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. 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)

  2. 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

  3. 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)

  4. 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

  5. 11 Sept

    Patreon Preview – 474. Gym, Tan, Leverage

    We bring together two different stories about the tech sector and speculative real estate booms. First, how Netflix promises to turn the Jersey Shore into “Hollywood East”. Second, how the data centre bonanza is stretching Wall Street beyond its limits. ••• Can Netflix remake Jersey Shore — and its property market? https://www.ft.com/content/abbc3601-9ebc-4f3a-a317-0b1eee96e5a8 ••• The multiplying risks of financing data centres https://www.ft.com/content/9cb63980-cd43-419d-a7e5-42039b9fd01e 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 – 474. Gym, Tan, Leverage

  6. 12 Aug

    Patreon Preview – 470. Choking on Data Exhaust

    We chat about Ed’s engagement with communities pushing back against data center development in Tulsa, plus some major reporting showing the sheer scale of fossil-fuelled data center development in the United States. We’re talking more than 120 GIGAWATTS of new gas-burning power plants in development just to electrify data centers. There’s simply no way to equivocate about this amount of new pollution — new smog, new acid rain, new environmental health crises — being emitted for the purpose of spinning up more GPUs so that some of the most noxious companies in the world can become even more, well, noxious. ••• AI Data Centers: The Frontier of Capitalist Extraction — Live Event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0XnY0DA7U ••• How Data Centers Broke American Politics https://www.wired.com/story/how-data-centers-broke-american-politics/ ••• no data centers in my backyard https://jasmi.news/p/no-data-centers-in-my-backyard ••• Trump’s Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes With Major Air Pollution https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/climate/data-centers-pollution-trump-ai-energy.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 – 470. Choking on Data Exhaust

  7. 20 May

    Patreon Preview – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami

    We chat about how so many people keep getting seduced into thinking chatbots are conscious, or just keep hedging their bets in some kind of Cyber-Pascal’s Wage, or just keep lying to prop up an industry and culture they are invested in perpetuating. Then we argue why, rather than just be eroded into acquiescence by an overwhelming tsunami of AI, rather than being bowled over and washed out to sea, you should never give these systems and their booster the benefit of the doubt. Never accept that these forces of production are inevitable, undeniable, and actually already existing. You should first always say, “Prove it.” •••When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious? https://unherd.com/2026/05/is-ai-the-next-phase-of-evolution/ ••• When Claudia met Claudius https://unherd.com/2026/05/when-claudia-met-claudius/?edition=us ••• Why We Keep Tricking Ourselves Into Thinking A.I. Is Conscious https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/opinion/ai-consciousness.html ••• The Atheist and the Machine God https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/opinion/artificial-intelligence-consciousness-richard-dawkins.html ••• The Prehistory of A.I. Slop https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/25/the-prehistory-of-ai-slop ••• Too Much Is Happening Too Fast https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/05/too-much-happening-too-fast/687177/ 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 – 458. Seduced by the Slop Tsunami

  8. 8 May

    Patreon Preview – 456. Do Not Question Project Cannoli

    We go in for a second helping on analysing the opposition to data centers. After further deconstructing the arguments against opposition, we do what none of them actually do: pay attention to the actual material conditions on the ground. We discuss reporting on why real communities are opposed to these infrastructure projects and how these projects are being pushed through in black-boxed, stonewalled, fast tracked ways that are designed to ignore, dismiss, and override anybody who isn’t immediately and blindly onboard. ••• ‘The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer’: Opposition to Data Centers https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/us/politics/liberals-conservatives-data-centers.html ••• In Indiana, an anatomy of data center opposition https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/in-indiana-an-anatomy-of-data-center-opposition/ 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 – 456. Do Not Question Project Cannoli
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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
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    This Machine Kills

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