Plutopia News Network

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&...

Plutopians enjoy a free-form fiesta of facts and fictions! Jon, Suzy and Scoop discuss voting, Austin politics, Twitter, politics on Tik Tok, cannabis politics, Trump in 2024, and other nightmares. Suzy: I’m off Twitter. I’ll never Twit again. Jon: Oh, really? Suzy: No, I’m done. Did you see what happened, the spike in the use of racial slurs, most particularly the “n&#8221...

Daniel Hope is a Spiritual Director and Enneagram Coach who runs spirituality programming in the healthcare industry. In this Plutopia podcast, Daniel and Jon discuss spirituality, meditation, spiritual direction, artificial intelligence vs. humanity, finding common ground, and much more. Daniel Hope: Darwin was – I don’t think he was the first to propose this, but he put forward that...

In our latest Plutopia News Network podcast, with guest Robert Freeman Wexler, we discuss his early career, his work in book design and his new novel, The Silverberg Business . Robert Freeman Wexler is an author of surreal fantasy. His latest book is novel, The Silverberg Business, from Small Beer Press. Previous books include short story collection Undiscovered Territories, the novel The Painting...

Midterms are coming, and already-hot political discussions and divisions are getting even HOTTER. The Plutopian (Groucho) Marxists are on it! This podcast is a recording of our Plutopia Livestream from 10/13/2022. Plutopia’s Not Ready for Cable News players return for another free-form fiesta of political foolishness. Jon, Suzy and Scoop dissect a wide range of political potholes, including...

Wikimedia LLC President Lane Becker joins the Plutopia Podcast. We discuss Lane’s early career, and his involvement in UT’s ACTLab ; his work in product design, AI, VR and AR; the Institute for the Future; and all things Wiki. Lane Becker: I discovered that I wasn’t really a designer. I learned that in the best possible way, which was that I was working with some of what were, at...

Should we be obsessed with politics? Is political obsession really about our lives, or is it cultivated by skillful marketing of grievance, to raise more and more money? Are we using our cognitive surplus and our energies to fight abstractions, when we should be dealing with real problems, e.g. climate change? Do minorities care about ideology? Do they care about culture wars? What do people want?...

Plutopians welcome Johannes Grenzfurthner for a second discussion about his life and work, focusing especially on his new film “Razzennest,” which just premiered at Fantastic Fest. Johannes is an artist, film director, performer, and founder of the Austrian art collective Monochrom. With Johannes, we explore social media and mass media in the US and Europe. We also compare US and Europ...

Plutopians discuss current events, including Steve Bannon’s arrest and his plan for a wall made of weed, Trump’s document stash, borders, psychedelics, techsplaining, critical thinking, and much more! This is a recording of the Plutopia News Network’s livestream webcast on 9/8/2022. Jon: We were talking about borders – open borders vs controlled borders, and so forth &#8211...

Kevin Welch and Chris Boyd of EFF-Austin join Jon and Scoop for a lively discussion of technology past, present, and future. We begin with Jon’s history of EFF-Austin, followed by computer and Internet nostalgia, phone phreaking, encryption, open source software, license plate readers, and location data brokers. Kevin: One thing we did for the last couple of years was survive Covid, same as...

Roy Casagranda joins Plutopians for a wide-ranging discussion of current events and red vs blue political meltdowns. We ask the question, to jail or not to jail he who must not be named. We explore Christian nationalists, China vs Taiwan, Fox vs Dominion, the credibility of elections, abortion rights, and beer bongs! Roy: I think the problem is that something like 80% of Republicans still think he...

Plutopians join Bijoy Goswami to talk about bootstrapping your business vs. venture capital funding, the human journey and the American journey, the great replacement theory, capitalism and greed, socialism, and religion as a product. Bijoy Goswami: “The mindset is very different when you’re building to sell, when your product is essentially the company, you’ve already – th...

Plutopians perform a deep dive into the Dark Brandon meme. We also look at Dark Maga… to woke or not to woke – that’s the question… Trump in ’24… Beto… Mar-a-Lago gate… and much more! (Speaking about Darnold Trump:) Jon: Apparently there is a law that says that if you, in public office, appropriate documents and misuse them or take them elsewhere, th...

Plutopians explore the search for meaning in our lives, especially in an era of pandemic and polarization. Jon, Scoop and Suzy explore the Goldwater rule, a world based on lies, Victor Frankl, Q-Anon and lie-based causes, Alex Jones, capitalism, and Christian Nationalists. Suzy: I think it’s really interesting what people are trying to find to give meaning, or that is the meaning in their li...

Plutopians explore the use and misuse of language. Jon, Scoop, and Suzy take a deep dive into political language, the voices of Christian nationalism, the January 6 hearings and Liz Cheney, Donald Trump’s language, and much more. “Language is a virus from outer space.” – William S. Burroughs In which Jon discovers that you can’t google googl, because it’s not re...

Plutopians wax poetic on food and drugs. We discuss low fat diets, vegan diets, hospital food, narcotic pain killers, psychedelics, hot sauce, and hot foods. No herbivores or apex predators were harmed during the production of this podcast! Scoop: I’m from that school of thought where you’re only here so long, and if you avoid all these wonderful things, as you’re on your deathbe...

Suzy Shelor returns to Plutopia News Network’s livestream with an exploration of the current state of American politics. Never one to shy away from controversy, Suzy came prepared to offend those who deserve offending, and to support those who don’t. We discuss the January 6th Hearings, the 2022 Texas governor’s race, the Texas GOP party platform, the 1619 Project, Steve Bannon,...