Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski and Brian Merchant to reflect on the year in tech, discuss the worst people in Silicon Valley, and share what they’ll be keeping an eye on in 2026. Jathan Sadowski is the author of The Mechanic and the Luddite, co-host of This Machine Kills, and a Senior Lecturer at Monash University. Brian Merchant is the author of Blood in the Machine and writes a newsletter of the same name. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Visit Francesca Bria’s useful Authoritarian Stack Trump signs an executive order to keep states from implementing their own AI legislation The Trump administration is gutting the Department of Education, climate science programs, and public health Disney and OpenAI have reached a billion dollar deal Bernie Sanders calls for a moratorium on AI data centre construction

Paris Marx is joined by Cam Wilson to discuss the new social media age limit in Australia, including how successful the rollout has been so far and the missed opportunities of taking a more nuanced regulatory approach. Cam Wilson is an associate editor at Crikey and writes The Sizzle newsletter. He’s a co-author of Conspiracy Nation: Exposing the Dangerous World of Australian Conspiracy Theories. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Cam wrote about his experience reporting on the social media age limit debate and the removal of the exemption framework. Paris wrote about his thoughts on social media age limits and the need for much more comprehensive regulations on social media. 64% of US teens are using chatbots daily. Submit questions to Paris for an upcoming mailbag episode at [email protected] Patreon supporters can join the year-end livestream this Friday, Dec 19 at 6PM ET

Paris Marx is joined by Ben Wray to discuss the Europe’s capitulation to pressure from the United States on Nexperia, as well as on digital protections and labor rights that could have big implications for the future of work. Ben Wray is a researcher specializing in the platform economy. He writes the Gig Economy Project newsletter and his most recent report for the ETUC is called Uberisation. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Today’s sponsors are ExpressVPN and ⁠Aura Frames. Get four months free by visiting ExpressVPN.com/TWSU. Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at ⁠https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS⁠. Promo Code PARIS Also mentioned in this episode: Ben wrote about the brief attempt by the Dutch to nationalize Nexperia. In leaked documents from 2012-2017 Uber executives recognize their own illegal activity and refer to themselves as ‘pirates’. Spain recently ordered Meta to pay €479m fine for breaching EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Paris Marx is joined by Aline Blankertz to discuss how right-wing governments and international corporations in the European Union are pushing to gut tech regulations with the goal of boosting AI development in hope of improving economic growth and geopolitical standing. Aline Blankertz is a cofounder of Structural Integrity. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Today’s sponsor is ⁠Aura Frames. Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS. Promo Code PARIS Also mentioned in this episode: Aline wrote about how the sovereignty discussion was progressing at a recent summit in Europe. Aline mentioned an upcoming conference tying together different activist movements that listeners may find interesting: Cables of Resistance. Learn more about the EU’s Digital Omnibus regulation proposal. The Draghi Report examines EU competitiveness. France and Germany are partnering up to utilize AI in public administration Shoutout to the book Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley. Here’s the latest in OpenAI’s ongoing litigation. Macron and Merz spoke out against authoritarianism, in particular calling out a lack of national control over social networks. Some governments are pushing back and disconnecting from US tech giants.

Paris Marx is joined by Ketan Joshi to discuss how hyperscale data centers are fueling the consumption of more oil and gas, what that means for climate targets, and the insidious relationship between the tech and fossil fuel industries. Ketan Joshi is a climate writer and data analyst based in Oslo working with climate and environmental groups. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS. Promo Code  PARIS Also mentioned in this episode: Ketan has a page on his website sharing fascinating data sets. The International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report was just released for this year. xAI was caught using enough illegal methane generators to power a city at a facility that powers Grok. Here is an in-depth look behind the scenes at the construction of the new data center from xAI, including the purchasing of a power plant just across the state line. Google's Chief of Investment loves Doug Burgum’s (Trump’s Secretary of the Interior) commitments to power AI growth with fossil fuels. Microsoft has been investing in nuclear energy. Learn more about the Enabled Emissions Campaign. Shout-out to the book Empire of AI by Karen Hao.