Tech Won't Save Us

• Is Tesla Still a Car Company? w/ Ed Niedermeyer

  Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the mission to turn Elon Musk into the world’s first trillionaire, Tesla’s growing interest in making robots instead of cars, and how other automakers are coming for the EV market it once dominated. Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous and co-host of the Autonocast. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Tesla is paying out a series of lawsuits, and the California DMV has called for a one-month ban on Teslas being driven in the state. Curious to see what Tesla’s current Optimus robot is like? Is Tesla the world’s biggest meme stock? Tesla lied about data relating to a fatal accident until a hacker found it. ICE raided a Hyundai plant earlier this month.

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• Palantir is Thriving Under Trump w/ Caroline Haskins

  Paris Marx is joined by Caroline Haskins to discuss what Palantir actually does and the growing influence it has within the US government and many large corporations. Caroline Haskins is a staff writer at Wired. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Peter Thiel is giving a series of lectures on the Antichrist. Caroline wrote about Palantir and getting confronted by the company at a conference. Paris mentioned a connection between Paypal and the founding of Palantir; a founding story for Palantir is that the concept for the company grew from the desire to use the fraud-detection software designed for PayPal to build counterterrorism software. Palantir is having a much better financial year than the rest of Silicon Valley.

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• A New Economy Will Deliver Better Technology w/ Aaron Benanav

  Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss his vision for a multi-criterial economy and how it would alter the type of technology our society creates. It’s a plan to center human experience through democratic discourse while driving true social and technological innovation. Aaron Benanav is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and the author of Automation and the Future of Work. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: The two parts of Aaron’s essay on a Multi-Criterial Economy were published in the New Left Review. Learn more about the briefly discussed Bangladesh youth led revolution.

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• Will AI Kill Your Job? w/ Brian Merchant

  Paris Marx is joined by Brian Merchant to discuss whether the AI bubble is about to burst and how bosses are deploying AI tools to kill jobs and degrade work. Brian Merchant is the author of Blood in the Machine and writes a newsletter of the same name. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Brian has a series called AI Killed My Job with existing entries on tech workers and translators. Brian encourages listeners to check out the work being done by the National Writer’s Union, Translators Against the Machine, and Lucile Danilov at Loc’d and Loaded. You can contact Brian directly by emailing [email protected] A Stanford paper published this week explores the effects of AGI on employment.

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• How China’s Renewable Push Upends Geopolitics w/ Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay

  Paris Marx is joined by Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay to discuss the geopolitics behind China’s investments in green tech and electrification, and how it presents the prospect of a new development model based on renewables instead of fossil fuels. Kate Mackenzie is an adjunct fellow at Macquarie University. Tim Sahay is co-director of the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University. They are the co-writers of the Polycrisis newsletter from Phenomenal World. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon. The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Also mentioned in this episode: Tim and Kate wrote about the potential role of the BRICS in future geopolitics. The Financial Times explored the implications of China as an electrostate. China leads the growing electric vehicle market, ⁠by a lot⁠. Pakistan imported 17 gigawatts of solar panels in 2024 alone, as Africa is in the midst of its own surge in Chinese solar panel imports. Trump’s policies are pushing China and India to ⁠strengthen ties⁠.

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