This is a preview of System Crash’s monthly bonus episode, breaking down the White House crypto summit and recent speeches by AI and crypto czar David Sacks praising Donald Trump. To get the full bonus episode, become a supporter on Patreon.

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In our new series Elon In Power, we’re digging into the billionaire’s history to find out how he got to this point and what his past tells us about who he is today. For our second episode, CNBC Digital tech reporter Lora Kolodny joins the show to fill us in on how SpaceX got off the ground and the role it’s played in building Musk’s empire.

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In our new series Elon In Power, we’re digging into the billionaire’s history to find out how he got to this point and what his past tells us about who he is today. For our first episode, Bloomberg senior reporter and author of The Contrarian Max Chafkin joins the show to give us the scoop on Elon Musk’s time at PayPal and the ups and downs of his long relationship with Peter Thiel.

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Donald Trump finally launched his trade war on Canada and Mexico. For two days. Some tariffs remain, and they could all be back in April, and who knows what happens then. As Trump abandons allies, there’s a lot of uncertainty—but there’s also opportunity. Silicon Valley wants its alliance with Trump to cement its global power, but what if the actions of the United States actually push them to end their dependence on US tech and begin building an alternative set of technologies? In the second half, writer and podcaster Ed Ongweso Jr. joins to talk about the Silicon Valley Consensus that could be unraveling, then Paris and Brian dig into OpenAI’s new tiers, ad spending on X, and the LA Times’ new AI bot.

You can read Ed’s newsletter over on The Tech Bubble.

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In a break from chronicling Elon Musk’s takeover of the US government, Paris and Brian share some thoughts from Monterey, California, where they attended a convening to mark the 50th anniversary of the landmark Asilomar biotechnology conference. They reflect on how AI is playing into conversations about biotech’s future and the unsurprising deregulatory thrust. Plus, DOGE’s email to US federal workers, Donald Trump goes after digital services taxes, Apple is investing $500 billion in the US, and Elizabeth Holmes is trying to get out of prison early.

Also, the British monkey movie is called A Better Man. Paris has not actually seen it.

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A media narrative has taken shape that there’s little resistance to Trump and Musk, but protests against the administration’s antidemocratic push for power are growing. In fact, they’re everywhere. This week Brian and Paris chat with actor, director, and activist Alex Winter about the Tesla Takedown protests he’s been helping to organize, how quickly they’ve grown, and all the people who want to push back on Elon Musk’s takeover of the US government. Plus, Alphabet AI workers being silenced, Javier Milei’s memecoin, and whether anyone cares about the new iPhone.

Find out more about the Tesla Takedown protests.

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This is a preview of System Crash’s monthly bonus episode, looking into a recent op-ed by none other than Peter Thiel that gives us important insight into how he’s thinking and the political moment we find ourselves in. To get the full bonus episode, become a supporter on Patreon.

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Silicon Valley hard at work turning DC into an AI-fueled dystopia. This week Paris and Brian dig into three big trends all converging at once: Elon Musk’s expanding power over the federal government, JD Vance’s speech in France declaring American AI will “dominate,” and Meta’s soaring share price on its pivot to AI strategy. Things seem to be going from bad to worse, but we’ll be here to chronicle the crash.

Find out more about the Tesla Takedown protests.

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Paris is out this week, so we found another esteemed Canadian writer, activist, and tech critic to log in as System Crash's first-ever guest host: Cory Doctorow. Brian and Cory examine Elon Musk’s campaign of governmental destruction in Washington DC, how enshittification will continue to unfold in 2025, and what, if any, hope there is for us, the humans and the users.

Cory Doctorow is the author of many bestselling science fiction novels and works of nonfiction. His latest is Picks and Shovels, out February 18th from MacMillan. 

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Is the AI hype going to evaporate after Chinese startup DeepSeek shows it can do generative AI way cheaper than OpenAI, Anthropic, and big tech? AI watcher and tech PR guru Ed Zitron joins Brian and Paris to break down what the company has achieved and why it completely upends the assumptions the US AI boom was built on.

Ed Zitron is the host of Better Offline, CEO of EZPR, and writer of the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter.

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