Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by Thea Riofrancos to discuss why we should care about the supply chains of technology, what that resource extraction means for people in Latin America, and how we should think about a less resource-intensive future.

Thea Riofrancos is the author of “Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador” and co-author of “A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal...

Paris Marx is joined by Sam Harnett to talk about how the flaws in tech journalism provide a distorted view of what “tech” companies are actually doing and why it looks like California will finally force ride-hail drivers to be recognized as employees (without Uber and Lyft).

Sam Harnett is a reporter covering labor and tech at KQED in the Bay Area. He recently made a radio series called “How We Got to Here” and is the co-creator of The World According to Sound...

Paris Marx is joined by Tom Evens to discuss how the history of the television industry can give us important insights into the state of streaming video services and how regulators might respond to ensure they serve the public good instead of just their private goals.

Tom Evens is the co-author of “Platform Power and Policy in Transforming Television Markets” and a Professor of Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies at Ghent University. Follow Tom on Twitter as @EvensTom...

Paris Marx is joined by Tania Davidge to discuss the campaign to stop Apple from building a store in the middle of Melbourne’s Federation Square and how the company’s vision of a town square differs from what a true public space should be.

Tania Davidge is architect, artist, educator, writer, and researcher. She is the president of Citizens for Melbourne, a public space advocacy group, and the co-founder of the architectural research practice OoPLA...

Paris Marx is joined by Alissa Walker to discuss how Elon Musk’s Boring Company transportation system has changed over the past few years, what his plans in Las Vegas mean for workers and transit users, and why tech companies are distracting us from a real vision of better cities.

Alissa Walker is the urbanism editor at Curbed, co-host of LA Podcast, and a contributor to KCRW’s Greater LA...

Paris Marx is joined by Julie Michelle Klinger to discuss the myths around rare earth elements and how they’re fueling a movement to enclose and mine space. But a better, more collaborative future that treats space as a commons is still possible, and the Global South may show us the way forward...

Paris Marx is joined by Juan Ortiz Freuler to discuss the recent global negotiations on the taxation of multinational corporations, how Africa is demanding the digital labor of its citizens be accounted for, how these tensions threaten to fragment the web, and why the Global South may hold a better future of technology that transcends the capitalist, centralized, and individualist platforms which currently dominate...

Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski to discuss the politics of smart technology, how it enables powerful actors to further control the population, and why we should be more comfortable dismantling technologies that don’t serve the public good.

Jathan Sadowski is the author of “Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting Data, Controlling Our Lives, and Taking Over the World” and a Research Fellow in the Emerging Technologies Research Lab at Monash University...

Paris Marx is joined by Aaron W. Gordon to discuss how VC-backed tech companies upended the bike-share industry, how that specifically played out in the case of Uber and Jump, and why the dockless bike and scooter model is failing.

Aaron is a senior staff writer at Motherboard. He recently reported on Uber’s mismanagement of Jump Bikes. Follow Aaron on Twitter as @A_W_Gordon.

You can also read Paris’ thoughts on the future of micromobility...

Paris Marx is joined by Banu Subramaniam and Debjani Bhattacharyya to discuss Indian politics under Narendra Modi and the BJP; how contract-tracing apps and geofencing are being used to monitor people during COVID-19; and how Hindu nationalism is informing responses to the pandemic on WhatsApp.

Banu Subramaniam is a professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of “Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism...