The Chatterbox

Since the collapse of coal, Eastern Kentucky has lived through a procession of supposed revivals. Each new idea was treated as something close to salvation. But things like cryptocurrency and AI data centers may not offer a break with history – just a continuation of it. We return to a story we did last year about Kentucky's crypto mining industry.

For decades, primatologists believed that primate societies were structured around aggressive alpha males - until a remarkable push from feminist scientists in the 1960s and 70s changed the narrative. So why does the "dominant alpha male" story persist in human culture?

Recorded on December 2, 2025, this video features a talk by Maximilian Kasy, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, presenting his book The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits).

This talk was part of a symposium series presented by the UC Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Training Program (CRELS), which trains doctoral students representing a variety of degree programs and expertise areas in the social sciences, computer science and statistics.

The talk was co-sponsored by Social Science Matrix, the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI) Tech Cluster, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), and the UC Berkeley Department of Economics.

A transcript of this recording can be found at https://matrix.berkeley.edu/research-article/max-kasy.

AI is inescapable, from its mundane uses online to its increasingly consequential decision-making in courtrooms, job interviews, and wars. The ubiquity of AI is so great that it might produce public resignation—a sense that the technology is our shared fate.

As economist Maximilian Kasy shows in The Means of Prediction, artificial intelligence, far from being an unstoppable force, is irrevocably shaped by human decisions—choices made to date by the ownership class that steers its development and deployment. Kasy shows that the technology of AI is ultimately not that complex. It is insidious, however, in its capacity to steer results to its owners' wants and ends.

Kasy clearly and accessibly explains the fundamental principles on which AI works, and, in doing so, reveals that the real conflict isn't between humans and machines, but between those who control the machines and the rest of us.

The Means of Prediction offers a powerful vision of the future of AI: a future not shaped by technology, but by the technology's owners. Amid a deluge of debates about technical details, new possibilities, and social problems, Kasy cuts to the core issue: Who controls AI's objectives, and how is this control maintained? The answer lies in what he calls "the means of prediction," or the essential resources required for building AI systems: data, computing power, expertise, and energy.

As Kasy shows, in a world already defined by inequality, one of humanity's most consequential technologies has been and will be steered by those already in power. Against those stakes, Kasy offers an elegant framework both for understanding AI's capabilities and for designing its public control. He makes a compelling case for democratic control over AI objectives as the answer to mounting concerns about AI's risks and harms.

The Means of Prediction is a revelation, both an expert undressing of a technology that has masqueraded as more complicated and a compelling call for public oversight of this transformative technology.

Maximilian Kasy received his PhD at UC Berkeley and joined Oxford after appointments at UCLA and Harvard University. His current research interests focus on social foundations for statistics and machine learning, going beyond traditional single-agent decision theory. He also works on economic inequality, job guarantee programs, and basic income. Kasy teaches a course on foundations of machine learning at the economics department at Oxford. Learn more at his website.

What do jazz, gene sequences, and the World Wide Web have in common? They all reveal what’s at stake when our cultural commons shrinks. In this episode, James Boyle, author of The Public Domain, joins Molly Shaffer Van Houweling to explore why the public domain is essential for creativity, innovation, and a healthy information ecosystem. From surprising case studies to the “range wars” of the digital age, Boyle explains how expanding intellectual property rights can stifle culture—and what it will take to protect the commons we all depend on.

This conversation was recorded on 12/18/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-public-domain

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

 “A sonnet,” said the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “is a moment’s monument.” But who invented the sonnet? Who brought it to prominence? How has it changed over the years? And why does this form continue to be so compelling? In this episode of the History of Literature, we take a brief look at one of literature's most enduring forms, from its invention in a Sicilian court to the wordless sonnet and other innovative uses.

Note: A version of this episode first ran in August 2018. It has been missing from our archives for many years.

Join Jacke on a trip through literary England! Join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Shors Travel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ in May 2026! Scheduled stops include The Charles Dickens Museum, Dr. Johnson's house, Jane Austen's Bath, Tolkien's Oxford, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and more. Learn more by emailing [email protected] or [email protected], or by contacting us through our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. December update: Act soon - there are only two spots left!

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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As someone who moved to Japan not too long ago I was always fascinated with the country's unique history, particularly with the question of how did a country so completely isolated from the industrial revolution become a global superpower in just a few short decades? How did it manage to totally transform its society, military and culture? And finally, where did it all go wrong?

