TRASHFUTURE

King Salman visited Neom so we take back everything bad we said about it. Also, we check in on our old friend Cooler Screens (they're going amazing, we assume). Then, a company whose "data engine" for improving AI output (including for the military) is just tens of thousands of task-workers in the global south. Finally, we review the 100000th proposal to fix Britain by reinstating National Service for youths.

If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Discord server, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture

We discuss some UK-centric news this week, with a brief return to an American startup we’ve previously covered that—in the hopes of destroying school bus drivers’ unions—created Uber for school buses and may have facilitated a mass abduction? Or the world’s largest school bus traffic jam? We also uncover some archival footage of a certain 1980s Dutch pop band that went through some hard times in the early ’90s.

If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Discord server, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

For this week's bonus, it's an alternate configuration of Milo, Nate, and Alice discussing a startup to make every famous person into a PS3 polygon caricature to be licensed, news that Britain's rivers will become even more sewage-laden, and a Guardian article where a guy asks ChatGPT to invent new recipes that hopefully won't kill you.

Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chatgpt-presents-88516781

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

This week, the gang speaks with author and former U.S. Department of State consular officer Josef Burton about the tendency for liberal institutions to find themselves ordered to carry out illiberal practices—whether it’s Trump’s Muslim ban, the UK’s barge housing, or any other recent story in which we simply cannot believe that we’re obligated to do an immoral thing, for the state. We also talk about a recent news story regarding Russian air traffic safety, and a startup that shifts into dark mode when it can commercialise its ‘harmless’ product.

If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Discord server, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

For this week’s free one, we’re discussing a startup that will serve you ads in order for you to crash your car, revisiting some old scam-based friends who will either never suffer consequences or are already stuffed inside a barrel, and examining the state of British politics which creates a cross-party consensus for stuffing asylum seekers into a prison hulk (and patting itself on the back for being so humane).

Check out the crowdfunder for the St Mungo’s strike here! https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/unitesmstrike

If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Discord server, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

(The free one will be out later today! In the meantime, please enjoy this unlocked episode of Britainology)

This week, Nate and Milo discuss the North-South divide of England with help from two friends of the show--and FT reporters--Rob Smith (@bondhack) and Kaye Wiggins (@kayewiggins). Rob is from Derby (technically not in the North, but presumed to be) and Kaye is from Southport (definitely in the North). We discuss their experiences in the South, the fact that Liverpool and Essex have so much in common, and a guide for international students in the UK that offers a doctrinal definition of Northern Monkeys vs Southern Fairies. Hope you enjoy!

Rob and Kaye worked on a piece about financial misadventures in the North that you should check out: https://t.co/YaFREWTHbg?amp=1

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

For this week’s free episode, the cast of Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice speak with (now three-time!) guest Alex N. Press, the labour correspondent for Jacobin Magazine, about two of her recent stories. In one, a ‘flexible work’ app is assigning people gigs that lead them directly across a picket line. In another, studio executives in Hollywood are dreaming up ways to digitize an actor’s likeness and use them in AI-generated content, for free, forever. And in the face of Spencer Confidential not actually getting 11 billion downloads, we ask: is the Silicon Valley-ification of Hollywood just intent on destroying the concept of movies?

Check out Alex’s articles here!

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/hollywood-writers-actors-strike-studios-streaming

If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Discord server, sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/trashfuture

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)

For this month's first Britainology, we speak with journalist Alan White (@aljwhite) of Politics Home about the strange and sordid history of Britain's tabloid press--how it never seems to change (culturally or otherwise), how it keeps getting away with things, how different its affect is from that of (equally omerta-driven) British television... and most importantly, how weird it is.

Get the whole thing on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/britainology-67-87494316

*STREAM ALERT* Check out our Twitch stream, which airs 9-11 pm UK time every Monday and Thursday, at the following link: https://www.twitch.tv/trashfuturepodcast

*WEB DESIGN ALERT* Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

*MILO ALERT* Check out Milo’s upcoming live shows here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/live-shows

Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and Alice (@AliceAvizandum)