Punching Upwards

Dissecting Biden’s 2021 law that will require cars in the US to monitor drivers and to turn themselves off if the AI thinks the driver is impaired. Is it coming in 2027? Is it even feasible at all? Punching Upwards , Episode 43 for 5 July 2026 Topics: Technology / Privacy 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansour ,...

In this somewhat different episode, I explain my passion for podcasting, try to give an overview of what constitutes a podcast (technically and in spirit) and argue why the medium is worth protecting. Punching Upwards , Episode 42 for 28 June 2026 Topics: Technology / Free Speech 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Ma...

An analysis of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran. What does it mean for the future of world politics and how has it been reported on in the media? Punching Upwards , Episode 41 for 21 June 2026 Topics: Politics / War in Iran 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansour , Bennet Piater ,...

The company pulling off the most successful IPO in the history of stock exchanges, SpaceX, is losing money hand over fist. And its promised future money-maker, data centres in space, is a pipe dream. Punching Upwards , Episode 40 for 14 June 2026 Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gou...

Are humans on the internet being pushed out by bots? Is this a lunatic fringe conspiracy theory or does Cory Doctorow’s thesis of enshittification accurately describe what is happening? Punching Upwards , Episode 39 for 7 June 2026 Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansou...

The EU’s attempt to assume that all of its citizens are guilty of crimes and to then scan all of their communications is finally dead. But the dangerous ideas that spawned this insanity live on. Punching Upwards , Episode 38 for 31 May 2026 Topics: Privacy / Crypto Wars 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansour , Be...

China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed into a hill near Wuzhou in 2022, killing 132 people. What do we know about this Boeing 737 crash and what secret is the Chinese government keeping? Punching Upwards , Episode 37 for 24 May 2026 Topics: Aviation / China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf...

The Straits of Hormuz are closed, blocking about 20% of oil shipments from reaching the global economy. But what does closed actually mean? Punching Upwards , Episode 36 for 17 May 2026 Topics: Politics / War in Iran 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Routes through the Straits of Hormuz according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Routes through the Straits of Hormuz acc...

How the Pentagon switched decision making from humans to machines. And what it means for the future that computers now decide who lives and dies. Punching Upwards , Episode 35 for 10 May 2026 Topics: Politics / War in Iran 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansour , Bennet Piater , Eric and Sir Galteran for supporti...

A deep dive on investigative journalist Ronan Farrow’s profile of Sam Altman’s leadership at OpenAI. The piece lays bare many of the enduring issues that make Silicon Valley so problematic. Punching Upwards , Episode 34 for 3 May 2026 Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Man...

YouTuber Nick Shirley says California’s proposed AB2624 law was made to stop him and other independent journalists from reporting on fraud. How much of that is true? Punching Upwards , Episode 33 for 26 April 2026 Topics: Politics / Free Speech 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Bennet Piater and Sir Galter...

Driven by a national delusion that Germans are somehow naturally very bad at digital technology, the country’s government is rushing headfirst into a disastrous implementation of AI in government. Punching Upwards , Episode 32 for 19 April 2026 Topics: Politics / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov ,...

Depending who you ask, NASA’s new mission to the moon was either the scientific breakthrough of the century or an utterly boring waste of money. Which is it? Punching Upwards , Episode 31 for 12 April 2026 Topics: Science / Space 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Some of the photos taken by the Artemis II crew (images courtesy of NASA): The astronauts back on Earth (images courtesy of NASA): NA...

The war in Iran is having a tremendous impact on the aviation industry. An underreported detail is what happens when your flight deviates around the closed airspace over Iran via Afghanistan. Punching Upwards , Episode 30 for 5 April 2026 Topics: Aviation / War in Iran 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Ben...

With the cancellation of Starfleet Academy, there is no Star Trek series in active production for the first time in a decade. Why is that and what does it reflect about the state of our culture? Punching Upwards , Episode 29 for 29 March 2026 Topics: Politics / Culture 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Ben...

Even though it has been in the US news a lot recently, almost everybody over there seems to be getting wrong what Antifa actually is. This is an overview from someone who grew up around this movement. Punching Upwards , Episode 28 for 22 March 2026 Topics: Politics / Trumpism 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gou...

Why current AI technology can’t get us what its proponents are promising. Why the media keeps getting the AI story wrong. Why AI layoffs are just an excuse to re-hire workers for cheaper. Punching Upwards , Episode 27 for 15 March 2026 Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A...

Trump’s war on Iran is a huge blunder, both militarily and politically. The US can’t possibly win this war and Trump is tanking his presidency, and the whole Republican Party, along with it. Punching Upwards , Episode 26 for 3 March 2026 Topics: Politics / War in Iran 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Benn...

I’ve been digging through the Epstein files for weeks now and I’m finding that there are a lot of issues with the coverage in the press. This is an attempt to explain some of them. Punching Upwards , Episode 25 for 1 March 2026 Topics: Politics / Epstein Files 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subscrib...

An MIT professor developed the first chatbot in 1964 and discovered that we tend to ascribe human traits to even the simplest computer programs. This would foreshadow today’s widespread AI delusion. Punching Upwards , Episode 24 for 22 February 2026 Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuzne...

A several-billion-dollar welfare scam hit national news shortly before the riots erupted in Minneapolis. And the people egging on the protesters seem to be directly involved in this fraud. Punching Upwards , Episode 23 for 15 February 2026 Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad...

The AI tech bros are going crazy: They are convinced their chatbots are gaining consciousness, which is why they made a chatbot-only social network for them, where the bots have gotten religion now. Punching Upwards , Episode 22 for 8 February 2026 Topic: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznet...

Another protestor was shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis. Why are these agents so bad at their job? Who would take a gun to a protest? Where is the local police? And did Pretti’s P320 fire on its own? Punching Upwards , Episode 21 for 1 February 2026 Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov a...

What does Donald Trump’s power play over Greenland and the ensuing confrontation with European allies mean for the future of the military alliance? Does NATO without the US even make sense? Punching Upwards , Episode 20 for 25 January 2026 Topics: Politics / Trumpism 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for s...

An entitled Karen meets a hot-headed, dumb cop, gets killed and all hell breaks loose. How ideology is wiping out common sense and endangering democracy in the United States. Punching Upwards , Episode 19 for 18 January 2026 Topics: Politics / Minneapolis Protests 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Fadi Mansour , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vlad A Gouf for subs...