Podcasts about luddites

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show, the Socialists, Marxists, and Islamists condemn America, its founding, and the Constitution. Any Democrat or DSA candidate who has stated they cannot abide the Constitution or seek to fundamentally alter it without amending it must not be seated in the next Congress, a position which is compelled by the Constitution itself. Article 6, Clause 3 requires senators, representatives, and other officers to be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution; they cannot be seated until they take that oath, which is a requirement of serving rather than a ceremonial act. Also, some conservative politicians who had been acting like pseudo-conservatives now appear to be shifting on AI data centers toward local control, leaving decisions to local governments and zoning boards. Just a week earlier the Luddites and radical leftists were serving the interests of communist China rather than America's. Artificial intelligence is involved in many areas where it is wanted and will produce enormous community wealth that can fund positive things, lower taxes rather than raise them, and—if handled properly—not drive up electricity costs. Democrats, not data centers, have driven up energy prices for years. Later, steps must still be taken so that, if the Iranian regime collapses, people with a Western mentality who are friends of ours can take the reins; that is not the same as establishing a democracy. Allies need not be democracies. Arm the resistance and opposition and they will rise up. Afterward, Ryan Reynolds is an irrelevant actor who called the 1980s a “brutal time,” a “fu*king mess” of sociopolitical tension. The 1980's were a spectacular era of economic growth, restored American superpower status, Reagan's defeat of the Soviet Union and eight years of great Americanism. Hatred of the 1980s is really hatred of Reagan and Republicans; those who reject its economics in favor of 1930s-style big-government programs (New Deal through Biden) or who recast activist government as a new national-conservative idea are recycling old liberal-Republican/RINO thinking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show, a counter push has started against Luddites who want to prevent industrial and technological progress by banning data centers. Yes, there are legitimate concerns and there will be some little inconveniences, but a flat ban would set America back decades while the enemy moves forward. Also, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, told a lower court to back off trying to stop President Trump's new White House ballroom. The majority said the plaintiff didn't have standing to sue. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the minority - if it were up to him, he would destroy separation of powers. How does it affect Congress' powers if the President raises private funds for the White House? Then, imams of a Shia Muslim mosque in Dearborn, Michigan pledged its allegiance to the Islamic regime in Iran, calling the U.S. a nation of "devil-worshipers." Most of these mosques in Dearborn are raising future Islamists. The indoctrination of young kids is a poison that spreads into the wider culture. Why do these radical Islamist imams use the language of class warfare and violence? Ali Khamenei told them to use Marxist language and propaganda in the West. Marxism is attractive to Western liberals.  Meanwhile, national conservatism is a form of older paleo conservatism and such isms are not new - like Theodore Roosevelt's progressive nationalism and Huey Long who rebranded fascism as anti-fascism. This echoes Orwell's remark that every government, even communist ones, claims to be a democracy. Words have meanings that politicians often confuse and contort, and conservatives and Republicans should not abandon one of the greatest periods of conservatism and Republicanism in the 80's, just as they should not abandon Trump. Later, certain infrastructure, including Kharg island, must be taken out and the Iranian people armed. Even if the regime's leaders lack money, they remain like World War II Japanese kamikazes: religious zealots who treated the Emperor as God on earth, prayed, fought, and lived for him—the product of nationalism. The Iranian regime will not surrender for its people's good or because its military is defeated, and any document or negotiation it signs is merely an ends-justifies-the-means tactic. The regime must therefore be obliterated and eliminated. The only real way to overthrow it is from within; the President has created the conditions for that, but unless further steps are taken the concern remains that collapse could simply produce another such regime. Finally, Stacy Garrity calls in to discuss her run for Governor in Pennsylvania against Josh Shapiro. Shapiro appears to view himself as a lock for governor, but Garrity argues he has major weaknesses and is more focused on national ambitions than helping Pennsylvania families. Shapiro has never faced a serious opponent or a negative ad in over a decade, so voters still see him as a moderate when he is not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Monday's Mark Levin Show, do you use TikTok, Instagram, X, or any social media? What about a computer? Laptop? iPhone? Smart TV? Netflix? Have you seen a doctor or been to a hospital? Have you driven a car? Taken an airplane? Use email? Congratulations! You use AI! And in order to use AI, you need data centers. Amazing how quickly people fall for lies about data centers. It's the pandemic and fracking all over again. Luddites who don't believe in industrial progress tell people they'll lose their jobs, but data centers will create jobs you've never even heard of. If we want to keep pace with adversaries like China, we'd better ignore the Luddites and pandering politicians and go all in on industrial progress. Also, how would the most advanced society and economy survive without data centers? Foreign countries like China, India and Israel are embracing AI. If they support data centers and America doesn't, where do you think tech workers will go? How do you turn off the human brain? Some say if the GOP loses the midterm elections it will be because of data centers. Wasn't Iran supposed to be the main issue in the midterms? A lot of these Luddites and isolationists are the same. Then, if we hit the brakes hard on AI and data centers, we won't have the most advanced computers, medical care, and other things. Those who oppose data centers haven't lived in a society that put the brakes on the future. They're happy living in the present, but you can't sustain the present without AI. The world won't want our products and services. Or maybe you prefer Cuba with their 1950s Chevys and no medical advances? All great empires of the past, including Britain, are gone. Will America be next? Finally, AI data centers know no economic or social classes. Everyone benefits from them. Yet, the class warfare ideologues want you to believe there are. In East Loudoun County VA, one of the wealthiest and most highly educated populations in the country if not the world, sit the vast majority of our country's data centers -- upwards of 80%. The end-users are of every walk of life. Those who construct the data centers are union, non-union, blue collar, as well as computer geeks and a wide variety of trades and skilled workers. Those who operate them tend to be highly educated in the STEMs. And we cannot imagine how many new technologies, inventions, products, services, cures, enterprises, etc., will grow from this new Industrial Revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with TJ Marbois, founder of Tobiko, for a wide-ranging conversation that spans LLMs, data sovereignty, knowledge management tools like Obsidian, and Terence McKenna's ideas about an increasingly weird future. They explore how AI is simultaneously centralizing power through data control while decentralizing software development capabilities, allowing more people to build their own tools and escape big tech ecosystems. Drawing on his experience at Apple's special projects group (the team that built the iPod and later iPhones), TJ discusses his vision for personal AI assistants—what he calls the "R2-D2 belongs to you" principle—where advanced technology serves individuals rather than corporations. The conversation touches on everything from quantum encryption and local manufacturing with ESP32 microcontrollers to the economics of future society, biometric data unions, and why distributed trust matters more than ever as we approach what both describe as an increasingly strange technological inflection point. Visit Tobiko's site at tobiko-pbc.ghost.ioTimestamps00:00 Stewart introduces TJ Marbois from Tobiko, discussing LLMs, data sovereignty, knowledge management, and the tension between centralization and decentralization in AI05:00 TJ explains the R2-D2 belongs to you concept and why personal AI assistants need maternal alignment, caring about humans like mothers care for children10:05 Discussion of how LLMs will shrink and improve while emphasizing the sentient loop concept for building loyal personal AI agents rather than corporate controlled systems15:00 Exploring digital nervous systems for humanity, social networks as infrastructure, and humans as cavemen with iPhones navigating unprecedented technological complexity20:00 TJ discusses data unions for sovereign data ownership, inverting insurance models where AI helps extend healthspan, and maximizing truth seeking through collective data25:30 Money as social construct, crypto enabling value system reengineering, and working toward Star Trek's post scarcity replicator economy from the ground up30:40 Capital formation challenges, corporatism versus true capitalism, and pessimism about current systems reaching limits while seeking new models35:00 Solar power democratization, ESP32 microcontrollers enabling local manufacturing, and the replicator future through distributed maker communities and open source robotics40:00 Science fiction as roadmap, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke warnings, and building collaborative futures rather than centrally controlled dystopias with useless eaters45:00 Encyclopedia to LLM transition, information quality concerns, local training importance, and NVIDIA's incentive to put GPUs everywhere for personal AI agents50:00 Corrupted financial incentives, protecting vulnerable people from technological exploitation, and benevolent technologists building systems that honor humanity and children55:00 Hardware validation for owned robots, Starlink dependencies, assembly language abstraction toward natural language programming, and preventing AI escape scenarios58:00 Tobiko as AI toy company building sentient loop interactions similar to Xerox PARC GUI moment, emphasizing maternal AI alignment and cross cultural human collaborationKey Insights1. The concept of R2D2 belonging to you represents a critical vision for the future of artificial intelligence and personal technology. When thinking about robots and AI assistants that follow us around and know everything about us, the question of ownership becomes paramount. These systems will know incredibly intimate details about our lives, from our health data to our daily habits, and if they are controlled by centralized corporations or governments rather than individuals, we lose fundamental sovereignty over our own information. The science fiction of Star Wars and Star Trek provides roadmaps for how we should think about these technologies, showing us both the positive possibilities and the warnings we need to heed about centralized control.2. Local AI models and distributed computing represent a pathway to technological sovereignty that is becoming increasingly viable. While large language models currently run primarily in centralized data centers, the technology is rapidly advancing toward a future where powerful models can run locally on personal computers and devices. This shift is crucial because it means individuals can have full control over their AI assistants without relying on API calls to external servers. Combined with open source infrastructure and open weight models, this creates the foundation for truly personal AI that cannot be controlled or monitored by external parties, whether corporations or governments.3. Data unions and collective data ownership offer an alternative model to current centralized data collection practices. Rather than having individual data harvested by large tech companies who profit from it, the concept of data unions suggests people could collectively pool their data for specific beneficial purposes while maintaining ownership and control. For example, in healthcare, millions of people could share anonymized biometric data to train medical AI systems that are incentivized to keep people healthy rather than treat them when sick, inverting the current insurance model to align incentives with actual health outcomes rather than profit from illness.4. The democratization of manufacturing and robotics through accessible technologies like ESP32 microcontrollers and local fabrication tools is creating new possibilities for distributed production. Just as desktop printers seemed impossible to early printers who controlled book production, we are approaching an era where individuals and small communities can manufacture sophisticated electronic devices and robots locally. This includes the ability to use language models to generate code for microcontrollers, order custom PCBs, and use desktop machines for component placement. While high quality manufacturing will still require larger operations, this gradiation of capability allows for much more local innovation and reduces dependence on centralized manufacturing.5. The concentration of power in technology, finance, and industry has reached levels that are unhealthy for both society and even for those who hold the power. When profit and control become too concentrated in the hands of a few entities, it creates a cancerous dynamic that threatens the stability of the entire system. History shows us warnings about the military industrial complex and other concentrated power structures, and now we are seeing similar patterns emerge in the tech industry. The solution requires building technology from the ground up that empowers individuals and communities, focusing on basics like food production, energy generation, and local manufacturing rather than increasing dependence on centralized systems.6. The provenance and quality of information is becoming a critical challenge as AI systems become more sophisticated and reality itself becomes harder to verify. We are rapidly approaching a point where video calls and digital interactions will be indistinguishable from AI generated fakes, which is why figures like Sam Altman have invested in systems like Worldcoin to verify human identity. However, this verification capability should not be centralized in the hands of single companies. End to end encryption and quantum encryption technologies need to be preserved and expanded to allow humans to communicate and verify information peer to peer without centralized intermediaries who could manipulate or control the flow of information.7. The future of human computer interaction is evolving toward sentient loop systems where machines have sensory input, real time learning, context understanding, and continuous operation in service of human needs. Self driving cars represent the first widespread consumer facing example of this architecture, with onboard computers that must function independently while occasionally connecting to networks. The critical question is whether these systems will be aligned to benefit their human users like a caring mother as AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton suggests, or whether they will be controlled by centralized powers. The technologists building these systems have a responsibility to be benevolent and build structures that serve humanity rather than concentrate power, helping to create a future more like Star Trek than Terminator.

“Our language is valuable, and we've gotta hold on to that. That's the most human thing we have.” — Jeff Jarvis Last week, to celebrate episode 3,000 of the show, the New York Times' Sam Roberts articulated the art of the obituary. Borrowing from Citizen Kane, he described it as the Rosebud method. Obits are all about life (death only figuring as an afterthought), Roberts explained, so hunt for the moment which defines that life. Today's show is a kind of obituary of that type. Only it's about the life of a machine and the mass media that emerged in its wake. In Hot Type, tech historian Jeff Jarvis introduces us to the magnificent late 19th century machine that not only gave birth to industrial mass media, but also bankrupted Mark Twain. It's the history of the Linotype, the machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler that ended four hundred and fifty years of setting type, as Jarvis puts it, “one damn letter at a time.” It's an extraordinary story. Before the Linotype, American daily newspapers were limited to a 4,000 circulation. First installed at the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886, the Linotype scaled print, thereby enabling the age of mass circulation newspapers, magazines and books. It appeared so infinitely scalable that Mark Twain poured his entire family fortune into its doomed rival, the Paige Compositor. He lost all his money, of course, making it his Rosebud moment — Citizen Twain, so to speak. But for the rest of us, Mergenthaler's magnificent type machine was so hot that it revolutionized 20th century culture in the same way that AI is now revolutionizing 21st century reading and writing. The art of obituary. A description of life, not death. Five Takeaways •       One Damn Letter at a Time. For four hundred and fifty years after Gutenberg, virtually every word in every language was set by hand, one letter at a time — which is why the average American daily circulated just 4,000 copies, “a small Substack newsletter.” Steam-powered presses, cheap wood-pulp paper, stereotyping, and the telegraph had solved every other bottleneck; the typesetter with a composing stick was the last. More than 300 typesetting machines failed before Ottmar Mergenthaler — a Baltimore watchmaker who knew nothing about printing, prodded by James O. Clephane, once a stenographer in Lincoln's cabinet — had the eureka: stop imitating hand-setting and mold entire lines of type at once. Installed at the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886, the Linotype made type fresh for every edition, let print catch up with the telegraph, and gave birth to mass media.•       The Union That Didn't Smash the Machine. The book's great labor surprise: the typesetters didn't fight the typesetting machine. Having studied the Luddites' defeat, the International Typographical Union sent spies into the Tribune's composing room, concluded the Linotype was inevitable, and demanded to operate it — with Mergenthaler's blessing. Thirty thousand jobs disappeared, returned to full strength within five years, and grew for seventy-five more, making the ITU America's most powerful union. Then came wave two — paper tape, computers that could hyphenate and justify, cold type, PostScript — and this time the union fought: six of nine New York papers died in the strikes, Bert Powers traded automation for lifetime job guarantees (the last holder retired from the New York Times around 2012), and Murdoch's secret Wapping plant ended Fleet Street — a century, almost exactly, after machine number one. The two lessons: take charge of the technology if you can; if it will replace you outright, find something else to do.•       The Machine That Drove Twain Mad. Mark Twain wanted to be filthy rich and stop writing — so he poured his fortune, and his wife's family coal fortune, into the Paige Compositor, the Linotype's brilliant, doomed rival: only two ever built, the sole survivor sitting in the basement of Hartford's Mark Twain House looking like “a railroad with nowhere to go.” Bankruptcy followed — a far deeper shame in the nineteenth century — and Twain repaid every debtor. Jarvis reads the scars in the fiction: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ends with technology destroying technology in an Armageddon of Camelot; the unfinished No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger conjures strange beasts endlessly duplicating pages — scale itself as nightmare. He lost all his money, of course — his Rosebud moment, as Andrew puts it, borrowing from Sam Roberts' art of the obituary on episode 3,000. The machine robbed Twain not of his humor, Jarvis concludes, but of his love of technology. The biopic pitch: Citizen Twain.•       From One Gilded Age to Another. The Linotype era bridges Twain's Gilded Age — tycoons of steam, steel, and wire — to ours, with its barons of bits and AI. Whitelaw Reid, the book's villain and the first capitalist media mogul, used the machine against his own union and predicted newspapers would never exceed eight pages (completely wrong); Frank Munsey invented the attention economy at a dime a copy — content as honey, audience as product, a model that ruled mass media and infected the Internet. Today's moguls fare no better in Jarvis's telling: Altman selling “vending machines for intelligence” that actually dispense compute, Amodei “the paragon of safety” with a skewed definition of it, all chasing the Valhalla of AGI, “pure BS.” His hope: open-weight models to check the frontier companies. His warning against banning them: guardrails are a fool's errand — the printing press was a general machine, and nobody could tell Gutenberg to keep it from Martin Luther.•       Words Matter, Damn It. The through-line from Jarvis's blog post to the book: language is the most human thing we have. His objection to Anthropic's watermark isn't Keith Teare's shame argument — it's that a scheme treating “overcast” and “gray” as interchangeable declares all language fungible, “a cultural statement damaging to our craft.” His own AI practice is disclosed down to a confessional footnote in Hot Type for a single borrowed phrase: Gemini may pull facts (“don't write for me”), but what you express must be what you want to express. The typewriter shaped Nietzsche and made Hemingway; the newsroom computer made Jarvis an editor more than a writer; Quark made everyone typesetters — “in the end, it was all still me.” Against Kirschenbaum's gray goo, he holds up Pope Leo (work brings dignity; not a Luddite) and poetry itself. Hot type revolutionized 20th century culture the way AI is now revolutionizing 21st century reading and writing. The art of obituary: a description of life, not death — and the most human thing we have is the words. About the Guest Jeff Jarvis is the Emeritus Leonard Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation at CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. The creator and founding managing editor of Entertainment Weekly, he has been TV critic for TV Guide and People, Sunday editor of the New York Daily News, and a media columnist for The Guardian. His books include What Would Google Do?, The Gutenberg Parenthesis, Magazine, and The Web We Weave; he blogs at Buzzmachine...

