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. Patreon Preview – 446. Vibe Decoder (ft. Wendy Liu, Jimmy Wu)

    3 HARI LALU

    Patreon Preview – 446. Vibe Decoder (ft. Wendy Liu, Jimmy Wu)

    And we’re back with TMK-as-usual! We are joined by Wendy Liu and Jimmy Wu from the Bay Area Current — a new leftist publication writing about the working class in San Francisco and beyond — as we chat about mapping out the rising milieu of right-wing culture in San Francisco, from the growing scene of tech intelligentsia publications that each have their different flavor of right-wingism to the psychic damage and hostile architecture of an urban landscape overflowing with B2B SAAS billboards. ••• Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia https://bayareacurrent.com/meet-the-new-right-wing-tech-intelligentsia/ ••• Tech Billboard Decoder: The Great Tech Vibe Shift https://bayareacurrent.com/tech-billboard-decoder-the-great-tech-vibe-shift/ ••• AI Company’s Billboards Say Workers Are Disposable. But Are We? https://bayareacurrent.com/ai-tech-company-to-workers-youre-disposable-but-is-it-true/ ••• San Francisco's Billboards Aren't For You https://bayareacurrent.com/the-billboards-arent-for-you/ 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)

    7 min
  2. 445. What’s Democracy Got to Do With AI? (ft. Bruce Schneier)

    19 FEB

    445. What’s Democracy Got to Do With AI? (ft. Bruce Schneier)

    We chat with Bruce Schneier — renowned security technologist and, most recently, co-author of Rewiring Democracy — to discuss the relationship between technology and democracy. We get into how people with money/power use systems like AI to create a flywheel of more money/power. But importantly, as an advocate of public-interest technology, Bruce also lays out how AI is being used to empower citizens and strengthen democracy, and the techno-political conditions needed to build these democratic systems. ••• Check out all of Bruce’s work https://www.schneier.com/ ••• Rewiring Democracy | Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049948/rewiring-democracy/ ••• The Promptware Kill Chain: How Prompt Injections Gradually Evolved into a Multi-Step Malware https://www.schneier.com/academic/archives/2026/01/the-promptware-kill-chain-how-prompt-injections-gradually-evolved-into-a-multi-step-malware.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)

    1j 6m
  3. Patreon Preview – 444. The Stories We Tell

    11 FEB

    Patreon Preview – 444. The Stories We Tell

    We chat about our week as Guests of Honor at Capricon, a science fiction convention in Chicago, and all the great panels and chats we had about luddism, science fiction, politics of futures, and the importance of the stories we tell—and are able to tell and believe—about technology-in-society. Then we wrap up with a recent case study of storytelling: the performative puppetry of moltbook. ••• Moltbook was peak AI theater https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/06/1132448/moltbook-was-peak-ai-theater/ ••• Exposed Moltbook Database Let Anyone Take Control of Any AI Agent on the Site https://www.404media.co/exposed-moltbook-database-let-anyone-take-control-of-any-ai-agent-on-the-site/ 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)

    7 min
  4. 443. Behold the Big Beautiful AI State (ft. Brian Chen)

    4 FEB

    443. Behold the Big Beautiful AI State (ft. Brian Chen)

    We’re joined by Brian Chen — policy director at Data & Society — to discuss his new report on the Trump administration’s industrial policy for building The Big AI State. We lay out how Trump’s is bringing together various forms of intervention to ensure America achieves “global technological dominance.” This includes de-risking the construction of data centers and energy infrastructure, ensuring the American AI tech stack takes over global markets, and even acquiring equity stakes in major private industries in the AI supply chain. We discuss the means and ends of Trump’s industrial policy — and how these policy tools should be wielded differently by future administrations. ••• Great Power Antinomies https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/great-power-antinomies/ ••• The Big AI State https://datasociety.net/library/the-big-ai-state/ 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)

    1j 13m
  5. Patreon Preview – 442. The Empire of Blood and Oil

    28 JAN

    Patreon Preview – 442. The Empire of Blood and Oil

    We chat about the Karp x Fink interview at Davos, the humiliation ritual of making Adam Tooze sit on a panel about how batteries are a Chinese threat to America, how an administrative rule change at the EPA about the (non-)value of life in regulatory cost-benefit analysis will be a major accelerant for the American Empire of Blood and Oil — plus a forbidden riff. ••• Trump’s E.P.A. Has Put a Value on Human Life: Zero Dollars https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/climate/epa-human-life-value.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)

    8 min
  6. 441. The Fight Over AI Use in Mental Healthcare (ft. Ciara Keegan, Ilana Marcucci-Morris)

    21 JAN

    441. The Fight Over AI Use in Mental Healthcare (ft. Ciara Keegan, Ilana Marcucci-Morris)

    We chat with Ciara Keegan and Ilana Marcucci-Morris from the National Union of Healthcare Workers about their ongoing contract dispute with Kaiser Permamente over the use and role of AI in healthcare, especially mental and behavioural health. We discuss the impacts of AI on labor conditions and patient care in giant hospital systems like Kaiser — plus the ways Kaiser wants to leave the door open for deeper integration of AI and replacement of healthcare providers. ••• Kaiser, Don't Deny | NUHW https://kaiserdontdeny.org/ ••• Will AI Replace Your Therapist? Kaiser Won’t Say No https://www.kqed.org/science/1999553/will-ai-replace-your-therapist-kaiser-wont-say-no ••• Therapists went on a hunger strike to protest 'assembly line' conditions and the automation of mental healthcare https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/therapists-went-on-a-hunger-strike 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)

    1j 10m
  7. Patreon Preview – 440. TMK x CES: Return to Hell

    14 JAN

    Patreon Preview – 440. TMK x CES: Return to Hell

    Ed returns from his annual trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. We learn about the hottest new trends and devices hitting the market. Big this year: chatbot wrappers, making everything into phone, unnecessary and dysfunctional “AI-powered” features, plus the mass infantilization of humanity under the guise of frictionless convenience. ••• In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing https://www.thecut.com/article/brooding-friction-maxxing-new-years-2026-resolution.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)

    10 min
  8. 439. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 2 (ft. Aaron Benanav)

    7 JAN

    439. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 2 (ft. Aaron Benanav)

    We’re joined yet again by Aaron Benanav to chat about his essays Beyond Capitalism. In this episode we discuss what it means to lay out concrete models for an alternative world—ones that are not overstructured as blueprints, but also not insubstantial as visions. We then detail the political economic foundations and institutional framework for building a different kind of society. ••• Beyond Capitalism Part 1 & 2 | Aaron Benanav https://www.aaronbenanav.com/papers ••• Capricon | Chicago Science Fiction Convention https://capricon.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)

    1j 43m
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Perihal

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.

Maklumat

  • Pencipta
    This Machine Kills
  • Tahun Aktif
    2020 - 2026
  • Episod
    468
  • Penilaian
    Eksplisit
  • Hak Cipta
    © All rights reserved
  • Laman Web Rancangan
    This Machine Kills

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