Don't Praise The Machine

This week Alex and John trace the full arc — from Ötzi the Iceman's 5,300-year-old tattoos to the Gen Z vs millennial style split, the mainstreaming of ink in professional life, and the industry that's now growing faster than tattooing itself: laser removal.Also discussed: how you rebel against your parents when your mum is already covered in tattoos, why the tattoo removal industry is worth $1.86 billion a year, and whether John will ever get one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alex saw Michael Jackson perform live in 1996. He was 14, obsessed, and desperately wanted to be one of those lucky boys he always saw by Michael's side. As the years went on, he became very glad he wasn't.With the MJ biopic crossing a billion dollars at the box office and two active lawsuits still pending against his estate, Alex and John ask the question nobody in a theatre queue seems to be asking: what exactly are we all agreeing to ignore?In this episode we cover the decades-long pattern of behaviour, the 1993 Jordan Chandler settlement, the evidence presented at the 2005 trial, the Australian boys, Leaving Neverland, and the $16.5 million payout to the Cascio family that almost nobody knows about.And underneath all of it: the uncomfortable truth that his music is so woven into the fabric of our lives that the world has quietly decided the evidence just isn't worth looking at.Michael Jackson | MJ Biopic 2025 | Leaving Neverland | Jordan Chandler | Gavin Arvizo | Wade Robson | Cascio Family Lawsuit | Michael Jackson Documentary | Don't Press the Machine Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Don't Praise the Machine, we're asking the question nobody in the productivity space wants to answer: is optimization culture actually making your life worse?When a clip of Steven Bartlett went viral, explaining how three glasses of wine with friends "ruined him for three days," the internet didn't push back on the sobriety. They pushed back on the measurement. The Whoop band. The sleep scores. The idea that a normal Thursday night had become a biometric failure.We dig into whether treating your life as a quantifiable system to be hacked and continuously improved is quietly destroying the things that make life worth living. Friendship, spontaneity, and the occasional loaded fry.If you've ever felt guilty for enjoying yourself, this one's for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebel Wilson , star of Fat Pizza, Bridesmaids, and now defendant in her own defamation trial — is back in an Australian courtroom, this time on the wrong side of the lawsuit.We break down the full saga: a Bondi Beach hives incident, an Outback debutante ball musical, nasty websites, a Ghislaine Maxwell comparison, and PR staffers privately texting that their own client is completely unhinged.Joining the breakdown is a practicing Australian barrister who has been quietly calculating his own defamation exposure since agreeing to appear on this episode — and deploying the word "allegedly" as a legal shield throughout.⚖️ Topics covered:Rebel Wilson's defamation history & previous court winThe Charlotte vs. Rebel lawsuit explainedHow Australian defamation law actually worksWhy this case could cost Rebel millionsThe wildest cast of characters in recent celebrity litigation

