Podcasts about Production music

[Note: sorry for the lateness, blame sickness. Also, we are doing two premium episodes in a row to change up our schedule because we're interviewing authors of a new book next week and want it to be a free one. Don't worry, the next two episodes will be free ones to even things out.] We've eaten our veggies, so now it's time for dessert as we do a full episode reading series of a new profile about Kara Swisher and learn how to dominate the podcast leaderboards by becoming new media entrepreneurs. ••• How Kara Swisher Scaled Even Higher https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/business/media/kara-swisher-podcasts.html ••• Is Scott Galloway the Howard Stern of the Business World? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/style/scott-galloway.html ••• Winners of an ‘Exclusive Invitation' to Dine With Trump Will Gather Tonight https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/trump-memecoin-dinner.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We talk about Pope Le(t)o's striking critiques of AI and the needs for luddism to be an intersectional movement. Then we get into the Republicans' advocacy for AI rights over States' rights, which contributes to a greater hollowing out of government capacity at all levels in an attempt to usher in the great fracturing of society into zones of special economic interest. Finally we sketch a vision of a bold future of post-apartheid integration sparked by Grok's obsession with white genocide. ••• Will Pope Leo XIV be an ally against AI? https://www.disconnect.blog/p/will-pope-leo-xiv-be-an-ally-against ••• The Franciscan monk helping the Vatican take on — and tame — AI https://www.ft.com/content/1fa17d8b-5902-4aff-a69d-419b96722c83 ••• Republicans propose prohibiting US states from regulating AI for 10 years https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/14/republican-budget-bill-ai-laws ••• Republicans Try to Cram Ban on AI Regulation Into Budget Reconciliation Bill https://www.404media.co/republicans-try-to-cram-ban-on-ai-regulation-into-budget-reconciliation-bill/ ••• AI agents: from co-pilot to autopilot https://www.ft.com/content/3e862e23-6e2c-4670-a68c-e204379fe01f ••• Insurers launch cover for losses caused by AI chatbot errors https://www.ft.com/content/1d35759f-f2a9-46c4-904b-4a78ccc027df Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We chat with linguist and cognitive scientist Hagen Blix about his new book Why We Fear AI (co-authored with computer scientist Ingeborg Glimmer) about how the technical qualities of AI – especially LLM chatbots – take the alienation (and seemingly alien power) of capital to the next level. What happens when the social logic of capital — which appears to be a motive force with no motivator — is channeled through generative technologies that appear to be texts with no author? People see an entity that must be feared and worshipped. ••• Why We Fear AI | Hagen Blix & Ingeborg Glimmer https://www.commonnotions.org/why-we-fear-ai ••• https://www.If A.I. Systems Become Conscious, Should They Have Rights? nytimes.com/2025/04/24/technology/ai-welfare-anthropic-claude.html ••• Marx's Comments on James Mill http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/james-mill/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

From rejection to relationships, I unpack five more hard truths every production music composer needs to hear, but probably hasn't. Plus I feature a recent Indian-infused world hip-hop cue!Watch this episode on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/ef1lMcXViHo Join the 52 Cues Album Accelerator – a self-paced program with over 6.5 hours of video content, discussion threads, articles, and resources which guides you through the entire process of creating a production music album. Plus you'll receive a 90-minute, one-on-one session to listen through your album and discuss strategies for library placement. Head over to 52cues.com/accelerator to sign up today!

We take a deep dive into the lesser-known industry of “pharmacy benefits managers” (PBMs) which are parasitical companies that sit in the middle of the incredibly consolidated and vertically integrated market of pharmaceuticals hospitals insurers pharmacy benefits managers pharmacies. Through the simple administrative business of making lists of drugs and networks of pharmacies, PBMs have managed to carve out a multi-billion dollar rent-seeking industry premised on controlling (and jacking up) how much drugs cost and where you can get them—and extracting as much money as possible from people who need those drugs. ••• Timeline of FTC lawsuit against PBMs and relevant documents: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/221-0114-caremark-rx-zinc-health-services-et-al-matter-insulin ••• Concurring Statement of Commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/Ferguson-Statement-Pharmacy-Benefit-Managers-Report.pdf ••• Market Power and Inequality: The Antitrust Counterrevolution and Its Discontents | Lina Khan and Sandeep Vaheesan https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2790/ ••• Inside the Mafia of Pharma Pricing | Matt Stoller https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/inside-the-mafia-of-pharma-pricing ••• A brief look at current debates about pharmacy benefit managers https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-brief-look-at-current-debates-about-pharmacy-benefit-managers/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

It's slop world, baby! We get into how the internet has become choked by artificial intelligence systems focused on the endless production, circulation, and consumption of slop and shit. This is driven by the continual capture and recapture of deep fried forms of value, instead of actually producing anything new or useful. This leads to an internet that is hostile to human existence—where people are unwelcomed and unnecessary. We trace the degradation of the internet from information superhighway to hostile architecture to abandoned infrastructure. ••• Welcome to slop world: how the hostile internet is driving us crazy https://www.ft.com/content/5d06bbb4-0034-493b-8b0d-5c0ab74bedef ••• AI hype is drowning in slopaganda https://www.ft.com/content/24218775-57b1-4e9f-ba64-266a3239cf27 Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We return to an old enemy of the show by discussing the latest developments in the crypto industry. We trace how crypto has evolved from a grift largely focused on defrauding retail investors into a grift now focused on creating financial infrastructure to facilitate very direct and obvious forms of political influence peddling. Of course, the Greater Idiot Theory still holds as many investors still think that bitcoin is a hedge against the stock market and a reservere of stable value in a volatile economy, but the crypto industry is now driven by the needs of the greatest idiots of them all: Donald J. Trump and Family. Also, here are links for the pictures we were joking about in the beginning: https://x.com/captgouda24/status/1913254322864894178 and https://x.com/luke_d_ismas/status/1913406583188369497 ••• Crypto Crime is Legal | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-81/ ••• Trump's Newest Grift: Building a Cryptocurrency Empire While Destroying its Regulators | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/trump-crypto-empire/ ••• TMK in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We are joined by yet another TMK favorite, Quinn Slobodian, who is author of Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right. We discuss Quinn's analysis of “new fusionism” or a mutant strain of neoliberalism that crystallized in the 1990s, which sought to ground and defend neoliberal policies through their own bastardization of biological sciences — cognitive, behavioral, evolutionary, genetic, and so on. They then used scientism to justify and propagate political ideas and economic models based on hardwired human nature and hierarchical differences between races, cultures, and intelligence. The fringes of the 1990s have now become the mainstream of the 2020s. ••• Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right | Quinn Slobodian https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9781890951917/hayeks-bastards Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

In this kickoff episode of the new series, host Simon Webb is joined by new co-host John Clifford for a powerful start — an eye-opening conversation with renowned international music lawyer Johnny Phelan. The focus? AI and its far-reaching impact on the world of Production Music. Johnny shares insights from his high-level discussions with governments across the globe and offers a thoughtful, well-informed perspective that balances realism with a welcome note of optimism. It's a must-listen for anyone navigating the future of production music creation and rights.

