Plutopia News Network

Ethan Smith has been an advocate for affordable student housing, particularly as it applies to UT-Austin’s student population. His 2021 thesis proposed a housing and equity strategy for UT. In this episode of the Plutopia Podcast, Ethan, Jon and Scoop explore the affordable housing crisis in Austin and it’s impact on students, musicians, and workers. Ethan Smith: “Median-income tied definiti...

Michael Webb joins Plutopians to discuss meditative inquiry, meditation practices and intelligence, experts, and much more. Michael Webb: It almost seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? To speak of thinking non-verbally. What the heck does that mean? And I would hasten to say, too, not only thinking non-verbally, but thinking without using mental images. That’s perhaps even more shocking...

With climate scientist Michael Tobis, Plutopians discuss the current state of climate change. We look at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the terrifying aspects of our climate dilemma. Michael Tobis: You’re just starting to get to the point where people are noticing, it’s going to get worse. It’s going to get more and more obvious. It’s going to get more and more difficult....

Former Austin City Council member and environmental activist Max Nofziger joins the Plutopia podcast. Max explains the evolution of Austin’s motto, “the Live Music Capital of the World,” and the affordability challenges facing Austin. Max has plenty of stories about Austin politics and politicians, and the area’s environmental struggles. Max Nofziger: Nancy Coplin, who was...

With online host, interaction designer and facilitator Nancy White, Plutopians Scoop and Jon explore online community, social media, macro- vs micro-connections, and much more. Nancy’s done international work supporting and practicing online and face to face group facilitation. She’s focused on distributed work, strategic planning, social learning, communities and networks. She knows a...

With writer, blogger, and author Wendy Grossman, Jon and Scoop discuss the differences between early Internet culture and the current state of the Internet and social media. Wendy focuses in her work on the Internet, computers, freedom, and privacy. She’s been writing about “net.wars” since the early 1990s, and her book by that name was published in 1997. Wendy Grossman: The plac...

Broadcaster, DJ, and audio engineer Tracey Schulz reports on the just concluded SXSW Film and TV Festival. We discuss new films that premiered at SXSW, and the stars who attended. Tracey Schulz: We’re coming off of “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and the things that stood out for me this year for Southby [the SXSW Festival], especially in film and TV, had Asian cast and fem...

Activist and political consultant Jaquita Wilson in a rebroadcast of our March 30th live show. We discuss the indictment of Donald Trump, announced only hours earlier. We also explore the job requirements for a Republican politician. Jaquita Wilson: See, this is the thing I was trying to talk about the other day around local politics, right. We’re discussing somebody that’s of Trump&#8...

Linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas Robert Wall joins Plutopians as we examine his long career and contributions to the study of language, mathematics, and computer science. Robert Wall: Language is deeply psychological. It goes on in people’s brains by processes that are somewhat mysterious. We don’t know how people acquire language so rapidly as children from j...

In this episode of Plutopia News Network, we include a recording of a 1977 press conference held by Dr. Timothy Leary, and Scoop’s 1975 interview with forensic psychologist Dr. Stephen Pittel. In 1977, Dr. Leary was the keynote speaker at the Libertarian Party’s national convention in San Francisco. In a press conference prior to his speech, he addressed some of his causes, including s...

This time on the Plutopia podcast, our friend Screamish Joy joins Jon and Scoop, as we discuss all things Texan. In this rebroadcast of our March Second live show, the Plutopians reveal everything you didn’t know about Texas….but didn’t care enough to ask! Screamish Joy: “I remember going places and people being like…because we were raised this way is like do you know your state song or do you kno...

Computer engineer and AI expert David Demaris joins Jon, Suzy and Scoop on this episode of the Plutopia podcast. We discuss ChatGPT and artificial intelligence, Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, deep fakes, dangerous technologies, bad actors, and much more. Will ChatGPT take over the world? What is artificial intelligence, and how does it differ from human intelligence? How can we ensure that artifi...

Judi Clark is an Analyst and an Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. She joins Plutopians as we do a deep dive into emergency response, and ways we can be better prepared. Judi Clark: If there are people who don’t want to really coordinate with this system, they’re not going to be very effective. They’re just going to be out doing stuff, and that’s going to be complicating e...

