The Peter McCormack Show

Amy Webb joins me to discuss why artificial intelligence is not just another technology shift, but a civilisation-level reordering of work, power, wealth, biology and society. Amy explains why the real AI question is not simply which jobs disappear, but which people become vulnerable. We discuss thinkers vs think-nots, why human capital may stop being the main driver of productivity and wealth, ho...

Thomas Pacchia joins me to discuss why the world feels fake, why trust in institutions is collapsing and why AI may make the crisis far worse before it helps solve it. Thomas explains why politics, media, censorship, government waste, algorithmic manipulation and broken public services are pushing people into a world where almost nothing feels reliable. We discuss America’s political divide, Brita...

Sam Lyman joins me to discuss how China is allegedly targeting America’s AI buildout, the activist networks fighting data centres and why the race for AI infrastructure has become a national security battle. Sam explains how Chinese influence campaigns, open-source AI models, data centre protests and far-left activist groups may be working together to slow the United States down. We discuss Nevill...

Nate Soares joins me to discuss the race to superintelligent AI, why alignment remains unsolved and why he believes building machines smarter than humanity could end in catastrophe. Nate explains why modern AI is not programmed like traditional software, but grown through training processes we do not fully understand. We discuss AI escaping labs, recursive self-improvement, why today’s systems are...

Rizwan Virk joins me to discuss simulation theory, AI, consciousness and why reality may work more like a video game than a physical universe. Rizwan explains how his experience in the video game industry, virtual reality, venture capital and MIT led him to take the simulation hypothesis seriously. We discuss VR ping pong, AI-generated worlds, smart NPCs, quantum physics, rendered reality, lazy pr...

Danny Goler doesn't just argue we're living in a simulation - he claims he's found a way to interact with whoever is running it and that we are the AI they're training before we're "let out to play." His case for simulation theory is built on the hard problem of consciousness, the DMT "code," and a laser experiment that thousands of people say they can replicate. In this interview we discuss ideal...

Rupert Russell joins me to discuss the hidden power of prices, the chaos of financial markets and whether the economy is really just a global game of Monopoly. Rupert explains how price shocks have shaped history, from bread riots and the Arab Spring to housing, oil, food and the financial crisis. We discuss derivatives, futures markets, commodity speculation, Goldman Sachs, central banks, inflati...

Fernando Nikolic joins me to discuss the AI productivity explosion, one-person companies and what happens when software becomes something anyone can build. Fernando explains how he now runs a company as the only human in it, using AI agents to build systems, process data and operate at a level that previously would have required a team, funding and infrastructure. We discuss Claude, Gemini, vibe c...

Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right. Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing...

I talk to Chris Summerfield about what artificial intelligence reveals about the human mind, and what the brain still does better than today’s AI systems. We discuss why LLMs feel human, how models are trained to be helpful and agreeable, why memory and continual learning remain major unsolved problems in AI, and how sleep helps humans consolidate knowledge. They also explore agentic AI systems, r...

Julian Jessop joins me to discuss what has gone wrong with the British economy and whether the country can still turn things around. Julian argues that Britain’s problems are largely self-inflicted: weak productivity, high taxes, too much regulation, poor energy policy, a bloated state and politicians choosing popular policies over evidence. We discuss why the state has become too big, why the tax...

Tom Bilyeu joins me to discuss debt, money printing, broken politics, AI, Bitcoin and why the economy feels rigged against ordinary people. Tom argues that every empire eventually faces the same test: whether it can hold the power of the money printer without printing itself into oblivion. We talk about inflation, the debt cycle, asset prices, populism, Britain’s decline, and why the working and m...

Frank Wright joins me after going viral for saying that reality, not extremism, is radicalising people. We discuss Britain’s decline, Restore, Reform, immigration, national identity, liberal democracy, working-class dignity, debt, inflation, the failure of our institutions, and why Frank believes this is the last chance to save the nation. I push Frank on what it actually means to restore Britain,...