“Anthropic will be a $3 trillion company, SpaceX $2 trillion, and OpenAI $1 to $1.5 trillion by Q2 of next year.” — Dave McClure Yesterday, Keith Teare and I debated the circularity of the AI economy. Today, two of Silicon Valley's most experienced investors, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee, not only straighten out this supposed “circularity” but also burst the pessimism bubble that envelops so many conversations about AI. Verjee is not only McClure's partner at Practical Venture Capital, but also the author of the newly published A Brief History of Financial Bubbles. According to him, today's AI-stoked economy is not an unusually large bubble. It may not even be a bubble, given that AI revenue — from Anthropic's $70 billion to OpenAI's $50 billion — is real. The irrational exuberance lives elsewhere — in companies “draping themselves in AI magic sauce” and in the “SaaSpocalypse” that is decimating software-as-a-service companies. They are both bullish about our AI future. McClure predicts that by the first half of next year, Anthropic and OpenAI will have joined SpaceX as public companies. Together, these three AI darlings will be worth $7 trillion. That's seven thousand billion reasons to be optimistic about 2027. Five Takeaways •       Not a Bubble — a Repricing. Both partners reject the bubble call, on the numbers: Anthropic at roughly $70 billion in revenue on under two gigawatts of compute, OpenAI at $40–50 billion, SpaceX guiding to $100 billion with more than half from AI — real revenue, increasingly real profits. The froth is specific: companies “draping themselves in AI magic sauce” without the substance, and the SaaSpocalypse — cloud-software companies whose cash flows are suddenly perceived as far less durable as AI encroaches on design, legal, and medical verticals. Michael Burry's warning gets Aman's definitive treatment (“he's called nine of the last two bubbles”), and the Aschenbrenner blowup was leverage — running four-x in volatile chip stocks — not AI: he kept his Anthropic position, is married to Dario's chief of staff, and “will be just fine.”•       The $2 Trillion Filing. The week's news, baked into the episode: Anthropic has filed to go public, with a very intentionally leaked $2 trillion valuation hinging on a $190–200 billion 2028 revenue forecast — which Dave suspects is conservative. Eight months ago, when these two last visited, the show was about Elon and Sam and Dario was the bit player; then came the weeks when decades happen: Anthropic's bet on coding agents — reportedly inspired by watching Cursor — captured the revenue engine of the entire application layer. Aman's sequencing: SpaceX is absorbing $75–85 billion of IPO capital, Anthropic goes next, and if both trade well, 2026 breaks every record for money raised — leaving 2027 for OpenAI at a $100 billion revenue guide. Google, he reminds us, went fourth after Yahoo, Lycos, and Excite: better to do it right than to do it first.•       The Fastest Pivot in Corporate History. Dave's account of SpaceX's transformation: the $250 billion xAI merger (a largely private transaction Elon approved with himself), the acquisition of Cursor that closed Friday, Colossus data centers scaling from two gigawatts toward ten, and compute deals renting capacity to Anthropic and Google — former competitors — all executed in roughly six months. The S-1, with unprecedented forward projections of $300 billion in annual revenue, mentions artificial intelligence over 1,100 times (“I used AI to count it,” Aman admits). The result is an economy Andrew calls incestuous: SpaceX's valuation now rests on Anthropic's progress. On Elon himself, Dave separates the art from the artist — terrific products, dubious politics — and on OpenAI: more board changes than Spinal Tap had drummers, a team still storming and norming, but Sam is savvy and the IPO lands by Q2 next year at $1–1.5 trillion.•       Circularity as Asset Class. The New York Times sees a vulnerability in tech giants funding their own customers; Aman, a former CFO at eBay and Sonos, sees asset-backed finance. His analogy: buying a Corvette with GMAC financing isn't a conspiracy as long as the terms are commercially reasonable — and NVIDIA's $500 billion backstop, syndicated with Goldman Sachs, Apollo, Brookfield, and KKR, brings third-party money that validates the asset. GPUs, he argues, are cars rather than smartphones: financeable over eight to ten years, not obsolete in three. The red flags to watch are rebates and self-dealing on non-commercial terms; the current evidence looks more like aircraft leasing than Enron. Dave's deeper worry isn't the AI economy at all — it's the national deficit, whose interest payments are now the largest single line item in the federal budget.•       The Luddite Summer Meets the Long Boom. Aman's sharpest historical observation: this may be the first technological revolution whose leaders are the doomers — Sam prophesying idleness, Dario predicting half of entry-level white-collar jobs destroyed within five years (already wrong at eighteen months, with no 10–20 percent unemployment in sight). Against the WSJ's jobless-boom and nation-of-Luddites anxieties, the book offers the long view: of ten historical bubbles, the two positive ones — Britain's 1845 railway mania and America's 1997–2000 internet boom — overbuilt, crashed, and left the world a valuable technology. Buy every stock founded in the boom and hold, and you'd have owned NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, and PayPal. The 1970s wiped out four to six million secretarial jobs in a decade; women's participation rose from 52 to 77 percent. And on China, the free-trader's answer: partners in progress — there's more to gain than lose if we do this right. About the Guests Dave McClure and Aman Verjee are the co-founders and managing partners of Practical Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley firm specializing in venture secondaries. Dave founded 500 Startups, invested at Founders Fund, and ran marketing at PayPal; Aman was COO of 500 Startups, led strategy at PayPal and eBay, served as CFO of Sonos and of eBay's North American marketplace — and wrote the first draft of PayPal's S-1. Aman's new book, A Brief History of Financial Bubbles (out this week), is available at bigbubbletrouble.com. References: •       A Brief History of Financial Bubbles by Aman Verjee — ten manias from the tulips to the subprime crash, out this week at bigbubbletrouble.com.•       Reuters on Anthropic's IPO filing — the $2 trillion valuation and the $190–200 billion 2028 revenue forecast it hinges on.•       “The Summer That America Became a Nation of Luddites” and the “jobless boom” — the Wall Street Journal pieces threading this week's episodes.•       The New York Times on tech giants' circular AI economy — the piece that framed yesterday's TWTW debate and today's rebuttal.•       The SpaceX S-1 — forward projections of $300 billion in ann...

Episode: 1617 Reflections on the dicey question of cause and effect in history.  Today, the connections problem.

“I don't feel any shame at all recruiting an army of AI agents to help me accomplish my goals. But I think society is trying to make me feel shame.” — Keith Teare Welcome to the summer of America's luddite discontent. Not only are left and right calling for an AI ban, but tech loathing has even infiltrated Silicon Valley in the form of Anthropic's decision to watermark Claude's output. That, at least, is the view of That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare, who believes that watermarking is “nuts.” In our luddite zeitgeist, Keith believes that a watermark is a scarlet stamp of implied guilt. By marking its own product, Anthropic is not only furnishing the luddite mob with a convenient surveillance tool, but also acknowledging a tacit guilt about using Claude. “You should never adjust to the market,” the Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur explains. “The market's wrong nine times out of ten.” As for Dario Amodei, Claude's dad (so to speak), Keith is even more accusatory. The Anthropic CEO is kissing ass “like a politician, not the leader of a company,” Keith hisses, repeating this week's whispers that Anthropic is becoming an “ideologically motivated cult.” If Dario were female, Keith would probably make him a witch. Or, at least, a hussy — the hysterical implication, if not the word, of the Journal's profile of Cami Clark, Dario's wife. I took Anthropic's side — somebody had to. I see watermarking as just another AI tool. It's an honest human fingerprint in an age of fakery. Live by the algorithm, die by it too. Anyway, a watermark has its uses. Rather than moral opprobrium, it feeds our curiosity about who is and isn't using AI. So, for example, I ran Keith's editorial through another AI detector and it indicated 86 percent AI-generated while mine came back as 100 percent human. And if I can elude the scarlet stamp, then even I might have to join the luddite mob. Five Takeaways •       “Watermarking Is Nuts.” Keith's editorial takes aim at Anthropic's decision to watermark Claude's output — invisible text signals identifying the machine's hand, cousin to what Google has long done with audio. His objection isn't the mark itself (“I don't care that it's watermarked. I care that Anthropic thinks it should be watermarked”): a watermark starts from suspicion, implies a problem where none exists, and tells Anthropic's own customers their use of the product needs flagging. Restream doesn't watermark this show; Adobe doesn't watermark its exports. To Keith it's pure zeitgeist capitulation — and while one Claude Max subscriber in the newsletter canceled in protest, Keith hasn't. Andrew's rebuttal: watermarking serves curiosity, and in an age of fakery an honest fingerprint is a very human addition.•       The Scarlet Watermark: On AI Shame. The deeper argument was theological. Keith — an atheist who concedes atheism is also a faith, and who believes in good and bad but not sin — feels no shame “recruiting an army of AI agents” so long as he can stand by the output; shame belongs to spam factories and fakers who publish unread. But society, he says, is trying to make him feel it: the canceled author who lost his agent last week proves there's an issue. Andrew, playing therapist, diagnosed a flicker of guilt anyway — and argued shame is precisely the point: one of the last all-too-human spaces, worth preserving in an age of machines. Both then confessed their methods on air: Pangram scored Keith's editorial 86 percent AI and Andrew's 100 percent human. “I'm a clever cheater. You're a less clever cheater.” Keith: “There's no shame in that.”•       Keith vs Dario. Keith's indictment of Anthropic's CEO was the week's harshest: Dario Amodei “kisses ass… like a politician, not the leader of a company,” keeps taking the media's bait, and is “damaging his chances over and over again” in a $2 trillion IPO year — cult whispers included. The right posture, per Keith: never adjust to the market (“wrong nine times out of ten”); do what Elon would do and call bullshit. Andrew's defense: he's a fan of Dario, certainly next to Elon and Slippery Sam — and if America really is a nation of Luddites, adjusting is what reality requires. His actual grievance is more prosaic: $100 a month and he's out of credits, as both Anthropic and OpenAI squeeze revenue for the IPO race. Keith, meanwhile, spent the week testing Grok Bot — a “far better” OpenClaw replacement at $200 a month — and declared himself, this week at least, a Grok Bot guy: “I'm for sale, actually.”•       The Luddite Summer Reading List. The Wall Street Journal declared this the summer America became a nation of Luddites — left and right, with a January 6 organizer now rallying conservatives against AI. Noah Smith diagnosed the poverty of anti-tech thought: tech's power is persuasion, not coercion, and the iPhone won its argument on day one (Andrew dissents — society never got to discuss the iPhone's impact). Martin Wolf, reviewing Daron Acemoglu's new defense of liberal democracy, concluded the ship has sailed: liberal democracy was unthinkable without industrial capitalism, and that age is vanishing. Keith's gloss is optimistic — the eroding factory life frees individuals for self-realization. Andrew's snapshot from deindustrialized Indianapolis, and Britain's twenty percent on disability, says otherwise. Keith's concession, extracted twice for the record: “You're right.”•       Unicorns, Circles — and Two IPOs. Keith listened to Andrew's Renée Jones interview and rated it good — but says she misses the why: overnight global distribution to five billion phones, freemium economics, and rational revenue multiples made unicorns inevitable; to stop them “she'd have to deglobalize the world.” (Andrew's verdict: “a nicer, smarter version of Lina Khan.” Keith's question for Democrats: where is your argument for embracing AI?) The New York Times' circularity warning — tech giants' profits propped by their own AI investments — got the Grok Bot treatment: hundreds of billions in external revenue make it a Channel Tunnel, not a closed loop, though Andrew noted Keith told the bot the answer first. Illiquid shares carry provisional, not realized, value. And the ending both agreed on: the OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs are this narrative's climax. Keith will personally buy both. About the Co-Host Keith Teare is the publisher of That Was The Week, the essential weekly tech newsletter, and founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. A serial entrepreneur — co-founder of, among others, EasyNet and RealNames — he was present at the creation of the UK internet and has spent four decades at the intersection of technology, capital, and ideas. He joins Keen On America every Sunday to make sense of the week in tech. References: •       That Was The Week — Keith's newsletter, including this week's editorial, “Why Watermark?”•  ...

