Tech Won't Save Us
Paris Marx
Silicon Valley wants to shape our future, but why should we let it? Every Thursday, Paris Marx is joined by a new guest to critically examine the tech industry, its big promises, and the people behind them. Tech Won’t Save Us challenges the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. It’s not your usual tech podcast.
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Top 10 Tech Won't Save Us Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Tech Won't Save Us episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Tech Won't Save Us for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Tech Won't Save Us episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Silicon Valley is Reshaping US Democracy w/ Jacob Silverman
Tech Won't Save Us
10/31/24 • 61 min
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss all the money Elon Musk is pouring into the US election and what Silicon Valley’s political influence will mean regardless of who becomes president.
Jacob Silverman is the author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, coming in September 2025 from Bloomsbury. His book Easy Money is now available in paperback.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- The New York Times reported on Elon Musk’s efforts to get Trump elected in the final two weeks of the campaign.
- The Pennsylvania district attorney sued Elon Musk’s PAC to stop his $1 million giveaways.
- Marc Andreessen wrote the Techno-Optimist Manifesto and the Little Tech Agenda.
- FTX was up to way more shady things that didn’t make it into the first trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. The second didn’t go ahead after he was found guilty in the first.
- The canvassing operation for Trump by Elon Musk's PAC has been flagged as potentially fraudulent.
- The US Supreme Court’s Chevron decision will have significant consequences for federal regulators.
1 Listener
Robots Aren’t the Solution to Elder Care w/ James Wright
Tech Won't Save Us
03/16/23 • 57 min
Paris Marx is joined by James Wright to discuss Japan’s efforts to develop robots to care for its growing elderly population, what the government hoped to achieve with that plan, and why it hasn’t worked out as planned.
James Wright is a research associate with Turning Institute and a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He’s also the author of Robots Won’t Save Japan. You can follow James on Twitter at @jms_wright.
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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Paris is visiting New Zealand and doing a number of events through the latter half of March. Find all the dates and details here.
- James wrote about Japan’s efforts to automate elder care for MIT Tech Review.
- Jennifer Robertson spoke about the gendering of robots to cement conservative gender norms.
1 Listener
Silicon Valley is Backing Donald Trump w/ Jacob Silverman
Tech Won't Save Us
07/25/24 • 60 min
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss why tech billionaires have become more supportive of Donald Trump in the upcoming US election and whether Kamala Harris’ candidacy will disrupt their plans.
Jacob Silverman is the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud and is working on a new book called Gilded Rage that is scheduled for Fall 2025.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Jacob wrote about Silicon Valley’s embrace of Trump for The Nation.
- Paris wrote about what Silicon Valley wants from Trump in Disconnect.
- Molly White’s new project is called Follow the Crypto.
- Elon Musk is reportedly committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
- Mark Zuckerberg called Trump a badass, while saying he won’t endorse any candidate.
- Eric Schmidt is pushing the Pentagon’s embrace of AI for war.
- Peter Thiel says he’d vote for Trump this cycle if there was a gun to his head.
- Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz wrote a Little Tech Agenda containing a basic policy program.
- Reid Hoffman funded a disinformation campaign in Alabama.
- Reed Hastings has already put $7 million into a pro-Kamala Super PAC.
1 Listener
Shopify’s Right-Wing Inner Circle w/ Luke LeBrun & Rachel Gilmore
Tech Won't Save Us
08/08/24 • 58 min
Paris Marx is joined by Luke LeBrun and Rachel Gilmore to discuss Shopify's connection to right-wing politics, through its interpersonal connection to a far-right news outlet and its reluctance to enforce its content policy on users selling hateful merchandise through their platform.
Luke LeBrun is the editor of PressProgress and Rachel Gilmore is an independent journalist.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Luke reported on Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian’s involvement in and funding of a right-wing Canadian “news” website called True North.
- Rachel reported on Shopify’s decisions not to disable support for stores that sell fraudulent goods and promote hate that’s in violation of their Acceptable Use Policy. She recently pointed out a series of stores Shopify still supports that sell Nazi memorabilia.
- Last year, an anonymous former Shopify worker spoke out about the right-wing culture at the company. Rachel confirmed the person had worked for Shopify.
- In 2022, Tobi Lutke was granted a “founder’s share,” guaranteeing him 40% voting power. 46% of shareholders voted against the proposal.
- Shopify found itself in the spotlight in 2021 when employees found a noose emoji had been added to the company’s Slack system.
- Shopify President Harley Finkelstein has been publicly opposing plans to raise taxes on capital gains. Only 0.13% of Canadians will be paying more tax under the plan.
- Some right-wing figures in Canada deny the truth of the residential schools.
1 Listener
Project Cybersyn Shows All Tech is Political w/ Eden Medina
Tech Won't Save Us
05/20/21 • 62 min
Paris Marx is joined by Eden Medina to discuss Project Cybersyn, a technological system created by Chile’s socialist government in the 1970s to manage production, and what it can teach us about political technology and innovation outside the Global North.
Eden Medina is the author of “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile.” She’s also an associate professor at MIT and the Rita E. Hauser Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Follow Eden on Twitter as @edenmedina.
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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- In 2020, Marian Schlotterbeck spoke to Jacobin about the fifty year anniversary of Salvador Allende’s election.
- Independent and left-wing delegates won major victories in the election for Chile’s constitutional assembly, making it hard for right-wing delegates to stall the process.
