The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

In this episode, Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus, Gilberto Manzanarez and I discuss on-the-ground opposition to two data centers being built against the will of local residents: Project Jupiter (Oracle/Open AI) in New Mexico, and the largest data center in California -- in Imperial Valley. This conversation was part of: Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers, facilitated by Dustin Edwards. Recorded Feb 24, 2026. Released Monday March 2, 2026.

Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers
https://cal.sdsu.edu/humtech/events

Gilberto Manzanarez on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/valleimperialresiste/

Resistance to data centers rises on the border
https://www.hcn.org/articles/resistance-to-data-centers-rises-on-the-border/

"Jupiter Watch" videos on Project Jupiter in New Mexico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_phIsUpRg&t=5s

The Water Is Coming ¡Ya Viene La Agua!
Annie Ersinghaus’s short doc on the politics of the Rio Grande (Project Jupiter is pulling from underground water along the Rio Grande)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgab5ICoWJI&t=430s
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Adam Becker and I talk about our AI overlords and their “philosophical” influences — mostly eugenics-based pseudoscience and bad readings of sci-fi that make tech billionaires feel like they’ve earned their billions by being the smartest people on the planet… while ruining the planet. Recorded Feb 13, 2026. Released Feb 16, 2026.

More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (2025) https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9781541619593

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172zsskmkss5ll (start at 39:15)

Rolling Stone Q&A: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tech-billionaires-adam-becker-1235381649/

Dreaming Against the Machine
http://dreamingagainstthemachine.com/
Forthcoming: Adam Becker’s new podcast website (bookmark this now for later!)

Mentioned in our conversation:
I Am An AI Hater by Anthony Moser
https://anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/haterdom/2025/08/26/i-am-an-ai-hater.html
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Great theorists make you see the world differently forever after. This is the case with my guests for this episode, Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingrid Richardson — brilliant scholars helping us rethink containers and containment as a feminist strategy to rework worldly narratives about what holds, filters, leaks. This conversation was a special honour for me. Recorded January 23, 2026. Released February 2, 2026.

Containment Technologies of Holding, Filtering, Leaking (2025)
https://meson.press/books/containment/

Zoë Sofia Container Technologies (2000)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227700296_Container_Technologies

Shoutouts to:
Re-Understanding Media: Feminist Extensions of Marshall McLuhan (Duke University Press) https://dukeupress.edu/re-understanding-media
Insufferable Tools: Feminism Against Big Tech https://www.dukeupress.edu/insufferable-tools
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Paperback –1994 https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631594/understanding-media/
And much more…
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this first episode of 2026, I speak with Am Johal and Matt Stern, authors of the "O My Friends, There Is No Friend: The Politics of Friendship at the End of Ecology" (2025) to better understand what friendship means these days... at the "end of ecology". Is friendship political? Can an AI chatbot be a friend? Recorded Jan 16, 2026. Released Jan 19, 2026.

Matt Hern, Am Johal O My Friends, There is No Friend (pdf)
https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/022e1f6f-f14a-4c11-a94c-c95610919f8c/9783839470268.pdf

Below the Radar podcast:
https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast.html

***

New Cover art by Oona Ode!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

José Marichal is exceptionally good at making the case for why we should all become algorithmic problems and also much more reflective of our engagement with social media. We are altered by recommendation algorithms -- and we should probably think now about how to renegotiate these terms? Happy holidays! Recorded Nov 27. Released Dec 22, 2025.

You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem
Renegotiating the Socio-Technical Contract
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/you-must-become-an-algorithmic-problem
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.