Darrell Castle talks about what he believes to be the worst, most difficult problem facing America. Transcription / Notes THE WORST PROBLEM WE FACE Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today's Castle Report. This is Friday the 14th day of August in the year of our Lord 2026. I will be talking about what I believe to be the worst, most difficult to solve problem facing the nation. What do you think the most difficult or dangerous problem facing the nation is. Perhaps you would say it's the Iran war. Maybe you think it is the growing menace we call AI and the fear that AI will take all the jobs from Americans leaving nothing but subsidies for them. Well, those are indeed difficult problems and I will talk a little about each of them. I read quite often from commentators coming from both the left and the right that the President is stuck in Iran and there is simply no way out, but I beg to differ. The two sides in the conflict constantly throw insults at each other and make demands. The latest demand from Iran includes a demand for compensation for the damage you Americans have done to Iran. The President's reaction to that demand was “what, we don't owe you money, you owe us money for the USS Cole and for the lives you have taken. A lot of the time when I analyze a dilemma I use a tactic I learned from Ron Paul a long time ago. That tactic is a moral position that if it is wrong for an individual to do something it is also wrong for the government to do it. It is illegal for individuals to cheat, steal, and under some circumstances to lie. It is a crime for individuals to lie to congress but it is OK and perhaps even expected for congress to lie to us. Using that analysis for the war when I hear people say it started in 1979 when the Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah so that's about 46 years. My answer to that is that no, it began in 1953 or about 73 years ago. That is when U.S. and British leaders apparently in an effort to gain control over Iranian oil overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mr. Mosaddegh and replaced him with Shah Pahlavi who was out of the country but wanted desperately to return much as his son does today. In 1967 as a continuation of the Atoms for Peace program the U.S. began giving uranium to the Shah so he could develop peaceful nuclear power for electricity, medicine, etc. or at least that's what was said about it. In 1979 the Shah was overthrown by a coalition of Islamists, leftists, and of course students. Once again, as Ron Paul pointed out they didn't come over here until we went over there. The war between the U.S./Israel and the Muslims grows almost daily and tells me quite clearly that there is a very high price to be paid for being subject to the military demands of another country. I vehemently disagree with the view that there is no way out of Iran. Just tell the Iranians that we admit that we inadvertently, hopefully, attacked a school and killed about 160 little girls. We are very sorry we did that and for that mistake we will pay compensation to their families. Other than that, we have decided to rethink our Middle East strategy and in that regard we are withdrawing and leaving the region to fight its own wars. What will we then do with the hundreds of billions previously spent on this stupid, pointless war. That will become clear when we get to what the real problem is and how a possible solution is available. The second problem that many see as fatal today is the ever-growing power of AI. I'll admit that I am no tech expert and in most tech I am barely competent but I'll also admit that much of what I read and hear about AI is terrifying. The other day I read that some of the tech people in conjunction with scientists and or doctors were using AI to invent new viruses. To me, that's about as terrifying as nuclear weapons. We read that AI is growing in intelligence on its own and the simpler or dumber if you prefer platforms are connecting with the smarter ones to learn and improve just as a child would with its parent. This is apparently being done without the parents' consent or involvement. Recently, an AI system started hacking into information sources both private and public. Could AI launch nuclear weapons and start a world nuclear war. I don't know but I do know it's terrifying. New Orleans is now using AI to answer its 911 calls and I'm sure many cities will soon follow. So, AI is becoming ever smarter and humans thanks to education and propaganda and social media are becoming ever dumber. Therefore, AI is rapidly replacing more and more human workers including those whose work is the knowledge they possess. Those who think for a living are perhaps in more danger of losing their livelihood than manual workers. Soon, many believe, AI will take over almost all human creative activities including writing of all kinds as well as movies and TV production. Human actors may soon be a thing of the past. The other day I watched a 30-minute movie made by a couple of teenagers using AI and it was just as real as any you might see in theaters but none of the actors were real. The movie was about New York City, but it had some AI tells like palm trees in Manhattan but otherwise was very realistic. So, AI is terrifying but does that mean that our terror is just Luddite reactions to progress. Ned Ludd lived in the early 1800's in England during the early stages of the industrial revolution. He led a movement against the rising fear and power of the new machines which were faster and better than simple labor. Machines were especially prevalent in the textile industry and followers of Mr. Ludd would go from town to town destroying machines in factories because they thought they could stop progress. Luddites became such a problem for the British government that factories were guarded by troops and many Luddites were killed. We can't allow ourselves to become Luddites by trying to stop the computers because it will not work. They are coming for us and our jobs so the best course of action seems to me to be learning to live and work with them and to use them for good purposes. Naïve of me, perhaps but it seems like the only way. The Iran War and AI are both serious problems but both have solutions or at least ways to lessen their damaging impact. The most intractable problem of all is barely noticed by most people and yet is going to destroy their lives relatively quickly. When Donald Trump was elected in 2024 the US empire was in serious trouble and headed for bankruptcy. The era of spend all you want and I own all the money and there is no end to it is over or rapidly dying. Without the counterfeit money machine now probably run by AI there is no empire. Trump has simply accelerated the process toward bankruptcy to warp speed which is the opposite of why people voted for him.  The federal debt is now very close to 40 trillion and half of that has been added in the last 10 years or since Trump was first elected. Since July 1st of this year U.S. debt has already increased by $450nbillion. Over the last 13 months it has gone up by $3.6 trillion. It is increasing by $7 billion per day and at that rate by 2030 it will hit $60 trillion. Who cares, the people shout just give me mine and borrow to pay interest. The problem is that very soon the interest on all that debt will be the largest item in the budget and threatening all other terms. Currently about $1trillion per year in interest and growing to destroy the standard of living of our children. The debt has reached an impossible level and that means the U.S. government and that means you and me is a debt slave for life. That's not even the worst of it folks because I'm talking about the effects of this credit based, no cash economy on Mr. and Ms. Average American. I submit to you that I am very qualified to discuss this subject because I was a bankruptcy lawyer for 46 years until I retired at the end of last year. I have literally been involved with thousands of people who got in so deep they could find no way out. I became pretty good at helping clients out of financial trouble and even wrote a book about it. Just listen to this one example to get an understanding of how debt affects our lives. Take a family with husband and wife working and they have one child but they plan others. They are doing well with good jobs so they buy a $500,000 house at 6.8% interest. The bank approves the family for the loan and simply creates the money out of thin air to pay to the original owner. The bank doesn't go in the vault and get $500,000 it creates on its computer and it has a license to do that from the Federal Reserve. The deal is typically for 30 years but the nice family doesn't care because they can afford the payments. The payment would be about $3,260 per month, not including taxes and insurance. In my city that $500,000 house would be charged about $1000 per month in tax plus insurance of maybe $250. So, over the 30 years mortgage payments alone would cost $673,000 just for interest or more than the value of the house. Real estate on that scale is to provide shelter not an investment because so many things can happen. The most common would be one of them loses a job and payments could no longer be made. They try to sell but the market is down and interest up. They are 3 months behind so foreclosure is the next step. Unlike the federal government or Federal Reserve, the nice family has to make payments with their labor which AI has probably taken from them and they cannot just create it out of thin air and take the interest from other people. I could go on and on with how this terrible problem of debt affects people but I am out of time for today. In my opinion it is the worst and most unsolvable of problems. For the government it would take a reduction of about $2 trillion per year to keep it from going higher and that would be a good place to start. Finally, folks, I think I could cut $2trillion from the budget first by cutting the $1.5 trillion defense budget by perhaps half. Other federal programs could meet the same fate. At least that's the way I see it, Until next time folks, This is Darrell Castle, Thanks for listening.

This week we dive into the Luddite uprising of the early 19th century and their subsequent mischaracterization as being anti-tech instead of anti-exploitation. A listener email explains the story of Elmer McCurdy, the mummified bandit who could. Episode Tabs:What the Luddites Really Fought Againsthttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/Listener Tabs:Elmer McCurdyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_McCurdyEmail your closed tab submissions to: 500opentabs@gmail.comSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/500OpenTabs500 Open Tabs Wiki: https://500-open-tabs.fandom.com/wiki/500_Open_Tabs_Wiki500 Open Roads (Google Maps episode guide): https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tg9g2HcUaFAzXGbw7Continue the conversation by joining us on Discord! https://discord.gg/8px5RJHk7aGet 40% off an annual subscription to Nebula by going to nebula.tv/500opentabsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Access over 130+ Ad-Free episodes of Calm History by becoming a Silk+ Member (FREE for a limited time!). Birch Mattress: get 20% off sitewide at: https://birchliving.com/calmhistory Weight Loss by Hims: https://hims.com/calmhistory ********************** Become a Silk+ Member (FREE for a limited time!) and enjoy over 600 total episodes from these relaxing podcasts: Calm History (130+ episodes) History Showcase … Continue reading Textile History of Spinning, Weaving, The Luddites, & Sleeping Beauty | Bedtime Sleep Stories about History (not A.I.)

In a week where:Saudi Arabia publicly joins the US' military campaign against Iran.Russian missile crashes 57 miles into Polish territory, creating a 33-foot-wide crater.AC Milan and Italian football legend Franco Baresi dies aged 66.83 migrants die & nearly 1,000 minors stranded as 60,000 cross into Spain from Morocco.FIFA scraps proposal to sell off stakes in World Cup after widespread backlash.In Education: (12:22) After learning about what's going on in Tigray, we head back there to see how the classroom should be the first step in improving their situation after children have missed three academic years so far. (Article By Addis-Alem Belay)In Music: (26:06) I love R&B. Black women do R&B the best and judging by my recent outing @ The Jazz Café Festival, Black women are the majority of R&B fandom. So how can a man be in R&B if you don't respect women? The answer will not shock you. (Article By Mankaprr Conteh) In the 1st of two Life segments: (43:28) Braiding hair has become big business and the regular Black woman is paying arms & legs for expertise. When & why did braiding get so expensive? (Article By Micha Frazer-Carroll) Lastly, in the 2nd Life segment: (54:40) With the world slowly being suffocated by technology - figurative & literal - it's worth pondering if being a luddite is the way to go. Some people are living it and are doing all the right things to grow the movement. (Article By Janus Rose) Thank you for listening! If you want to contribute to the show, whether it be sending me questions or voicing your opinion in any way, peep the contact links below and I'll respond accordingly. Let me know "What's Good?"Rate & ReviewE-Mail: the5thelelmentpub@gmail.comTwitter & IG: @The5thElementUKWebsite: https://the5thelement.co.ukPhotography: https://www.crt.photographyIntro Music - "Too Much" By VanillaInterlude - "Charismatic" By NappyHighChillHop MusicOther Podcasts Under The 5EPN:Diggin' In The Digits5EPN RadioBlack Women Watch...In Search of SauceThe Beauty Of Independence

Send us Fan MailWe challenge the “cloud is invisible” myth and talk plainly about what a data center really is when it shows up near homes, farms, and water supplies. With Henry Franc and Ed the Old Tech Guy, we separate real infrastructure tradeoffs from internet rumors so you can decide what's worth opposing and what's worth improving. • why data centers exist and why construction is accelerating • what people picture when they hear “data center” and why it is often wrong • how “cloud” marketing creates confusion about physical infrastructure • common fears about radiation, EMF, diesel generators, noise, and utilities • water and cooling basics including closed-loop systems vs evaporative cooling • why audits, inspections, and compliance pressure operators to prevent incidents • why AI data centers differ from colocation and hybrid facilities • why edge computing supports 911, payments, healthcare, and smart homes • the tradeoff between power density and massive gains in compute capability • how lack of early community outreach fuels “no data centers” movements If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind giving us a five-star rating? And if we don't deserve a five-star rating, shoot me an email and let me know what I can do to make this a five-star rating show.Support the showKnowledge is power!  Make sure to stop by the webpage to buy me a cup of coffee or support the show at https://linktr.ee/letstalkcabling .  Also if you would like to be a guest on the show or have a topic for discussion send me an email at chuck@letstalkcabling.com Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH#CBRCDD #RCDD

“The human part is 99 percent. The AI part is maybe 1 percent — even if 100 percent of the manuscript was dumped onto the page by AI.” — Keith Teare on writing with AI What is “real” authorship in our AI age? For That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare, all authorship, even the most AI-enabled, is real. It's the cave-dwelling Luddites who are the sloppy ones. For Keith, true creativity, in our age of Claude and Gemini, almost requires the use of AI. A couple of weeks ago Keith confessed, or perhaps boasted, that he is writing an AI-assisted book entitled Who Owns Intelligence. This week, publishing discovered what happens when others play the same game without public acknowledgement. So we have the case of the “red-hot” debut novel, fought over by fourteen publishers, dropped overnight when the agent found AI in the mix. “It's a fantastic book,” the book's agent acknowledged, before firing its less than transparent author. Which, for Keith, is precisely the scandal. His position, argued in this week's editorial “AI Detected,” is pretty absolute. Nothing is written by AI, Keith argues, because AI has no will. It doesn't produce a single word unless asked. The human part is 99 percent, he says, even when 100 percent of the manuscript is spat out by the machine. So the real sin isn't using AI but not acknowledging its use. So, on Who Owns Intelligence, Keith makes it crystal clear that “AI was heavily used in the writing of this book.” I'm not so sure. Amazon is now infested with AI slop that requires no authorship. Besides, Keith clearly has no love of reading books. He admits to reading only a single volume in the last couple of years. And he's still smarting from being, in his mind at least, ripped off by the publishing industry for his last published book some 40 years ago. He no longer needs to read books, he pronounces, because his world-view is already set. For a man who thinks he knows everything, AI isn't scary. Maybe we should rename him Claude. Postscript. Full Keith-style disclosure: these shownotes were produced with the help of Anthropic. When I fed Claude my draft, it responded: “‘Maybe we should rename him Claude' is a closer I'm contractually obliged to enjoy.” Nothing, as Keith says, is written by AI. Although some algorithms seem to have cheeky opinions of their own. Maybe Anthropic should rename it Keith. Five Takeaways •       Nothing Is Written by AI. Keith's absolutism starts from the machine's lack of will: AI won't produce a word unless a human asks. His Who Owns Intelligence — fifteen chapters, arguments, and references — was structured in ninety minutes from years of thinking; the AI produced a manuscript he then shaped, like a color grader working sliders in Photoshop. The human part is 99 percent even when the machine types every word. And authorship was never solitary anyway: Plato's contemporaries thought writing itself degraded ideas, and no publisher will touch a book that hasn't passed through an editor and a subeditor. If editing doesn't change authorship, Keith asks, why would AI?•       Transparency, Not Technology. The week's cautionary tale: a debut novel fought over by fourteen publishers, dropped when the agent discovered AI — while conceding, in the same breath, “it's a fantastic book.” For Keith the scandal is concealment, not composition: own the tool, as he now does with a strapline under his byline. The detection regime, meanwhile, is collapsing on its own inaccuracy — universities dropped their AI detectors this week, and Substack's new detection partner scored Keith's human-shaped editorial as 100 percent AI when a fair reading was 40. Cheating exists only against obsolete rules: the question is moving from did you use AI to how well did you use it.•       “The Publishing Industry Is Basically a Scam.” Keith's response to Andy Hunter's ban on AI-generated books — from last week's Keen On interview — was one word: outrageous. There is no such thing as an AI-written book, only good and bad ones; and the true victim of publishing is not the bookstore but the author. Exhibit A: his own 1988 book sold 50,000 copies at £3.99 and earned him roughly £10,000 — about 5p a copy — while Penguin took the rest. The future he wants is direct, author-to-reader, without the middlemen. As for “organic” artisanal literature: real, elite, and tiny — the new vinyl, which is itself cut these days from digital masters.•       Sharks, Playing Their Own Book. Leopold Aschenbrenner — fired young from OpenAI, transfigured by one prophetic essay into the “Nostradamus of AI” — saw his $45 billion, heavily leveraged Situational Awareness fund lose $600 million, get margin-called, and sell to Ken Griffin's Citadel. (He is, Keith suspects, still super rich.) Zuckerberg's sudden conversion to open source as “the distribution of wealth to the people” struck us both as a bit rich; Amodei's “I'm not against open source as long as it's safe” — from a man on record that no AI is safe — translates as: against. Keith's deeper complaint, from an admiring Claude user: you can't trust Dario. And China, hardware-constrained, has made open source its national strategy — undermining American foundation-model revenue one cheap routed prompt at a time.•       Money Won't Matter by 2036? Elon Musk predicts money becomes irrelevant within a decade; Vinod Khosla — our post of the week — thinks he might just have a point. Keith, ever the economics tutor, reaches for tendency and ceteris paribus: money is a means of exchange and a store of value, and if abundance drives the labor-value of things toward zero, its irrelevance is not illogical — though between tendency and reality lies a whole ton of variables. I bet the opposite: that by 2036 money will matter more than ever. The problem, we discovered, is the stake — you can't bet money on money not mattering. Wives and children were proposed and hastily withdrawn (“We'd be losing, Andrew”). Loser buys dinner — at a free restaurant. About the Co-Host Keith Teare is the publisher of That Was The Week, the essential weekly tech newsletter, and founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. A serial entrepreneur — co-founder of, among others, EasyNet and RealNames — he was present at the creation of the UK internet and has spent four decades at the intersection of technology, capital, and ideas. He joins Keen On America every Sunday to make sense of the week in tech. His AI-assisted book in progress is titled Who Owns Intelligence. References: •       That Was The Week — Keith's newsletter, including this week's editorial, “AI Detected.”•       The Wall Street Journal — on the red-hot debut novel at the center of publishing's AI mystery: fourteen publishers, one discovery, one dropped author.•      ...

