Paris Marx marks the beginning of 2026 by discussing some of the big themes that will be moving the conversations he’ll be having this year, particularly digital sovereignty and rethinking the value of the tech we admit into our lives.

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:

Paris wrote about the lessons of the US invasion of Venezuela and why we need to reassess our relationship to digital technology.

Paris co-authored a white paper on reclaiming digital sovereignty.

A digital detox is a great way to review your current relationship with tech.

Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman’s goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss of valuable research into more inventive AI systems, but also exacerbated data privacy issues, intellectual property erosion, and the perpetuation of surveillance capitalism.

Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist and the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.

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. This episode originally aired in June 2025.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Karen was the first journalist to profile OpenAI.

Karen has reported on the environmental impacts and human costs of AI.

The New York Times reported on why we're unlikely to get artificial general intelligence anytime soon.

Paris Marx is joined by Liz Pelly to discuss how Spotify changes how we listen to music and the broader impacts it has on the wider music industry. This episode previously aired in February 2025.

Liz Pelly is a music journalist and the author of Mood Machine.

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. Production for this episode was originally by Eric Wickham.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Shout-out to the book The People’s Platform by Astra Taylor

You can read an excerpt of Liz’s book in Harper’s.

The CEO of Suno AI said people “don’t enjoy” making music.

The Edmonton Public Library was mentioned for spearheading some cool projects featuring local musicians - combat capitalism by supporting the cool projects operating out of your own local library!

Hoopla works with local libraries to share music (and Libby partners with libraries to share audiobooks)

Paris Marx is joined by Jathan Sadowski and Brian Merchant to reflect on the year in tech, discuss the worst people in Silicon Valley, and share what they’ll be keeping an eye on in 2026.

Jathan Sadowski is the author of The Mechanic and the Luddite, co-host of This Machine Kills, and a Senior Lecturer at Monash University. 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:

Visit Francesca Bria’s useful Authoritarian Stack

Trump signs an executive order to keep states from implementing their own AI legislation

The Trump administration is gutting the Department of Education, climate science programs, and public health

Disney and OpenAI have reached a billion dollar deal

Bernie Sanders calls for a moratorium on AI data centre construction

Paris Marx is joined by Cam Wilson to discuss the new social media age limit in Australia, including how successful the rollout has been so far and the missed opportunities of taking a more nuanced regulatory approach.

Cam Wilson is an associate editor at Crikey and writes The Sizzle newsletter. He’s a co-author of Conspiracy Nation: Exposing the Dangerous World of Australian Conspiracy Theories.

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:

Cam wrote about his experience reporting on the social media age limit debate and the removal of the exemption framework.

Paris wrote about his thoughts on social media age limits and the need for much more comprehensive regulations on social media.

64% of US teens are using chatbots daily.

Submit questions to Paris for an upcoming mailbag episode at [email protected]

Patreon supporters can join the year-end livestream this Friday, Dec 19 at 6PM ET

Paris Marx is joined by Ben Wray to discuss the Europe’s capitulation to pressure from the United States on Nexperia, as well as on digital protections and labor rights that could have big implications for the future of work.

Ben Wray is a researcher specializing in the platform economy. He writes the Gig Economy Project newsletter and his most recent report for the ETUC is called Uberisation.

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.

Today’s sponsors are ExpressVPN and ⁠Aura Frames. Get four months free by visiting ExpressVPN.com/TWSU. Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at ⁠https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS⁠. Promo Code PARIS

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ben wrote about the brief attempt by the Dutch to nationalize Nexperia.

In leaked documents from 2012-2017 Uber executives recognize their own illegal activity and refer to themselves as ‘pirates’.

Spain recently ordered Meta to pay €479m fine for breaching EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Paris Marx is joined by Aline Blankertz to discuss how right-wing governments and international corporations in the European Union are pushing to gut tech regulations with the goal of boosting AI development in hope of improving economic growth and geopolitical standing.

Aline Blankertz is a cofounder of Structural Integrity.

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.

Today’s sponsor is ⁠Aura Frames. Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS. Promo Code PARIS

Also mentioned in this episode:

Aline wrote about how the sovereignty discussion was progressing at a recent summit in Europe.

Aline mentioned an upcoming conference tying together different activist movements that listeners may find interesting: Cables of Resistance.

Learn more about the EU’s Digital Omnibus regulation proposal.

The Draghi Report examines EU competitiveness.

France and Germany are partnering up to utilize AI in public administration

Shoutout to the book Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley.

Here’s the latest in OpenAI’s ongoing litigation.

Macron and Merz spoke out against authoritarianism, in particular calling out a lack of national control over social networks.

Some governments are pushing back and disconnecting from US tech giants.

Paris Marx is joined by Ketan Joshi to discuss how hyperscale data centers are fueling the consumption of more oil and gas, what that means for climate targets, and the insidious relationship between the tech and fossil fuel industries.

Ketan Joshi is a climate writer and data analyst based in Oslo working with climate and environmental groups.

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.

Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS. Promo Code  PARIS

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ketan has a page on his website sharing fascinating data sets.

The International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report was just released for this year.

xAI was caught using enough illegal methane generators to power a city at a facility that powers Grok.

Here is an in-depth look behind the scenes at the construction of the new data center from xAI, including the purchasing of a power plant just across the state line.

Google's Chief of Investment loves Doug Burgum’s (Trump’s Secretary of the Interior) commitments to power AI growth with fossil fuels.

Microsoft has been investing in nuclear energy.

Learn more about the Enabled Emissions Campaign.

Shout-out to the book Empire of AI by Karen Hao.

Paris Marx is joined by Gil Duran to discuss how Peter Thiel’s bizarre obsession with the antichrist is really a desperate and embarrassing attempt to divert attention from his own misdeeds.

Gil Duran writes The Nerd Reich and is working on his first book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Global Democracy.

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.

Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/PARIS. Promo Code: PARIS

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Gil wrote about Peter Thiel’s Antichrist obsession and the apocalypse capitalism of Silicon Valley.

This link is for Peter Thiel (or any Silicon Valley millionaires who may be listening); Gil recommends a brush-up on the French Revolution.

Steve Bannon expects to go to prison.

Donald Trump’s relationship to crypto continues to be awful.

Paris Marx is joined by Nathan Grayson to discuss how Saudi Arabia is buying its way into the sports, comedy, and video game industries in order to broaden its investment portfolio and launder its international reputation.

Nathan Grayson is a cofounder of Aftermath and the author of Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen.

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:

Aftermath launched a refreshed website. Check it out!

Nathan wrote about the problems with the Saudi-EA deal.

GeoGuessr users made their maps unplayable in protest against the game’s announced participation in the Esports World Cup.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of Saudi Arabia’s game investments.

And here’s a history of Saudi Arabia’s investments in sports.