Join me and historian Christopher Harding, author of A History of Modern Japan, as we explore Japan's journey from the Edo period's isolation to the transformative Meiji Restoration, discussing how Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War marked its emergence as a modern power, only to later slide into the shadows of World War II fascism... But also, how the country faces new challenges today, balancing tradition with modernity in a world primarily marked by the rise of China.

Episode overview

Hosts

Jason von Meding

Ksenia Chmutina

Guests

Giovanni Gugg — cultural anthropologist and lecturer in urban anthropology, working on risk cultures, disaster response, and activism in vulnerable urban territories

Anna Süsina — Lecturer in Media and Creative Industries, Loughborough University; scholar of communication, social change, participatory media, and power asymmetries

Victor Marchezini — sociologist at the Brazilian Early Warning Center and professor at INPE; leading voice in the sociology of disasters in Brazil

Key themes

Latin American and Indigenous intellectual traditions in disaster studies

Reading beyond English-language and Eurocentric canons

Development, coloniality, and the production of vulnerability

Plural futures, pluriverses, and alternative ontologies

Dialogue, pedagogy, and critical hope

Translation, language, and epistemic justice

Activism, civic responsibility, and scholarship

Core discussion highlights

Guests reflect on their reading practices, emphasizing podcasts, oral traditions, hard-copy books, and texts emerging from social movements, Indigenous communities, and Latin American critical scholarship.

Victor Marchezini discusses the influence of Paulo Freire, highlighting dialogue, pedagogy, oppression in everyday life, and the importance of critical hope in teaching, research, and disaster practice.

Giovanni explores Arturo Escobar’s critique of development and his concept of the pluriverse, applying it to disaster risk and urbanization around Mount Vesuvius. Disaster planning is framed as a cultural and political process, not only a technical one.

Anna Süsina reflects on Indigenous thinking through Ailton Krenak, emphasizing relational worldviews, the human–non-human relationship, and the idea that the dominant relationship with Earth is itself a disaster.

The conversation challenges the asymmetry between “scientific” and Indigenous knowledge, arguing for equal legitimacy and meaningful translation rather than extraction or tokenism.

Translation is discussed as both a political challenge and a creative possibility—across languages, disciplines, generations, and even between humans and non-humans.

The guests collectively stress the dangers of time compression in disaster scholarship, where urgency crowds out long-term thinking, historical analysis, and ethical engagement.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Explaining History, Nick continues his exploration of post-war American affluence. We often think of the 1950s as a golden age of middle-class expansion, where the old divisions of wealth and status melted away under a wave of chrome-plated cars and suburban lawns. But was this "classless society" a reality or a comforting myth?

Drawing again from James Patterson’s Grand Expectations, we delve into the changing nature of work and the rise of the white-collar economy. We examine how unions secured unprecedented benefits like health insurance and paid vacations, creating a unique moment where a steelworker could live a life of bourgeois comfort. Yet, beneath the surface, manual labour remained the backbone of the economy, and inequality persisted. Why did the US labour movement abandon the fight for universal healthcare in favour of employer-based benefits? And how did this decision shape the fragmented social safety net we see today?

Key Topics:

• The Myth of the Classless Society: How affluence disguised, but didn't erase, social stratification.
• The Rise of Fringe Benefits: Why unions prioritized employer-based healthcare over state provision.
• Blue Collar vs. White Collar: The shifting demographics of the American workforce.
• The End of an Era: How financialization and offshoring eventually hollowed out the working-class dream.

Books Mentioned:

• Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 by James T. Patterson
• Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

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What do animals mean to us? Naomi Alderman explores how animals shape human understanding, from ancient burial rites to modern science.

The psychologist Justin Gregg specialises in dolphin social cognition. He introduces his new book, Humanish, a witty and provocative look at anthropomorphism — our habit of seeing human traits in animals, objects and machines — and how it helps us make sense of the world and increases empathy.

Peter Fretwell is a leading scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, and author of The Penguin Book of Penguins. He celebrates the charm and complexity of penguins, from their evolutionary quirks to their cultural symbolism, alongside the threats they face today.

Marianne Hem Eriksen is Professor of Viking Studies at the National Museum of Denmark and part of the BBC / Arts and Humanities Research Council scheme of New Generation Thinkers. She draws on archaeological evidence to show how Viking societies had a complex relationship with animals, seeing them not just as pets or food, but as extensions of human identity and mythology.

Producer: Katy Hickman