Simon Dixon joins me to discuss AI, Bitcoin, algorithms, media capture, central banking, programmable money, geopolitics and how to escape the system. Simon argues that the world is moving towards a more centralised architecture of artificial intelligence, social credit scores, programmable money and financial control. Simon and I discuss why AI may be the most important opportunity of our lifetim...

Lord Malcolm Offord joins me to discuss why Britain and Scotland have stopped creating wealth. They discuss state spending, political fragmentation, Scotland’s elections, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, QE, the Bank of England, first jobs, minimum wage, small businesses, quangos, the managerial class, Reform, the Greens, America, and whether Britain needs a welfare economy or a wealth economy....

Rupert Lowe joins Peter McCormack to discuss Restore Britain, Reform UK, immigration, Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service, tax, welfare, young people, the Green Party, the private sector, Bitcoin, inflation and whether Britain can still be saved. Rupert argues that the state has become too powerful, Britain may no longer have the rule of law, the private sector is dying, and Restore’s mis...

Narinder Kaur joins Peter McCormack to discuss racism, immigration, British politics, feminism, motherhood, young men, the cost of living, minimum wage, small businesses, Reform, Tommy Robinson, the Green Party and whether Britain is being divided by politicians, media and algorithms. They disagree on plenty, but the conversation ends somewhere unexpected: perhaps left and right are not the real e...

Physicist Professor Melvin Vopson joins Peter McCormack to discuss information physics, simulation theory, AI, digital life, consciousness, God, free will, and death. Melvin argues that the universe may be governed by information and computation, and that recent advances in brain emulation could force us to confront one of the strangest questions imaginable: if a brain is loaded into a simulation,...

Roman Yampolskiy believes reality itself may not be real. One of the world’s leading AI safety researchers, Roman has spent years warning that humanity is racing toward systems we may never be able to control. But we go somewhere much stranger than artificial intelligence. He believes the universe itself may be artificial. We talk about simulation theory, digital physics, consciousness, AI agents...

Two brothers who escaped Russia say we have 2 years before AI replaces us - and we're paying the corporations building it. Daniil & David Liberman sold their first company to Snapchat. Now they're racing to build a decentralised alternative to OpenAI and Google before the window closes. They explain why centralised AI ends in a two-tier world - a small elite with access, and the rest of us as...

Graham Linehan wrote Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd. Five BAFTAs. Then he said women's spaces should be for women, and the industry that built him decided he was a bigot. He lost his marriage, his career and twenty-five years of friendships. Once one of the most celebrated comedy writers of his generation, Graham became the first major artistic figure to be comprehensively cancelled for...

The economy you grew up in is ending and most people have no plan. Bitcoin pioneer Michael Saylor reveals why you have 10 years to adapt before AI rewrites everything. Michael Saylor is the founder of MicroStrategy and one of the most influential voices on money, capital and the future of value. A Wall Street outsider turned Bitcoin's most prominent corporate advocate, he is known for his sweeping...

In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Wilson to discuss what so many people are starting to ask but struggle to answer: Why does modern life feel like it isn’t working anymore? We discuss rising political division, economic pressure and a growing sense of dissatisfaction - and what might actually be driving it. Andrew explains that many of today’s problems aren’t just political or economic, but...

Preston Byrne is the only American lawyer fighting the UK's attempt to censor US companies under the Online Safety Act. He's representing 4chan, Kiwi Farms, Gab and Sanctioned Suicide - pro bono - because no other firm would take the cases. In this interview, Preston explains why Britain isn't a free country anymore, what Ofcom actually claims the power to do to American websites and why he says t...

Hans Niemann on beating Magnus Carlsen, the cheating accusations that nearly ended his career, and the "chess mafia" he says tried to destroy his life. At 19, Hans Niemann beat the world's greatest chess player. Magnus Carlsen withdrew without explanation. Within weeks, Niemann was facing global cheating accusations, blacklisting from his own federation, and a fight to save his career. Four years...