Episodes

  • 437. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 1 (ft. Aaron Benanav)

    437. Do Socialists Dream of Electric Institutions, Part 1 (ft. Aaron Benanav)
    Dec 23 2025
    We’re joined by Aaron Benanav to get into his magisterial essays laying out a vision of society beyond capitalism. In part 1 of our conversation, we lay out his incisive analysis of how capitalism is a powerful system built on the obsessive, relentless optimization of one criteria: production for profit maximization. All other criteria are subordinated to this logic to the detriment of all priorities, values, or goals that we could pursue. The failures of previous alternatives to capitalism can be traced to a failure to change the goals, not just the tools of the system. Any real alternative must go beyond simply swapping in new means — the ways we achieve the optimization of economic efficiency — while maintaining the same purpose. They must change the ends of the system: from one criterion to rule them all to the flourishing of a multi-criterial economy. ••• Beyond Capitalism Part 1 & 2 | Aaron Benanav https://www.aaronbenanav.com/papers Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 24 mins
  • Patreon Preview – 436. Panic! Attack the User

    Patreon Preview – 436. Panic! Attack the User
    Dec 17 2025
    We go through a number of moral panics about technology — vaping in schools,porn consumption online, social media use by teens — that are boiling over right now. In each of these cases, real problems have been identified and real policies have been implemented, while their real causes and concerns have been ignored. Instead, the critique of technology is used as a trojan horse for ramping up regressive forms of social paternalism and moral conservatism, which set strict boundaries and burdens on users, rather than producers. ••• Vaping Is ‘Everywhere’ in Schools—Sparking a Bathroom Surveillance Boom https://www.wired.com/story/vaping-surveillance-school-bathrooms/ ••• Half of the US Now Requires You to Upload Your ID or Scan Your Face to Watch Porn https://www.404media.co/missouri-age-verification-law-porn-id-check-vpns/ ••• Why Tech Moral Panic Matters https://www.hdavidsessions.com/p/why-tech-moral-panic-matters ••• Australia's social media ban for under-16s starts today. Here is what you should know https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/australias-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-starts-today/106119800 Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    9 mins
  • 435. Schoolwork Will Set You Free

    435. Schoolwork Will Set You Free
    Dec 9 2025
    After discussing the Council of Neo-Nicaea — but like, what if Jesus was an AI? — we then discuss an incredibly harrowing story of abusive practices at Alpha School, charter schools structured around AI authoritarianism where personalized learning software enact a cruel regimes of punishing metrics, where any humanity is replaced by the cold logic of optimization, where kids are indoctrinated early into the harsh reality of a control society. ••• Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out https://www.wired.com/story/ai-teacher-inside-alpha-school/ ••• Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 27 mins
  • Patreon Preview – 434. Gang Stalking Palantir

    Patreon Preview – 434. Gang Stalking Palantir
    Dec 2 2025
    We dig into a new interview with Alex Karp as part of his ongoing Crash Out Tour and learn about the paranoid delusions of a man being sacrificed by the new pagans of a global woke religion — all while his own family won’t talk with him. If you spend enough time targeting individuals, eventually you too will become a targeted individual. ••• Alex Karp Goes to War https://www.wired.com/story/alex-karp-goes-to-war-palantir-big-interview/ ••• Moira Weigel — Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School https://www.boundary2.org/2020/07/moira-weigel-palantir-goes-to-the-frankfurt-school/ ••• Michael Burry launches newsletter to lay out his AI bubble views after deregistering hedge fund https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/24/michael-burry-launches-newsletter-to-lay-out-his-ai-bubble-views-after-deregistering-hedge-fund.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • 433. How to Think About Disability (ft. Becca Monteleone)

    433. How to Think About Disability (ft. Becca Monteleone)
    Nov 25 2025
    We chat with Becca Monteleone — author of The Double Bind of Disability: How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority — about the critical intersection of disability and technology. Among many things, we get into the politics of how knowledge about the effects, experiences, and treatments for disability are produced, who has the authority to produce that knowledge, and who must be compliant to the power of that knowledge. ••• The Double Bind of Disability How Medical Technology Shapes Bodily Authority | Rebecca Monteleone https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917685/the-double-bind-of-disability/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Patreon Preview – 432. Shadowbanned From Candy Crush

    Patreon Preview – 432. Shadowbanned From Candy Crush
    Nov 19 2025
    Fresh off the New Luddism conference and Luddite Tribunal in New York City, we talk shit about gamerism and the tough solutions required, then get into the deeply sinophobic China envy that motivates the liberal wonks and prevents them from embracing the light of Luddism. Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • 431. How Amazon Workers are Organizing for Climate Justice (ft. Eliza Pan, Dawn)

    431. How Amazon Workers are Organizing for Climate Justice (ft. Eliza Pan, Dawn)
    Nov 12 2025
    [This episode was recorded before Amazon announced its massive layoffs.] We chat with Eliza and Dawn from the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice about their organizing campaigns and how they are holding Amazon to account for its promises about sustainability and applying pressure on Amazon’s leadership to make them recognize important issues that they otherwise ignore. We get into the ways that the roll-out of AI and build-out of data centres has catalyzed critical discussions among Amazon workers related to environmental impacts, workers rights, and social justice—and how confronting AI has become a cornerstone for social movements and worker organizing. ••• Amazon Employees for Climate Justice | Open Letter https://www.amazonclimatejustice.org/open-letter?ms=tmk ••• AECJ Solidarity Letter https://www.amazonclimatejustice.org/solidarity?ms=tmk ••• The Amazon Unsustainability Report https://static1.squarespace.com/static/65681f099d7c3d48feb86a5f/t/6721c4047213ea343e50536f/1730266118471/unsustainability-report-2.pdf Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Patreon Preview – 430. Bring the Pain

    Patreon Preview – 430. Bring the Pain
    Nov 6 2025
    We chat about some of our favorite rubes and dolts in tech media before then getting into the massive layoffs across Amazon and Meta, how the need to continue over-investing into AI capex is driving the gutting of opex in the form of labor costs, and why the bubbly cycles of capital investment and accumulation at all costs will continue until Silicon Valley is made to feel the pain of their own mistakes. ••• Exclusive: Amazon targets as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts, sources say https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/amazon-targets-many-30000-corporate-job-cuts-sources-say-2025-10-27/ ••• Amazon Just Laid Off 30,000 People—But the Media's Missing the Real Story https://natesnewsletter.substack.com/p/amazon-just-laid-off-30000-peoplebut ••• Meta lays off 600 from ‘bloated’ AI unit as Wang cements leadership https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/meta-layoffs-ai.html ••• Big Tech tests investors’ patience with $80bn AI investment spree https://www.ft.com/content/86bb929f-e0ec-4e50-b429-e9259c3834e2 Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
    Show More Show Less
    8 mins