How did a guy who used to jump around in a white fur coat screaming "Bawitdaba" end up advising the Pentagon and hanging out in MAGA's highest circles?While his massive 1998 breakthrough album Devil Without A Cause pitched him as a raw, trailer-park, anti-establishment hero, the actual research reveals a slightly different story. From growing up on a wealthy Michigan estate with horses and orchards to commanding a massive modern cultural movement, we trace his bizarre 30-year journey through Nu Metal, Lynyrd Skynyrd samples, legendary tabloid drama, and full-blown political royalty.It turns out Kid Rock and Donald Trump share a very specific, unique superpower and it's exactly why their paths crossed.Pack your bags, throw up the devil horns, and let's learn about the no.1 American Badass together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hollywood has a new favourite hero, and it is not a warrior, a wizard, or a spy. It is a founder, a CEO, a disruptor.In this episode, we name and explore a brand new film genre: the capitalist procedural. From startup biopics to corporate origin stories, business movies have quietly taken over cinema and streaming, and we want to know why.We break down what defines the genre, why studios keep greenlighting these films, and what it says about our culture that we are now paying to watch board meetings, product launches, and Series B funding rounds play out on the big screen.Has hustle culture replaced the hero's journey? Are we using business stories to inject meaning into capitalism? Or have we just run out of ideas?Topics covered: capitalist procedural, business movies, startup films, Hollywood trends, cinema culture, film genre, hustle culture, founder mythology, cultural criticism, film analysis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Banksy built his reputation as an anonymous, anti-establishment street artist, spray-painting subversive stencils, dodging the law, and thumbing his nose at the art world elite. So how did he end up with Brad Pitt, Christina Aguilera, and Westminster City Council singing his praises?We trace Banksy's full arc: from punk origins in early-90s Bristol, to A-list celebrity collector, to a Reuters investigation that may have finally unmasked the man behind the mask, and revealed something far more ordinary than the myth.We ask the uncomfortable question: is Banksy actually toothless? And has he always been? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prediction markets have exploded to $25 billion traded in a single month — but what exactly are they, and why should you care? Bloomberg journalist Tom Maloney joins the show to break down how platforms like Polymarket work, who's getting rich, and the deeply weird world of betting on elections, missile strikes, and Kim Kardashian's bar exam. From soldiers allegedly insider trading on military operations to people threatening journalists over their bets, this episode explores whether prediction markets are the final boss of financial nihilism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We pull back the curtain on the Clip Economy — the hidden industry where streamers pay teenagers thousands of dollars a month to flood TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts with manufactured viral content.We break down how Andrew Tate pioneered the paid clipping model, how figures like Clavicular and Gymskin rose to fame through coordinated clip campaigns, and why context is dying in the age of the algorithm.In this episode:→ What the Clip Economy is and how it works→ How streamers industrialized virality with Discord servers and affiliate links→ Why short-form content is designed to strip away context→ What this means for your media dietInspired by Charlie Warzel's Rise of the Clip Economy (The Atlantic) and Deon Nash's exposé on manufactured viral content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pamela Anderson was the ultimate '90s tabloid machine — Baywatch bombshell, Playboy's most-covered model, and ground zero for the mechanics of celebrity . So how did she end up quoting Dostoevsky and giving spiritual speaking tours in Australia, selling skincare and preaching slow living at 58 yeard old? We break down the one of the most audacious celebrity rebrand of the decade — the Pamverse in full. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keinemusik are the Berlin electronic music collective who've built a global empire playing Afro house in front of pyramids, eating on stage and checking their phones — and somehow it works. They are both genuinely impressive and strangely irritating, and we want to explore why. We dig into what Keinemusik actually are, why they've become such a massive cultural phenomenon, and whether there's anything left of the countercultural roots of club music in a world of €2000 a seat VIP tables and clout-chasing iPhone videos. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sovereign citizens believe they can opt out of the legal system using magic phrases and pseudolegal theory. But what actually happens when they try? A barrister breaks down the movement's origins, its conspiracy thinking, and why it occasionally turns deadly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In light of Afroman and Justin Timberlake's separate filmed run-ins with the law, this week we trace the wild history of dash cams and body cams and explore how one rapper turned his own police raid footage into certified internet gold. Justice never sounded so funky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pod-brothers get together in the same room for a rare in-person off-the-cuff chat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 27 years together, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O — Australia's most dominant commercial FM breakfast duo — have finally parted ways. Jackie has declared she can no longer work with Kyle, who has been stood down for serious misconduct, and their $200 million, 10-year KIIS FM deal is now in tatters.We look back at how they built their partnership in Australian media, how they commanded eye-watering salaries that prime ministers and premiers couldn't afford to ignore, the failed Melbourne expansion that quietly began unravelling the whole machine, and what their spectacular split means for legacy commercial radio, and where the industry goes from here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're venturing into the Skibidi-infested trenches of Generation Alpha to discover if these "iPad babies" are evolving into the most tech-fluent creative class in history or if they're simply the first generation to have their frontal lobes successfully replaced by a 24-hour loop of algorithmic brain rot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why on earth are the world's most famous people haunting GoFundMe? We've seen a string of tragic headlines lately, from James Van Der Beek to Eric Dane, but in the wake of the sadness comes a strange new reality: your famous heroes are asking you to help them out financially. Is this a genuine community safety net for those slipping through the cracks of a broken healthcare system, or have our parasocial relationships just turned even stranger?We ask the question more broadly: when is it okay to ask, what makes us feel we should give, and is there a better way of doing both? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most intimate of filler injections, credit card fraud , Jake Paul crying at ice skating events and Snoop D-O-Double-G's minders getting physical with Dutch winter Olympic Royalty. How did this Blue Ribbon event turn into a low-brow meme-fest? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matcha's been absolutely everywhere for a while. How did we get here? What cultural, commercial and psychological forces sit behind matcha's runaway success? And what is the next matcha? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We watched 28 Years Later and noticed something strange: the "naked" zombies aren't actually naked. Turns out 80-90% of what you see on screen is completely fake. From White Lotus to Euphoria to Pam & Tommy, Hollywood actors are wearing carefully crafted prosthetics instead of the real thing.Why the sudden shift? We investigate the rise of intimacy coordinators, the on-set rules that changed everything, and the surprising industry behind Hollywood's most realistic fake body parts.Discover how one Australian lawyer-turned-intimacy coordinator revolutionized filmmaking, why major productions now budget thousands for prosthetics, and what directors like Danny Boyle look for when selecting the "perfect" prosthetic for their alpha zombies.It's a fascinating look at how modern Hollywood balances artistic vision, actor comfort, and legal protection—all while keeping audiences fooled. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stare into the neon-green abyss of Kick.com, a gambling sanctuary where $100 million contracts and uncurated chaos have created the unhinged frontier of streaming. Let's cross this digital desert of high-octane antisocial behavior to see if culture is evolving or just making everything much, much worse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember when movies had bangers? From Top Gun to Pulp Fiction, we unpack how soundtracks shaped pop culture—and why they vanished. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can a single millimeter change the course of your life? In this episode, Alexander and John descend into the obsessive world of "Looksmaxxing"—where the human face is no longer a part of the soul, but another thing to be "optimized" for the sexual market and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We kick off 2026 by looking back exactly 30 years to 1996—the year Google was born, Dolly the sheep was cloned, and the Macarena consumed the world. From Tamagotchis and Nintendo 64 to the Spice Girls and Independence Day, we dissect how much has changed from that era of optimistic stability to today's urgent uncertainty. Join us for a journey through the cultural touchstones that shaped millennials and the strange path that brought us to 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the most wonderful time and that means the lads are sharing personal wins from the year, looking back at the most impactful episodes of 2025, checking in on the best Gen Z lingo of the last 12 months, and making some bold predictions for 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When and why did we start naming every little niche - and defining ourselves in terms of -cores, vibes and aesthetics? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Australia's much anticipated social media ban for under-16s is about to start. What can we expect? Will it work? And if it does work, will that be a good thing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Music is uniquely vulnerable to A.I. destruction. But why? And does anyone care? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For many, Tom Green is a relic of boundary-pushing 90s comedy. But Tom's innovations in podcasting in the early noughties may prove to be his most lasting and underrated legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whoop whoop! Welcome to the Dark Carnival. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of the wildly popular Melbourne Cup, we look at Australia's bizarre obsession with gambling. Just how bad is it? And why has it taken hold? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a look into the podbrothers' home town. Radelaide, or Badelaide? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An exploration of the depravity of IRL streaming. We examine the methods and motives of Kai Cenat, IShowSpeed, and others. Is it really that bad? Yes. Yes, it is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Irwin was beloved by millions. But not so much in his home country. Why? And have Australians finally learned to love the Crocodile Hunter? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comedy fans around the world have been left shocked and incensed by so many of their heroes jumping at the chance to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival. Are they just being naive? Or could this actually do lasting damage to some of stand-up's biggest names? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