- In October 2020, Chileans voted overwhelmingly to draft a new constitution, following protests that began in 2019.
- Dictator Augusto Pinochet oversaw a brutal regime from 1973 to 1990, and the crimes of that period are still being prosecuted.
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Why We Must Resist AI w/ Dan McQuillan
Tech Won't Save Us
03/09/23 • 59 min
Paris Marx is joined by Dan McQuillan to discuss how AI systems encourage ranking populations and austerity policies, and why understanding their politics is essential to opposing them.
Dan McQuillan is a Lecturer in Creative and Social Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He’s also the author of Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @danmcquillan.
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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Dan wrote specifically about ChatGPT and how we should approach it on his website.
- Dan mentions TWIML as a podcast that has conversations with industry players that’s informative for how these technologies work (though you’re not likely to get a critical perspective on them), and Achille Mbembe’s book Necropolitics.
- OpenAI used Kenyan workers earning $2/hour to make ChatGPT less toxic.
- The UK had to scrap a racist algorithm it was using for visa applications and many councils dropped the use of algorithms in their welfare and benefits systems.
- Dan mentions a Human Rights Watch report on the EU’s flawed AI regulations and its impacts on the social safety net.
- The Lucas Plan was developed by workers at Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s, but rejected by their bosses.
1 Listener
No Tech for Apartheid w/ Mohammad Khatami & Gabi Schubiner
Tech Won't Save Us
08/29/24 • 56 min
Paris Marx is joined by Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner to discuss the complicity of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and how tech workers are organizing to stop it.
Mohammad Khatami and Gabi Schubiner are former Google software engineers and organizers with No Tech for Apartheid.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Find out more about No Tech for Apartheid from their website. Microsoft workers have also launched No Azure for Apartheid.
- Yuval Abraham reported on the Israeli military’s use of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft’s cloud services and AI in Gaza.
- Mohammad wrote about being fired by Google in The New Arab.
- Gabi refers to JWCC, with is a reference to the Department of Defense Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle.
- Google fired 50 workers earlier this year for organizing over its ties to Israel.
- The Information reported on how many Arab Americans in tech are scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.
- In 1970, Polaroid workers under the banner of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement began the first anti-apartheid boycott of a US company by organizing against their employer’s complicity in South African apartheid.
- The IBM Black Workers Alliance was central to the anti-apartheid campaign at that company.
1 Listener
Crypto Is Spending Millions to Sway the US Election w/ Molly White
Tech Won't Save Us
08/22/24 • 57 min
Paris Marx is joined by Molly White to discuss why the crypto industry is spending millions on this election cycle and Coinbase’s potential breach of election finance law.
Molly White writes the Citation Needed newsletter. She is the creator of Web3 Is Going Just Great and Follow the Crypto.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Molly wrote about the Coinbase campaign finance violation and Donald Trump’s Bitcoin conference speech in her newsletter.
- Paris wrote about some of the concerns about Kamala Harris’ stance on tech.
- Fairshake spent $10 million on attacks ads against Katie Porter in California. It spent millions more targeting Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
- The crypto industry hates SEC head Gary Gensler, who is leading the regulatory effort against cryptocurrency.
1 Listener
Gaza Is a Laboratory for Future Warfare w/ Spencer Ackerman
Tech Won't Save Us
10/10/24 • 55 min
Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the past year of Israel's actions in Palestine and the innovations in war technology being used to carry out what the ICJ has deemed a "plausible" genocide in Gaza.
Spencer Ackerman is a Pulitzer-prize winning author of Reign of Terror. He’s a contributor at Zeteo and publishes the Forever Wars newsletter. He’s also writing a new series of Iron Man comics that come out very soon.
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 Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Spencer wrote a piece marking a year since October 7 for Zeteo. He’s also written about the Lebanon pager attack and Israel’s innovation with quadcopters.
- Yuval Abraham has written about the use of AI in Gaza and how Israel is relying on US cloud companies for military purposes.
- Roberto González wrote a paper about the links between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex.
1 Listener
Reporting Critically on Tech w/ Jason Koebler & Samantha Cole
Tech Won't Save Us
08/31/23 • 68 min
Paris Marx is joined by Jason Koebler and Samantha Cole to discuss why they launched 404 Media, how it was inspired by their work at Motherboard, and their reflections on the state of tech media.
Jason Koebler and Samantha Cole are co-founders of 404 Media. Jason was editor-in-chief of VICE’s Motherboard. Samantha was a senior editor at Motherboard and is the author of “How Sex Changed the Internet.” Find out more about 404 Media.
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. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Last week the 404 team introduced themselves. Among the stories they published were pieces looking into Apple AirPods Max and AI-generated porn.
- Vice declared bankruptcy in May 2023.
- Paris argued in Disconnect that the media failed the public in how they reported on Elon Musk.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Tech Won't Save Us have?
Tech Won't Save Us currently has 261 episodes available.
What topics does Tech Won't Save Us cover?
The podcast is about News, Future, Tech News, Podcasts, Books, Technology and Politics.
What is the most popular episode on Tech Won't Save Us?
The episode title 'Elon Musk Unmasked: Creating the Genius Myth (Part 2)' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Tech Won't Save Us?
The average episode length on Tech Won't Save Us is 55 minutes.
How often are episodes of Tech Won't Save Us released?
Episodes of Tech Won't Save Us are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Tech Won't Save Us?
The first episode of Tech Won't Save Us was released on Apr 12, 2020.
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