Blogger and podcaster Nathan Wilcox returns to the Plutopia podcast. We explore the emergence of ChatGPT, music and art created with artificial intelligence, the evolution of dance music, changes in the Austin music scene, streaming music, and of course, politics! “Nathan Wilcox: I’m very excited about the potential for AI in music-making. I guarantee you that’s where the next bi...

Plutopia News Network invited Carl Stone and Eric Theise for a conversation mainly focusing on Carl’s work/play as an electronic composer. Carl and Eric recently performed sold-out shows together in Northern California, with Carl playing electronic compositions via laptop, and Eric creating visuals. Carl Stone is a pioneer of live computer music, hailed by the Village Voice as “the king of s...

Broadcaster, DJ and Audio Engineer Tracey Schulz joins the Plutopia Podcast this time. Tracey is a regular voice on K.U.T. FM and K.O.O.P. Radio. He joins Scoop and Suzy in a wide-ranging discussion about radio, making media and much more.

Once upon a time..people of a certain age witnessed a historic change in the way humans destroy each other in a war. In 1945, the United States ended World War Two by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. The end of the war ushered in a new form of conflict…the Cold War. This time on the Plutopia Podcast, Jon and Scoop share memories of growing up in the shadow of the bomb. Jon: “The bomb was...

Jon and Scoop conclude their postmortem for the year 2022. We look at the drama within the Republican party that managed to last into 2023. We also examine the GOP’s extremist desire to tear down the government and replace it with something straight out of dystopian sci-fi. We also look at pathological liars, Georg Santos, whatever happened to the old, no-crazy Republicans, how the old South...

In this, the first Plutopia podcast of 2023, the Plutopian brain trust offers you their postmortem report on the late, and not quite lamented year, 2022. Jon: So the point, I guess, is that we would have to – and that we should – be finding a way to live that doesn’t depend on extracting resources to the extent that we do now, and it’s possible to do that. But it’s a...

Science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow returns to the Plutopia podcast. We discuss his latest book, Chokepoint Capitalism , and his definition of a chokepoint. We also explore the impact of mergers and consolidation on American society, the need for increasing enforcement by the FTC and SEC, antitrust law, and much more. Cory Doctorow: It’s a chokepoint, that’s t...

Author and activist Casey Walker talks about her early life in Nevada City, California, where she created and published the literary and environmental journal “Wild Duck Review.” We also discuss biotechnology, media content vs. money, moving from anti-tech to useful tech, intellectual evolution, confronting the bullies, and changing the news. She produced 20 book-length issues of the R...

Author, scholar, and translator Pablo Vazquez is our guest this time on the Plutopia podcast. We discuss their conversion from Catholicism to Zoroastrianism, and its influence on other religions. Pablo explains Zoroastrian beliefs, and Zoroastrianism in North America. We also explore Q-Anon as a possible religion. Born in Panama and now living in Texas, Pablo is also a game writer, lecturer, consu...

Author, media theorist, and fellow podcaster Douglas Rushkoff joins the Plutopia podcast as we discuss his latest book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. We also explore technoutopians, capitalism, billionaire tech bros, psychedelic tech bros, The Mindset, going beta, the blockchain and crypto, Q Anon, and much more! Douglas Rushkoff: But there’s almost dark...

“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” ~ William Gibson, in The Economist, 12/4/2003 “This isn’t the dystopia that I wrote about!” ~ Bruce Sterling Artist, writer, and curator Patrick Lichty returns to the Plutopia podcast as we explore the future. We do a deep dive into Web3, crypto, bad actors on the Internet, Meta and the Metaverse,...

The mid-term election is over, ballots are still being counted, and the dreaded red wave turned out to be a red ripple. Our friend Roy Casagranda joins Plutopians as we dissect election 2022. Roy Casagranda: If you look at the 2018 election, 95% of blacks voted Democrat, which is, like, unbelievable. 67% of Hispanics voted Democrat, and 75% of Asians voted Democrat. In 2020, the black number didn&...