Flux Podcasts (Formerly Theory of Change)

Flux Community Media
  • 4.8 (63)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED DAILY

Flux is a progressive podcast platform, with daily content from shows like Theory of Change, The Electorette, and Embrace The Void.

  1. 1D AGO

    Chatbots aren’t conscious, but the specific details as to why are important

    As artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and Claude are becoming more integrated into many people’s lives, it’s perfectly natural to wonder why and how these things work and what possible implications they have for philosophy. The current AI systems are not conscious, but unfortunately, a lot of people are becoming enamored with the idea that they might be, including Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous atheist, who actually wrote an entire book, which he seems to have forgotten about called The God Delusion, which argued that minds aren’t necessary to produce perceived order or intentional behavior. But instead of taking his own advice, Dawkins has spent the past several weeks writing embarrassing essays and almost love letters to his AI agent, which he named “Claudia.” I’ve already dealt with Dawkins’s specific behavior in a previous column, but he is far from alone in thinking that these things might be conscious. And since that’s the case, my friend Virginia Heffernan of Magic and Loss and I decided to dig in further into why large language models are not full minds using some of the tools in the new philosophical and scientific framework that I’m developing called the Epistemic Flux Theory. As we often do in our recordings, however, we packed in a lot of other subject material into the discussion. This episode is on the longer side, but it’s also filled with asides and tangents that I hope can make the science and philosophy understandable and relevant to everyday life. I hope you’ll enjoy. The video of this conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Protecting and supporting democracy is a team effort! We need your help to keep going. Please support my work with a paid or free subscription! Related Content --Richard Dawkins has a Claude delusion --Minds don’t create experiences, they are made by them --Epistemic Flux Theory working glossary --The dark philosophy of authoritarian capitalism animating Trump’s chaotic second term --AI is not the main problem—how people use it can be --How you think about minds influences how you think about humanity --In an age of fictionalized reality, we need literary criticism more than ever --Trump super fans are impossible to argue with because they don’t believe in traditional logic 🔒 Audio Chapters 00:00 — Richard Dawkins thinks a chatbot is his special friend 10:45 — An introduction to Epistemic Flux Theory 18:16 — Consciousness is mental autonomy, not the ability to have experience 28:39 — Extrinsic thinking requires a body, memetic thinking does not 39:56 — Is AI sycophancy what people want, even though they won’t admit it? 55:40 — Embodied robotics as a better machine intelligence 01:06:16 — Cognition as deciphering relationalities 01:15:50 — What Alan Turing actually was trying to test 01:26:48 — AI as authoritarian fantasy, an the problem with computational functionalism 01:35:24 — How imperfect chatbots and robots reveal human cruelty 01:42:24 — How much human cultural output was already synthetic before the AI revolution? 01:45:34 — Cognition is individuated, but epistemology is necessarily communal 01:53:17 — Philosophy and religion must accept that science is best able to answer certain questions 02:01:21 — Substance as an illusion of processes 02:05:43 — Liberalism must reinvent itself in order to thrive in this future About the Show Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet. Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange Matthew Sheffield on Social Media Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux.community Threads: https://www.threads.net/@realmattsheffield This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe

    2h 12m
  2. MAGA is not a monolith, and that’s why Trump’s poll numbers have fallen