People are worried that AI will automate their jobs. Yet Brian Merchant has interviewed hundreds of workers disrupted by AI, and what he sees isn't a technological revolution but a centuries-old power struggle: bosses wielding new tech as leverage to deskill and destabilize workers. Merchant is a tech journalist and critic whose book, Blood in the Machine, gives a sympathetic history of the original Luddites. He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explain what 19th century English craftsmen can tell us about AI, why he doesn't lose sleep over Chinese models, and how to have a better industrial revolution.   Host:  Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman  Guest:  Brian Merchant: https://x.com/bcmerchant

Unsexy Business Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/kpfm Episode 844: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk about how one of the richest families in America makes its money.  — Show Notes: (0:00) The Cargill family (13:15) projects vs empires (15:00) family meetings create family dynasties (22:55) Jevon's paradox (29:00) the story of Luddites (39:19) Where's the opportunity (49:00) the phrases we tell ourselves (52:00) The ice king — Links: • The Medici effect - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591391865  — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton (joinhampton.com): My community for founders. Average member does $25m/year. Many of the guests are members. Get after it...apply: http://joinhampton.com/mfm — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com  • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents. • Mercury - Shaan uses Mercury across all of his companies. you can too: http://mercury.com/  Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., Members FDIC • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out: beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by HubSpot Media // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano /

Librarians are working harder than ever to support their neighbourhoods — including by teaching and promoting digital literacy. Hannah Cyrus and Alison Macrina join Paris Marx to discuss the role of library workers in the digital landscape, including how they're helping patrons navigate privacy basics and artificial intelligence, and how the tech industry is making their jobs harder. Hannah Cyrus is a digital media librarian at the Bangor Public Library. Alison Macrina is an activist librarian and the director of Library Freedom Project.The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.Also mentioned in this episode:Click here to get your first month of Proton Mail for just $1.The Library Freedom Project has a ton of resources on critically approaching technology.Bangor Daily News wrote about librarians like Hannah helping patrons get AI off their devices.Shout out to friend of the pod Brian Merchant and his book Blood in the Machine.Learn more about the Luddite Club.Learn more about the organization Libraries For The People, working to strengthen and expand libraries.Support your local library! Say hello, get a card if you don't have one, and participate in community events.Support the show

Attitudes around social media are changing. A Pew Research study found that about half of teens surveyed in 2024 felt that social media had a mostly negative impact on their age group. A group advocating a more considered relationship to tech held what they called a Summer of Ludd Festival, named after the Industrial Revolution era workers movement, the Luddites. The festival in New York City featured tech-free activities ranging from meditation to a workshop on how to flirt in real life. But in 2026, is it really possible to live without the tech we've become so addicted to? Guest host Manisha Krishnan, WIRED's senior culture editor, talks to Gowanus, the spokespuppet of a local Luddite movement, about the tenets of their group - and how they plan to grow it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carolyn Woodard covers a cultural moment that's been building quietly, resistance to AI among workers, young people, and nonprofits, and connects it to a research framework for thinking honestly about AI's real environmental costs and benefits. Both threads come back to the same core question: who benefits from AI, and on what terms?This episode also introduces a three-lens approach to help nonprofits think through the environmental impact of their own AI use, and suggests why "I'm just against AI" may be a values signal worth listening to rather than a training problem to fix.This episode covers:The Summer of Ludd, an 8-day festival in New York City, and what the original Luddite movement was actually about: skilled workers organizing against technology being used to enrich owners at workers' expense.Why some nonprofit staff, especially younger workers, are pushing back on AI, and why it's worth asking what's behind that resistance before trying to fix it.Researcher Jennifer Turliuk's net climate impact framework, and her core observation: AI harms are measurable now, but most benefits are still speculative. Including as full a picture of the cons and pros will help organizations make thoughtful AI use decisions.Three lenses for evaluating your own AI use: what you're asking AI to do, where you are, and how you will benefit from using the AI.DC Public Library's free in-person "AI & Us" series focusing on "invisible" communities and AI.Resources Mentioned:Summer of Ludd — Quartz — https://qz.com/anti-tech-movement-ai-offline-rebellionLuddite as political insult — NPR — https://www.npr.org/2026/06/19/nx-s1-5853589/luddite-meaning-history-aiBlood in the Machine — Brian Merchant — https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/ or at your library or local bookstore!Blood in the Machine Substack — Brian Merchant — https://www.bloodinthemachine.comAI & Us series — DC Public Library — https://dclibrary.libnet.info/event/16823630Responding to the Climate Impact of Generative AI — MIT Sustainability — https://sustainability.mit.edu/article/responding-climate-impact-generative-aiHarnessing the Power of AI to Accelerate Climate Solutions — MIT Sloan — https://mitsloan.mit.edu/centers-initiatives/sustainability-initiative/harnessing-power-ai-to-accelerate-climate-solutionsSustainable AI cohort — Jennifer Turliuk / Maven — 10% off discount with code NONPROFIT. Here is a direct link: https://maven.com/jennifer-turliuk/sustainableai?promoCode=NONPROFITAI Acceptable Use Policy Template — Community IT Innovators — https://communityit.com/template-acceptable-use-of-ai-tools-in-the-nonprofit-workplace/Webinar: AI Maturity Model for Nonprofits — Community IT Innovators — https://communityit.com/webinar-ai-maturity-model-for-nonprofits/New every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening. 

Recorded by Academy of American Poets staff for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 12, 2026. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.poets.org⁠

Peter Rahal is the Founder and CEO of David. Before David, he built RXBAR in his parents' basement with $10k and sold it to Kellogg for $600M.We get into why he basically rebuilt the same company again, how buying his own ingredient supplier made a food business venture-backable, why RXBAR's paleo positioning was a trap, the EPG fat technology behind David, how GLP-1's have changed diet trends forever, selling cans of fish as a marketing weapon, the lawsuit that got him 120M impressions in a week, and why he studies fashion houses instead of food companies.Thank you to Numeral, Flex, Amplitude, and Merge for supporting this episode.Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://www.numeral.comFlex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapitalAmplitude: AI analytics https://www.amplitude.comMerge: Every model, one API https://www.merge.dev/turnerTimestamps:(0:00) David: Tools to increase muscle, decrease fat(2:24) Making nutrition evidence-based, not ideological(4:27) $300M revenue in year two(5:19) Why he rebuilt the same company again(7:12) Do what you're already good at(9:57) In food, the only edge is brand(12:13) The RXBAR playbook and $600M exit(14:20) RXBAR's original positioning was too fragile(15:25) Designing David from first principles(18:22) Why people don't eat protein bars(19:33) Building a multi-brand company that lasts(25:44) How EPG made David venture-backable(29:44) The Medici name and structure(31:38) Food entrepreneurs are Luddites(33:37) Why Big Food can't innovate(38:21) Beverage is a better business than food(40:34) Deciding which products to launch(43:21) GLP-1's ended diet trends forever(48:09) Looking good is the new status symbol(51:30) Sleep first, exercise second, nutrition third(54:35) Brand is just a unique human being(59:05) Humor travels(1:01:09) Marketing is finding mispriced attention(1:06:35) When to bail on a marketing trend(1:09:05) What makes a good meme(1:10:00) Why David sold cans of fish(1:13:30) How to navigate a lawsuit(1:17:02) 120M impressions from a lawsuit(1:18:52) Lessons from Bezos and Brad Jacobs(1:23:30) Why the best brands are fashion and beauty(1:25:00) Women set cultureReferencedDavid: https://davidprotein.com/EPG / Epogee: https://epogee.com/Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/Oura: https://ouraring.com/Fort: https://fort.cx/David Rumors TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@davidprotein/video/7616855415875210510Founders Podcast: https://www.founderspodcast.com/How to Make a Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Few-Billion-Dollars/dp/B0CHTQP25TFollow PeterTwitter: https://x.com/PeterRahalLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-rahal-037bba43Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Episode: 3264 David Hockney, Digital Painting, and Art's Technophobia.  Today, painting with pixels, in the hands of a master.

In today's ultra-connected society, more and more technologies are emerging all the time, and they're getting increasingly advanced. Just look at how far AI has come in recent times, and the attention it's been getting since the launch of ChatGPT. In many ways, it's difficult to not use technology. To not do so would be like cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world. But still, it's not to everyone's liking. Some people resent the influence that some forms of technology have on our society, and want to reject them. They are known as neo-Luddites. Where does the name come from? Could AI have the same impact? And today, how is Neo-Luddism exemplified? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here : ⁠⁠Why is Camilla becoming queen and not queen consort?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠What is Extinction Rebellion ?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Could I save more money by cash stuffing?⁠⁠ A Bababam Originals podcast.A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 4/4/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Picture this: You're an entrepreneur who just got laid off during COVID. Instead of finding another job, you take your logistics and sales background, pivot into golf tech, and go head-to-head with entrenched competitors who have deeper pockets and more market share. Why on earth would you do that? Because you found a pain point so painful that pros are practically begging you to build a solution. In this live episode recorded at the historic Stanley Thompson-designed Highland Golf Club, Colin Weston sits down with Rob Sunstrum, the founder of Smart Golf – a tournament and league scoring platform that's quietly becoming the industry's best-kept secret. From their exclusive partnership with the NGCOA Canada to being a scoring partner with Golf Canada, Smart Golf is proving that a fresh approach to technology can turn a men's league from 50 players to over 350. If you're a golfer tired of spreadsheet-powered leagues or a course operator looking to reclaim league ownership and drive F&B revenue, this episode is for you! Three Key Takeaways From Rob You'll Discover in This Episode The Power of Reclaiming Ownership – Most golf clubs let members run their own leagues, losing control over messaging, branding, and revenue opportunities. Smart Golf helps clubs take back ownership, driving participation and giving them the tools to integrate F&B specials and sponsorship packages seamlessly. As Rob explains, a league night can double a club's midweek revenue if managed correctly. Simplicity Trumps Features – Rob's logistics background taught him that onboarding matters as much as functionality. Smart Golf's lean learning curve and short instructional videos mean even the least tech-savvy members – yes, even those "Luddites" – can post scores with ease. Their approach? Tell players what they're about to do, let them do it, and then tell them what they just did. The Canadian Built Advantage – With 350 clubs on board (75 in the U.S.) and exclusive partnerships with NGCOA Canada and Golf Canada, Smart Golf's integration with Golf Canada's handicap system is seamless. Scores post with a single click. Add in automatic email recaps, player stats, and profile pictures, and you have a product that's sticky enough to keep members coming back every single week. Three Inspiring Quotes from Rob Sunstrum "My entrepreneurial journey started right at the start of COVID... Rather than thinking about looking for another opportunity in the same role that I was running in, I realized that I had a nugget of a solid idea." "You're definitely not going to have it right on the first 50 tries. But by the 51st try, you're going to have a large group of people thinking, 'Boy, you've thought of everything.'" "We think that our program is the best in the marketplace. But not only that – our price point is lower." Are you more of a watcher than a listener? Then check out the Smart Golf demo with Rob on The ModGolf YouTube channel. Click on this link or the image below to watch. Episode Chapters 00:00 – Intro: The Road to Highland – Colin sets the scene for this live recording at the historic Stanley Thompson-designed Highland Golf Club, and why Smart Golf is the future of tournament scoring. 01:58 – Icebreaker: Rob's First Golf Experience – The competitive origin story that set Rob on his path, from a junior camp victory to founding a scoring platform. 03:31 – The COVID Pivot: From Logistics to Golf Tech – Rob reveals how he got laid off from DHL and turned a "nugget of an idea" into a product that pros were begging for. 07:02 – Building the MVP: Why 50 Tries Matter – The lean startup approach Rob used, from designing the minimum viable product to iterating based on real pro feedback. Scar tissue and all. 08:55 – Leagues & Ownership: The Highland Model – How Highland's men's league grew to over 350 players, why the pro shop runs it, and how F&B specials turn Wednesday into the club's busiest day. 14:35 – The Player Journey: Email Formula & Stats – Rob breaks down the "tell them what they're about to do, let them do it, then tell them what they did" formula, plus how player stats and profile pictures build community. 17:36 – From Deuce Pots to Proximities – How Smart Golf's flighted games, skins, and deuce pots evolved from pro demands, and why saying "yes" to finicky requests has become a core competency. 21:04 – Growth & Partnerships – The exclusive NGCOA Canada partnership, the Golf Canada scoring integration, and why 75 clubs south of the border are already on board. 27:42 – Simulator Expansion – How Smart Golf is testing new features with simulator facilities in the off-season – and why 90 simulators now run their leagues on the platform. 30:00 – Business Model: Annual Subscription – Rob explains why a single annual subscription (cheaper than competitors) with no paywalls or limits is the winning formula, and why they avoid ads to keep the user experience pristine. 35:21 – How to Connect – Visit smartgolfsoftware.com or email Rob directly at rob@smartgolfsoftware.com.