We have a big chat with Malcolm Harris about his new book — What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis — which takes seriously the fact that “the whole total world is in crisis” and then seriously advances three different ways to understand, confront, and overcome these disastrous conditions. We walk through the pathways that Malcolm stakes out — marketcraft, public power, and communism — and use the bland discourse around Abundance as a foil for the far more incisive analysis he lays out in What's Left. ••• What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis | Malcolm Harris https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/malcolm-harris/whats-left/9780316577434/ ••• Malcolm's book tour https://linktr.ee/WhatsLeftTour ••• Malcolm's review of Abundance https://thebaffler.com/latest/whats-the-matter-with-abundance-harris Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We are joined by Katie Wells — Director of Research at Groundwork Collaborative — to discuss her new report with the Fairwork Project which examines the current labor conditions in the gig platform market in the US. We chat about how core features of the broader economy are becoming extremely abnormal — prices are no longer fixed and standard, income is piecemeal and unstable, people can use short-term credit to buy their fast food dinner, platform services are integrating with and replacing government services. The abnormalities keep piling up until they become the new normal. Plus we draw connections between the managerial techniques of platform companies and private equity firms. ••• Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager https://fair.work/en/fw/publications/fairwork-us-ratings-2025/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We try to figure out what the fuck is happening in the US as we chat about the low rent car commercial at the White House, the human shields of cops protecting Tesla dealerships, how Musk has become (by his own actions) a scapegoat for the public's hatred, and the ongoing disintegration of social bonds and moral solidarity under a fascist regime. Plus a new data analysis system called ShadowDragon that is supercharging the surveillance capabilities of ICE, DEA, DoS, and more. We endeavor to analyze the abyss, organize against the abyss, but not get caught staring into the abyss. ••• Stalled Audits and a Skeleton Staff: Inside Trump's War on the I.R.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/us/politics/irs-taxes-trump-musk-federal-workers.html ••• The Abduction of Mahmoud Khalil https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/the-abduction-of-mahmoud-khalil ••• Yale Suspends Scholar After A.I.-Powered News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/us/yale-suspends-scholar-terrorism.html ••• The 200+ Sites an ICE Surveillance Contractor is Monitoring https://www.404media.co/the-200-sites-an-ice-surveillance-contractor-is-monitoring/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We dig into a grand theory that Ed is building through a series of essays on the AI industry and the Silicon Valley Consensus, or how “a bunch of independent profit-seeking actors have converged on sustaining a certain technology through a frenzy of overbuilding, overvaluing, and overinvesting in order to realize excessive gains that can be translated into political power aimed at restructuring society.” ••• The Silicon Valley Consensus & AI Capex (Part 1) https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/the-silicon-valley-consensus-and Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We run through a roundup of recent stories about how different types of AI are already having real, material, immediate impacts on people's lives — including AI facial recognition used by police to shortcut actually investigating crimes, AI systems used by bosses to monitor, control, and threaten to replace human workers, AI tools for coding that are actively deskilling programmers. Across these examples, AI is treated as a convenient justification and scapegoat by those who use the systems to do awful things to other people. Then we end on up note about a new organization that's training lawyers and advocates how to fight back against forms of algorithmic discrimination by government agencies. ••• Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2025/police-artificial-intelligence-facial-recognition/ ••• Your boss is watching https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/24/1111664/worker-monitoring-employee-surveillance/ ••• AI is Creating a Generation of Illiterate Programmers https://nmn.gl/blog/ai-illiterate-programmers ••• New Junior Developers Can't Actually Code https://nmn.gl/blog/ai-and-learning ••• Rage Against The Algorithm https://www.levernews.com/rage-against-the-algorithm/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We chat with Eric Blanc — author of the new book We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big — about how the model of labor organizing through grassroots, horizontal movements is taking off in a huge way. This growing model of worker-to-worker organizing is challenging the conventional model of large, hierarchical unions. By enrolling millions of new workers into the labor movement, worker-to-worker organizing is building a stronger base for greater victories with long-lasting impact. Effective labor organizing is crucial for advancing social equality and democratic power—and our models of organizing should embody those values. ••• We Are the Union | Eric Blanc https://www.ucpress.edu/books/we-are-the-union ••• Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee https://workerorganizing.org/ ••• Save Our Public Services https://actionnetwork.org/forms/thank-you-for-taking-action-stay-in-the-fight/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We dig into DOGE. After some background on what Musk and his harem of broccoli-headed bozos have been up to as they strip the copper out of federal agencies, we zoom out to ask where did DOGE come from? Not just literally, but also politically (as a right-wing project of weaponizing and hollowing out the administrative state), materially (as the next phase in the relationship between tech/finance capital and the state), and ideologically (as the convergence of multiple right-wing movements who find common ground in Trump and Musk). In other words, we ask the question on everybody's mind: Who let the DOGE out? ••• Speed up the Breakdown | Quinn Slobodian https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/02/15/speed-up-the-breakdown/ ••• The federal tech workers facing down DOGE | Brian Merchant https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-federal-tech-workers-facing-down ••• At Oval Office, Musk Makes Broad Claims of Federal Fraud Without Proof https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/trump-musk-oval-office.html ••• Trump and Musk Hunt for Corruption, Very Selectively https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-musk-corruption.html ••• Elon Musk's Business Empire Scores Benefits Under Trump Shake-Up https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/us/politics/elon-musk-companies-conflicts.html Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

In episode 181 of Inside The Mix, I'm joined by Ableton Live expert and music production mentor Dan Giffin to discuss the key elements that take a producer from hobbyist to professional. We dive into the emotional side of mixing, the power of mentorship, and how evolving technology—including AI—is shaping the future of music creation. Whether you're perfecting your productions or preparing for a live music performance, this episode is packed with valuable insights to elevate your workflow.What You'll Learn:How Ableton Live can be used for live performance and stress-free setupsThe impact of music production mentorship on career growthBreaking down the future of AI in DAWs—is there a DAW with AI?How to prepare for a live music performance without the overwhelmThe importance of emotional connection in mixing over technical perfectionLessons learned from Dan's journey, including humorous real-world experiencesTune in to learn how to refine your craft, embrace new technology, and make music that truly connects with listeners!Wanna follow Dan? Click hereGot a question? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to submit a question, share your social media handles or website, and get featured in a future episode.Plus, one lucky question will win a Starbucks voucher each month! Face Your EarsExplore home recording and music creation with Rich and Justin on 'Face Your Ears'!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showWanna listen to my new single 'Separation'? Click here Follow Marc Matthews' Socials:Instagram | YouTube | Synth Music Mastering

Jathan sits down with Sunaura Taylor—author of Disabled Ecologies—in her lab at UC Berkeley to discuss her excellent work which brings together critical disability studies with enironmental justice. Against the backdrop of her research on toxic waste dumps, military industires, racial capitalism, injured communities, and social movements in Tuscon, AZ, we explore the “expansive webs of injury” that now entrap everybody, giving rise to what Sunaura calls the Age of Disability. ••• Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert | Sunaura Taylor https://www.ucpress.edu/books/disabled-ecologies ••• Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation | Sunaura Taylor https://thenewpress.com/books/beasts-of-burden Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

In this week's episode of the 52 Cues Podcast, we're doing a live Ask Me Anything session! I answer questions about sync licensing, production, and composition!We talk about the US Copyright Office's AI ruling, the importance of adding human elements to cues, and what genres are in demand. I also share my approach to mastering stems, how much you can expect to earn with 500 cues, and a simple stereo widening trick using sample delay.Plus, we talk drum mic techniques, my electronic kit setup, and, of course, cats. Because every composer needs a cat.Watch this episode on YouTube!http://youtube.com/watch?v=Oxmq4dhidcsCymbal SFX - Bowed! Elevate your soundscapes with Cymbal SFX - Bowed—a masterful collection of 68 unique bowed cymbal performances, meticulously recorded for tension-filled tracks and cinematic trailers. Now available exclusively at Production Music Tools!https://productionmusictools.com/products/bowed-cymbals-by-52-cues Join the 52 Cues Album Accelerator – a self-paced program with over 6.5 hours of video content, discussion threads, articles, and resources which guides you through the entire process of creating a production music album. Plus you'll receive a 90-minute, one-on-one session to listen through your album and discuss strategies for library placement. Head over to 52cues.com/accelerator to sign up today!

