The Lincoln Project

The Data Center Grift (with WIRED's Molly Taft)
The richest companies in human history have a new hustle, and you're the mark. They're bulldozing warehouses the size of malls into towns too small to fight back, draining the reservoir dry, and torching the power grid — all to run an AI that still can't tell you how many R's are in "strawberry." The best part? They took the tax breaks, promised jobs that never showed, and mailed you the power bill. This week Rick sits down with WIRED senior reporter Molly Taft, who followed the water and the money and found the same thing at the end of both: a con. They get into who's cashing in, who's going dark, and why "the cloud" is the most expensive lie in America right now. Bring your own bottle of water — the robots are thirsty.

Rick sits down with RABIA CHAUDRY, the attorney who helped make SERIAL a phenomenon and now runs UNDISCLOSED, the podcast that's helped get WRONGFULLY CONVICTED people OUT of prison. Rabia breaks down the patterns behind these convictions — junk forensics, coerced confessions, prosecutors with a "hero complex" who'd rather double down than admit they got it wrong — and lays out real fixes to fix a system stacked against defendants. Then it gets personal: as an American Muslim who entered law school around 9/11, Rabia connects the dots between the counterterrorism machine built after that day and TODAY'S aggressive ICE enforcement — people getting arrested at their OWN SCHEDULED immigration hearings, and TPS terminations blowing holes in Florida's economy. This is a masterclass in how broken systems actually work, from someone who's spent her career fixing them.
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You can find Rabia Chaudry on Instagram @rabiasquared2, and on her podcast, ‘Undisclosed: Towards Justice.’
Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. 
More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.
#RabiaChaudry #Undisclosed #Serial #WrongfulConviction #CriminalJusticeReform #Immigration #TPS #RickWilson #LincolnProject #Politics2026

Rick sits down with GIL DURAN, the #1 bestselling author of THE NERD REICH: SILICON VALLEY FASCISM AND THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY, and this one goes DEEP. Gil traces how the tech world's lurch to the right didn't start with Trump — it started with San Francisco recall elections that quietly road-tested billionaire-funded populism, then Elon Musk DROPPING $277 MILLION on the 2024 election. They unpack the strange ideological current running through Silicon Valley, including a fringe monarchist thinker's outsized grip on guys like Peter Thiel, who apparently want a "CEO KING" running America. Then it gets darker: a massive AI-driven wealth transfer aimed straight at your job, OpenAI's own Sam Altman admitting the risks are real, and billionaires quietly building escape compounds from HONDURAS to GREENLAND while the rest of us live with the consequences.
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You can find Gil Duran on Bluesky @gilduran.com. Gil Duran’s new book ‘THE NERD REICH: SILICON VALLEY FASCISM AND THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY’ is available now, wherever fine books are sold.
Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. 
More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.
#GilDuran #TheNerdReich #SiliconValley #PeterThiel #CurtisYarvin #ElonMusk #SamAltman #RickWilson #LincolnProject #TechOligarchy

On the 25th anniversary of September 11th, Rick shares his personal reflections on that day. Loved ones lost, survivors never the same again. This is a look at what America got right in the aftermath: real unity, real international solidarity, NATO invoking Article 5 for the only time in its history. Everything bin Laden failed to break through terror on that day — our cohesion, our alliances, our resilience — has been deliberately broken since, not by an enemy, but by the President of the United States. This isn't about outrage. It's about what we've lost, and whether we can still get it back. A tribute, and a warning.
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Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. 
More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.

Rick sits down with MAGGIE HABERMAN, the #1 NYT bestselling co-author (with Jonathan Swan) behind REGIME CHANGE: INSIDE THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY OF DONALD TRUMP, built on roughly 1,000 interviews inside this White House. Maggie breaks down the WILD delta between Trump's first and second terms — Elon Musk's chaotic run as would-be reformer, the DOGE flameout that cracked the EPSTEIN FILES fight wide open, and how Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche have handled a cover-up controversy that's splitting Trump's own base. She lays out how the DOJ has become a tool of personal retribution, how hard Trump's team is working to shield him from audits and legal exposure, and just how much money he's made off the presidency itself. Then it gets personal: his visible physical decline, and the early jockeying — JD Vance included — over who inherits it all.
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Maggie Haberman’s new book ‘Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump' is out now, wherever fine books are sold. You can find Maggie on X @maggieNYT.
Rick Wilson is on X @TheRickWilson, Bluesky @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. 
More from LP at www.lincolnproject.us and on X @ProjectLincoln.