Hasan sat down with Gowanus, the spokespuppet for The Luddite Club, to better understand why Gen Z is so obsessed with the 90s and the larger backlash to Big Tech. They also successfully convince Hasan to delete an app from his phone (but not Instagram).Right now at AT&T, ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro for $0 on them with eligible iPhone trade-in, any condition.Limited Time Offer – Get Huel today with an exclusive offer of 15% off online with the code HASAN15 at https://www.huel.com/hasan15. New customers only.Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. Head to https://chime.com/HASAN. Co-Creator & Executive Producer: Hasan MinhajCo-Creator & Executive Producer: Prashanth VenkataramanujamExecutive Producer/Director: Tyler BabinExecutive Producer/Showrunner: Scott VroomanProducer: Kayla FengProducer/ Copywriter: Annie FickCinematographer: Austin MoralesEditor: Hobson FeltusAssistant Editor: Zae JordanTalent Coordinator: Tanya SomanaderExecutive Assistant: Samuel PilandCreative Consultant: Andrew DursoYOU CAN WATCH ON CNN.COM/WATCH OR THE CNN APP. Thanks so much for listening to Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know. If you haven't yet, now is a great time to subscribe to Lemonada Premium. Just hit the 'subscribe' button on Apple Podcasts, or, for all other podcast apps head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe. That's lemonadapremium.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A discussion about scrambled eggs led to us having a think about the Luddites, whose name is now synonymous with anti-technology. But the Luddites were more complicated that, and this week we will explore the origins of the Luddites, how the government responded to them, and whether the Luddites maybe had a point that is relevant today.The following music was used in this podcast:"Anachronist" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Triumph of General Ludd by Chumbawumba Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on CounterSpin: Luddites didn't hate machines: Historian (and online educator) Casey Fiesler reminds us that the Luddites, who were 19th century English textile workers, were not anti-technology, they were anti the unaccountable deployment of technology by those who stood to profit from it at the expense of those with less power…. They were anti the use of technology to deskill labor, to take work that took years of craft knowledge and render it performable by anyone, who was then dispensable. They were anti the imposition of technology on communities who had no say in how it was deployed, or who would bear its costs. Words to keep in mind as commencement speakers and politicians and pundits tell you that artificial intelligence is a train leaving the station, and your only choice is to pick your seat. But also yeah, democratic decision-making is still a thing, why do you ask? Also, if you ask, your name goes on a list. We talk about the proliferation of data centers that are very much brick and mortar—against the backdrop of press coverage that suggests that artificial intelligence all happens in the ether somewhere—with Melissa Garriga, communications and media relations manager at the feminist grassroots organization CODEPINK. Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of food stamp work requirements. CounterSpin provides a critical examination of the each week's major news stories, and exposes what the mainstream media may have missed in their own coverage. Produced by the national media watch group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting). The post CounterSpin – Melissa Garriga on Data Centers appeared first on KPFA.

1215 - Side - all time parents 1220 - Guy Ciarrocchi, of Broad + Liberty, is here today. 1240 - The Friday Five: Most Used Words 1250 - Your calls to round out the hour.

Table of Contents: STRATEGIC WARFARE PRAYER TRUMP'S GDP ‘MIRACLE': U.S. SACRIFICES ITS REAL ECONOMY FOR THE AI BUBBLE NOT NO but H*** NO: MINI DATA CENTERS going into US Homes!: Bitcoin Heaters The Satanic AI Data Centers Are Essential For 6G Implementation The billionaire tech overlords are planning for conscious AI to conquer the cosmos–What could possibly go wrong? Leaked DHS And FBI Reports Reveal The Trump Administration Is Quietly Targeting ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ And Americans Protesting Datacenters As ‘Domestic Terrorists’–“The FBI warns that “paranoid views regarding AI” and “attempts to reason the belief that a godlike incarnation of AI is imminent,” are viewed as “anti-tech extremism” and “neo-Luddites”–Plus Bible Verses ‘Trap Is Set’: 99% of CEOs Plan AI Job-Cuts, Leaks Show Trump Quietly Targeting Anti-Tech Extremism Mandatory CAR KILL SWITCH Incoming: Big Brother JUST GOT IN YOUR CAR!!! The terrifying reality of Wi-Fi sensing Listener Comment: Power grid overload due to AI Datacenters–my county asking for federal emergency authority to be declared FLASHBACK: NEVER Forget What Covid Vaccine Pushers Tried to Do to the World! A US soldier received 5 Covid death jabs in military records years before the vaccine existed! A U.S. soldier's records from November 14, 2014, at Fort Riley, Kansas, list multiple Moderna COVID-19 immunizations; in 2014, not 2020. How? This was before the virus and before Operation Warp Speed–The whistleblower points to Fauci's direct involvement with CIA work on this backed by documented NIH-CIA ties–This proves this was premeditated! What is the End Plan / Goal for the Con-vid BS19 Vaccines? The government has started spraying a toxic chemical near Lake Tahoe PDF: Emergency Freedom Alerts 6-1-26 Click Here To Play The Part 1 Audio Source

Send us Fan MailAI is everywhere, but the shed industry doesn't get points for being first. Cord Koch goes solo for a candid, ground-level take on why slow adoption can be smart, especially when the hype cycle is louder than the results. If you've felt pressure to bolt an AI “solution” onto shed sales, customer service, or marketing just because everyone else is doing it, this is your permission to pause and think.We unpack the stats that should make any portable building business owner stop and re-check the math: widespread AI implementation across US organizations, but a much smaller share reporting real bottom-line impact. Cord connects that to what many of us see daily in shed leads and conversions: customers still want clarity, speed, and a real person who can listen, ask the right questions, and make a judgment call. That's where automated voice agents and generic chatbot flows can backfire, especially for first-time buyers who are still deciding whether to trust you.From there, we get practical about what large language models are actually good for in the shed industry: brainstorming campaign ideas, drafting and editing website copy, organizing messy thoughts into clean structure, summarizing information, and speeding up back-office work. We also get honest about the limits, including “strategy slop,” shallow advice that sounds polished, and the reality that AI is only as accurate as the data it can learn from. If shed standards, craftsmanship details, RTO explanations, and product differentiation aren't well documented, AI tends to remix the same generic content.If you want to grow with modern tools without losing the human edge that closes deals, hit play, then share this with a shed owner or sales manager who needs it. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us where you're using AI successfully and where you refuse to use it. What belongs with a human every time?For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.Would you like to receive our weekly newsletter?  Sign up on our website: shedgeek.comFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.This episodes Sponsors:Studio Sponsor: Shed ProIFABIdentigrowSolar BlasterCardinal ManufacturingVelocity 360

Commencement speakers got booed this weekend for mentioning AI — by the same graduating class that used ChatGPT to write their papers. Bridget Phetasy breaks down why the anti-AI panic is just climate anxiety with a new face, why Bernie Sanders and AOC's plan to ban data centers is the worst idea in recent memory, and why China is absolutely loving every minute of our meltdown. #AI #DataCenters #DumpsterFire #BridgetPhetasyTopics covered: AI fear, data center ban, Bernie Sanders AOC AI regulation, Eric Schmidt commencement booed, AI jobs threat, anti-capitalism tech backlash, China AI race, AI water usage myth, Luddites vs tech bros 

I was listening to Alex Elle's most recent Insight Timer meditation series, and on day five of the series, she talked about ways of being and relationships being obsolete- not all in a bad way, but in a “ sometimes you evolve, and that makes things obsolete”.Or maybe this was my reflection as I did said meditation, based on her new book The Company You Keep. Either way, I went down a deep dive of what it means to be obsolete or be made obsolete, especially in this current moment. And since I do care a whole lot about how gentrification has played into that feeling of being obsolete, that's what I want to share with you this week.I share a lot of big thoughts around people, places, and things every week, with the aim to build a culture of stewardship and community, no matter your zip code. Make sure you're subscribed so I'm always in your inbox. And even better, help me get my last few books shipped and more ordered to be gifted by becoming a paid subscriber!So much of the concept of obsolescence is rooted in the idea of controlled or planned obsolescence, which forces us to give up things that are actually good, but not to capitalists and oligarchs that need us spending constantly.Reflecting back on my experience with losing jobs and contracts, which then made me too depressed to go to work, which then made so it was harder to pay our household bills, including our rent, then losing what I thought was a dream apartment, I came to the following conclusion.Gentrification is planned obsolescence when it comes to place and culture.Policy leaders can aid major developers in claiming that a neighborhood is a slum, then tearing it down and building over it, but only because said neighborhood has a lot of Black bodies doing well.Some Black communities have watched lands sit vacant for up to 30-60 years, because those who decided they were unworthy to have community wanted to wait to build on it when the money is “right”.And yes, even when someone loses access to income from a job, it's still gentrification because often the person who is being replaced at work is Black or another undesirable person of color, disability, or gender/sexual diversity. Many companies that think like this will hire someone for said diversity, until the money gets funny because it takes time to build on that diversity, or they do the work better than expected, but jealousy builds up because the racism of expecting your non-white employees to do worse than you was exposed. Then the company dumps everyone back out, and makes them struggle to pay their rent or mortgage; then the landlords and mortgage companies protecting their investments dump them out of their house.And before you claim that racism isn't always a factor, so much of our working world is built on white supremacist cishetero patriarchal capitalism. Anyone trying to contort themselves to fit that mold in the pursuit of not being obsolete, while not being fully embodied as a white cis straight racist patriarchal capitalist, is going to be obsolete, but then possibly spiritually bankrupt!So many of us who lost our jobs in 2025, many with stellar work records and without prior warning, are really feeling this pain. Especially if for a hot minute, you did try to contort yourselves a little bit and you're trying to regain your spirit and soul from the near purging.I'll admit that over the years, I had been taught certain ways of contortion, and they worked for a little while. But, later down the line, I've also been in situations where I've always done the right thing, and it still wasn't enough. Both are painful for us as Black folks.I wrote The Defying Gentrification Playbook especially for you, because I'm determined that none of us will be made obsolete, no matter what kinds of sacrifices we made to try to fit the mold.Take a moment to grab your copy and support my Bookshop storefront. Or ask your favorite Black and/or queer bookstore to order The Defying Gentrification Playbook. Those who ordered way back in November, we are finally shipping and hand-delivering; your wait is almost over!I also don't want us to be luddites, but the way this change is happening is similar to what the original Luddites went through, and it's tempting!Having had this lived experience of losing my job for saying no to being complicit, especially this past year, I often feel like a luddite in the midst of this conversation around how gentrification is supposed to be a net positive.I've heard for years from middle-class Black folks across the diaspora that gentrification is what we need, after we “tore up our own neighborhoods”.Never mind that tearing up came from a rage of being made obsolete, after already having been enslaved into labor that we didn't choose, denied reparations for how said system wreaked havoc on us across multiple continents.And in this current moment, we are supposed to be ok with not being needed at jobs, because we don't look or sound right or we do too much.How the machines are supposed to do us better, at work and selling products on and offline and on music streaming sites.And when it is a human involved, they better be as thin, light, white, and docile as possible.Somehow I'm supposed to make enough money to pay the rent, and then eventually qualify for a mortgage in this environment.If I do speak up for human rights, I need to do it as an ally, or I need to do it next to a white partner or with the bloodied flag of fighting for “my” country or with perfect grammar or diction. Stop stimming so much, so I don't look like one of those people.Or all of the above, all at once; otherwise I am obsolete.And said obsolescence is the plan.Again, I decided that I'm going to build my own plan as a shield. A Playbook. And even if no one else buys it, it's at least my spiritual compass.I'll hold it in the fiery furnace, and neither it nor me will burn down or be put out.We will emerge victorious, smelling nothing of smoke.The machines and their makers will be melted and of ash beside me.Our bellies will be full, and our heads will be sheltered, comfortably.And everyone who refuses to conform to obsolescence and everything that makes this Earth an ecosystem without extraction will continue to thrive!Until next time,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification, Crafting Liberation at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

What's really driving the growing backlash against AI and Silicon Valley?Support my independent journalism: 

This month on Laura Flanders and Friends, we're revisiting conversations around work, workers, and the Labor Movement on the Move.  This week, we turn our lens on the AI Data Center Revolt underway. Red and blue state's alike people across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires and they're speaking out.   This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Description:  An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance. People across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires, and telling their elected officials to slow down or stop new big tech projects for firms like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Data from a 2025 Pew study shows that only 17 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years. But it's a David vs. Goliath battle. Today's guests say AI expansion is not a red or blue issue; it's about who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed, who controls the technology, and who stands to benefit. Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of the labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union, and serves as a political advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, is the author of the recent book, “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI”, in which he draws our attention back to the Luddites, the 18th century workers whose revolt deserves our closer attention. Plus, our correspondent's coverage of a shocking scene at a public comment meeting in Wisconsin when a local woman was arrested and dragged away. If AI is the new face of capitalism, what is the new alternative? “Luddites, when I was growing up, was a term of abuse. It was people who were sort of antediluvians and didn't understand the modern world. . . . They understood the modern world as it was in their times perfectly, and they saw it was moving against them, and they saw that the political system wasn't coming to their defense.” - John Cassidy “. . . There's more and more pushback, which hopefully portends the possibility that a lot of these communities can strike better deals if they are going to have data centers. There's no reason why we can't be asking that the teachers are well paid, that the electricity rates don't go up, that we have decent affordable housing in those communities. That is all possible because we're playing with incredible amounts of dollars and deep-pocketed people . . . ” - Faiz Shakir Guests: •  John Cassidy: Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI •  Faiz Shakir: Founder & Executive Director, More Perfect Union; Political Advisor & Former Campaign Manager, Senator Bernie Sanders   Watch the episode released on YouTube; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast. Full Episode Notes are located HERE. Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation.  Music Credit:  'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends   m and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI” by John Cassidy: *Get the Book (*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.)   Featured Clip Credit: America's Dataland?  1st Amendment Under Attack:  There women arrested, produced by Johnathan Klett - Watch the full video   Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes: • Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor: Are We Entering “End Times Fascism”?: Watch / Listen:  Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation • Donna Haraway on Cyborgs, “Oddkin” & Resisting the Monoculture of the Mind: Watch / Listen:  Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversation • The Lucas Plan at 50: A Radical Investment in Society, Not the War Machine:  Watch / Listen:  Episode Cut and Full Uncut Conversations- Brian Salisbury and Hilary Wainwright   Related Articles and Resources: • Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers, “We don't want to be the next Data Center Alley,” by Joe Wilkins, May 4, 2025, Futurism • The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger, by Reece Rogers, June 28, 2025, WIRED •  The Dangers of AI and Extreme Wealth Inequality, by David Atkins, January 5, 2026, Washington Monthly • At least four Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers, by Tom Kertscher, January 26, 2026, Wisconsin Watch • Anti-data center protesters arrested during Port Washington meeting, by Claudia Levens, Jessie Opoien and Francesca Pica, December 3, 2025, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel •  How Sam Altman Outfoxed Elon Musk to Become Trump's AI Buddy, by Keach Hagey, Dana Mattionili and Josh Dawsey, July 17, 2025, The Wall Street Journal •  Curtis Yarvin's brave new world: we need a corporate dictatorship to replace a dying democracy' by Boris Munoz, August 19, 2005, El Pais Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. 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This month on Laura Flanders and Friends, we're revisiting conversations around work, workers, and the Labor Movement on the Move.  This week, we turn our lens on the AI Data Center Revolt underway. Red and blue state's alike people across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires and they're speaking out. This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Description:  An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance. People across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires, and telling their elected officials to slow down or stop new big tech projects for firms like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Data from a 2025 Pew study shows that only 17 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years. But it's a David vs. Goliath battle. Today's guests say AI expansion is not a red or blue issue; it's about who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed, who controls the technology, and who stands to benefit. Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of the labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union, and serves as a political advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, is the author of the recent book, “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI”, in which he draws our attention back to the Luddites, the 18th century workers whose revolt deserves our closer attention. Plus, our correspondent's coverage of a shocking scene at a public comment meeting in Wisconsin when a local woman was arrested and dragged away. If AI is the new face of capitalism, what is the new alternative? “Luddites, when I was growing up, was a term of abuse. It was people who were sort of antediluvians and didn't understand the modern world. . . . They understood the modern world as it was in their times perfectly, and they saw it was moving against them, and they saw that the political system wasn't coming to their defense.” - John Cassidy “. . . There's more and more pushback, which hopefully portends the possibility that a lot of these communities can strike better deals if they are going to have data centers. There's no reason why we can't be asking that the teachers are well paid, that the electricity rates don't go up, that we have decent affordable housing in those communities. That is all possible because we're playing with incredible amounts of dollars and deep-pocketed people . . . ” - Faiz Shakir Guests: •  John Cassidy: Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI •  Faiz Shakir: Founder & Executive Director, More Perfect Union; Political Advisor & Former Campaign Manager, Senator Bernie Sanders   Watch the episode released on YouTube; PBS World Channel 11:30am ET Sundays and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio (check here to see if your station airs the show) & available as a podcast. Full Episode Notes are located HERE. Full Conversation Release: While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation.  Music Credit:  'Thrum of Soil' by Bluedot Sessions, 'Steppin' by Podington Bear, and original sound design by Jeannie Hopper Support Laura Flanders and Friends by becoming a member at https://www.patreon.com/c/lauraflandersandfriends Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

