Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff

Rushkoff breaks down the disturbing cultural shift toward Might Makes Right, a playground philosophy that values raw power, wealth, and violence over morality and mutual aid.  From the organic, joyful street celebrations of the New York Knicks winning the NBA Finals to the surreal, hyper-industrial gladiatorial spectacle of the UFC erected right on the South Lawn of the White House, Rushkoff explo...

"The most useful framework is that our country’s been invaded. But like all great invasions, it involves new techniques." - Adam McKay Academy Award-winning filmmaker Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, Succession) dissects the urgent cultural, political, and planetary moment we are living through. McKay brings a massive unified theory exploring how our prehistoric evolutionary limit...

Mitch Horowitz returns to Team Human for a fiery, provocative exploration of his new book, Esoterika: Formulas Against the False Self.  Rushkoff and Horowitz grapple over one of the most foundational concepts in modern mindfulness: The Serenity Prayer. While Rushkoff shares his recent journeys into radical porousness, learning how to surrender, accept grace, and metabolize the world’s heavy energi...

How do we keep the machine from pulling us into another world, or escaping into ours? Rushkoff is joined by OG game designer, hacker, and Director of Curiouser Institute Reed Berkowitz to explore the liminal space between reality, fiction, and artificial intelligence. From the early days of late-80s text-based worlds and San Francisco’s cyberdelic rave culture to the complex modern landscape of AI...

Rushkoff contrasts the blissful, terrifying reality of voluntary dissolution with our pyramid-building civilization. From the ancient pyramids of Egypt to tech billionaires injecting themselves with young blood, humanity has built a world based on accumulation, extraction, and freezing time. He argues true power doesn't come from maintaining a rigid, permanent self-hood or uploading your consc...

If building a better future looks like a miserable exercise in self-denial, nobody is going to join. Rushkoff sits down with author and activist Sarah Wilson to discuss her new book, 'I Eat the Stars" Together, they discuss why environmental and activist movements have been weighed down by guilt, and why the alternative to industrial capitalism has to look, feel, and be better than the sta...

Following a recent New York Times expose on a high-profile AI book scandal, Rushkoff takes us behind the scenes of the modern grift factory. More than just a cautionary tale about generative AI, this week's monologue is an exploration of ego, FOMO, and intuition. Why did Rushkoff ignore his own spidey sense that something was off? As the world fills with synthetic fabrications, trusting our bo...

"If you are involved in any act of creation... that to me is magic, pure and simple."  Legendary writer, magician, and shaman Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Jerusalem, The Great When) joins Rushkoff on for a transcendent exploration of idea space, the power of linguistic maximalism, and how we can reclaim our imaginative sovereignty.  🌍 To support Team Human, get ad-free versions o...

Rushkoff shares a story he has never told publicly: The tragic car accident 40 years ago that claimed the life of his best friend and college partner-in-justice, Steven Ratushewitz. Rushkoff explores the grueling reality of carrying someone else's ghost, the intersection of art and activism, and the profound psychedelic realization that finally allowed him to grieve. From resisting the elite c...

Is local activism just a cute distraction, or is it the most vital layer of human survival?   Charlotte Binns, Director of Sustainability for the Village of Irvington and a dedicated community organizer, explores why the most effective response to global crises, from climate change to social isolation, starts right on your own block. Binns argues that while working at scale can be disheartening, t...

Are we living in reality, or just navigating a map of symbols, metrics, and dead things? Rushkoff stepped away from notifications, Google Calendars, and his always-on world to attend a shamanic workshop in Costa Rica. He experienced a kundalini awakening that revealed a different way of navigating existence: One based on somatic resonance rather than strategic manipulation. 🤝 Team Human is proudl...

“I came to make you love yourself.” Join Rushkoff for a deep dive into the noir consciousness with legendary musician and writer David J (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets). Together, they explore the liminal spaces between music, magic, and the human heart.   In addition, David J discusses his new book, "Rhapsody, Threnody and Prayer," a triptych of poems and odes spanning four decades that explo...

