- #131 Technologie
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The internet has warped public life: Politicians behave like influencers, the economy resembles a casino, and people can no longer agree upon a consensus reality. New conspiracy theories, memes, and main characters seem to pop up every day. A constant war is on for your attention, and it’s easy to feel lost. Each week, Galaxy Brain and its host Charlie Warzel invite you into conversations to make sense of the online fire hose. Is AI destroying our ability to think? Do your grandparents have a screen-time problem? Galaxy Brain looks beyond the algorithm and anchors you to the real—however strange it may be.
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Is It Time To Rebuild the Internet?
AI-hacking swarms are poking holes across the internet at such a rate that some cybersecurity professionals have dubbed this month “Black October.” The AI-cybersecurity professional Alex Stamos argues that it’s time to be proactive rather t
The Armageddon Economy
It can feel like an existential moment right now, one where many tech leaders are both warning against and accelerating the destructive forces of AI. But Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor argue that this could also be a turning point toward buil
What ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Tells Us About America
It’s not just stealing cars and running from cops anymore. In the newest “Grand Theft Auto” installment—13 years and an estimated billions of dollars in the making—people in a fictionalized version of Florida can exercise, drink smoothies,
Is Crypto Dead? Or More Influential Than Ever?
The hype over cryptocurrency may have faded since the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, but beneath the surface, a lot of real money is involved, including the millions being funneled into the American political system. The actor turned do
An Argument Against AI Doom
The flood of reports about AI agents escaping and hacking websites can feel scary. But is this actually just a matter of needing better security to match the evolving technology? Zack Korman, the CEO of Embroidery, thinks so. He works in cy
We’re All Being Recorded. What Do We Do About It?
Meta has been selling millions of its camera-equipped glasses, making all of us fodder for content creation—when we’re on the street, at the store, and in our workplaces. Host Charlie Warzel talks with Verge reporter Mia Sato about how regu
Lina Khan on the AI-Safety Panic
As “rogue” AI agents hack systems and leaders warn of catastrophe, who should be held responsible? The former FTC Commissioner Lina Khan argues that the United States already has a lot of the regulatory tools needed. In this live episode fr
Is AI Writing Inevitable?
AI-infused writing is suddenly everywhere: not just in automated email responses or meeting summaries, but in books and even the pages of mainstream newspapers. When an editor at The Wall Street Journal recently defended an op-ed that was 1
The Singularity Is Not What It Seems
Whatever the AI future is, we’re in it right now. What if the singularity is not some technological tipping point, brought about by human genius, but a human tipping point? An unforced error, driven by hubris, greed, and the fear of missing
Why So Many Men Are Unraveling
Jon Ronson had never really thought about the term “masculinity” until a strange series of events led him down a rabbit hole involving castles, cage fights, and an actor playing a horse. Host Charlie Warzel talks to Ronson about the disinhi
Welcome to the Scrolling Backlash
A lot of people are getting tired of their phone—sick of the algorithms and overwhelmed by what can feel like a loss of control. The Atlantic staff writer Julie Beck was a part of a team that dug into why and how people are trying to renego
How Social Media Makes Our Lives Smaller
Most people spend more time than you think agonizing over their social-media posts. Kathryn Jezer-Morton wanted to understand their thinking—and when she dug deeper, she learned that redemption and optimization narratives are what the algor
The Former ‘Voice of Google’ Speaks Out
Tech companies like Google famously started with a culture and psychology centered on doing good and changing the world. But as Google expanded, it had to adapt to its growing money, power, and influence, and Claire Stapleton, who worked th
Why AI Is Making Things More Expensive
Electronics are getting more expensive—and the culprit has a lot to do with generative AI. Amid all the talk of AI taking over people’s jobs, automating people’s workflows, and doing people’s homework, we’re learning that actually scaling t
How the World Cup Finally Won Over America
Why does the World Cup endure in an age of fractured attention? Is FreddyLA7 a real person? Charlie Warzel speaks with Men in Blazers founder Roger Bennett to chart how the World Cup has become far more than a sporting event and how this ye
The Hidden Cost of Optimizing Everything
Modern life is built to make things easier, faster, and more efficient. But what if, in smoothing away life’s everyday frictions, we’ve also lost something essential? This week on “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel talks with The Atlantic’s Ian
What Do We Do About Elon Musk?
Elon Musk isn’t just the world’s richest man—he’s one of the most influential people alive. His companies have transformed industries, his wealth has shattered records, and his politics now shape governments and public debate. But how did h
Why Reading Feels So Hard Now
Do you wish you could read more books? You’re not alone. These days, fewer people are reading for pleasure, and even those who do tend to struggle with distractions. Is this a literacy crisis, or has our attention just been warped? And what
How to Think About AI Before It’s Too Late
Cory Doctorow has a refrain: “The most important thing about a gadget isn’t what it does; it’s who it does it for and what it does it to.” In this episode of “Galaxy Brain,” he sits down with Charlie Warzel to talk about the AI boom, making
Jomboy on Robot Umpires and the Future of Baseball
“Baseball” has never been synonymous with “change.” But in recent years, Major League Baseball has transformed radically, and this season it has embraced technology via the ABS pitch-tracking system (also known as “robot umpires”). Has the
How to Win Elections in the Attention Economy
How do you build a winning campaign for the era of AI? In the aftermath of the 2024 race, Democrats have been struggling to adapt to the new logic of the attention economy. On this episode of “Galaxy Brain,” Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign ma
Why Everyone Hates AI Data Centers
Data centers are quickly becoming the most polarizing buildings in America. On this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel speaks with the reporter Jael Holzman about the backlash to the buildings powering the AI boom. Why have data center
How Dropout Cracked Internet Comedy
How do you build a streaming service from scratch? On this week’s “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel speaks with Sam Reich, the CEO of Dropout, a comedy streaming platform that’s found success eschewing the growth-at-all-costs model of the mega
Chris Hayes on Calibrating Your AI Anxiety
How should you feel about the AI boom? In this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel speaks with Chris Hayes about how to emotionally calibrate our response to this dizzying AI moment. Hayes describes why AI gives him “The Bad Feeling,” a
Flipping Off Phones
On this week’s episode of “Galaxy Brain,” Charlie Warzel talks with his Atlantic colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany about what our phones are doing to us. Tiffany recently wrote about swapping her iPhone for a flip phone as part of a movement called
Did a Human Write This?
What happens when the majority of content on the internet tips over into AI slop? On this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel talks to Max Spero, the co-founder of Pangram, an AI-detection company. They discuss how AI-detection tools wo
How Short-Form Clips Took Over the Internet
In this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel talks with business writer Ed Elson about the rise of the “clip economy”—the idea that short video clips pulled from podcasts, livestreams, and other long-form content have become the dominant
Breaking Free From Alex Jones
In this episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel speaks with Josh Owens, a videographer and the author of a memoir about his years working for Infowars, the media company of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Owens traces his journey from a
Your Favorite Influencer Might Be AI
On this week’s Galaxy Brain episode, Charlie Warzel is joined by New York Times technology reporter Tiffany Hsu to discuss the rise of AI influencers—synthetic avatars, often indistinguishable from real people, that are flooding social-medi
Is AI Going to Turn Us All Into Middle Managers?
How is AI changing the way we work? This week on Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel is joined by Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale, two experts in management and leadership training. They discuss how chatbots and AI agents are winding their way t
