Tech Won't Save Us
Silicon Valley wants to shape our future, but why should we let it? Every Thursday, Paris Marx is joined by a new guest to critically examine the tech industry, its big promises, and the people behind them. Tech Won’t Save Us challenges the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. It’s not your usual tech podcast.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 54 minutes
- Episodes
- 309
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
A New Economy Will Deliver Better Technology w/ Aaron Benanav
Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss his vision for a multi-criterial economy and how it would alter the type of technology our society creates. It’s a plan to center human experience thr…
01:00:35 |
Thu 11 Sep 2025
Will AI Kill Your Job? w/ Brian Merchant
Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant to discuss whether the AI bubble is about to burst and how bosses are deploying AI tools to kill jobs and degrade work.
Brian Merchant is the author of Blood i…
00:59:52 |
Thu 04 Sep 2025
How China’s Renewable Push Upends Geopolitics w/ Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay
Paris Marx is joined by Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay to discuss the geopolitics behind China’s investments in green tech and electrification, and how it presents the prospect of a new development mod…
01:01:19 |
Thu 28 Aug 2025
Why Countries Must Fight For Digital Sovereignty w/ Cecilia Rikap
Paris Marx is joined by Cecilia Rikap to discuss how countries’ dependence on US tech companies is harming them and why they need to get serious about digital sovereignty.Cecilia Rikap is Associate P…
00:59:38 |
Thu 21 Aug 2025
Will the Pope Be An Ally Against AI? w/ Paolo Benanti
Paris Marx is joined by Paolo Benanti to discuss what Pope Leo XIV’s statements on AI, the publications under Pope Francis, and the ethics of AI from a theological perspective.Paolo Benanti is an aut…
00:56:22 |
Thu 14 Aug 2025
What Google Zero Means for Journalism w/ Matt Pearce
Paris Marx is joined by Matt Pearce to discuss how Google’s use of generative AI is sending far less traffic to all manner of websites, but especially news publications, and what that might mean for …
01:01:21 |
Thu 07 Aug 2025
Trump’s Crypto Profiteering Is Worse Than You Think w/ Jacob Silverman
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire’s Islamophobic attack on Zohran Mamdani, what it tells us about the state of tech’s politics, and how Donald Trump is …
01:00:12 |
Thu 31 Jul 2025
Decomputing For a Better Future w/ Dan McQuillan
Paris Marx is joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss the global push by governments to rapidly adopt AI at all costs and how citizens can critically rethink our dependence on these technologies while ima…
00:58:22 |
Thu 24 Jul 2025
Microsoft is Gutting the Video Game Industry w/ Nathan Grayson
Paris Marx is joined by Nathan Grayson to discuss the latest round of Microsoft layoffs and how the company’s ambition to remake the video game industry around its streaming service has had significa…
00:55:09 |
Thu 17 Jul 2025
How the US Weaponizes Tech in the Middle East w/ Laleh Khalili
Paris Marx is joined by Laleh Khalili to discuss how the United States uses its control of key technologies to shift global power dynamics, and how that specifically plays out in the Middle East.Lale…
00:53:32 |
Thu 10 Jul 2025
The Geopolitical Fight Over Huawei w/ Yangyang Cheng
Paris Marx is joined by Yangyang Cheng to discuss how Huawei became one of the most powerful companies in China and how current geopolitical narratives distract from the issues at the heart of survei…
00:54:05 |
Thu 03 Jul 2025
Chatbots Are Repeating Social Media’s Harms w/ Nitasha Tiku
Paris Marx is joined by Nitasha Tiku to discuss how AI companies are preying on users to drive engagement and how that’s repeating many of the problems we’re belatedly trying to address with social m…
00:53:48 |
Thu 26 Jun 2025
Brazil's Battle to Rein In Big Tech w/ Laís Martins
Paris Marx is joined by Laís Martins to discuss the recent enforcement measures against tech companies like X and Rumble in Brazil, how the country is grappling with the overreach of US tech companie…
00:57:52 |
Thu 19 Jun 2025
We All Suffer from OpenAI’s Pursuit of Scale w/ Karen Hao
Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman’s goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss…
00:51:18 |
Thu 12 Jun 2025
The New Military Industry Complex w/ Sam Biddle
Paris Marx is joined by Sam Biddle to discuss how Silicon Valley is shamelessly courting government military contracts, using tactics to silence employee dissent and normalize the situation to the pu…
00:57:06 |
Thu 05 Jun 2025
The Case for a Digital Detox w/ Casey Johnston
Paris Marx is joined by Casey Johnston to discuss why she pared back on social media, made her smartphone much dumber, and what she learned about how bodies are treated online through her fitness jou…
00:55:18 |
Thu 29 May 2025
Generative AI is Not Inevitable w/ Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
Paris Marx is joined by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna to discuss the harms of generative AI, how the industry keeps the public invested while companies flounder under the weight of unmet promises, a…
00:53:13 |
Thu 22 May 2025
Elon Musk is Remaking the US Space Program w/ Tim Fernholz
Paris Marx is joined by Tim Fernholz to discuss how Elon Musk’s influence in the White House is shaping the US Space Program, why he’s pushing NASA toward Mars instead of the Moon, and whether the St…
01:00:57 |
Thu 15 May 2025
The Roots of Elon Musk’s War On Empathy w/ Julia Carrie Wong
Paris Marx is joined by Julia Carrie Wong to discuss Elon Musk’s recent opposition to empathy, how it comes out of the Christian right, and the relationship it has to previous discussions of longterm…
00:52:20 |
Thu 08 May 2025
How Brainrot AI is Upending the Internet w/ Jason Koebler
Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler to discuss the economy behind AI slop generation, how people are building businesses on AI-generated images, and the wider consequences of their proliferation on…
00:53:38 |
Thu 01 May 2025
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