Ed and Jathan are together in the San Francisco Bay Area huddled over a single mic like a fire keeping us warm as we record an episode about DeepSeek before running off to our book launch event at City Lights (thanks all the wonderful TMK fans who made it a packed house!). DeepSeek, the disruptive new LLM from a Chinese startup / hedge fund, is being hailed as Silicon Valley's “Sputnik moment.” We dig into how DeepSeek challenges the fundamental economics of the AI industry, while casting a skeptical eye on claims that DeepSeek solves any of the real problems of AI—financial, social, or political. ••• Deep Impact | Ed Zitron https://www.wheresyoured.at/deep-impact/ ••• DeepSeek sends a shockwave through markets https://www.economist.com/business/2025/01/27/deepseek-sends-a-shockwave-through-markets ••• The real meaning of the DeepSeek drama https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/01/29/the-real-meaning-of-the-deepseek-drama ••• OpenAI targets $300bn valuation in SoftBank-led funding round https://www.ft.com/content/2c697ff8-dfe9-4c42-a328-d21216293aa3 Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

Ed is back from his gonzo reporting trip at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We hear all about the biggest themes, the most stupid products, the most dangerous lies, and the mountains of bullshit being created in the place where futures are made—or, at least, where expectations are manufactured and where beliefs are harvested. ••• Jathan's essay on AI and Tinkerbell: https://futurism.com/ai-tinkerbell Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

[Due to the relevance of this episode — and requests from listeners in LA — we decided to make this week the free episode.] We get into the crossover between the LA wildfires and the FIRE industry – finance, insurance, real estate. Where most people see a hellscape of risk and loss, the FIRE industry also sees a landscape of opportunity and profit. First are reports of landlords and investors never letting a good crisis go to waste as the latter jack up rents for people who need places to stay after losing everything, while the former snatch up burnt homes using the discounts code “devastation.” Second we then get into the simple narratives and material dynamics of how the insurance industry is dealing with the wildfire's aftermath by leaning into their victim complex while also hiking rates, restricting policies, denying claims, and agitating for regulatory changes. ••• We All Live in the Firestorm: Infinite Crisis and the LA Wildfires https://thetechbubble.substack.com/p/we-all-live-in-the-firestorm-infinite ••• Real Estate Vultures Eye Middle-Class Enclave of Ravaged LA https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-15/fire-ravaged-altadena-attracts-real-estate-vultures-eyeing-deals ••• Experts say Los Angeles rental prices will ‘inevitably' spike post-wildfires https://fortune.com/2025/01/11/los-angeles-rental-prices-will-inevitably-spike-post-wildfires-experts/ ••• The costly calamity in Los Angeles https://www.ft.com/content/1ada4ad5-d992-42a2-89d9-99063883f91d ••• L.A. Is Burning. Will Insurance Companies Take Advantage? https://newrepublic.com/article/190048/california-insurance-los-angeles-fires ••• We Will All Be Paying For L.A.'s Wildfires https://www.levernews.com/we-will-all-be-paying-for-l-a-s-wildfires/ Standing Plugs: ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We round up and run down many of the big themes that we think will be important in the coming year and demand our sustained critical attention. Our analysis spans from the new golden age of crypto to further consolidation in the (corporate) venture capital industry, from the ramping up of investment and partnerships in the market for military technology to the ways in which AI will keep growing as a story about the collisions between multiple massive interconnected infrastructures. Standing Plugs: ••• Register for Jathan's book launch in San Francisco on January 30th: citylights.com/events/jathan-sadowski-the-mechanic-and-the-luddite/ ••• Order Jathan's new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for more analysis in our premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We get into an excellent new report on the rise of on-demand platforms for nursing, which have spurred further exploitation of labor and degradation of care in an industry that has already been hollowed out by suppression of worker rights and financialization by private equity firms. The destruction of healthcare wouldn't be complete if tech innovators didn't use re-skinned versions of algorithmic management software to make things even worse by further stripping the sector to its bare bones. ••• Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble –– ••• Uber for Nursing https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

[Note: we explain TMK's new structure from 0:00-10:28, so skip that to get straight into the episode] We dive into the market for catastrophe bonds (or, “cat bonds”) and talk about how this complex financial instrument is sold as the silver bullet for climate finance — especially for under-developed countries that are at risk of devastation from disasters like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes — which is meant to be an alternative to insurance for places that cannot access or afford policies. In reality, they have given institutions like the World Bank the perfect neoliberal policy for climate (in)action, they have provided extremely lucrative windfalls for hedge funds, and they have left people in devastated regions with nothing to show for their expensive premiums. ••• Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble —— ••• The Harsh Reality of ‘Hurricane Insurance' https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-jamaica-hurricane-catastrophe-bonds/ ••• The Risky Business of Predicting Where Climate Disaster Will Hit https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-flood-fire-climate-risk-analytics/ ••• In Nature's Casino https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/magazine/26neworleans-t.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

First we talk about the unholy trinity of Anduril, Palantir, and OpenAI working together to secure major contracts from the Pentagon for networking data systems and training AI models. Then we get into how Blackstone now owns the AI boom with $50 billion invested in data centre infrastructure and another $50 billion in the pipeline. Lastly, we chat about how the mortgage markets in the US, Australia, and elsewhere—the very cornerstone of entire economies and generational wealth—are once again facing systemic risk a lá the 2008 crash, but this time caused by climate catastrophes. ••• Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril's vision for war https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/10/1108354/we-saw-a-demo-of-the-new-ai-system-powering-andurils-vision-for-war/ ••• Mind the Gap: Foundation Models and the Covert Proliferation of Military Intelligence, Surveillance, and Targeting https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.14831 ••• Blackstone's Data-Center Ambitions School a City on AI Power Strains https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-12-08/georgia-s-blackstone-backed-qts-data-center-hits-resistance-over-ai-power-needs ••• The Climate Risk to the Mortgage System https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/business/economy/mortgages-climate-risk-fannie-freddie.html ••• Surging insurance costs are driving thousands of borrowers to breach their mortgage contracts https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-10/insurance-costs-are-driving-thousands-to-breach-their-mortgages/104703586 ••• How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualized https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/05/climate-crisis-insurance-premiums Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We've got a great reading series that redirects our attention to another big bugbear of TMK: the destruction – and salvation – of nature via asset markets and risk management. We talk about how the business world is coming around to the idea that is nature is *not* a “a free, infinitely extractable resource” and might actually be a valuable asset worth safeguarding—but only if it has clear and direct links to immediate profit! This has led to a number of great new innovations like “biodiversity credits,” which will surely create all kinds of great and desirable outcomes. ••• Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Subscribe to Ed's substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble ••• Do businesses need to care about biodiversity? https://www.ft.com/content/8c6dd560-604b-4d2c-8ff6-4e60a8a4726d Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We tie together a number of things: first, the assassination of UnitedHealth Group's CEO and the reactions to this event; second, a new startup in the Thiel family that rehabilitates Sauron as a shining beacon of security for the terrified tech elite; and third, the vision put forward by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, for an army of ethical techno-slaves that are powered by a new vaporware platform called Agentforce. Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Why "we" want insurance executives dead https://www.usermag.co/p/yes-we-want-insurance-executives ••• Fearful of crime, the tech elite transform their homes into military bunkers https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/05/tech-ceos-elites-home-security-silicon-valley/ ••• How the Rise of New Digital Workers Will Lead to an Unlimited Age https://time.com/7178872/agents-unlimited-age/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We talk about the legal battles that Musk and Amazon are waging against the National Labor Relations Board, in part by claiming the NLRB is unconditional because it violates employers' rights to a trial by jury. We then get into a broader discussion of how the right-wing has organised a highly effective — while also ideologically inconsistent — political movement which is based on a single-minded obsession with — and demonic hatred of — the bureaucratic minutiae of oft-overlooked government agencies and appointments. We argue that the left needs a new theory of the state, which can underlie its own obsession with the concrete operations of bureaucratic power and a political movement focused on taking control of this administrative machinery. Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• How Elon Musk And Amazon Could Deal A Blow To Workers' RightsHow Elon Musk And Amazon Could Deal A Blow To Workers' Rights https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-spacex-amazon-nlrb_n_67472463e4b0f973902fa591 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

