Shows
PolitechsTrans Rights - RadhikaSoftware engineer and reluctant activist Radhika talks about epistemic violence, identity, immutability, the Enlightenment, common law, and many other things besides to illustrate just one of the ways in which trans people's lives are under attack. We discuss how AI affects trans people, and what it would take to be able to deploy machine learning technologies to improve their lives rather than oppress them, then end on a call to action for technologists.Mentioned in this episode:The Racial Contract - book by Charles MillsThe Sexual Contract - book by Carol PatemanAbsurd Trolley Problems - a set...
2026-06-081h 37PolitechsEmpire - Karen HaoTech journalist Karen Hao joins us to discuss her book, "Empire of AI". Karen explains why she believes that the Silicon Valley hyper-scaled LLM flavour of AI is an imperial technology, and has become even more explicitly imperial in the 12 months since the book first came out as it is being more and more incorporated in the US military's wars. The paperback edition of the book has just been released in the US and UK, so if you live in either of those places and haven't read the book yet, be sure to pick it up!Mentioned...
2026-05-2533 minPolitechsDemocracy - Anna ColomWe welcome our favourite political scientist, Dr. Anna Colom, back on the show to dive into democracy: what is it really, how does AI threaten it, and how can it be built for real? Anna is a researcher with The Data Tank, a "think and do tank"; they work with people, organisations and institutions around the world to unlock data's potential: gathering, accessing, and reusing it responsibly, so we’re all better equipped to tackle the pressing issues of our time.Mentioned in this episode:The Sciences of the Democracies - book by Jean-Paul Gagnon and Benjamin Ab...
2026-05-1157 minPolitechsSci-fi - Syed Mustafa AliJosh and Ray sit down with Dr. Syed Mustafa Ali, author of a recent paper entitled "A Butlerian Hauntology" to unpack the dense payload of insight contained within the paper. Dr. Ali grabs threads from Dune, critical race theory and world-systems theory, political economy, political ecology, and political theology, actually existing fascism, computer science, classic Luddism, literature, film and television, labour power, and anticolonial jihad and masterfully weaves them together in a critical computing tapestry of extraordinary beauty. Gaze upon it, ye tech bros, and despair!Mentioned in this episode:Imaginary Futures from Thinking Machines to the...
2026-04-271h 25PolitechsWriters - Foz MeadowsFoz Meadows joins us to discuss his "Against AI" polemic, written in response to Erin Underwood's open letter to SFWA and the SFF community in the wake of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association's announcement that works written by LLM tools and works for which LLM tools were used at any point in the writing process would not be eligible for consideration. The conversation touches on not only Foz's piece, but also the sheer stupidity of thinking we can outsource the act of thinking to machines that do not think, what the introduction of LLMs is doing to...
2026-04-131h 06PolitechsDatacentres - Aurora Gómez DelgadoDatacentres might seem boring, but Aurora Gómez Delgado of Tu Nube Seca Mi Río, a Spanish organisation working to combat the ecosocial impact of datacentres, would like you to sit up and take notice of the resources they are stealing from the people who live in the surrounding region. Aurora educates us on the increase in number and size of datacentres, accelerated even further by the AI project, and the corresponding impact on water and power usage, and what that means for farmers trying to grow their crops, people trying to pay their electricity bills, and the av...
2026-03-3056 minPolitechsHate - Anthony MoserJosh and Ray sit down with Anthony Moser and discuss the impetus for him to write "I Am An AI Hater". We talk about the role of politeness in maintaining the status quo, Anthony's views on copyright as a musician, the importance of collective action, how the law is not a source of power but rather an expression of power, and lots more.Mentioned in this episode:I Am An AI Hater - Anthony's essayPolitechs season 1 episode 4 - Surveillance - our interview with Chris GilliardAs of 27 Jan, 2026, NVIDIA, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are worth a...
2026-03-161h 24PolitechsStill AI?Much to their chagrin, Josh and Ray discover that Season 1 of Politechs wasn't sufficient to destroy AI. They conclude that the only thing to do is assemble a Luddite army and launch a new assault on HELLISH AI. Welcome to Season 2 of Politechs!Mentioned in this episode:Tu Nube Seca Mi Río - Spanish organisation opposing datacentresAI Killed My Job, by Brian MerchantEmpire of AI, by Karen Hao [PERMALINK]I Am An AI Hater, by Anothony MoserThe Kirby Frame, by Anthony MoserAgainst AI, by Foz MeadowsA Butlerian Hauntology, by Dr. Syed Mustafa AliTech Won't Save Us...
