech advice and policy in the Trump administration. Then we discuss how OpenAI and Anthropic are behaving like rogue agents, who are also irresponsible and incompetent to a degree that should be unbelievable. ••• Trump says the US is officially renaming AI to ‘super intelligence’ https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/998816/donald-trump-ai-super-intelligence ••• OpenAI Has Gone Rogue https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/09/ai-hacks-infestation/688806/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    477. Amerikkka Intelligence

  7. 26 Sept

    Patreon Preview – 476. Can You Believe What Leftists Think About AI

    We learn all about how leftists are against any new regulations for AI. It’s the unbelievable return of horseshoe theory as we discuss the curious new discourse cycle being promoted by prominent pundits. ••• The Curious Left-Wing Argument Against New AI Regulations https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/ai-regulation-anti-monopoly-challenge/688707/ ••• Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us – and How to Stop It – book review https://www.counterfire.org/article/obsolete-the-ai-industrys-trillion-dollar-race-to-replace-us-and-how-to-stop-it-book-review/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    Patreon Preview – 476. Can You Believe What Leftists Think About AI

  8. 17 Sept

    475. Never Let a Computer Tell Me Shit

    We jump off from the OpenAI - Hugging Face hacking incident as a way to talk about the misleading, cynical, and hysterical ways we talk about AI and the stranglehold that existential risk has on our framings and discourses. The OAI-HF event shows that rather than treating machine learning as certain kind of technology that does things in ways that can be explained and contextualized, even when our understanding is somewhat murky or incomplete, AI is proffered as an emergent god with mystified intentions, a great becoming that is equally horrifying and awe-inspiring. ••• LLMs are real, AI is fake https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/ ••• We Must Pace the Frontier https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

    475. Never Let a Computer Tell Me Shit
See All (500)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to get premium episodes every week.

Information

  • Creator
    This Machine Kills
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    500
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    This Machine Kills

You Might Also Like