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Dreaming Against the Machine

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What might a good future look like?
Explore ideas about how to envision better, realistic, equitable futures with astrophysicist and journalist Dr. Adam Becker. Each week, Adam and a new guest will try to find hope in the darkness of the current political moment through earnest (and entertaining!) conversations about what such a future might look like. In a world where tech oligarchs and their power fantasies are driving visions of the future, Dreaming Against the Machine aims to take back the public conversation about what our world can and should be.

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  1. Episode 29: The Nerd Reich, with Gil Duran

    This week, Adam talks with journalist, author, and erstwhile political operative Gil Duran about the fascist dreams of the tech oligarchs, and what we can do to fight them. Adam also points out a particularly vile tweet from JD Vance's poli

  2. Episode 28: The AI Doom Sex Cult (Solo Episode)

    We have to talk about it, so let's talk about it. Adam lays out exactly where the AI doom narrative is coming from and why you shouldn't take it seriously. Messages: • Support the show at patreon.com/DreamingAgainstTheMachine (https://www.p

  3. Episode 27: Eugenics, with Brandon Ogbunu

    This week, Adam talks with biologist Brandon Ogbunu about the horrifying history of genetics, what it means for working geneticists and evolutionary biologists, and how culture shapes science (and vice versa). Messages: • Support the show a

  4. Episode 26: Space Ain't the Place (solo episode)

    This week it's just Adam! Following up on the space colonization episode from a few weeks back, Adam talks about exactly how horrifying and difficult it would be to live permanently in deep space. He also answers a couple of listener questi

  5. Episode 25: Transhumanism and Faith, with Meghan O'Gieblyn

    This week, Adam talks with author and essayist Meghan O'Gieblyn. They discuss her remarkable book, God Human Animal Machine (https://bookshop.org/p/books/god-human-animal-machine-technology-metaphor-and-the-search-for-meaning-meghan-o-giebl

  6. Episode 24: The Myth of AI Doom, with Cal Newport

    This week, Adam talks with computer scientist and author Cal Newport about the resurgent claims of AI doom in the news, where these ideas come from, and what we can do to shift the narrative around AI. (Also, they meant to talk about Cal's

  7. Episode 23: Language Models, with Emily M. Bender

    This week, Adam talks with linguist and AI critic Emily M. Bender. They talk about large language models, Emily's origin story, and the importance of parrot emojis. Read Emily's book The AI Con (https://thecon.ai/) and listen to her podcast

  8. Episode 22: Balancing on the Abyss, with Dave Karpf

    This week, Adam and returning guest Dave Karpf talk about what it's like to gaze into the abyss of politics and tech as part of their jobs, and how to find balance and maintain their sanity while doing that work. Dave also talks about his w

  9. Sharing a new series from Future Hindsight, Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising.

    Occupy Wall Street is the story of the improbable becoming possible. In 2008, millions of people were devastated by an economic crash caused by Wall Street greed, but it wasn’t until 2011 that there was a mass response from the Left. A call

  10. Episode 21: The AI Bubble, with Matt Scherer

    This week, Adam talks with Matt Scherer about the AI bubble: what it is, why it's a bubble, what might happen when it pops, and what we can all do to prevent a bailout when it does pop. They also talk about Star Trek, because of course they

  11. Episode 20: Resisting AI Data Centers, with Alli Finn and Matt Rodriguez

    This week is a little bit different. Adam talks with Alli Finn and Matt Rodriguez about a very specific kind of better future: one with way fewer AI data centers. Alli and Matt explain why we should fight AI data center construction, how to

  12. Episode 19: Space Colonization, with Lucian Walkowicz and Erika Nesvold

    It's a triple astrophysicist episode! This week, Adam talks with Lucian Walkowicz and Erika Nesvold about why space colonization is a terrible idea, and what would be a better idea for the future. They also talk about science fiction (of co

  13. Episode 18: Science Policy, with Alondra Nelson

    This week, Adam talks with Alondra Nelson, sociologist and former head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under Joe Biden. They talk about the destruction of scientific research in the US under Trump 2.0, what we can

  14. Episode 17: Weapons of Math Destruction, with Cathy O’Neil

    This week, Adam’s guest is mathematician, algorithmic auditor, and author Cathy O’Neil. They talk about the uses and misuses of math and computer science, and what led both of them away from academic STEM into the wilds of tech ethics. More