2026-03-0259 minPolitechsRisksJosh and Ray talk about the real risks of AI with Anna Colom, a social science researcher working at the intersection of democratic processes and digital technologies. We are going through unprecedented times in the pace and scale of technological development driven by data and AI systems. Yet, these developments and their applications are being led and decided by a few in a regulatory vacuum, supported by narratives driven by hype and power asymmetries. There is however a large and more diverse community of technology developers across the globe who can claim back the authority if it refuses to...
2025-12-1549 minPolitechsResistanceWe've talked about a lot on Politechs this season, and now it's time to pull it all together and think about how we can resist AI. And who better to talk to about resistance than Brian Merchant, author of "Blood in the Machine", a fascinating book about the original Luddites, a group of tech workers in early 19th century England who took up the hammer and smashed the machines that were being used to emiserate them. We talk about the parallels between the time of the Luddites and our current moment, how capital and the state teamed up to...
2025-09-2958 minPolitechsAutomationAutomation is usually presented to us as an unalloyed good, a way to remove tedium from our lives so we can spend our time on the things that truely matter. But is this really the case? In this episode, we take a closer look at automation: what it is, who wants it, and the harm it wreaks on the environment and society.We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good faith discussions, and then send an email to podcast@politechs.dev or hit us...
2025-09-011h 01PolitechsProgrammersWhen you're trying to convince somebody of something (for example, to examine whether AI is a good thing), you need to know your audience. This episode is all about looking at programmers as a whole and identifying different groups, then thinking through how to talk to members of those groups and use arguments that resonate with them.Mentioned in this episode:senior developer agents, by Zach Tellman [PERMALINK]Pascal's WagerPascal's Mugging"Are we the baddies?" meme [PERMALINK]Empire of AI, by Karen Hao [PERMALINK]We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something...
2025-08-181h 13PolitechsInevitabilityTo quote Sarah Connor, "There is no fate", so why do so many people buy into the narrative that AI is inevitable so we might as well get on board (or throw up our hands in despair)? Josh and Ray get to the bottom of this, realise that Skynet might happen after all, and channel the great Lina Khan: "Where we are is not just the inevitable outcome of market forces or technological development. It's a result of choices we've made, and policies we've enacted or not enacted. And we can change that. We can. We must."...
2025-08-1155 minPolitechsSurveillanceWe're joined this week by Dr. Chris Gilliard, Co-Director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute to talk about what generative AI means for surveillance, and how this technology disproportionately harms marginalised groups. Dr. Gilliard is a writer, professor, and speaker whose scholarship examines digital privacy, surveillance, and the intersections of race, class, and technology. His book "Luxury Surveillance" is forthcoming from MIT Press in 2026.Mentioned in this episode:The Critical Internet Studies Institute develops cutting-edge research and educational programs to advance public knowledge of emerging technologies and the paradoxes of innovation.Don't Give Surveillance for Christmas: Chris...
2025-08-041h 12
defn7df1b8716726 Anna ColomAnna Colom is the Senior Policy Lead at The Data Tank https://www.datatank.org/aboutHeart of Clojure talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz5yqtWyRkAThe Politechs podcast https://politechs.dev/Guest Anna ColomHosts Josh Glover Ray McDermottMP3 SHA7868b74defbcf0e88f607c0283433166385f6b4973990bd400c9f88f590fa382UUID v5 from SHA + Peoplee49f838c-7706-5409-ab1b-7df1b8716726
2025-08-0349 minPolitechsNarratives and NarratorsWhilst everyone has an opinion about AI, there are certain top-level narratives driving the hype bubble. We look at the doomer / booster divide (which turns out to be not so divided) and peek behind the curtain to see which corporations and people are pushing these narratives and what they have to gain.Mentioned in this episode:Dystopia Now - TESCREAL Overview with Kath Barbadoro and Alex PtakWhy does this billionaire have 100 kids in 12 countries?, by Arwa Mahdawi [PERMALINK]Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartless - AI AGENTS EMERGENCY DEBATEWe'd love to hear from...