We chat about Ed's brilliant critical review of the new book AI Snake Oil and talk about the shortcomings of analysis that are so focused on demystifying the hype about what AI can do that the hype becomes the only thing that matters. We sharpen our own critique by sparring with this interesting and thoughtful — but also limited and naive — critique of AI. Rather than treating hype as the root of all evil in tech — and thus framing our solutions to AI harms as a technical exercise of discerning snake oil from real cures — we must push further to attack the material foundations of the AI industry. Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• AI Scams Are the Point https://newrepublic.com/article/188313/artifical-intelligence-scams-propaganda-deceit Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We get into the New York Times's lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, which challenges the use of copyrighted material as training data for AI models. The NYT's case is built on notions of “romantic authorship” — or the irreducible / ineffable quality of creativity and individuality in human works — and discuss the analytical weakness of building critiques and strategies on such immaterial, shifty grounding, and the serious limits such a framing puts on potential solutions. We also chat about OpenAI's further push into education and its effects on teaching. Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• New York Times Says OpenAI Erased Potential Lawsuit Evidence https://www.wired.com/story/new-york-times-openai-erased-potential-lawsuit-evidence/ ••• NYT v. OpenAI: The Times's About-Face https://harvardlawreview.org/blog/2024/04/nyt-v-openai-the-timess-about-face/ ••• AI Companies Are Trying to Get MIT Press Books https://www.404media.co/mit-press-ai-training-on-books/ ••• There's No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/opensubtitles-ai-data-set/680650 ••• OpenAI releases a teacher's guide to ChatGPT, but some educators are skeptical https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/openai-releases-a-teachers-guide-to-chatgpt-but-some-educators-are-skeptical/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

In our first recording back from holiday, we get into the Silicon Valley Election and go through the relationship between Trump and Musk. What can we expect from the President and his First Buddy — personally and politically, institutionally and financially? Beyond Musk, how might the tech elite behave and benefit in another Trump administration? There's a lot of potential and speculation and promises and hype at this point—and a lot of open questions that remain to be seen—but we set the scene and put the players on the board for what's shaping up to be an exciting (and stupid) new season of TMK. Pre-order Jathan's new book! https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite ••• Why Is Elon Musk Really Embracing Donald Trump? https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/why-is-elon-musk-really-embracing-donald-trump ••• Elon Musk may already be overstaying his welcome in Trump's orbit https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/elon-musk-trump-donald-mar-a-lago-appointment-position-rcna179826 ••• The cult of the founders https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-cult-of-the-founders ••• Musk Wants to Slash $2 Trillion in Federal Spending. Is That Possible? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/us/politics/dept-government-efficiency-explainer.html ••• US commission proposes ‘Manhattan Project-like' initiative for AI https://www.computerworld.com/article/3609516/us-commission-proposes-manhattan-project-like-initiative-for-ai.html ••• Tech companies will have it easy under Trump. Just like they did under Biden https://www.fastcompany.com/91224437/tech-companies-will-have-it-easy-under-trump-just-like-they-did-under-biden Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

[This interview was recorded before the election; we'll talk about that in the next premium episode] We are joined by Susan Li and Alec Karakatsanis who work at Civil Rights Corps to talk about their important legal work against the prison tech industry—an extraordinarily predatory, extractive, and profitable industry dominated by private equity firms which control (and surveil and commodify) all communications between prisoners and their families. These firms charge exorbitant rates per minute for access to telephone use, video calls, emails, ebooks, and more—and then use that data to create and sell bogus AI surveillance products. We also talk about the corruption at the heart of this industry—such as the lucrative contracts between industry and prisons where sheriffs get a cut of corporate profits—and how these financial incentives have caused jails and prisons to restrict, or even eliminate, in-person visits between prisoners and their families. This is the basis of Susan and Alec's work for the Right 2 Hug project, which is advocating for the legal right to physical, face-to-face contact between prisoners and their families. ••• Right 2 Hug https://www.right2hug.org/ ••• Do Children Have a “Right to Hug” Their Parents? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/the-jails-that-forbid-children-from-visiting-their-parents ••• Michigan Counties Ban Jail Visits to Profit From Videochat Fees, Lawsuits Say https://theappeal.org/michigan-counties-allegedly-ban-jail-visits-to-profit-from-videochat-fees/ ••• Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People's Voice Prints https://theappeal.org/prisons-across-the-u-s-are-quietly-building-databases-of-incarcerated-peoples-voice-prints/ ••• The Prison Industry | Worth Rises https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58e127cb1b10e31ed45b20f4/t/621682209bb0457a2d6d5cfa/1645642294912/The+Prison+Industry+How+It+Started+How+It+Works+and+How+It+Harms+December+2020.pdf Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We bullshit about ICP, the Joker, and Megalopolis for the first 33 minutes. So jump a bit into the episode if you wanna skip the verbal shit posting and get to the analytical discussion of BYD. We chat broadly about the background and rapid rise of BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. We explain why BYD is such a fascinating company that is worth keeping a close eye on because it sits at the intersection of multiple TMK interests: industrial policy, geopolitics of technology, political economy of green innovation, and the economic Cold War between the US and China. ••• BYD Is Winning the Global Race to Make Cheaper EVs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-16/electric-car-brand-byd-leads-race-to-make-cheap-evs-despite-tariffs ••• The Electric Vehicle Developmental State https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/byd/ ••• Apple Secretly Worked With China's BYD on Long-Range EV Battery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-16/apple-secretly-worked-with-china-s-byd-on-long-range-ev-battery ••• China's Economic Growth Is Good, Actually https://jwmason.org/slackwire/chinas-economic-growth-is-good-actually/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