False predictions of the apocalypse are not new. But Rapture Tok has shown that TikTok can fuel mass hysteria like nothing else. Which is worrying; but undeniably funny. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

A particular kind of reel is taking over social media: screaming, drooling, insanely overacting men with weird fictional narratives. What on earth is going on? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

Jack Kay has taken the internet by storm as the "Ibiza Final Boss." We'll share the hidden ingredients that made his video the viral phenomenon that has shot him to overnight fame and potentially a fortune, if the Final Boss plays his Balearic cards right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hottest 100 Of Australian Songs Of All Time was packed with bangers, but some forgotten gems need their flowers. John and AL take you through the top ten on Triple J's list, and AL reveals his top ten votes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jojo Siwa is the queen of cringe. How did this happen? And who's profiting from her meltdown? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Late-night TV is as old as television itself. Soon it will be gone. How did we get here? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TikTok has totally transformed DJing. Is it a good thing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the mysterious 'pizza effect'? And how has it shaped centuries of culture - from food, to music and religious holidays? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Italian brainrot is here, and nothing will ever be the same. We go through what it means, where it comes from, and what it signals for the future of memes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recently, a seemingly average guy named Chris Smith proposed to his A.I. chatbot. Weird, yes. But in letting ChatGPT into our lives, have we all become more like Chris than we care to admit? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Andre's been in hot water for his role in 'Jafaican' (2025). But that got us thinking: just who is Peter Andre? How did he rise from a humble Aussie boyhood to become a staple of the British tabloids? Is there more to him than washboard abs?