2025-07-281h 01PolitechsTrustOur societies are necessarily based on trust, but how do we decide what institutions, people, and technologies to place our trust in? And why have we collectively decided that since "computers don't make mistakes", they are always worthy of our trust?Mentioned in this episode:British Post Office scandalDutch welfare algorithm [permalink]Enshittification - Cory Doctorow's theory of how platforms move inexorably towards abusing users and partners alikeFlint water crisisData labelling in Kenya [permalink]We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our rules of engagement for good...
2025-07-2145 minPolitechsAIAI is everywhere these days, and the problem with it is not what people think. It's not Skynet we should fear; it's the actually existing harms that are being done to the environment, workers around the world, and the human mind itself. Join Josh and Ray for the inaugural episode of the inaugural season of Politechs as they lay down a Luddite argument against AI from the perspective of software engineers and talk about how to have good faith discussions with people who might not see or be willing to acknowledge the dangers of the technologies under the AI...
2025-07-141h 00PolitechsTrailerSince the invention of the wheel, automation has both substituted and complemented labour; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs, but this was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs; in other words: tech workers. In recent years, there has been a desire from certain high-profile tech companies for an "apolitical workplace". This in itself is a political act; an act designed to suppress the power of tech workers and reinforce the status quo. They know that politics is inextricable from tech. And now so do you. Welcome to Politechs.In Season 1 of Politechs, it's time...
2025-07-0705 min
تك كاستأجهزتنا بين الصين.. الديمقراطيين والجمهوريينصنابير العقوبات التقنية المتبادلة.. أشباه الموصلات مقابل مواد الأرض النادرة.. بكين أخ أكبر؟ الصين والهند وبريكس وترامب في poliTechs #تك_كاست_93
2023-08-0225 minتك كاستتويتر ماسك.. بين "تروث" ترمب والديمقراطيينالجمهوريون يسعون للاستيلاء على انتخابات 2024 الرئاسية حسب هيلاري كلينتون.. وثائق كامبريج أناليتيكا وفيسبوك وعودة ترمب للمنصات بعد استحواذ إلون؛ وأكثر في poliTechs (...) #تك_كاست_65
2022-11-0217 minتك كاستأشباه الموصلات 4: هل يحرر التنين نفسه؟قانون الـsemiconductors في أميركا تاريخي؛ يقول الديموقراطيون! قصة TSMC التايوانية، وكيف لاكتفاء الصين ذاتيا من الرقائق الإلكترونية أن يغير توازن القوى الدولي؛ في poliTechs #تك_كاست_55
2022-08-1015 minتك كاستشبه موصّل = تمام الاستقلالية! ما علاقة تايوان؟ماذا يعني إنتاج الصين ذاتيا لأشباه موصلات أو رقاقات 7 نانومتر أو أقل؟ تسمية "وادي السيليكون"، وعلاقة تايوان بالتوتر الصيني الأميركي؛ وأكثر في poliTechs #تك_كاست_54 https://www.podfollow.com/1570591550
2022-08-0220 minتك كاستهل تنقذ العملات اللامركزية المشفرة الاقتصاد الروسي؟تقنيات العقوبات على روسيا ومنها.. نظام سويفت وSPFS.. فيزا، ماستركارد ويونيون باي.. الطاقة والصناعات التكنولوجية.. وأكثر في poliTechs (...)
2022-03-0838 min
Catching Up with Conner and NickEp066: poliTECHS - Edward Snowden & Twitter political AdsThis might be the most politically heavy show we’ve ever had. Don’t worry we aren’t talking about trump or the election, this week is about politics and technology. Edward Snowden appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast this week and we highly encourage you to go listen to it. We also touch on Twitter banning political ads. On the personal side of the episode we give a big shout out to the Sounders for making another MLS Cup and ask Nick about Halloween in London.
2019-11-0124 min
The Riley RantThe Future of Politechs: A Discussion w/ Spencer IveyMiddle and high-school classmate, Spencer Ivey, is the creator of "Vital Newsletter," which seeks to highlight "vital" news and complex topics in a digestible, fun-to-read manner.
Given that many of his topics are future-oriented and that some of my rants focus on politics, it made sense for us to discuss The Future of Technology and Politics. In other words, we're discussing "politechs."
Check out this episode for insight on our current form of government, how technology has already and will continue to change the game, and why it is going to be so hard to bring about meaningful reform to...
2017-07-2146 min