First we have an update on an old startup as Worldcoin changes its name to World and redesigns its Orb to be more than just an eyeball scanner but also now an identification service called Deep Face. Repeat the satanic mantra after me: World, Orb, Deep Face. We then sit back as Prof Ed walks us through an in-depth investigation into how Uber and Lyft used driver lockouts—preventing them from logging on, seemingly at random and for long periods—as a cynical response to minimum pay laws in New York City. This regulatory arbitrage and brutal optimization resulted in significant impacts on drivers and major savings for the companies. ••• Sam Altman's Worldcoin Gets a New Name, and New Hardware https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-17/sam-altman-s-worldcoin-gets-a-new-name-and-new-hardware ••• How Uber and Lyft Used a Loophole to Deny NYC Drivers Millions in Pay https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-uber-lyft-nyc-drivers-pay-lockouts/?srnd=phx-technology Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We chat about a great investigation into the powerful networks of political influence and intimidation that tech companies are bankrolling to ensure that politicians at local, state, and federal levels advance the interests of Silicon Valley—or at least not stand in their way. For example, one recently created pro-crypto super PAC has $170 million in its war chest, which it has used to influence Senate and House seats this election cycle. We also talk about the political strategist, Chris Lehane, who has been the driving force behind the tech sector's realpolitik strategy—from Airbnb to Coinbase to OpenAI. ••• Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We are joined by a dear friend of the show, Paris Marx, to talk about his new series on Tech Won't Save Us called “Data Vampires” – which provides an excellent deep dive into the politics, ideologies, and consequences of the global expansion of data centers by big tech giants. Data Vampires is full of original research and interviews, plus excellent production. We touch on some of the series' major themes before going down our own rabbit holes discussing the geopolitics of data centers as a form of imperial infrastructure for techno-capitalism. ••• Listen to Data Vampires on Tech Won't Save Us by Paris Marx: https://techwontsave.us/episodes Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

Bringing together a few news items, we analyze the politics of scale in AI. First, OpenAI has one of the largest funding rounds ever at $6.6 billion raised for a valuation of $157 billion—with our boy Masayoshi finally getting his taste of OpenAI by investing $500 million. Second, CA Governor Gruesome Newsom vetoed an AI safety bill, which would have put stricter regulations on the largest class of AI models. Third, an excellent new paper offers a blistering critique of the bigger-is-better paradigm in AI. ••• SoftBank to invest $500mn in OpenAI https://www.ft.com/content/b1efdc2a-4dbc-40cc-920e-2cf389d261e8 ••• In California, no AI bill is safe https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/in-california-no-ai-bill-is-safe ••• Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14160 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We chat with Marijam Did, author of the new book Everything to Play For, which bridges radical leftist politics and video games through a real material analysis of video games as an industry, art form, and social space. Marijam lays out the case for why these two communities of radical leftists and gamers—which have largely been distinct and even antagonistic to each other—need to be brought together for the betterment of both sides. Leftists and gamers have a lot to learn from each other. Indeed, as we argue, they need each other. Marijam's new book – Everything to Play For: How Videogames Are Changing the World https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3086-everything-to-play-for Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

With the news of interest rates dropping again, we refocus our attention on Masayoshi Son, the man who perhaps most embodies the pathologies of technological capitalism. Thanks to a new biography, we learn fascinating color about Masa's character which further support what we already to know to be true: he is an ambitious disrupter who is burdened with delusions of grandeur, a degenerate gambler who has turned his addiction to leverage into a personal mythos, and a gifted intermediary who knows how to engineer debt and extract fees. ••• The mystery of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's great disrupter https://www.ft.com/content/424eb5f8-efb4-4fc8-b86a-0359f6fac9eb Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

Jumping off a spate of recent reporting, we revisit the deep relations between the tech sector and fossil fuel industry and discuss how companies like Microsoft are turning to oil and gas companies as a solution for AI's profit problem. How are tech companies going to offset their trillion dollars of capital investment into AI infrastructure? One revenue strategy: selling bespoke AI systems to companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron which make fossil fuel extraction even more efficient, thus optimizing the process of socio-ecological collapse. Gotta capture those profits while there's still time! ••• Microsoft's Hypocrisy on AI https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/09/microsoft-ai-oil-contracts/679804/ ••• AI Boom Is Driving a Surprise Resurgence of US Gas-Fired Power https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-16/us-natural-gas-power-plants-just-keep-coming-to-meet-ai-ev-electricity-demand ••• The U.S. Has a Methane Problem. A.I. Is Making It Worse. https://newrepublic.com/article/186213/methane-emissions-ai-flaring-court ••• Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/data-center-gas-emissions-tech ••• Three Mile Island Plans to Reopen as Demand for Nuclear Power Grows https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/climate/three-mile-island-reopening.html ••• AI is revitalizing the fossil fuels industry, and big tech has nothing to say for itself https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-is-revitalizing-the-fossil-fuels ••• AI is fueling a data center boom. It must be stopped. https://disconnect.blog/ai-is-fueling-a-data-center-boom/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We dive into a weird but revealing article about the phalanx of private security that Elon Musk has amassed around him, spending a small fortune on ex-operators who plan escape routes for his events, clear rooms before he enters, and assess (perceived) threats to his personal safety. His “mushrooming security apparatus” has caused a feedback loop or paranoia and isolation as he becomes further removed from any social connections to other people. We relate this to a broader zeitgeist of fear in American society that has given rise to—and is fuelled by—the explosion of growth in private security firms. ••• Inside Elon Musk's Mushrooming Security Apparatus https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/13/technology/elon-musk-security.html ••• The Thin Purple Line https://harpers.org/archive/2024/09/the-thin-purple-line-jasper-craven-private-security-guard/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We are joined by Gaby Del Valle who has written a great—and distressingly relevant—essay for The Baffler, which reports on the “eugenic foundations of the war on woke.” We dig into the beliefs of innate biological hierarchy and genetic superiority that underpin so much of mainstream right-wing politics. Whether it's the convergence of Christian nationalist and tech rationalists around issues like declining birth rates and embryo engineering, or its the resurgence of blood libel with JD Vance's fascist fairy tale about Haitian migrants, or its the cultural war against woke universities and DEI committees—these various sects are all unified by their use of biological essentialism to justify social domination. ••• Live Free or DEI https://thebaffler.com/salvos/live-free-or-dei-del-valle ••• Follow Gaby: https://x.com/gabydvj Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

Keeping with our recent theme of exploring the relations between the military and tech sector, we jump off a great essay in The Baffler to discuss a crucial part of this complex: university research. Universities – especially, academics in STEM faculties – must be understood as defense contractors who are partners with the military (and adjacent agencies); they advance the military's goals and are dependent on the military's cash. You can call them “research grants,” you can say their purpose is to “advancing knowledge,” you can extoll the benefits of “supporting academics and higher education,” but those are just euphemisms for the realities of the military-industrial-university complex. ••• War Machine Learning https://thebaffler.com/salvos/war-machine-learning-mccarthy Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

To mark the occasion of his new best selling airport book, we take a deeper look at Yuval Noah Harari's impoverished thought and intellectual style via a great review essay by Daniel Immerwahr. We see how Harari's doomsday scenarios are based on an extreme form of technological determinism + a romanticized humanism-as-critique + a disinterest in material analysis of political economy + an ironically chatbot-esque style of intellectualism. ••• Yuval Noah Harari's Apocalyptic Vision https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/10/yuval-noah-harari-nexus-book/679572/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