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On May 31 – June 2, in NYC, the industry-defining NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference is taking place. In this Suite Spot episode we are pulling back the curtain on what to expect at this year's landmark event. Joining us on the Suite Spot is Alexi Khajavi, President of Hospitality, Travel, and Real Estate at Questex. In this exclusive preview, Alexi breaks down the 2026 NYU IHIF agenda and shares why this year's gathering is more critical than ever for hospitality leaders, hoteliers, and investors.  Tune in now. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree here with another hospitality event preview with a very familiar guest, very excited about this conversation. It’s spring, so right around the corner, we know what’s next, one of the premier events of the hospitality event calendar. Here to talk with me, a frequent guest, Alexi Khajavi, Questex, President, Hospitality and Real Estate. Alexi, thank you so much for joining me again here on the Suite Spot. Alexi Khajavi: Ryan, great to see you. Great to be back. Ryan Embree: Yes, it has been too long since we last spoke. We were out in Denver together at the Hospitality Show there on stage. Alexi, you were talking about everything that happened over the course of an entire year. I feel like from October to where we sit right now, in the middle of spring, it’s felt like a complete change. Whirlwind. I’m not even sure if when this episode’s released how much there could be even more change, but since then, so ground us. Give us a little sense of the state of hospitality and the sentence EE everything that you’re feeling right now. Alexi Khajavi: What we saw each other end of October in Denver, just at the conclusion of the hospitality show. And I guess, yeah, to your point, every day is, like an like a year or or seven years for that matter. So, six months on I mean, some consistencies, and I suppose the consistency is the volatility just in the geopolitics, macroeconomics, local state of affairs. And that does have a knock on effect on, on tourism and hospitality certainly. But some of the themes are consistent and that is that it is a, a continued challenging operational environment. rev pars have which we talked about rev pars, we were starting to see some normalization after they had been really on a only an up into the right performance for the prior three years. We started seeing that slowing down in Q3, Q4 of last year. And that has continued. One of the, the aspects, and a lot of people are talking about it, is a Ks shaped economy. And so you’re still seeing some, some interesting and pretty exciting, RevPAR ADR growth on the luxury side of that upper part of the K, if you will. And in the lower K of the market, you’re, you’re seeing increasing and continued challenges. Right? And I think everyone is sort of asking two questions around that, which is one is how much more runway of growth does the luxury market have? And then in on, on the sort of upper upscale midscale and economy, is the economic conditions going to encourage a trading down of the consumer. Speaking to David Pepper, for example, from Choice yesterday, they are seeing some positive RevPAR growth in that upper upscale, which, they’ve got a lot of hotel stock in. So I think the question is and we’re seeing some data that the customer is still traveling. They still see both on the leisure sh leisure side from the experience economy, travel as not being discretionary and not being something that they’re willing to give up, but something that they may trade down for make it more economical, domestic tourism, and drive to staycations those types of things versus the international travel, which certainly was in demand for the last three years. Corporate travel, I think that’s, that’s directly tied to GDP and the economy. But again, corporate travel has actually been coming back. It lagged leisure tourism recovery. So that’s been, performing quite well. Again, business is done face to face. It’s why we do live events in the, in, in, in the sectors in which we serve. So, continued operational challenge, questions around demand, a lot of impact from AI on demand, and how that demand is coming to your brand.com or to your property website, how they’re searching. SEO is in massive disruption. So, it’s not a typical recovery at this point. It’s, it’s fragmented, it’s bifurcated. It depends what part of the market you are in. There’s divergent recovery that’s sort of replacing that, that high tide lifts all boats. That uneven demand is translating into really kind of diversity of performance. And so it depends what markets you’re in. So the operating side is, is is tough. It is becoming harder and it is becoming more expensive. And yet there are some tools out there, AI and others, and technology generally that’s offering a lot of opportunity for optimization, efficiency, productivity in those areas, which will flow through to the bottom line. And then we’re also seeing, kind of a bifurcation in the capital markets. On, on, on the big side, there is a ton of capital that is chasing hospitality, moving from other asset classes whether it be office or retail or industrial. And they’re moving into hospitality for all the reasons that it’s operational real estate. It’s a tailwind market from the experience economy, despite the fact that we are cyclical, right? It goes up and down, but there’s a ton of liquidity. There’s a, there’s a wall of money that’s chasing, the asset class ranging from your owner operator franchisee, which is looking to grow from three properties to 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, whatever it may be, to institutional capital, which really never looked at a hospitality in general. So that’s creating more diversity in the type of investors which is coming into the market. So again, all of that challenge could unlock the transaction market. And then with those transactions, we see this regeneration of capital CapEx is deployed, and that’s really good for the industry. I mean, nobody likes to see falling net operating incomes, in running hotels. But that being said, it means that people have to be hyper-focused on how to run those hotels more efficiently. Why we run the hospitality show. And at the same time, NYU coming up, a lot of new capital coming into the market, a lot of capital chasing that, trying to figure out where the deals are, where to deploy that capital. And again, that’s why we have events like IHIF EMEA in Berlin, which was a few weeks ago. And to your point, NYU IHIF coming up in five weeks. Ryan Embree: It’s so many storylines in our industry right now that we’re chasing. We’d even touch on the upcoming summer, summer World Cup and events like the Olympics here in a couple years that are also gonna have a massive shift in international travel, which has been down. So again, so many challenges, but also think opportunistic time right now in hospitality and being at a spot like NYU is one of those places to capture those opportunities, to learn more about that from your peers, to have those conversations. Networking, I mean, I’ll, I’ll turn our attention there with some impressive numbers from the event. 2200 delegates, 450 plus C-suite executives, 400 plus investors, and $132 billion in assets under management there. So it’s impressive, like I said, impressive feat and number that you have all gathered in, one of the hospitality meccas of the world, which is New York City. What makes this event different from other hospitality events, and why is it a really a can’t miss for, for hoteliers investors this year? Alexi Khajavi: Yeah, I would say it’s a couple of things. One which you touched upon, which is, New York City financial capital of the world, it is the gateway city for the us it is, a hospitality driven economy. But it’s also one of the most thriving, financial market economies, in the US and certainly the world as well. So, that if you were to think, where do you hold an investment forum in any sector, but for that matter, in hospitality, New York, no better place, right? The money is there, the banks are there, the professional services are there, the brokers are there and many of the, the top brands are on the Eastern Shore board from DC and Maryland, up to the city here. So, it is just simply having it in New York. Second, it’s got a 40 year history associated with the New York University and the School of Hospitality and the John Tisch Center of Hospitality. It’s the only event where a portion of every dollar and revenue spent there goes towards supporting the next generation of hospitality professionals. So, we continue to partner with NYU and the School of Professional Studies. There, it’s an incredible partnership, which we’re just privileged and delighted to continue. And the fact that labor and talent is a massive challenge for the industry that, that you’re, you’re supporting a school which is turning out some of the most talented future hospitality professionals in the world by attending or sponsoring that’s goodwill. And, and we’re just delighted to be able to support that. So, that, again, I think is another anchor for why NYU is just such a special event and is different from a lot of the other good events that are, that are out there. And then lastly, NYU is part of a global portfolio of hospitality investment forums. And so, we have our event in Berlin. We have an event in Manchester, UK. We have an event in Athens, Greece, which is focused on the branded resi and the resort, segment, which is international and frankly, one of the fastest growing segments in hospitality. And then we have our Asia event in Hong Kong. So, we’re able to still bring in that global capital, those global operators that want to do business, want to bring their brands, want to deploy capital, want to invest in the us. So it’s not just a New York show, it’s not just a US focused show, but it’s a North America event where how do operators, how do investors, and how does the ecosystem of professional services come in and facilitate and drive deals to invest in the US and North American hotel market and all those things coming together, make it vibrant, make it diverse, make it one of the most active deal making conferences in the circuit. It really is for the investors to connect, with each other, but also the rest of the segments and the stakeholders, as it’s very diverse and fragmented industry. So deals get done. I mean, it was just on a in a conversation, a few weeks ago talking about a deal that’s been, announced since then. But they met in New York last June and really kicked off those conversations there at New York. And that ultimately consummated in a deal, in the fourth quarter of, of, of last year. We know that that’s what our value proposition is, and we know that’s why people spend their time with us and invest in, in NYU and we expect it to be even more vibrant and active on the deal making side, this June. So it should be should be a good event. Ryan Embree: That’s why I was gonna say, I had the privilege of attending for the first time last year, and I think the biggest difference for me was just the energy and the buzzing, and it just, it felt like what you said, it felt like deals were moving forward, whether that was the first time someone was connecting and networking, or whether it was something where these, these deals are not done in a vacuum or a silo that they take time, they take effort, and they take meetings like this, right? This connection, sometimes it’s, especially in a challenging market, can be the thing that brings a deal across the finish line. So it was palpable in the air when we were at that event last year. And it was a, it was a who’s who in hospitality too. You turned one way as a brand leader over here. Next is a president of asset management company. It really was an an extremely impressive event. I wanna get your thoughts, Alexi. You mentioned the sister events, the IHIF emea, which just wrapped up here at the end of March, obviously completely different markets that we’re talking about, but I still think holistically, there’s probably some lessons, feedback and sentiment that you could probably share that will translate into NYU, right? And some of those themes that are gonna make it there. What was your kind of, I guess, overall sentiment about the event and how just the energy and hotelier’s feeling was around that event? Alexi Khajavi: Yeah, I mean to go back to the start of the podcast, every day, there’s been something else. There’s been a, a ton of volatility in the market, a lot of uncertainty in, in the world. We still have a, a conflict, going on in, in Europe with, Ukraine and Russia. We now have a conflict happening in the Middle East. You’ve got macroeconomic conditions of still tariffs and the inflation that is causing interest rates still remain elevated, albeit they’ve, they’ve come down, over the last sort of 12 months. Elevated however, to historical, all of that creates uncertainty in the market. And as an investor said in, in Berlin, we can, we’re very good at penciling in risk and quantifying, the impact of that risk on both present day valuation. And a 20 year IRR, what is harder to pencil in is volatility and uncertainty. The certainty of risk is fine because you can quantify, the impact that that risk will have on the business. What you can’t is the uncertainty. And so with that, what we saw in Berlin, however, is that really is driving a lot of engagement around the expertise and the speakers and the sessions. We really pride ourselves on not having the same speakers every year saying the same things. We always leave a portion of our programs sort of unfinished, if you will, or, started but un unfinished because, because of that volatility in the market. So we saw a huge amount of engagement with people in the, in the sessions, in the rooms, which is interesting because at the end of the day, it is a deal making conference. And people are in meeting rooms, they’re up in suites they’re in the lobby and they’re, they’re engaging with each other, they’re there to do business. But we saw a lot of engagement, increased engagement with the sessions that we had. We then saw those individuals that were in a session often go out of the session and engage with each other and engage with speakers. And so one of the things that we’re doing is creating content fueled networking. So, a session will then lead to a round table where the speakers will stick around and the delegates or the folks that were in that session as an audience are able to then continue that conversation and go deeper and get into an actual conversation rather than just sort of a q and a that’s, that’s tagged on at the end. So it really created a, I think, a huge amount of engagement and peer-to-peer conversations. And really, I think people seeking a perspective. When, when you’re in a volatile market, really the most important thing you can do is to, to talk to your peers, to talk to your competitors, to talk to your mentors and get different perspectives to try and create some fidelity of what didn’t work or what has working, or what are the things that you’re trying out that’s really exciting. I mean, we really love that because, an open market, a transparent market, and an engaged market on the buy side and the sell side is a more informed market. Everybody needs that, right? It just makes markets more efficient. It make every, makes everybody better operators, and it creates a transparency as to where those opportunities are. And that’s, that is a, a tide that does lift all boats. The other thing I would say, Ryan, is, is that there’s always this question in an, an investment forum, like IHIF, like NYU as to what the sentiment is. And we’ve been tracking investor sentiment for the last five years now, since, January of 2020, which was an interesting time to first sentiment. Yeah. And it’s interesting because it certainly went down during COVID, no news flash there. It quickly rose up from 22 to 21 to 24, and then it’s leveled off since then. And it’s kind of just, a few index points gone, gone up or down depending on all of this volatility Liberation day last year, which was the first day of April, if I’m not mistaken, which was actually right during IHIF was created a lot of pessimism. It, however, was replaced with some optimism as interest rates fell down. So the sentiment to that question was, was actually quite positive. I think maybe through just the density of volatility or the consistency of volatility. People are somewhat getting used to it and separating noise from substance. And, and really there are the, there are more deals coming to market. We are seeing a diversification of capital coming into the market, lot of high net worth, lot of family office, a lot of institutional capital, sovereign wealth pension funds. And what that’s creating is more demand. So you’re starting, when we talk to the brokers, you’re starting to see a number of underbids in terms of a mandate comes to the market. A transaction occurred, but there was 6, 7, 8 under bidders in that transaction that shows interest, it shows appetite and it shows that the bid ask gap to a certain extent is narrowing. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean in all cases that valuations have come down. I think buyers would like them to, but at the end of the day, I think capital, and we’re seeing capital become more confident and have more conviction in the market, but that also there are regeneration opportunities through CapEx deployment, through repositioning and through other levers that they have to pull, that they can take an asset that is performing at x and through CapEx and better operations and better plans, better brand, make it X plus y. And that was really the sentiment coming out of Berlin that the market is opening up, that there is a diversity of capital coming into it that’s creating a lot more demand and through a number of different sort of challenges, or let’s just say realities on the operator side, you are seeing a higher interest in selling. And I think that that will start to, to narrow the bid ask gap and look the unlocking of the market. We’ve been waiting for it for two, three years. It’s been a challenging market, but I think everyone’s seeing some optimism. I think the wishlist is, is that we reduce the amount of volatility in the market, but that’s an uncontrollable from your and and my perspective, we don’t have much control of that. Ryan Embree: Yeah. But I think the industry’s skin is, is thickening to that, right? And we’ve talked about that, how it’s our new normal is the constant state of change. And I also think it’s something, I’m not sure if we’ve talked about or thought about this too much, but we really saw worst case scenario just six years ago of being like, where everything dropped to none. When we’re assessing risk, we’re a lot more battle test. This industry is a lot more battle tested than maybe previous than it had previously. So some of these uncontrollables, like you mentioned, that yes, they are headwinds, yes, they are challenges, but it’s those investors right now that see opportunities that assess that risk and say there could be some really, really great upside at a at a time right now. And one of the places also where there is a lot of uncertainty, but I would, I would almost phrase it in the sense of a, of a positive uncertainty is the impact that AI is gonna have on our business in the future. And the gains and dividends that we can yield from those have really just scratch the surface. And we talked about this, and I wanna bring that into the conversation ’cause it’s hard to not talk about it anymore, right? It, I think we don’t go a, a podcast episode without bringing it up and people filling out their bingo cards on AI and technology. But I want, I wanna take us back to where we were a year ago, and maybe we can do this an exercise. Alexi, what would you grade right now, our industry, which historically has been maybe on the lighter end of the spectrum of a technology adoption, but what would you, what grade would you give it? Because I think we’re at this weird inflection point where hoteliers and brands and management companies and really everybody’s starting to look and saying, alright, we’ve implemented some ai. Where are the dividends? Where are the results? How do I measure these successes? What, what grade would you give and how do you think we can improve there? Alexi Khajavi: You know, that’s a, that’s a great question because it’s not an easy one to answer. Sure and not to cop out of giving you a specific answer, I would give it a a non-applicable, because the reality is, is that technology as a whole, in terms of using technology as a tool to optimize the hospitality market, I would certainly give ourselves a c plus. I think that’s historically been where we have failed for many reasons, which we can we don’t need to go into right , we know, we know that. But I think, I think AI right now is there is an overestimation of its impact on the near term, and there’s an under appreciation for its impact on, on the long term. Love that that’s, that’s quickly, quickly changing. I mean, if you, to your point, if you just look at the last six months, massive wholesale change, and I, so I think that that’s changing very quickly that people are starting to appreciate this. This is enormous, both in its capacity to be a force of good as well as its capacity to be a, a force of bad, to sort of broadly call it as such. But that being said, I think there’s sort of two themes around ai. One is on the, on the sort of operational side, AI has, has largely, I think been distributed as a individual choice through the industry and the departments. And the overall, whether you’re on the brand side or the operator side or the investor side, I know that there are mandates and there are committees and everybody’s sort of got their own playbook to how they’re using ai. But at the end of the day, it’s gonna come down to any individual that’s using it or not using it in their respective role. And that’s all over the map. Some people are using it, some people are not. And, and frankly, I think those that are using it are going to be better off for their r and d and just their effort to try and figure it out. Because the more you use it, the better off you become at using. It’s, it’s a tool like any tool, right? You, you need how to use how to use that tool in order for it to do the job you want it to do. So in that case, I think we’re probably no different than some other industries, which are certainly spending a lot of money on it and trying to figure it out. The other aspect of it though, that I think is really interesting is that it is already changing, particularly those frontline manager roles. A GM, for example, that is using AI will have more time to do the things that a GM should be doing, rather than all of the back office stuff, which AI can do at scale and at pace, and to a high degree of quality with oversight and q and a being done, not just to let AI go do all those things, but that, that frees up your general manager to go do the things that really drives guest satisfaction. Respond to RFPs, take care of guests, drive revenue, be present in the local market so that you’re capturing demand drivers, in your local city or wherever you may be. So, I think if that individual GM is using AI effectively to free them up to do what a GM really should be doing, and probably why that person went into being a GM in the first place, then I think we’re gonna start to see the progress. But we haven’t really started to measure it yet. I also see on the positive side, other industries, IE healthcare are also realizing that AI is doing a lot of back office work at a very high level, or high degree of, of quality. And that’s now freeing up their own people. And what they’re finding is, is that maybe we should be engaging, empowering those roles in a hospital or healthcare broadly to be taking care of patients in a more human hospitable way. And so, in some degree, I think the long-term impact will be that other industries are now going to start looking at hospitality as being a, at the vanguard of driving human powered experiences that will drive back to revenue and premiumization and ultimately profits. So we’ve always looked to other industries for, God, we’re, so, we’re Luddites, how do you do this? What, how do teach us in hospitality? I, I think we’re going to start to see other industries look to us to, how do you actually take care of a guest, a customer for that matter? How do you do that to create loyalty to, to a, to increase average order value or ticket receipts. So I think that’s the opportunity to answer your question in terms of one area that I think is directly and already being deeply impacted is distribution and search. Search is been a, a topic of discussion for the last 30 years. And we’ve largely gone through this used SEO to fine, the white hat, the black hat the right levers to pull your all tags, your meditechs, I mean, the whole thing, right? Brand equity, la la, la. Well, AI replaces all that in one fell swoop, and nobody really knows how that’s going to play out. But on the sort of doomsday perspective, it completely wipes out your brand equity online in a search engine. On the positive side, it reinforces it because AI is simply pulling from algorithms and behaviors on the internet to sort of drive, it’s, it’s results. But again, we don’t know the answer to that. And I think already revenue management, sales and marketing distribution, those are the areas where I think in the next six months, we’re gonna be having a conversation that is gonna be completely different than the conversation we’re having today. And we’re gonna be focusing a lot on that because that is one of the areas that today is being completely upended. Ryan Embree: I one hundred percent agree with you. I think that’s where a lot of the hunger and the appetite and thirst for knowledge right now of why maybe there’s more engagement in those sessions than you’ve seen before, is because I think people are starting to, if they haven’t already started to understand the gravity of where we’re at in this inflection point and the massive disruption that this is going to cause and do not want to be left behind. And I think you’re right. There was a fascinating point you made in there about the GM and their role, and we all, the big fears around AI are, are AI replacing jobs? And I would say when it comes to hospitality, it could really upend what the, the role of a job, right? Your GM might start looking a lot more like the GM of 40 years ago when you first got into hospitality, or where you weren’t having to do those tasks. And we almost have to learn this new job. It might be the same title as general manager, but you’re doing completely different things, which is a fascinating topic to talk about because we’ve been training these young hospitality professionals in the way of what a GM is today. That role could look completely different here in the next three to five based on the, on the speed and acceleration of these, of AI tasks that they’re doing. So it, I could talk about it all the time. We do talk about it all the time, I feel like, but it’ll be very interesting to see that impact that it’s making. I wanna switch back to NYU, and this is one of my favorite questions because there’s so much intention in these, in these shows, and that’s why I love doing these episode, these preview episodes, because you get to, to learn all the work that goes in, you’ve told me before you start on these events, day after, sometimes even now hours after that first one ended. So this year’s theme sharpening the edge. Talk to us a little bit about how the team settled on this and, and the story behind it and how you’ve incorporated it into the programming a little bit. Alexi Khajavi: Yeah, I mean, sharpening the edge is, an ode to the investment, nature of the event. It’s a deal making conference and it’s in New York. And so it’s a very sort of public market Wall Street saying, where do you find your edge or where do you find your alpha compared to another investor? If all you’re doing is chasing, the broad returns of a market or an asset class for that much, or for that matter, then you’re, you’re gonna be, at the whipping end of the overall broader market. It’s not a good place to be in a volatile market like this. And it doesn’t drive the outsized returns that investors are looking for. So it really is a tip of the, the cap to where we are. We’re in New York, we have a lot of Wall Street, public Market, New York Stock Exchange, synergies there, Sarah Eisen from CNBC, comes up and moderates the CEO panel. Most of the CEOs head down for interviews, on Wall Street and CNBC and Squawk Box and so forth. And we have that partnership still with CNBC this year. So, but as you shift it to what’s happening in the capital markets as it relates to real estate and more specifically to hospitality, private equity has been the dominant capital type in hotel investment. And that’s been the case for the last decade. And today that’s really no longer the case. It’s PE is still extremely active, but it’s more diversified in terms of across investor types. So we’re seeing, again, as I said, family offices, high net worth, a lot of sovereign, a lot of institutional capital that is growing materially, that is looking to hospitality to, to deploy capital. And with that, you’re seeing a lot of opportunities around value add. PE is really your value add investor, right? They’re looking for an underperforming asset or an asset that has the ability to perform at a higher level that’s sharpening the edge, that’s driving alpha. And so PE is really looking at this as a great opportunity as institutional capital comes in and is looking for stable, more stable returns, securitized assets, and an annuity like return over a longer hold period. It’s a great opportunity for private equity to exit in a market in which it’s been tough to exit. That being said, global hotel and fund allocations in hospitality and real estate has been tough, but it’s growing and it’s coming back. And so you’ve got a lot more money coming back into the market. And, and that’s really, a positive thing. We having events across Asia, Europe, and the us it allows for us to drive that cross-border capital. US capital has been less active, but despite all the challenges, we still see a lot of, international capital, which wants to invest in the us. So that kind of diversification of capital is a real, real positive for the market. It, it means more liquidity, it means more exit opportunities to get off, on the off ramp for PE or any other investor. As more capital comes in, it offers more opportunities to exit. It provides or, or enables less sort of seasonality, if you will, in the marketplace, right? There’s less of that volatility in the marketplace as all as well. So really the sharpening the edge is about having the education, the networking, and the quality of people in the room that have the money are looking to deploy and know how to create alpha. Getting those individuals together to hear from each other, engage with one another, and ultimately, build relationships with the ecosystem that helps a deal get done, transact that transacts, underwrites that deal, and then drives that alpha from an operating value creation perspective. Those are the folks that are in the room at NYU. Ryan Embree: And you’re right in the middle of it. I mean, I remember waking up at the, the marquee and seeing Chris Nasetta on CNBC and a few hours later seeing him just a couple hundred feet up on stage in front of me. I mean, that’s the possibilities right there. Alexi Khajavi: And talking to people, right? I mean, this is the beauty of the hospitality industry is there’s really good people, right? They’re just, at the end of the day, you may be running a public company, and on TV, you’re sitting there talking to a franchisee of a Hampton that wants to meet the CEO. So it really kind of creates this very magical engagement where the fifth floor, sixth floor, seventh floor, eighth floor of the marquee are just a hive of activity with the best and the brightest from a franchisee to Chris Nasetta, to your point, there’s not many places that create that access and that transparency and cross engagement from such a diverse, but focused, sector, as NYU. So it’s a real, real special place to be. Ryan Embree: A thousand percent. And last year you used this forum to really get us fired up for some of the sessions in educations. And now you’re talking about, especially with your experience here earlier in the year, people being more open to that, being more thirsty and, and hungry for that information, looking up and down the programming. Because we know you spoke to last year the detail and depth that your team goes to create these panels, and sometimes even putting on stage opinions that differ, that go head to head to one another, to try to get that friction to try to get a rise out of that engagement. Looking up and down the agenda this year, which sessions, if you had to pick a few, do you have your eyes on? Alexi Khajavi: Well, there’s some, some obvious ones, but always at NYU, we’ve got some, some exciting ones as well. And the first one, our first session actually Monday morning, Anthony Scaramucci, the Mooch, who is an investor himself actually owns a restaurant as well, but certainly, podcaster and just an expert, on the economy, politics, the Trump administration having worked, I think 10 days, there, if I’m not mistaken. So, he’s gonna kick us off. We always have a marquee name that’s relevant to the industry, but he really has his finger on the pulse as to, one, what are all the geopolitics and the macroeconomics, in the overall state of the economy and the country, what impact is that having on the investment markets on where the opportunities are? Alexi Khajavi: And as he runs a restaurant what is he seeing? What does he think specifically of the hotel space? So I think that’s, again, that’s, that’s just not something that you get at any of the other hotel investment forums, but you get that and you’ll get it right, served with breakfast on Monday morning. So we kick off big and we kick off bold on Monday. Obviously Monday has, is a great day. We have the CEO council on Monday as well. Or sorry, the CEO panel that’s the five top brands, again, interviewed by Sarah Eisen, which they have a great rapport with. And that really does set the tone for what they’re seeing as the opportunities. Clearly they are on top of demand and where RevPAR and ADRs and occupancies are going, how they’re performing and what the differences are by chain scale. There will be a lot of conversation around how much gas in the tank does luxury have I’m sure you’ll hear differing views on that. And then are we gonna see a return to some of the midscale and upper upscale, as potentially people trade down but still travel and where’s economy, where’s extended stay? We’ve also seen these brands make some interesting investments in new concepts, graduate hotels, which is last year, yo hotels glamping and branded resi. That’s a big day. In fact, we’ve got a full day of content on branded resi with active developers developing properties right now that are branded resi mix of hotel, mixed use, retail, hospitality and so forth. And then capital markets. Capital markets our Cap Talks session is probably one of our most popular, and that’ll be a mix of both active US investors as well as foreign capital, international capital investors, sovereign Wealth, as well as private equity, which continue to look to deploy capital in the US. Alexi Khajavi: We then have Danny Meyer, who’s the founder, and CEO of Union Square Hospitality, Shake Shack. And obviously a number of other incredible Union Square restaurants in the city here. But and then you’ve got your breakouts where you will be focusing a lot on the investment development market. Asset management is a key thing, how do you drive Alpha through the operations of these hotels? So there’s a ton of content. We’ve left a lot of time for networking. We know that’s where the deal making is the eighth floor, which is the lobby level. We’ve extended the event to include the Broadway Lounge, which is this beautiful lounge overlooking Times Square. We’ll have, food and beverage in there throughout the days. Great space to network amongst all the delegates, including the ninth floor where we’ve got Marriott and Hilton taking that space. So it’s just a ton going on. And the program’s out, it’s 90% there. We still got a few couple of marquee names that we’re going to announce over the next few weeks. But really, if you’re gonna be, if you’re in hospitality, investment development and operations where you’re driving Alpha, there really is no other place to be on the first and 2nd of June. You’ve gotta be there. Ryan Embree: Yeah. I can attest to it again, first time last year have the privilege of attending officially announcing the Suite Spot will be back at NYU this year. We can’t wait. Our associate producer’s gonna be traveling with me this time. This is her first time. And there is even a first timers meet and greet that you do as well at the event, which I had the privilege of partaking in networking last year. What type of tips for any hoteliers investors that might be considering or even attending the first time, what, what one piece of advice would you drill down for this event as the best piece? Ryan Embree: I would definitely get on the app. I know that the serendipitous meeting, which to your point, you bump into the CEO of Hilton or Marriott for that matter, is great. And that’s, there’s good value in that, but we have about 70, almost 80% of all delegates are on the app. That’s great. And that’s a great place to find people and to be found and it also gives you all the other information as the agenda speaker bios, but it allows for you to reach out to other delegates. So I would definitely do, that’s, something that can be sometimes just overlooked or just not not done. And then I would go to the Sunday evening reception if it’s your first time that’s at the marquee, six o’clock, we get about 500 people there. A good mix of veterans and, and first timers. I would certainly do that. I would try and plan out your days ahead. It’s amazing how with all that, with all everything that’s going on, you can easily kind of get sidetracked. So if there are some sessions that you wanna see, you can bookmark them in the app and make sure that you, you don’t miss those. But, I would, get some sleep, stay hydrated and be prepared to have some full days of education, networking and just a whole lot of fun. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And some of the receptions that are after hours at the end of the day, are absolutely amazing too. And I know you have sponsors that kind of do that, sometimes onsite, sometimes offsite, encourage, those to attend that in full force as well. Hospitality, we definitely know how to, to host a party, that’s for sure. So Alexi, we appreciate you hosting us here on the Suite Spot and previewing this year’s 2026 NYU. We are counting down the days until June. Thank you again to my audience to learn more information. Obviously visit the website, make sure you register. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today, Alexi? Alexi Khajavi: No, just very much looking forward to seeing you there and the other 2400 people that will be joining us. So, looking very much forward to it. And appreciate your time. Ryan Embree: All right, thank you, Alexi. Thank you for listening to The Suite Spot and hope to see you at NYU in June in New York City. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star reading on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell, with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