    MAY 8

    MAGA is not a monolith, and that’s why Trump’s poll numbers have fallen

    One of the biggest myths in politics today is that Donald Trump’s supporters are just a gigantic monolith, a group of people who will say whatever he says and believe whatever he tells them to believe. While there are many Americans who will change their opinions to suit Trump’s, it’s also true many people support Trump for their own reasons and reasons, which may not be compatible with his form of governance and the agenda that he has been imposing since he became president for the second time. It is certainly the case that a lot of Trump voters are super fans of his and really do view him as some sort of blunt instrument to attack a culture gone awry in their opinion. But there are plenty of people also who don’t pay attention to news and who may not be religious at all who supported Trump in 2024. That matters because these people are, in many cases, up for grabs this year and in years to come. So why did they vote for Trump? Joining me in this episode to discuss is Stephen Hawkins. He is the global director of research at More In Common, which is a research organization that does political polling and psychological analysis of voters to analyze why it is that they have certain opinions, and what opinions they might have in common with other people who vote differently. They released an extremely large survey earlier this year called “Beyond MAGA” that’s very much worth your time. This is an audio-only episode. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Related Content —Latino evangelicals are reshaping American politics, politicians and parties should take notice —How much do political party leaders know about the Americans who vote form them? —In 2024, Trump was betting bigly on ‘unlikely voters’ —Charlie Kirk built a powerhouse organization based on finding needy young people 🔒 —What does it mean for Democrats’ future that many black Americans don’t like them? —Why attacking Trump will not be enough to stop his movement —Mentioned paper: “Belief in a Dangerous World Does Not Explain Substantial Variance in Political Attitudes, But Other World Beliefs Do” Audio Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 10:11 — ‘MAGA hardliners,’ the hardcore Christian nationalists who see Trump as divinely destined 15:51 — ‘Mainline Republicans,’ party loyalists who don’t follow news much 17:47 — Politics as a cognitive style and deeper antagonistic divisions 22:50 — ‘Anti-woke conservatives,’ a more secular group that is oppositional more than affirmative 32:27 — The ‘reluctant right,’ a younger group that knew little about politics 36:51 — Did Elon Musk’s ads in Pennsylvania win the state for Trump? 42:43 — ‘New traditionalists,’ young men with very strongly misogynist viewpoints 53:48 — Younger Trump supporters favor more extremist media figures 58:03 — Reactionary religious identity as an act of youthful rebellion About the Show Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet. Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange Matthew Sheffield on Social Media Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux.community Threads: https://www.threads.net/@realmattsheffield This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe

    1h 5m

  3. MAY 5

    In the AI-powered job market, knowing what truth looks like will matter most

    Since the public release of ChatGPT in late 2022, large language model artificial intelligence systems have become the most rapidly adopted technology in human history. Last March, ChatGPT’s website had 5.7 billion visits, while its competitors Claude and Gemini combined for another 3 billion. Despite how much people are using these services, however, AI still has many critics who argue that they are nothing more than simplistic pattern matchers that are vastly overhyped. While the critics are underestimating what you can do with these systems, they do indeed have a point. LLMs excel at many abstract reasoning tasks but because they have no somatic, embodied connection to reality, there is still a lot that today’s models struggle with. Full cognition depends upon the ability to designate “this” in the world and to compare “what it’s like” based on lived experience. Love it or hate it, this technology has already changed the economies of every country, and this process is only just beginning. No one can say what will happen everywhere, but one thing seems evident: As abstract knowledge of facts becomes commodified, human somatic adjudication will become more valuable than ever before. The future will belong to people who can think across multiple disciplines and who understand what truth looks like, both broadly and in particular. All of this is the topic of a recent essay that my friend Nils Gilman, the former associate chancellor at the University of California–Berkeley and deputy editor of Noema magazine, recently published about future-proofing your career in the age of AI, that is the focus of today’s discussion. The video of our conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Related Content —Big business and government are adopting artificial intelligence, what can it do for the rest of us? —AI is not the main problem—how people use it can be —How you think about minds influences how you treat others —Richard Dawkins and his Claude Delusion —AI content is here to stay, laws and norms need to change accordingly —Why mediocrity just might be the key to innovation —An ancient Greek philosophical tradition has become extremely relevant in the social media age —To build a better future, we must never stop imagining and working for it Audio Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 06:56 — Large language models’ limitations are where future jobs will flourish 15:41 — AI supplementation and the human role in improvement 26:14 — Analogies for AI adoption and disruptive technology 34:50 — Art, reproduction, and the value of authenticity 41:11 — The jobs of the future will be at the intersection of somatic and abstract reasoning 46:44 — Liberal education and metacognitive skills 54:14 — Porting knowledge from within time and other disciplines Membership Benefits This is a free episode of Theory of Change. But in order to keep the show sustainable, the full audio, video, and transcript for some episodes are available to paid subscribers only. The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help. Please join today to get full access with Patreon or Substack. If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal. If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests. You can also subscribe to the show on YouTube. About the Show Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet. Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange Matthew Sheffield on Social Media Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux.community This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe

    1h 4m

  4. MAY 4

    What Deserves Our Attention?

