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
Tech Billionaires Are Coming for Workers w/ Wendy Liu
Paris Marx is joined by Wendy Liu to discuss what it was like to work in tech in the 2010s and why structural changes in the industry are empowering an increasingly reactionary capitalist class to st…
01:03:06 |
Thu 15 Dec 2022
Trusting Tech Billionaires is a Recipe for Disaster w/ Douglas Rushkoff
Paris Marx is joined by Douglas Rushkoff to discuss why internet visions of the 1990s were wrong to ignore corporate power, how the dot-com boom was like a Ponzi scheme, and why we desperately need t…
01:00:39 |
Thu 08 Dec 2022
Tech Isn’t Fixing the Crisis on Our Streets w/ David Zipper
Paris Marx is joined by David Zipper to discuss how Silicon Valley pitched new technologies as the fix for a whole range of transport problems, and how that really just distracted us from solutions w…
01:00:26 |
Thu 01 Dec 2022
Why Advertising Shapes the Tech Economy w/ Daniel Joseph
Paris Marx is joined by Daniel Joseph to discuss why advertising is central not just to the tech economy, but modern capitalism itself, and how the business models of companies are increasing shaped …
00:52:54 |
Thu 24 Nov 2022
Why Visual Effects Look the Way They Do w/ Julie Turnock
Paris Marx is joined by Julie Turnock to discuss the history of the visual effects industry, the role that George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic played in setting industry standards, and what its …
00:49:15 |
Thu 17 Nov 2022
Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover is a Disaster w/ Hussein Kesvani
Paris Marx is joined by Hussein Kesvani to discuss the mess of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, the problem with his solution to blue check privilege, and what we should learn from how he posts.Hussein …
01:02:00 |
Thu 10 Nov 2022
Tech Billionaires Are Reshaping US Politics w/ Jacob Silverman
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, the politics of the PayPal Mafia tech billionaires, and how they’re trying to reshape US political discourse to serve …
01:12:00 |
Thu 03 Nov 2022
Mark Zuckerberg is Burning Meta to the Ground w/ Dave Karpf
Paris Marx is joined by Dave Karpf to discuss Meta’s misguided attempt to turn Facebook into a metaverse company, how Wired Magazine has evolved, and why the tech billionaires are destroying the worl…
01:11:12 |
Thu 27 Oct 2022
Don’t Fall for the Longtermism Sales Pitch w/ Émile P. Torres
Paris Marx is joined by Émile P. Torres to discuss the ongoing effort to sell effective altruism and longtermism to the public, and why they’re philosophies that won’t solve the real problems we face…
01:03:44 |
Thu 20 Oct 2022
How Tech is Remaking the Food System w/ Jim Thomas
Paris Marx is joined by Jim Thomas to discuss how digital technologies are being integrated into the industrial food system, how it empowers agribusiness firms and major tech companies, and its impli…
00:54:39 |
Thu 13 Oct 2022
Why Green Capitalism Won’t Fix Climate Change w/ Adrienne Buller
Paris Marx is joined by Adrienne Buller to discuss how the tech and finance industries are selling us false solutions to the climate crisis that are designed for their own benefit.Adrienne Buller is …
00:53:27 |
Thu 06 Oct 2022
Why Google’s Toronto Smart City Failed w/ Josh O'Kane
Paris Marx is joined by Josh O’Kane to discuss how Sidewalk Labs decided to build a city “from the internet up” in Toronto, the concerns that existed with the project, and why it ultimately fell apar…
00:54:42 |
Thu 29 Sep 2022
Science Fiction As Tech Criticism w/ Brian Merchant and Claire Evans
Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant and Claire Evans to discuss their new science fiction anthology, how it uses the genre to critically interrogate the technologies being rolled out around us, an…
00:45:37 |
Thu 22 Sep 2022
Electric Vehicles Are Driving a Mining Boom w/ Thea Riofrancos
Paris Marx is joined by Thea Riofrancos to discuss how the push for electric vehicles is driving governments in the United States and Europe to onshore mining after decades of doing the reverse, what…
01:09:05 |
Thu 15 Sep 2022
Surveillance Won’t Protect Students w/ Chris Gilliard
Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss the push to expand surveillance technologies in schools during the pandemic and in response to school shootings, and why they’re making life worse fo…
00:57:04 |
Thu 08 Sep 2022
Amazon’s Highly Subsidized Foray Into Middle-Earth w/ Thomas Coughlan
Paris Marx is joined by Thomas Coughlan to discuss Amazon’s foray into Tolkien’s fantasy world, the big subsidies it received to film in New Zealand, and how its decision to move the series to the UK…
00:50:52 |
Thu 01 Sep 2022
Who’s Winning in China’s Fight Against 996? w/ JS Tan
Paris Marx is joined by JS Tan to discuss how Chinese tech workers fought against “996” work practices and whether the its phaseout is being driven by that movement or by the changing needs of the go…
00:49:17 |
Thu 25 Aug 2022
How the Modem World Shaped the Internet w/ Kevin Driscoll
Paris Marx is joined by Kevin Driscoll to discuss the networks and services built by volunteers and hobbyists on top of the telephone network before the internet took over the in the 1990s, and what …
01:02:08 |
Thu 18 Aug 2022
Keep Capitalism Out of Space w/ Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Paris Marx is joined by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to discuss the science behind the new space telescope, the problems with the billionaire space race, and why we need to challenge the capitalist and c…
00:57:33 |
Thu 11 Aug 2022
Competition Won’t Fix Canada’s Telecom Woes w/ Fenwick McKelvey
Paris Marx is joined by Fenwick McKelvey to discuss the massive outage at Rogers, why it’s challenging the narrative that more competition will fix Canada’s telecom sector, and the need for better re…
00:53:45 |
Thu 04 Aug 2022
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