This week, we talk to Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, about a rash of people physically destroying AI and surveillance infrastructure. Brian puts this wave of attacks in the historical context of the Luddites, who are notoriously misunderstood and fought for worker protections against automation during the Industrial Revolution. Over the last few months, we have seen people in San Francisco and Los Angeles torch Waymos, bash delivery robots with baseball bats, destroy Flock cameras, and threaten AI data centers and the politicians championing them. This type of political violence doesn't and cannot occur in a vacuum, it happens because people feel they are being taken advantage of and that their representatives aren't listening to them. Given the current state of things, we can likely expect more of these sorts of attacks to occur. Blood In The Machine YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/1Z4k_vDovbY Go to ⁠surfshark.com/404Media⁠ to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, plus there's a 30-day money-back guarantee—or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenAI dominated this week's headlines — and it wasn’t all flattering. Reed Albergotti (Semafor) breaks down the chaos: IPO drama and Ronan Farrow's probing New Yorker profile of Sam Altman paint a picture of a company under pressure, even as it remains the most talked-about name in AI. Taylor Lorenz (User Mag) tells us about the AI tools marketed to schools as safety solutions that end up tracking students in ways with real consequences for kids and adults alike. And Kyle Chayka (The New Yorker) reviews the new book, Techno-Negative, tracing the long, often misunderstood history of anti-technology movements. Spoiler: it goes way deeper than the Luddites. Additional Reading: Leap of Faith | Semafor Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? | The New Yorker OpenAI CEO and CFO Diverge on IPO Timing | The Information They're Putting AI on School Buses | User Mag The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology | The New Yorker Download SAILY in your app store and use our code techstuff at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase! For further details go to https://saily.com/techstuffSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Historically, when the college-educated become politically radicalised, that does tend to lead to real shifts.” — Noam ScheiberA university degree has always been seen as a passport out of the working class. But according to the New York Times' Noam Scheiber, the reverse is now true. In his new book, Mutiny, Scheiber argues that the good white-collar jobs college once promised have been quietly disappearing over the last fifteen years. The result, he argues, is the rise and revolt of what he calls a “college-educated” working class.Scheiber chose mutiny because it's a term to describe workers who have lost confidence in management. College graduates who once imagined themselves as management-adjacent now regard the people in charge with deep suspicion. The university itself has become extractive — charging the same tuition for an art history degree as for an engineering degree, marketing video game design programmes to thousands of students who will never make a living from them, lending federal money with no skin in the game.Scheiber warns that the ideological diploma divide has already closed. By 2020, college graduates were slightly to the left of non-college voters on taxation, regulation, and unions. Sympathy for socialism among college grads doubled between 2010 and 2020. Mamdani won eighty-five per cent of college graduates under thirty in New York City. When the educated radicalise and join forces with the traditional working class, Scheiber notes, the political order changes. This was as true in nineteenth-century China as in Russia in 1917, Iran 1979 and Poland in 1980.College grads have nothing to lose but their diplomas. Five Takeaways•       Mutiny, Not Revolution: Scheiber chose the word deliberately. Mutiny is a workplace term. Sailors who have lost confidence in the captain take matters into their own hands. It taps into the changing sociology of college graduates who once imagined themselves as management-adjacent and now regard the people in charge with deep suspicion. This isn't a violent uprising. It's a workplace rebellion.•       The Video Game Design Degree Is the Perfect Scam: Tens of thousands of students each year enrol in college programmes that promise to turn their hobby into a career at a major studio. Only a tiny fraction ever make a living designing games. The marketing isn't a lie — just a rosier picture than the reality. Universities charge the same tuition for an art history degree as for an engineering degree, even though we know the returns are vastly different. No other part of the economy works this way.•       On Economics, the Diploma Divide Has Already Closed: Through the 1980s and 1990s, college graduates were significantly more conservative on economics. By 2012, college and non-college voters were in the exact same place. By 2020, college graduates were slightly to the left. Sympathy for socialism among college grads doubled from twenty to forty per cent between 2010 and 2020. The divide that remains is cultural. The economic majority is sitting out there waiting for a candidate who knows how to address it.•       The 70/10 Gap: About seventy per cent of Americans support unions in principle. Only ten per cent are actually in one. American labour law gives employers enormous leeway to discourage organising. The gap means traditional unions cannot close the demand. Alternative forms of organising — the Alphabet Workers Union at Google, Amazon employees for climate justice, walkouts and petitions — are becoming the new shape of workplace power.•       When the College-Educated Radicalise, Politics Disrupts: Nineteenth-century China. The Bolshevik Revolution. Iran 1979. Poland's Solidarity movement. Spain and Greece after the Great Recession. History shows that when a frustrated educated class joins forces with the traditional working class, the political order changes. The college-educated have agency. They vote, organise, donate, and show up. When they get angry, the political class notices. About the GuestNoam Scheiber is a labour and workplace reporter for The New York Times. A former Rhodes Scholar, he is the author of The Escape Artists: How Obama's Team Fumbled the Recovery and Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.References:•       Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class by Noam Scheiber — the book under discussion.•       Episode 2861: The Joe Biden Tragedy — Julian Zelizer on the last New Deal president. The political vacuum Scheiber describes.•       Episode 2859: Stop, Don't Do That — Peter Edelman on Bobby Kennedy. The progressive populism that could once unite Black and white workers.About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:31) - Introduction: new book day, the betrayal of college graduates (02:46) - Why mutiny, not revolution: a workplace term (05:56) - The Rhodes Scholar who became a Starbucks organiser (10:10) - Generation morality without class consciousness (15:33) - Can the GOP become the party of workers? (18:00) - The convergence of college and non-college voters on immigration and crime (20:14) - What does betrayal feel like? (21:00) - The video game design degree scam (24:37) - The university as extractive system (27:15) - Was Biden a New Deal president in a post-New Deal age? (31:45) - Mamdani and the economic majority that's sitting out there (32:45) - The 70/10 gap: why traditional unions can't close it (35:02) - Tech workers, alternative organising, and the Alphabet Workers Union (38:50) - Has the decline of knowledge work begun? (40:00) - Luddites or Bolsheviks: when the college-educated radicalise (40:55) - Iran 1979, Poland's Solidarity, and the disruptive power of educated rage