  15. Episode 16: What is Elon Musk? With Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff

    This week's guests are historian Quinn Slobodian and writer Ben Tarnoff, authors of the new book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (https://bookshop.org/p/books/muskism-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-ben-tarnoff/3d177fb9349a79ff?ean=97800634843

  16. Episode 15: Hopeful Science Fiction, with Becky Chambers

    This week, Adam fanboys at Becky Chambers (https://www.otherscribbles.com/), author of the Wayfarers series and one of his favorite science fiction writers. They talk about imagining cozy futures, hopepunk, why space ain't the place, and bi

  17. Episode 14: Psychological Warfare, with Annalee Newitz

    This week's guest is author and journalist Annalee Newitz, whose most recent nonfiction book, Stories are Weapons, is about the history of psychological warfare. Adam and Annalee discuss psyops, science fiction, the origin of the term "bana

  18. Episode 13: More Everything Forever, with Adam Becker

    This week is a reversal: Adam is interviewed by Jack Stilgoe, professor of science and technology studies at University College London. Jack and his colleagues ask Adam about how he came to write his most recent book, what the process of wr

  19. Episode 12: The Cosmic Perspective, with Katie Mack

    This week, Adam talks with Katie Mack, physicist and author, about feeling some type of way about the end of the universe. Along the way we also discuss illusions of control, entropy, and why it can be good to feel insignificant. Messages:

  20. Episode 11: Reverse Centaurs and AI, with Cory Doctorow

    This week, Adam talks with Cory Doctorow, author, blogger, and tech policy advocate. Cory explains why your boss wants to replace you with an AI, why that won't work, and why they're trying to do it anyhow -- and what you can do about it. C

  21. Episode 10: Better Off Regulated, with Ed Zitron

    This week's guest is tech critic, podcaster, and professionally angry dude Ed Zitron (https://www.youtube.com/@BetterOfflinePod). Adam asks Ed (https://www.wheresyoured.at/) what things would have to happen for him to be less angry (mostly,

  22. Episode 9: Algorithmic Bias, with Safiya Noble

    This week, Adam talks with Safiya Noble (https://safiyaunoble.com/), professor of social science at UCLA and author of Algorithms of Oppression. They talk about how algorithms reinscribe systemic biases, what a better tech industry might lo

  23. Episode 8: Horrible Little Guys, with Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling

    This week is a ✨Very Special Episode✨, a crossover with the hosts of our fellow Multitude show Wow if True! Isabel J. Kim is an award-winning science fiction author, Amanda Silberling is a journalist at TechCrunch, and this week they're tal

  24. Episode 7: The History (and Future) of Technology, with Susannah Glickman

    This week, Adam talks with historian Susannah Glickman about the recent history of how we think about the future of technology, and why we have more power over that future than we might think. Along the way, they talk about AI, Moore's Law,

  25. Episode 6: Mythology, with Moiya McTier

    This week, Adam talks with Moiya McTier about the power of myth in shaping our sense of the past and the future. They also talk about the nature of genius and inspiration, and why Dreaming Against the Machine itself is (partially) Moiya's f

  26. Episode 5: Metaphors for AI, with Shannon Vallor

    This week, Adam talks with Shannon Vallor, a philosopher of AI, about the metaphors we use to talk about AI and ourselves. They also dunk on libertarians and San Francisco billboards, and consider what kind of hope we can have for the futur

  27. Episode 4: Reactionary Futurism, with Dave Karpf

    This week, Adam talks with political scientist and internet curmudgeon Dave Karpf about some really bad ideas about the future in two really bad books, why those books are bad, why Ezra Klein is too credulous about one of them, and whether

  28. Episode 3: Science Fiction, with Kim Stanley Robinson

    This week's guest is the legendary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future, the Mars trilogy, and many other books. Adam asks him about the role of science fiction in shaping our ideas about the fu

  29. Episode 2: Star Trek, with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

    This week, Adam talks with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, physicist and author of the new book The Edge of Spacetime, about their shared love of Star Trek and its vision of a hopeful future. They also talk about labor organizing, freaking out pe

  30. Episode 1: Futurists, with Reo Eveleth

    Welcome to our debut show! This week, Adam talks with Reo Eveleth, journalist and podcaster, about who gets to imagine the future, the power that comes with that role, and why certain visions of the future have endured in American culture.

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