    Ben Saltzman is an associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 2017. He currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in English and Director of the Program in Medieval Studies. He also co-edits one of the longest-running literary studies journals in the country, Modern Philology. Previously, he was a Weisman Postdoctoral Instructor at Caltech from 2014–2017 after earning his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2014.

    53 min
  5. How the myth of ‘liberal media bias’ warped American politics

    APR 30

    How the myth of ‘liberal media bias’ warped American politics

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit plus.flux.community “Our real opponent is not the Democrats,” Donald Trump told his Twitter followers in 2019. “Our primary opponent is the fake news media.” You couldn’t ask for a more perfect distillation of how Republican campaigning works. The idea that the mainstream media and society as a whole are biased against right-wing viewpoints permeates every corner of American politics, even within the Democratic party and within mainstream media outlets. Within today’s Republican party, fighting against “liberal media bias” was the basic organizing objective of most of the grassroots people I encountered during my years as a Republican media consultant. Opposing media liberals has animated numerous fundraising drives, launched television networks, and built talk radio empires. But most importantly, the myth of liberal media bias makes people who believe in it discount information that might contradict their own political agenda. Trump endlessly attacks what he calls the “fake news media” because he wants his supporters to disbelieve any kind of negative coverage he may receive. Most people think the idea of Trump-as-truthteller is patently absurd, but it’s a remarkably effective lie, as public opinion polls have shown for years. Every myth has its origin story, and this one is no different. My guest in this episode, AJ Bauer, has a new book called Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press that traces the 80-year history of this lie, and how it’s made it so that reactionary Republicans have a better understanding of Marxist media theory than almost anyone in the left-of-center operative class. The full discussion of this episode is for paid subscribers. An excerpt on YouTube is available. To watch, read, or listen to the full discussion, you will need to be a paid subscribing member on Patreon or Substack. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. (Note: Purchasing a book through the links in show notes helps support Theory of Change.) Related Content --Despite the right’s complaints, there really isn’t a liberal media, why not? --Right-wing figures are applying their bogus complaints about the media to artificial intelligence --‘Post left’ podcasters have become an incredible voter depression tool of some of Trump’s top contributors --Reactionary comedy isn’t funny, but it sure is effective at capturing the imaginations of low-information voters --How Washington Republicans leverage QAnon and other conspiracy movements --Right-wing donors have been secretly (and openly) funding fake leftist candidates for decades --The women of QAnon --How naive faith in legal formalism handed the Supreme Court to the radical right Audio Chapters (Full version) 00:00 — Introduction 12:19 — The right’s spoken-word culture and debate aesthetics 22:03 — From Facts Forum to the Birchers: the origins of ‘liberal media bias’ 34:19 — The right’s decentralized media ecosystem 43:37 — Trump, entertainment, and right-wing media amplification 53:08 — Why the left doesn’t build its own media 01:04:50 — Republicans use left-wing political theory more than the Democrats do 01:16:21 — The Democratic Party’s flawed theory of politics

