Tech Won't Save Us
Silicon Valley wants to shape our future, but why should we let it? Every Thursday, Paris Marx is joined by a new guest to critically examine the tech industry, its big promises, and the people behind them. Tech Won’t Save Us challenges the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. It’s not your usual tech podcast.
Episodes
January 22, 2026 • 58 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Chris Person to discuss the state of hardware and manufacturing in the tech industry, ways to hack your stuff, options to undermine Microsoft’s software dominance, and how the AI boom is making consumer electronics more expensive.
Chris Person is a co-founder of Aftermath and makes Highlight Reel.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of in...
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January 15, 2026 • 49 mins
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.
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January 8, 2026 • 54 mins
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 ...
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January 1, 2026 • 66 mins
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. Suppor...
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December 24, 2025 • 88 mins
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 S...
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December 18, 2025 • 59 mins
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 criti...
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December 11, 2025 • 59 mins
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...
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December 4, 2025 • 57 mins
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 ...
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November 27, 2025 • 58 mins
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 soc...
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November 20, 2025 • 61 mins
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...
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November 13, 2025 • 56 mins
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 worldv...
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November 6, 2025 • 62 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear to discuss the many ways cars have negatively affected society, how tech companies seek to entrench those problems, and what can really be done to improve mobility in our communities.
Doug Gordon is a TV producer and writer. Sarah Goodyear is a journalist and author. They are the co-hosts of The War on Cars and co-authors of Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny ...
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October 30, 2025 • 46 mins
Paris Marx celebrates the 300th episode of Tech Won’t Save Us by sharing his reasons to push for digital sovereignty and get off US tech. On top of explaining how that dependence gives the US governments and its tech companies power over us, Paris also provides tips of alternative services to consider migrating to.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring...
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October 23, 2025 • 55 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Joanne McNeil to discuss the proliferation of delivery bots and robotaxis and how they recycle disproven claims about how technology will improve transportation.
Joanne McNeil is a freelance writer and the author of Wrong Way and Lurking: How a Person Became a User.
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 ...
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October 16, 2025 • 55 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss how tech CEOs are pushing a new generation of AI-powered smart glasses by promising they’ll be stylish and indispensable to workers in a desperate attempt to convince us we should want their luxury surveillance gadgets.
Chris Gilliard is the co-director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute and is working on a book called Luxury Surveillance.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a criti...
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October 9, 2025 • 55 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Jacob Silverman to discuss Jacob’s new book Gilded Rage, which explores the radicalization of Silicon Valley leaders, who are exerting their growing influence to shape our society for the worse.
Jacob Silverman is an independent journalist and the author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider soc...
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October 2, 2025 • 58 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Tina Nguyen to discuss the divisions within the American far-right between the Trump administration, the wider MAGA movement, and the tech executives trying to show they’re on their side.
Tina Nguyen is a senior reporter at The Verge and author of The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out).
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and w...
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September 25, 2025 • 60 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the mission to turn Elon Musk into the world’s first trillionaire, Tesla’s growing interest in making robots instead of cars, and how other automakers are coming for the EV market it once dominated.
Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous and co-host of the Autonocast.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of ins...
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September 18, 2025 • 49 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Caroline Haskins to discuss what Palantir actually does and the growing influence it has within the US government and many large corporations.
Caroline Haskins is a staff writer at Wired.
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 p...
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September 11, 2025 • 60 mins
Paris Marx is joined by Aaron Benanav to discuss his vision for a multi-criterial economy and how it would alter the type of technology our society creates. It’s a plan to center human experience through democratic discourse while driving true social and technological innovation.
Aaron Benanav is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and the author of Automation and the Future of Work.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical ...
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