Can we survive the rise of new AI Golems? Philip Rosedale, Founder of Second Life, argues the AI monsters currently being developed are limited by the tech bro survival of the fittest values they are trained on. Instead, he suggests we pool our collective computing resources to create angels: distributed, free AI that grow up as children in simulated environments, developing their own ethics and s...

What is art for? Rushkoff is joined by legendary musician and producer Brian Eno to explore the necessity of moving away from the certainty of victory and into the delight of surrender. 🤝 Team Human is proudly supported by Groucho. You can take 50% off your first month by using promo code "teamhuman": https://mygroucho.club/teamhuman Download Groucho:  Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app...

Rushkoff sits down with Kat Tenbarage, (Founder, Spitfire News) to pull back the curtain on the intersection of AI, digital harassment, and political maneuvering. Together, they discuss Humans First: Is it a true bipartisan coalition or a strategic funnel for right-wing legislation? They also explore: The economy of deepfakes: How non-consensual AI-generated content is being monetized and the role...

Rushkoff shares his first real foray into the world of Artificial Intelligence. After years of avoiding the technology, Douglas takes us through a vibe coding journey using Claude to rebuild his personal website in five hours. But this isn't a tech tutorial. Douglas weighs the incredible creative potential of AI against its heavy unseen costs: environmental destruction, resource depletion, and...

Have you ever had that feeling in your gut, when you suddenly realize that the person you’re talking with might have a screw or two loose? What about when you’re the one others are trying to slowly back away from at the punch bowl? The question of who’s the real nut often arises for us collapse-aware folks living here in Crazy Town . Since Mr. Peanut is no longer returning their phone calls, hosts...

Can we decolonize reality itself? Rushkoff is joined by Jeffrey Kripal, Associate Dean and Professor at Rice University, to discuss his book The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities Kripal argues that by stripping away the impossible parts of our history - visions, precognition, and altered states - we have essentially lobotomized the humanities, leaving us with...

In this urgent monologue, Rushkoff explores the heartbreaking crisis of modern faith. As religious identities are weaponized by nationalism, literalism, and holy war narratives, from Christian Zionism to the defense of the nation-state, we find ourselves trapped in a linear, Axial Age story that may no longer serve a digital, all-at-once humanity. In this episode, Rushkoff discusses: - The Brand o...

The tech elite are wielding occult power, but we have the imagination. Join us in the live chat for our first-ever Team Human Premiere! Douglas Rushkoff sits down with legendary comic writer and chaos magician Grant Morrison for a deeply urgent conversation about reclaiming reality. Morrison argues that magic isn't just the supernatural; it's a mundane, everyday tool of collective agreemen...

The digital world promises a frictionless existence of infinite growth, convenience, and total scale. But what happens when that virtual map starts consuming the real territory? Rushkoff reflects on his recent appointment to the Club of Rome and their legendary 1972 warning: The Limits to Growth. From the massive water and energy drained by AI data centers to Jeff Bezos' intentional dismantlin...

Has the internet always been a magical space? Shira Chess , a Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia and a leading scholar of digital folklore, dive into her new book, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse , to explore the hidden spiritual architecture of our digital lives. From the open-source creation of digital cryptids like Slender Ma...

"Why are you in the Epstein files?" It is a question Rushkoff received from his own daughter, and in this raw monologue, he gives the full answer. His name appears in the CC field of emails from his former literary agent alongside Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and yes, Jeffrey Epstein. But the story of why those names were grouped together reveals something much darker than a mailing list. Rush...

Is the online safety legislation moving through Congress actually a Trojan horse for mass surveillance? And do the tech billionaires building our future actually care if the rest of us survive it? Rushkoff sits down with Taylor Lorenz, the internet’s premier culture reporter and founder of User Mag, to discuss her departure from legacy media ( The New York Times , The Washington Post ) and the dan...

Is magic just "positive thinking," or is it a causative force that can reshape reality? Rushkoff sits down with occult historian and author Mitch Horowitz (Occult America, Daydream Believer) to explore the boundaries of will, belief, and the material world. Rushkoff opens up about his own recent, startling experiences with magical workings regarding his daughter’s health, leading to a deep...