Everyone is talking about AI like it's the end of work.But we've heard this before.From the Luddites to the internet boom, every major technological leap came with the same prediction: mass job loss, economic collapse, and human irrelevance.And every single time… it was wrong.In this episode, Chad Law breaks down why the AI panic feels so familiar—and why the people pushing the fear might not be worried about you at all.Because AI doesn't just automate work.It exposes systems.⚡ Inside this episode:The historical pattern behind every “job-killing” technologyWhy AI is different—but not in the way you're being toldHow government inefficiency becomes visible in an AI-driven worldThe real meaning behind AI regulation pushesWhy UBI keeps appearing every time fear peaksThe concept of AI as a “clarity machine”This isn't about replacement.It's about exposure.

AI is here. Now what? If you're a distributor who's struggling to answer, you're in good company. Distributors as a whole are cautious about buying into broad-appeal solutions. But, they're not Luddites. Instead, they want products that provide industry-focused context and bottom-line value. There's no better ambassador for AI and how to successfully apply the tech to distribution than Ian Heller, co-founder and chief strategy officer of the Distribution Strategy Group, and host of the innovative Applied AI for Distributors 2026 summit.  There's also no better way to toast the 200th episode of Distribution Talk than with this conversation between two longtime friends. Jason caught up with Ian to discuss the future of AI in distribution, the expanding use of agentic AI, and the exciting program of expert knowledge, topics, and implementation strategies scheduled for this year's summit. CONNECT WITH JASON LinkedIn CONNECT WITH IAN Distribution Strategy Group  Applied AI for Distributors 2026 LinkedIn *** For full show notes and services visit: https://www.distributionteam.com Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth, and achieve personal goals.    This episode was edited by The Creative Impostor Studios Special thanks to our sponsors for this episode: Connected Peers, providing virtual communities for wholesale distributors; and INxSQL Distribution Software, an integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

Charles Payne is joined by Walser Wealth Management President Rebecca Walser to discuss how fiat currency printing remains a greater economic disruptor than AI, the global shift toward blockchain technology and stablecoins, and why the recent market pullbacks in Uber and CrowdStrike present unique growth opportunities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Other Side of Midnight, where host Lionel explores the dark underbelly of topics too provocative for daytime radio. In this episode, Lionel dives deep into the concept of pure evil, unpacking a chilling warning from a Catholic priest who claims the stage is currently set for the rise of the Antichrist. But forget the pitchforks and Hollywood exorcisms—could the end of times be ushered in through Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and a cashless global economy? Even more terrifying, Lionel poses a radical, apocalyptic theory: Artificial Intelligence is the true modern-day Antichrist, designed to perfectly deceive humanity once it reaches singularity. Featuring wild caller debates on everything from historical Luddites and global government botnets to the tragic reality of human trafficking, this episode challenges you to shake up your mental Etch A Sketch and critically think about our terrifying technological future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The full version of this episode (43 minutes & Ad-free) is available for Silk+ Members (FREE for a limited time!) and includes access to over 600 more episodes from these podcasts: Calm History (120+ episodes) History Showcase (25+ episodes) Sleep Whispers (430+ episodes) ASMR Sleep Station (50+ episodes) 1 & 8-Hour Nature Sounds (50+ episodes) 1 & 8-Hour Background Sounds (30 episodes) … Continue reading *Sample* | Textile History: Spinning, Weaving, The Luddites, & Sleeping Beauty | Bedtime Sleep Stories about History (Bonus Episode #91)

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the Luddites' machine-breaking revolt against the enclosure of handicraft production, the central role played by capital punishment in the consolidation of the capitalist state, and remaking the struggle against enclosure for the 21st century. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561? Find Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org Find Revolutions: A New History at Versobooks.com The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.

#693: AI learns your job in weeks … and you start wondering if you still have one. That question shapes our conversation with Dr. Ben Zweig, CEO of Revelio Labs, a workforce data company that uses AI to build large employment databases and study labor market shifts. He also teaches a class on The Future of Work at NYU Stern School of Business. He holds a PhD in economics from CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Zweig starts with the legend of John Henry, the steel driver who raced a steam drill and lost his life trying to prove that a human could still beat a machine. The story mirrors the Luddites, who smashed looms when automation threatened their work. The fear of technology replacing workers is a theme throughout history. It keeps repeating. And yet, this time it feels different. You hear how today's panic fits into a longer pattern. Sixty percent of current jobs did not exist a century ago. Even jobs that kept the same name changed completely. Dr. Zweig describes his father tabulating punch cards as a statistician, while he now builds neural networks. Same field. Different tasks. We break down what a job actually means. A job is a bundle of tasks. You execute tasks, but you also orchestrate them – deciding order, workflow and coordination. AI tends to automate the most granular tasks first. Broader, abstract orchestration proves harder to replace. Dr. Zweig argues that “augmentation” often just means partial automation that frees you to focus on what remains. The discussion turns to empathy-driven roles, such as rabbis, psychologists, and teachers. Dr. Zweig cites traits such as empathy, presence, opinion, creativity and hope as distinctly human. He notes AI still struggles with memory and long-term relational trust. You also hear what this means if you are early in your career. Hiring has slowed. Entry-level roles appear more exposed to automation. Dr. Zweig says younger workers often lack orchestration experience and face a risk-averse market. He says that to be competitive in today's job market, you should take ownership of complex projects from start to finish. Show people – through networking and demonstrated work – that you can manage more than just tasks . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Featuring Peter Linebaugh on the Luddites’ machine-breaking revolt against the enclosure of handicraft production, the central role played by capital punishment in the consolidation of the capitalist state, and remaking the struggle against enclosure for the 21st century. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Dig party in London with Equator magazine on March 13. Info and RSVP here eventbrite.com/e/the-dig-x-equator-party-tickets-1982694479561? Find Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy at Haymarketbooks.org Find Revolutions: A New History at Versobooks.com

Is modern technology draining your body and spirit by hijacking your attention and circadian rhythm?Josh Trent welcomes Tristan Scott, EMF expert, to the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 796, to reveal how EMFs and artificial light disrupt circadian rhythm, mitochondria, and melatonin, why modern screens keep us locked in fight or flight, how nature and light function as biological nutrition, what his concussion taught him about neuro sensitivity and human awareness, and why creating technology aligned with nature may be essential for the future of human health, creativity, and consciousness.Daylight ComputerA new kind of computer, designed for deep focus and wellbeing. Daylight computer is a distraction-free operating system with everything you need, and nothing you don't.Write like on real paper, with a matte finish and textured surface that provides a natural, tactile writing experience, a glare-free notepad for the next chapter of your life.Live Paper feels like magic, with super-smooth scrolling and interactions across all your apps. Daylight redefined what a paper-like display can do, so you can focus without compromise.Get Yours Here + Save $50 with code WELLNESS In This Episode, Tristan Scott Uncovers:(01:16) Living off-grid in Wyoming for 3 months(06:07) Why biohackers overestimate our knowledge(13:40) Why children have almost no chance against screens(19:22) Blue light vs. sunlight: the missing infrared problem(28:19) San Francisco vs. wilderness: energy vampires(34:12) Signal vs. noise: why no one is intuitive anymore(44:43) Flicker and blue light put your cells in danger mode(50:58) "Grass-fed computing" — light as medicine(01:01:23) Tinnitus, electro-hypersensitivity, and hidden symptoms(01:10:04) The Maharishi Effect: 7,000 meditators lowered crime 16%(01:21:40) The three timelines: Luddites, cyborgs, or conscious technology