Dystopia Now

Subscribe to our Patreon for bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! Philosopher and filmmaker Alexander Thomas joins us again as consciousness and "AI welfare" become talking points in the AI world. We discourse about discourse — how TESCREAL ideologies framed debate and criticism in the terms of AI companies from the start. Find more from Alex at https://posthumanfutures.com/ and his short...

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at  patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow !  We interviewed author and journalist Ellen Huet about her recent book Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (October 2025), exploring the Orgasmic Meditation (OM) start-up cult OneTaste.  In the full episode for subscribers, Kate describes her run-ins with OneTaste from...

Émile and Kate comment on the recent flurry of news about AI safety. Further Reading Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney, What To Read To Stay Grounded Amidst AI Doomerism, 2026 https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/what-to-read-to-stay-grounded-amidst-ai-doomerism/ Timnit Gebru, Effective Altruism Is Pushing a Dangerous Brand of 'AI Safety', 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/effectiv...

Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! This week, we're joined by comedian Mary Houlihan: we talk about Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 'wunderkind' in charge of Situational Awareness, a hedge fund named for his 2024 essay speculating on AGI and which recently lost $35 billion. We trace the networks of connections and massive amounts of money in the AI, tech, and...

This week with comedian Alaina Bamfield, we check in on ChatGPT's joke-writing capabilities, Émile's former anarchoprimitivist sympathies, medical skepticism, and whether we might have made enough technological advances. Alaina Bamfield is a New York based stand up comedian from Williamston, Michigan. Check out Alaina @alainabamfield on social media and her comedy special "Untouchable" on YouTube...

In this episode, we chat with Cory Doctorow, science fiction author, journalist, and commentator on technology. We discuss the phenomenon of platform enshittification, its relationship to an unregulated tech industry and unorganized workers, monopsony power of platforms, centaurs and reverse centaurs, and his take on AI superintelligence and recursive self-improvement. Find Cory Doctorow at the El...

This week we're joined by Vu, an undergraduate at Stanford University and representative of Stanford SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) to discuss the role of technology in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, student activism at Stanford including the recent commencement walkout, and the experience of students looking toward careers in tech. Find more about Stanford SJP on Instagram @stanfo...

This week, Kate and Émile discuss AI 2040, a new document by some of the same authors behind AI 2027. The authors argue, if AI companies come to their senses and prioritize AI safety, the result could be a superintelligence that brings about a utopian world of immortality and space colonization and property rights. We dismantle the silly arguments in AI 2040 with a good dose of mockery. Further Re...

Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! On this now-unlocked episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout about surveillance pricing and surveillance wages.  From airlines charging us more to fly home if they see we've recently searched "funeral arrangements" to rideshare companies paying less per ride if your bank...

We return from our brief summer break chatting about Émile's latest article of interest, "Here's Why SpaceX's Mission is Bullshit" in the wake of its recent IPO and question the assumptions underlying transhumanism for space exploration. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/heres-why-spacexs-mission-is-bullshit https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/is-elon-musk-a-mass-murderer...

Does fiction inform what we think the future should look like? Sci-fi and futurism has typically told us the inevitability of technology and dystopian cyberpunk imaginaries. Monika Bielskyte joins us to introduce her alternative, Protopia Futures, a framework for science-informed visions for a good future. Find Monika's writings at https://monikabielskyte.substack.com Further Reading https://monik...

This week, we go over the merits and demerits of the Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas and its co-presentation with Christopher Olah of Anthropic, the company branding itself as most concerned with "AI Safety." Further Reading Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/shame-on-the-pope-shame-on-ea-shame Magnifica Humanitas : https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/...

Could a populist, independent candidate win an election in the most Republican part of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District? In a time when the Republican and Democratic Party are both notoriously corrupt, Austin Ahlman is making the call to "Take Back Nebraska." This week we talk with Austin about his run for office, antimonopoly, Abundance, and how tech companies are undermining Nebraska's publ...

Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! Oliver Larkin, activist, union organizer, and Democratic Socialist, joins us this week to discuss his run for election to the U.S. House as a Florida representative. We talk about Oliver's campaign, how South Florida and Greater Miami are becoming new headquarters for tech companies including Palantir, and what we can do electorally to suppor...

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! On this special Patreon episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout about surveillance pricing and surveillance wages. From airlines charging us more to fly home if they see we've recently searched "funeral arrangements" to rideshare companies paying les...

In this week's episode we begin to go into the philosophy around consciousness and AI as New Atheist relic Richard Dawkins recently claimed "Claudia" was conscious. What are the merits and issues of thinking about consciousness in the context of AI? Later we discuss a recent piece in Jacobin arguing against data center resistance. Further Reading Richard Dawkins in Unherd, https://unherd.com/2026/...

In this week's episode, we explore a question no one has ever thought of before: "What is violence?" We unpack the recent Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's home and how his own rhetoric about ( checks notes ), "killing every human on earth with AI", may be leading people who take him seriously to act in extreme ways. We explore Altman's vision for the future and the violence inherent within...

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow ! Quinn Slobodian, historian of neoliberalism, and Ben Tarnoff, internet and technology writer, join us to unpack how Musk's fears and fantasies are shaping our world.  Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed is available now in the United States ( Harper ) and UK ( Penguin ). Quinn Slobodian is professor...

Prof. Emily M. Bender, linguist, and Dr. Alex Hanna, sociologist join us to discuss their 2025 book The AI Con and how Big Tech spun marketing around "stochastic parrots". Find lots more from Emily and Alex on their podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 from the Distributed AI Research Institute! Books Mentioned Emily Bender & Alex Hanna, The AI Con Rua M. Williams, Disabling Intelligences: Legacie...

Journalist Taylor Lorenz joins us to discuss Section 230, how Big Tech is already tracking everything from eye movements to finger presses, the ongoing erosion of online privacy through right-wing tech policy and identity verification. Find Taylor on YouTube @TaylorLorenz and her publication UserMag on Substack. Further Reading Taylor Lorenz, Usermag, The Media Lied About the Social Media Addictio...

David Ramírez Álvarez, secretary at the embassy of Cuba in the US, joins us to understand the escalating blockade on Cuba.

Find Part 2 coming soon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow This week we dive into Emile's area of expertise, the ethics of human extinction and how these ethics are shaping Silicon Valley.  Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/making-sense-of-the-human-extinction Books Mentioned The Last Man, Mary Shelley Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of An...

Support the show at https://patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow Researcher and journalist Dylan Gyauch-Lewis joins us this week to discuss the views behind ongoing data center buildout for AI despite community resistance. Find Dylan's work at the American Prospect and https://therevolvingdoorproject.org Further Reading Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The American Prospect: More AI Means More Cancer  Dylan Gyauch-Lew...

Find Jacob Silverman on Substack at  https://substack.com/@ jacobsilverman  or Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/ jacobsilverman.com   Further Reading from Jacob * The Shady Financial Past of a Major Trump Crypto Investor:  https://www.thenation.com/ article/society/andrei- grachev-dlw-labs-world- liberty-financial-trump/ * The President Took A $75 Million Bribe And We All Saw It:  https://www.jac...

This week, we discussed the biography of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his brand of tech doomerism. Further Reading Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-and-the-unabomber