    37 min

  6. APR 25

    To achieve a beautiful future, we must always imagine

    If you’re like most people who pay attention to the news, you’ve probably felt it. We are living in a transitional moment, a time of great uncertainty as old realities are giving way to new ones. Right now, the future looks fuzzy and it’s hard to deny that humanity’s collective vision of the future is in a crisis of its own. Everywhere you look in film, television, novels, and social media, the future that everyone’s talking about is a dark one. Dystopia is the default. That’s a big problem because the future hasn’t happened yet, which means that if we want a better one, we have to start thinking about what that would look like. We deserve great things, but we can only have them if we can envision them first. The future isn’t fixed. It’s what we make of it, and that’s something that my guest on today’s episode, Monika Bielskyte knows firsthand from direct, personal experience. She grew up in the Soviet Union, a country that seemed like it would last forever until one day it didn’t. She’s done a lot since then, but today Monika is working as a futurist and media consultant for nonprofit organizations, businesses like Nike, and films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In all of her work, she’s focused on building a vision of a beautiful possible to counter the doom and gloom of the future dystopias that are all too common in our present-day media. The video of our conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full text. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Related Content --Why reactionary billionaires are so obsessed with 20th century sci-fi authors --To make a better technology future, we must first realize why we didn’t get the one we were promised --In Silicon Valley, creationists and atheist post-libertarians have a lot in common --What is ‘neo-reactionism’ and why is it so powerful within Trump 2.0? --How banks and corporate monopolies ruined the internet --The political history of Bitcoin and crypto is one of paranoia and political extremism --Billionaires know that they’ve destabilized the world, it’s why they’re obsessed with fallout shelters and Mars Audio Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 09:07 — Hope and the power of fiction 16:27 — Humanity’s progress and the stakes 25:00 — Most superhero movies emphasize human dis-empowerment 33:04 — Reactionary oligarchs’ urge to disclaim their own humanity 42:41 — The future as the imagined past within reactionary futurism 49:34 — Why reactionary futurism redirects public focus from present injustice 53:04 — Toward a vision of regenerative futures that are self-sustaining 01:07:33 — Why hopeful futures avoid false binaries 01:15:26 — No human is ‘typical,’ so inclusion must apply to everyone 01:22:48 — What many left-of-center people miss about generative AI 01:31:59 — Embodiment in AI and machine learning 01:36:39 — Radical tenderness  and the beautiful possible This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe

    1h 50m

  7. APR 14

    The Secrets of Creativity

    George E. Newman is a psychologist and cognitive scientist who studies creativity, identity, and the construction of meaning.  He is an Associate Professor of Management and Marketing at the Rotman School of Management. Prior to that, he was an Associate Professor of Management and Marketing at the Yale School of Management, where also held affiliated appointments in the Departments of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. He has published more than 60 articles in leading scholarly journals and his research has been featured in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist. He regularly leads seminars on various marketing and management topics for senior executives

    47 min

  8. APR 3

    Is liberal Christianity making a comeback?

    For decades, people have been telling Democrats that they need to do better in small cities and rural parts of America. And yet, while there are some uniquely successful candidates here and there, there’s no doubt that the party just keeps doing worse in these areas. The Democratic consultant class keeps trying its familiar strategy of being Republican-lite in these right-leaning parts of the country, but it just isn’t working. That’s the subject of a recent episode, but for today, we’re going to be talking about a different path, one that’s being boosted by James Talarico, the Democrat running for Senate in Texas this year against Republican Ted Cruz. There’s no guarantee that Talarico will win such a heavily Republican state, but his approach of unapologetically speaking his liberal Christian values in detail and trying to build community through care is the right approach. Alan Elrod, my guest on today’s program is fighting the same fight as Talarico. He’s the founder of the Pulaski Institution, a nonprofit based in Arkansas focused on democracy in heartland communities. He’s also a contributing editor at Liberal Currents. The video of our conversation is available, the transcript is available at the episode page. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere. Related Content --Why liberal Christians are standing up for all of their values --How Confederate Christianity took over the Republican Party --To understand the Christian right, learn the history of the Christian left --Elite Republicans are creating a new ‘Satanic Panic’ rather than appeal to moderate voters --Latino evangelicals are reshaping American politics, politicians and parties should take notice --The doctrinal incoherence of today’s extremist Christianity is immense --Right-wing evangelicals have turned politics into Bible fan-fiction --Government subsidizing religion doesn’t make people like it more Audio Chapters 00:00 — Introduction 06:41 — The internet made it easier to hate strangers 13:25 — Religion and the right-wing political fusion 17:38 — Secular liberals’ allergic reaction to all faith discussions 22:15 — You don’t reach people without relationships 27:05 — Much of Christianity accepted modernity, and this is what upsets the Christian right 35:05 — How the Christian right built its own closed media ecosystem 42:54 — Right-wing elites do not actually care about people in small-town America, but they talk to them 46:54 — Right elites make many opportunities for their advocates, while left elites rarely help new voices get started This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe

    56 min
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4.8
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63 Ratings

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Flux is a progressive podcast platform, with daily content from shows like Theory of Change, The Electorette, and Embrace The Void.

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