Lesley and Brad recap an insightful conversation with Dr. Jan Schroeder, Ph.D., an expert in exercise physiology, focusing on fitness and self-care during perimenopause. This episode offers actionable insights on how to adapt your exercise routine and lifestyle habits to support your health during this transition.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Pros and cons of using the AeroPilates reformer for home practice.The impact of perimenopause on women's reduced physical activities.Understanding the role of cortisol in your body during menopauseAdjusting workout routines to align with your body's changing needs.Why crucial to give yourself permission to adjust your fitness goals.Episode References/Links:eLevate Mentorship ProgramCambodia February 2025 RetreatTry Out OPC $40 for 40 DaysPilates Studio Growth AcceleratorOPC PerksFemGevity  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. DEALS! Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox Be in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipFREE Ditching Busy WebinarResources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable Pilates Follow Us on Social Media:InstagramFacebookLinkedIn  Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00  She advocates that you have to have a holistic approach to combining exercise, nutrition and hormonal management to navigate menopause effectively. And she really gave us some tools on just adjusting our behavior so it's not like this negative thing, but actually it supports these changes, because these changes don't have to be a bad thing. There's positives to it as well. Lesley Logan 0:20  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 1:01  Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the implementable convo I had with Jan Schroeder in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to this one, you should go back and listen. It's a perimenopause one, guys, we finally got someone who really is like a wealth of knowledge in this area and on a specific niche of it. And I'm so, so excited for it to hear, for you to hear all of it. So anyways, you're gonna want to listen to this and listen to that. Today is September 12th 2024 and it's Are You Okay Day. So the history of Are You Okay Day, in 1995 Barry Larkin's death by suicide left his family and friends in deep grief and with unanswered questions. In 2009, his son, Gavin Larkin, chose to do something about his father's death. He came up with just one question to honor his father and prevent more suicides: "Are you okay?" Gavin and a few of his friends decided to turn it into a national campaign from this realization and with their expertise and passion, R U OK? was born. So Gavin actually passed away in 2011 but truly held onto the belief that a conversation could change a life. His legacy is now a national conversation movement. R U OK? is a harm and suicide prevention charity that encourages people to have conversations that help others and themselves navigate the difficult times in their lives. You can learn more about R U OK? on the thing, it's really wonderful what they're doing. There's also some really other amazing charities. Our friend, Mai, is actually part of the Nevada suicide prevention.Brad Crowell 2:23  Yeah, it's ruok.org and I think it's ..org.au Lesley Logan 2:28  Awesome. Brad Crowell 2:29  And that's A, not A-R-E, it's the letters R and then the letter U, ruok.org.auSpeaker 1 2:37  There's also, in the States, there's the AFSP and this one, you can learn more about suicide. You can learn how to help prevent it. And usually, different states have their own local organizations of those. So, really important and if you are needing a phone number, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) is the phone number you can call for prevention, lifeline for suicide. And there's also a lot more information on calling it death by suicide or died by suicide, because there's a lot more research around why this is happening, how this is going on. And it's not as selfish as we have come to think. So it's really, really important that you check that out. All right, some upcoming events and travel. Like we said last week, we're kind of sitting around and that and in Las Vegas and enjoying the best time of the weather that is here. But we're also thinking big time about 2025 because it's gonna be here before we know it. And a lot of the things we work on are years in the making. So eLevate, which is our mentorship program, that is something we actually accept applications for early, because it's a big program, and we wanna make sureBrad Crowell 3:39  It's a commitment, it's a, you know, the transformation that you are going to get is massive. Speaker 1 3:45  And it also is something that will continue to change and evolve in your life over time. So it's not like you just do it for nine months and it's over. There's like, more that you get out of it. It's like a fine wine, it just, or a tequila, right? So if you are a teacher interested in our mentorship program, go to lesleylogan.co/elevate and you can learn more about it. You can hear what our past grads had to say. We've now had 49 people do the program, 50 people.Brad Crowell 4:10  Yeah,Something like that. Lesley Logan 4:10  Yeah. And I'm, just because we keep the groups nice and small. So I'm really, really excited for 2025. Also in 2025 is our February Cambodia retreat. Brad Crowell 4:18  Yeah, come join us. Lesley Logan 4:19  Oh, my God. I cannot wait to spend a week with the people who have signed up. I'm really, really excited to get to know them more. We do Pilates classes, we tour temples, we go to Lotus farms. Brad Crowell 4:27  We had two more sign up. It's gonna be great.Lesley Logan 4:28  I know it's gonna be so amazing. So crowsnestretreats.com is where you can get more information on the retreat. And by the way, like you can come straight to Cambodia and leave and be home and only miss like eight days of your busy life, or you can hit Thailand or Laos or Vietnam on your way in or your way out, and like, really make Southeast Asia a tour and a trip. And we curate the week for you on this retreat. It's really fun. We do breath work. We do a lot of work on life balance and things like that. Plus we get to enjoy a beautiful country. Brad Crowell 4:32  Plus lots of Pilates. Lesley Logan 4:54  Lots of Pilates. And because you are listening to this, you might actually be a little Pi-curious, Pilates curious. And so we hope that you check out onlinepilatesclasses.com as a way to get more Pilates in your life. We really do pride ourselves in making it easy and accessible to get accountability and community and feedback on your form at OPC. So go to opc.me/40 because you can take Pilates classes from us in our app. You can talk to us about the class in our app, and you can celebrate others in there as well. Brad Crowell 5:32  And if you're a business owner, whether that's a super small business owner just getting started, maybe you have one home client or something like that, all the way to I've got multiple studios. If you're feeling stuck with your money, I want you to come join me for a free webinar that I'm hosting called the Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator. And we're going to be uncovering three big secrets that we've come to realize over the years after having coached more than 2000 businesses coming through our coaching program, join me at prfit.biz/accelerator. That's profit without the O dot biz slash accelerator to sign up for free. Lesley Logan 6:09  All right, before we get into the amazing conversation, I had with Jan about our fitness and perimenopause, we've got an audience question to answer, yes? Brad Crowell 6:16  Yeah, we sure do. "Is the AeroPilates reformer sufficient for reformer training in a small space or a piece of junk, and I should just try to find a legit reformer somewhere else to practice with?" asks @etain.pilates on the YouTube.Speaker 1 6:31  Yeah. So we actually even went deep into discussion, because I had several questions about affordable reformers for home practice and things like that. So there is an actual long form answer to this question, and I'm going to give you a snippet of it, and hopefully, if you need more information, you go watch that. Actually I have two videos. We have one on how to choose reformer for at home, and then we have me answering this question, like, how do I find affordable reformer at home? So I'm not going to call anything junk, especially when I don't know why it was created. Something that's really important to note is that Pilates equipment is typically created for the style of Pilates that's designed to go on it. Just like a treadmill or a bike or, you know, any kind of fitness thing, it is created for the style of work that you're going to do on it. So for me, if you are trying to do Pilates that's more classical or even typical contemporary I'm not talking like athletic reformer, because I don't know more about that. Then I don't know that the AeroPilates is going to be sufficient enough for home practice, because it's going to limit you, and it's going to change things in a way that you can't modify. So the foot bar, for example, it's not going to be the angle you're used to when you teach or you go to a studio, the straps, the handles, the bungee cord versus spring. So I'm not going to say it's junk. I'm going to say that if you are trying to deepen your reformer practice, it's going to be like you don't see sprinters for the Olympics training on ice skates. They don't. Right? It's just, there's nothing wrong with ice skates.Brad Crowell 7:57  I think a better comparison there would be, they're not training in a walking shoe, they're training in a running shoe. Lesley Logan 8:05  Correct. You're correct. Okay, that's a better example.Brad Crowell 8:07  They are certainly not training on ice skates. Obviously, you're you're not going to try to do Pilates on a trampoline.Speaker 1 8:11  Fair, fair, fair, a better analogy. Kind of come up things on the spot, some, they can't all be brilliant, but you're correct. Like, the sprinters are not in, they're not even in regular running shoes but they're in track shoes with like.Brad Crowell 8:11  That's actually the best analogy. They're not training in running shoes, they're training in sprinting shoes.Speaker 1 8:27  We got that, we got we got there, we got there. So what I would say is I would find a studio that you can rent space at and abuse theirs, or I would find a used reformer that truly is more like what you're used to and accustomed to and make it a piece of furniture in your home. People are not expecting homes to look like hotels. They expect homes to look like things you live in, so get the one you like. That's my answer. If you want to get a discount on a Balanced Body or Contrology piece, you can check out opc.me/perks, we do have discount links on all of that stuff. Brad Crowell 8:58  Yeah. And if you're trying to find our YouTube channel, just go to opc.me/yt. All right. Well, thanks for asking that question. If you have questions that you'd like to ask, feel free to text us at 310-905-5534, or hit us up on Instagram. Just that. Mention us and fire away. Stick around. We'll be right back. Brad Crowell 9:17  All right. Now, let's talk about Jan Schroeder. Dr. Jan Schroeder is a professor at Long Beach State University and coordinator of their unique Bachelor of Science in fitness. So you can literally go to college for fitness. And that's. Lesley Logan 9:33  It's like, one of the only places you can do that. Brad Crowell 9:35  I think she said it is the only place. Lesley Logan 9:37  Yes, yes. Oh, shout out to Michelle Sims (inaudible), she connected me with Jan because she said is there anything you need? I'm like, yeah, I need two people. I need people on perimenopause, who do you know?Brad Crowell 9:46  Yeah, so Jan, Dr. Schroeder has a PhD in exercise physiology and she's passionate about educating women on the importance of personalized fitness strategies, overall well-being and self-care during and after menopause. She encourages women to prioritize their health, understand the changes in their bodies, and adapt exercise and lifestyle habits tailored to their physiological, social and psychological needs.Lesley Logan 10:12  Just, okay, was, I found it really enlightening. I felt like there was so much permission. I found like she had so much information. There's a lot of people who are out there now talk about perimenopause, and I'm loving how much advice and information out there. I thought I was like, oh my god, I'm going through it early. I got some help from Femgevity, and I'm not, but I