Tech Won't Save Us

Librarians are working harder than ever to support their neighbourhoods — including by teaching and promoting digital literacy. Hannah Cyrus and Alison Macrina join Paris Marx to discuss the role of library workers in the digital landscape, including how they’re helping patrons navigate privacy basics and artificial intelligence, and how the tech industry is making their jobs harder. 
Hannah Cyrus is a digital media librarian at the Bangor Public Library. Alison Macrina is an activist librarian and the director of Library Freedom Project.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Click here to get your first month of Proton Mail for just $1.
The Library Freedom Project has a ton of resources on critically approaching technology.
Bangor Daily News wrote about librarians like Hannah helping patrons get AI off their devices.
Shout out to friend of the pod Brian Merchant and his book Blood in the Machine.
Learn more about the Luddite Club.
Learn more about the organization Libraries For The People, working to strengthen and expand libraries.
Support your local library! Say hello, get a card if you don’t have one, and participate in community events.
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We are often told that resisting technological development is impossible and ‘progress’ is inevitable, but history says otherwise. Thomas Dekeyser joins Paris Marx to discuss how understanding radical resistances of the past can help us rethink our modern relationship with technology and reshape our vision of the future.
Thomas Dekeyser is a lecturer in human geography at the University of Southampton, author of Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine, and co-creator of the documentary Machines in Flames.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Shout out to friend of the pod The Luddite Club.
This article by Saul Levin and Astra Taylor discusses the growing bipartisan opposition towards data centers.
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Last time it was the crypto industry; now the AI industry is stepping up to join it. Molly White joins Paris Marx to discuss how the tech sector is spending big to buy influence in the US midterm elections to ensure new laws serve its interests over those of the public.
Molly White is the creator of Tech Influence Watch and Web3 is Going Just Great. She writes the Citation Needed newsletter.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Molly just wrote about Trump’s $1.4 billion crypto disclosure.
Molly wrote about the crypto industry’s recent election spending.
Molly also wrote about how the Citizens United decision is affecting elections today.
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Public ire toward AI keeps growing as the data center boom continues to hit people’s pockets. Chris Person joins Paris Marx to discuss the soaring cost of consumer electronics, including why prices are unlikely to fall anytime soon, and how people can experiment with homespun cyberpunk tech.
Chris Person is a co-founder of Aftermath and makes Highlight Reel.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Chris mentioned the BC250, an e-waste machine he’s written about recently.
Chris also wrote a review of the Steam Machine.
Xbox and Apple both announced price hikes this month.
Stock prices for memory companies like SK Hynix are hitting record highs.
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As tech companies race to build hyperscale data centers, communities are coming together to push back. Saul Levin joins Paris Marx to discuss how rising opposition to data center construction is uniting people across party lines and prompting broader conversations around what infrastructure people want instead. 
Saul Levin is community organizer and host of The Hum.
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:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book, Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires.
Saul wrote a piece with Astra Taylor about the bigger picture of data center organizing.
The Seminole Nation in Oklahoma passed a ban on AI data centers on their lands.
Sam Altman and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer posing together at the site of a new data center drew wide criticism.
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