Read Max

Max Read

Explaining the weird new future, one podcast at a time. Subscribe for internet culture, mega-platform grotesquerie, crypto conspiracies, deep forum lore, fringe politics, and other artifacts of what's to come. maxread.substack.com

  1. The Silicon Valley-Trump bet

    09/10/2025

    The Silicon Valley-Trump bet

    Greetings from Read Max HQ! This week’s newsletter is a video-slash-podcast-slash-Substack Live with my friend John Ganz. Among the topics discussed: * The Epstein birthday book and the unbelievably creepy tone of the messages * The “tech summit” between Silicon Valley executives and the Trump administration last week * The “A.I. Bubble”: What it is, whether it might be bursting * Why A.I. slop is bad for the soul and not art * Why old Sony electronics from when we were adolescents are good for the soul in the same way that art is You can watch above, or listen to the audio version on any of your favorite podcast platforms. A reminder: Read Max is a reader-funded endeavor. Practically speaking, what that means is that producing Read Max newsletters and associated audiovisual products is my job, and in order to do my job well, I need to make money from it, so that I can exchange it for essential goods and services such as food and housing and vintage Sony electronics. If you like the job I do--if you find my writing (and recording) enlightening or entertaining, or even if it just helps you numbly pass the time such that you can put off the anxiety that accompanies awareness of mortality--please consider becoming a paying subscriber, for the bargain price of $5, or about a beer a month. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 7m
  2. 06/04/2025

    Two deeply upsetting photographs

    Greetings from Read Max HQ! Today’s post is a Read Max audiovisual product featuring cohost Sam Biddle, senior technology reporter at The Intercept. A quick interstitial reminder: Read Max is a subscription business! In order to devote the time I do every week to reading, writing, reporting, thinking, procrastinating, and all other activities essential to the production of this twice-and-sometimes-thrice-weekly newsletter, I need to “convert” readers into “paid subscribers,” a task I attempt to accomplish with these touts. If you find what I do valuable to you--if you think you learn something, or are entertained, or get mad in a productive way--please consider compensating me for that value for the unbelievably low price of $5 a month. Think of it like buying me a beer once a month in exchange for something like 20,000 almost entirely properly spelled and punctuated words of insight, argument, criticism, good sci-fi recommendations, and sometimes even humor. Yesterday Sam and I “went live” to talk about a set of new stories on tech’s ever-increasing ties to the defense industry: * A recent white paper from OpenAI outlining the company’s vision of A.I.’s geopolitical future, about which Sam wrote more here; * Mark Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey burying the hatchet and partnering on a V.R. headset for the military; and * Palantir's controversial new role counting human beings for the U.S. government. What do these partnerships tell us about the present and future of the tech industry, A.I., and geopolitics? Also up for discussion: What’s going on at Apple? And two distinctly unsettling photographs, the first of Luckey and Zuckerberg breaking bread… …and the second, a sort of wedding-announcement pic of former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI C.E.O. Sam Altman: Please enjoy, here on Substack, or, without video, on any of your preferred podcast platforms! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

    55 min
  3. Escape from Slopworld

    04/22/2025

    Escape from Slopworld

    Greetings from Read Max HQ! On Tuesday afternoon John Ganz of Unpopular Front joined me for an experimental “Substack Live” with only two brief interruptions (one when I fat-fingered an end to the stream and two when John’s internet cut out). Our chat started with a discussion of two expansive essays on the modern internet coincidentally published this weekend: Ross Douthat’s “An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here’s How to Survive,” in The New York Times, and Jacob Silverman’s “Welcome to slop world: how the hostile internet is driving us crazy,” in the Financial Times. But, as is often the case, we also ended up talking about many other things, among them the imaginary of the tariffs, Parental Advisory stickers, a Canadian guy on Instagram who claims to have re-grown his foreskin, and much more. Check out the full video (stitched together) above, or listen to the audio on the podcast platform of your choice. A reminder, as always! Read Max exists thanks to generosity of paying subscribers, whose support lets me devote a full-time job’s worth of hours to all the research, reporting, thinking, and procrastinating necessary to put the newsletter together week in and week out. Paying subscribers not only receive an extra paywalled newsletter of (unbelievably good) recommendations of books, movies, links, and music, but also help subsidize the free stuff for the freeloaders, which is the kind of thing that gets you into heaven and further along on the karmic wheel. If you feel like you get roughly one beer’s worth of entertainment, information, distraction, or other kind of satisfaction from Read Max, please consider paying to subscribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m
4.6
out of 5
22 Ratings

About

Explaining the weird new future, one podcast at a time. Subscribe for internet culture, mega-platform grotesquerie, crypto conspiracies, deep forum lore, fringe politics, and other artifacts of what's to come. maxread.substack.com

You Might Also Like