actually do have some support, some bio identicals to just enjoy my life and keep a baseline. But she talked about, like, how we don't really need to, like, go, oh my god, I'm going through this. I can't go, there's so much support out there. But a lot of times the things that we are doing as we go through perimenopause and into menopause are actually giving us reverse results we want. So she specifically took a little lens of fitness. And when you are in perimenopause and post-winter and like, winter menopausal because your hormones change, she advocates that you have to have a holistic approach to combining exercise, nutrition and hormonal management to navigate menopause effectively. And she really gave us some tools on like just adjusting our behavior. So it's not like this negative thing, but actually it supports these changes, because these changes don't have to be a bad thing. There's positives to it as well.Brad Crowell 11:21  Yeah, that was one of the biggest things she was talking about. Is that we only ever seen to hear or talk or think about the negatives, and we very rarely think about the positives of it. Lesley Logan 11:35  I also just want to say, like, I love that what she talked about, like a 40-minute workouts or less, working out in the morning, doing different things that can actually support so that the workouts you're doing are supporting your health, your longevity, your cardiovascular system, your bones, if weight loss is something you're wanting to do, those are all really important things. And the world is set up with these hour-long classes, high-intensity classes, and we've got women over 40 doing these crazy metabolic workouts when really they need some strength. They need some move meditation. And so I was like, patting myself on the back. I'm like, OPC is 30-minute classes, just saying, and you can do when you want.Brad Crowell 12:15  Well, I thought something that was really interesting was she talked about this natural inclination that we have to we, meaning women who are going through menopause, that they have, as they hit menopause, they just stop moving. Lesley Logan 12:30  It's a real it was really interesting. The part of the brain that just goes, okay, I'm not gonna tell you to get up.Brad Crowell 12:35  Yeah, she said the stats are 40% less movement typically as a woman is hitting menopause, and I don't know if that's just built into how we are, or if it's like, oh, this societally adopted thing of like, oh, I hit this phase in my life and I'm gonna just stop now.Lesley Logan 12:52  It did. And she said it doesn't even sound like it was a conscious thing. It's likeBrad Crowell 12:55  (Inaudible) she said women tend to sit more. They're just sitting more. And she said, it's really important to start paying attention to those things using a fitness tracker or a journal, so that you can start to track yourself and be like, oh, wow. I used to get 10,000 steps, and now I'm getting 6000 steps. How did I end up doing that? Right? So we use an aura ring. Can't give you a link to it, really, it's not that easy to do that, but the Oura ring, it connects to your health app on your phone, and it tracks a whole lot of different things. But she said, be mindful. Jot those things down. She said it is actually reduced activity level is dictated by estrogen. So yeah, you're right. It doesn't seem like it's a conscious thing. She explained, the estrogen affects different tissues in the brain, especially the hypothalamus, which is responsible for how much food you eat, how hungry you feel, how much energy you are feeling like you can expend, want to expend. She said, when we take estrogen away through menopause, what the brain does is the hypothalamus cannot regulate these things anymore the way you used to. So it's important for you to consciously regulate them yourself. Be aware of that stuff. So yeah, I mean, I found that really intriguing. Stick around. We'll be right back. Brad Crowell 14:08  All right, welcome back. So finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Dr. Jan Schroeder? She advised against long duration cardio workouts during menopause. And y'all, we talked about this about a million times that the 80s were all about running and cardio, and that was how you're gonna lose weight and it has been busted and disproven. That is not reality a million times over. But what I found really interesting was she started to talk about cortisol, and when we hear cortisol, we immediately think negative things. We're like, oh, cortisol bad. And she said, No, actually, cortisol is also good, but we have to regulate how much of it that we have in our system. And as we age, more cortisol is just natural in our bodies. And then through menopause, it can kick it up a notch even more. And she started talking about things like, when are you doing your workout and how are you doing your workout, right? So when she started talking about working out earlier in the day, and then how you're doing your workout, cardio is gonna just add a lot of cortisol. And she said the problem with cortisol is it affects your sleep. You need it in the morning. It gets your brain going. It gets you going. But then in the end of the day, if you're jamming a lot of that, you know, if you're kicking off a lot of cortisol, you're going to have a difficult time sleeping. You're not going to process during sleep, because you're not going to be getting that sleep. And so basically, it becomes a problem if you're adding a lot to it at the end of your day. So she did recommend, this is where she was talking about 40 minutes or less and working out in the morning. And she recommends short bursts of high intensity of interval training to manage cortisol levels that's instead of long, long distance running kind of thing. So what about you? Lesley Logan 15:53  She said, You need to give yourself permission to back down. Oh, my god, are we sensing a theme of this podcast? So you need to give yourself permission to back down. She said, if you're a runner, that's gonna be too intense for you. So walk and put a weighted vest on. And I added a weighted vest to all of my walks. I'm gonna tell you guys, holy freaking molly, even if the walk is short, I'm no longer like, oh, my own we didn't do long enough walk today because it was too hot. Just adding that weighted vest intensified the walk. Brad Crowell 16:19  What did you get, 12 pounds? Lesley Logan 16:20  Not 12 pounds. Yeah.Brad Crowell 16:22  It's in the middle of the road one, right? Lesley Logan 16:23  Yeah, yeah. And I think now, hey, my in-laws, I would like a weighted vest where I can add weights or take them off. That's what I want for Christmas. Okay, but, like, maybe I have to look it up, because I'd like it to be a little sexier than what I've got. This is like the ugliest thing, but it's okay. It's fine. The looks don't matter. But it's those kinds of things, like, give yourself permission, that's going to be okay. We don't have to be at our highest level all the the time to be at our best self. And I thought that was really cool. You don't have to be your highest level all the time to be your best self. Brad Crowell 16:48  I think that is something that's been interesting for me, is being like, hey, today I generally don't feel like I can take on the world when I go to all my workout, right? And then being like, all right, it's all right, if I only do 80% of what I did last week on as far as weightlifting goes, or whatever. Lesley Logan 17:06  Yeah, and by the way, guys, it's called listening to your body. And also, like, if you keep going, wow, I keep feeling like I can't do it, then that's a sign you do that. Like other things are going on. You need to do some other things if you still have your cycle, ladies, I do use an app I have no affiliation to, called wild.ai that actually helps me figure out what kind of workouts I should be doing based on where I am in my cycle, which is really, really cool, because then what I do is I do more high intensity on the first two weeks-ish, and I do a little longer duration, lower intensity on the last two weeks. It has really helped me manage the cortisol as well. So I'm not doing cortisol when I have progesterone coming in, because that is a bad thing, and that's going to affect my sleep. It's going to affect my cycle. So.Brad Crowell 17:46  If all this is foreign language to you, we definitely encourage you to connect with Femgevity who has been helping Lesley really wrap her head around all this stuff and understand it for her body. Lesley Logan 17:56  You can go to beitpod.com/femgevity. Brad Crowell 17:59  Yeah. F-E-M Femgevity. Lesley Logan 18:01  Jan, you're brilliant. You gave us such an amazing look on fitness and perimenopause, and really great tips to just stay strong and stay with energy. And I'll also understand what's going on with our body and not see it as such a negative thing. Thank you so much, y'all. How are we going to use these tips in your life? We want to know, so make sure you can't tag Jan, because she's like, non-social, which I think, how cool is that?Brad Crowell 18:24  So cool. She's a professor. That's amazing. She also still teaches.Lesley Logan 18:27  She still teaches fitness, yeah, but tag the Be It Pod and then do me a favor, share this with a woman in your life. The thing that is so fascinating to me is that, how many women older than me did not have this information? And no, it wasn't out there. There wasn't a lot of research and we're doing more research now. But also, if we talk about this stuff, then it forces people, companies, other people, to find information for us. We get to demand what they talk about, by the way. So please share this with a friend so that we can change more women's lives and make going through perimenopause and endomenopause, and our years after that really thriving. It doesn't mean like it's bad. There's like, good stuff out there. So until next time, Be It Till You See It. Brad Crowell 18:32  Bye for now. Lesley Logan 18:43  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod. Brad Crowell 19:51  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 19:56  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 20:01  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex, Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 20:08  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. Brad Crowell 20:11  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally, to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We do a deep dive into Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism Strategy and Little Tech Agenda, which together lay out a clear ideology of how tech startups are integral to the American empire. All this venture capital firm asks for is your belief in a16z as a conduit for the spirit of innovation, your trust in America as a vessel for the progressive spirit, and your optimism in a future led by a16z's vision. Oh yeah, and also billions of dollars to invest in bringing about “the glory of a Second American Century.” ••• Blackstone set to acquire Australian data centre business AirTrunk https://www.ft.com/content/d7399891-15a4-47fb-b8f3-47970e156956 ••• American Dynamism https://a16z.com/american-dynamism ••• Building American Dynamism https://a16z.com/building-american-dynamism/ ••• The Little Tech Agenda https://a16z.com Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We chat with friend of the show Michael Richardson—author of the new book Nonhuman Witnessing—about the ongoing, deepening relationships between Silicon Valley and the US military. We check up on new activities from old enemies—Y Combinator, Anduril, Palantir, among others—and get into the changing cultures on both sides as they converge around defense innovation as a solution for Silicon Valley's problems of needing another endless pool of capital and the Pentagon's problems of needing to maintain a dying empire and beat China in an arms race. ••• Michael's new book – Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World https://dukeupress.edu/nonhuman-witnessing ••• Start-up incubator Y Combinator backs its first weapons firm https://www.ft.com/content/17f16071-87e0-4675-a152-6d6285b97fd5 ••• Anduril now valued at $14 billion, set to build autonomous weapons factories https://www.axios.com/2024/08/08/anduril-14-billion-autonomous-weapons ••• Army chooses Palantir to build next-generation targeting system https://www.c4isrnet.com/artificial-intelligence/2024/03/06/army-chooses-palantir-to-build-next-generation-targeting-system/ ••• Palantir Ontology https://www.palantir.com/docs/foundry/ontology/overview/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

We chat about a heinous crossover as Axon – major police tech firm, maker of tasers and body cameras – creates a new AI product with ChatGPT that automates police reports using audio recordings from body cameras. We get into this whole political economy of cop power and carceral tech. Then we talk about how all the economists are Big Mad because of proposed bans for price gouging of food. ••• Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? https://apnews.com/article/ai-writes-police-reports-axon-body-cameras-chatgpt-a24d1502b53faae4be0dac069243f418 ••• The Body Camera: The Language of our Dreams | Alec Karakatsanis https://campuspress.yale.edu/yjll/volume-4/3/ ••• Sometimes You Just Have to Ignore the Economists https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/economists-kamala-harris-price-gouging/679547/ ••• Kamala Harris and America's broken capitalism https://www.ft.com/content/41d31b4b-b0bd-4971-9f0f-543990a27103 Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)

{Producer's note: this episode has an electronic buzz in parts due to a dying microphone. I cleaned it up as much as possible, but it couldn't be totally removed. So it goes!} We go deep on the recent federal antitrust case against Google, which ruled that the company is a monopoly (obviously). We get into the details of the case, before spinning off to talk more broadly about market domination and disaster capitalism, then get back to the potential remedies for addressing Google's power over search and the implications for techno-economic regulation. ••• Disaster Capitalism Revisited https://theideasletter.substack.com/p/disaster-capitalism-revisited ••• Will Google's Monopoly Be Vanquished? https://prospect.org/justice/2024-08-09-will-googles-monopoly-be-vanquished/ ••• Google as monopolist https://www.ft.com/content/1d01b2d1-fc70-4d4a-823a-13fb24c9a7ef ••• Monopoly Money https://www.wheresyoured.at/monopoly-money/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.x.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.x.com/braunestahl)