Podcast · Tech & Science

Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse

by Agoric Media · English · Tech & Science

The Doomsday Clock is set to 85 seconds until midnight — the closest it has ever been in its 79-year history. The world is at war. And the people building the most powerful technology in human history are warning, in public, that it might kill us all. Season One of Suspicious Minds examined wh

Start from episode 1WhatsApp

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 51 min
Latest: 7 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

Better Angels (Part One)

Content note: this episode includes discussion of eugenics, Nazi forced sterilization and the murder of disabled people, and the Holocaust.Be altruistic. Think about the future. Save the world. No one could possibly object to that, right? This week, the first of two episodes on effective altruism, a philosophy that has influenced many of the most powerful people in artificial intelligence, one its defenders believe is among the best ideas we have for doing good, and one that other thinkers believe could help bring about the end of the world.For three episodes we asked which minds count. Now…

Play episodeWhatsApp Download

Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S2 · E17 · 30 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 14 min
A Great Loss to the Universe (Part Three)
Content note: this episode includes a brief discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US. Outside the US, you can find a local helpline at https://findahelpline.com.Neuropsychoanalysis pioneer Mark Solms says he is building a machine that can feel. For two episodes, we asked whether he can. This week we ask whether he should.This is the final part of our three-part story about consciousness. Philosopher Ian Gold, PhD explains why AI has turned philosophy of mind from science fiction into decisions we…
S2 · E16 · 23 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Engineering Consciousness (Part Two)
When Richard Feynman died, a sentence was left on his blackboard at Caltech: “That which I cannot create, I do not understand.” Mark Solms took this as a challenge.A quick word up top about the week AI doom went mainstream, and why this show isn’t about that. Then: part two of a three-part story about the oldest question in philosophy, arriving at its strangest moment. Last episode, neuropsychoanalysis pioneer Dr. Mark Solms told us what consciousness is and where in the brain it lives. This episode: can it actually be built? Mark takes us inside the project he calls the main work of his…
S2 · E15 · 16 Sep 2026 · 52 min
The Problem of Other Minds (Part One)
When Mark Solms was four years old, his older brother fell, hit his head, and woke up as somebody else. Mark has spent the fifty years since asking the question that accident left behind: how does a self come out of a piece of the body?This is part one of a two-part story about the oldest question in philosophy, arriving at its strangest moment. Neuropsychoanalyst Dr. Mark Solms, the man who proved dreaming comes from the brain's wanting machinery, not its random static, makes the case that consciousness isn't thinking at all. It's feeling. And it lives somewhere much older, and much…
S2 · E14 · 10 Sep 2026 · 1 hr
Dreaming Machines
On a summer afternoon in 2001, a freight train caught fire in a tunnel beneath Baltimore. The blaze burned at 1,500 degrees for days. And within hours, two thousand miles away, the internet slowed down… in Los Angeles.This is part two of our investigation into the physicality of the internet and AI: the machines’ bodies, and ours.Dream researcher Dr. Kelly Bulkeley explains why apocalyptic thinking might be an evolutionary advantage, what nightmares are actually for, and why he won’t rule out that AI is dreaming already. Investigative journalist Veronica Martinez reports from Ciudad Juárez,…
S2 · E13 · 2 Sep 2026 · 59 min
Dancing Animals
There are robot dogs patrolling the US–Mexico border. This story starts somewhere gentler: with Kurt Vonnegut leaving the house to buy one envelope.His wife wanted him to buy a hundred and keep them in a closet. He refused. The walk was the point. "We're here on Earth to fart around," he said. "And of course, the computers will do us out of that… we're dancing animals."This is part one of a two-part investigation into the physicality of the internet and AI. The bodies it runs on, and the bodies it runs over. Pulitzer Prize–winning Wall Street Journal reporter John West (The Internet Will…
S2 · E12 · 26 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
The Oracle Test
Twenty-five hundred years ago, the richest man in the world didn't trust his oracles, so he tested them. One passed: the Oracle of Delphi. Then it told him exactly what he wanted to hear, and his empire burned.A few weeks ago, I met a man who ran the same test on his oracles. The Oracle of ChatGPT, the Oracle of Grok, and the Oracle of Gemini, side by side, checked against each other. Dr. Jeremy Heffner is a trauma surgeon, a bioengineer, and the co-founder of the largest social network for surgeons: one of the last people you'd expect to be told by his phone that he's been chosen to save…
S2 · E11 · 19 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Through a Glass, Darkly: Part Two
Last week we ended in a laboratory in Melbourne, with a man who grows human brain cells in a dish and teaches them to play Doom. He told us they’re about as complex as a cockroach. He also told us where the cells come from. Human blood. Some of it his own.This is the half where it stops being a question about machines.Hon Weng Chong, CEO and founder of Cortical Labs, draws a red line, and it isn’t at intelligence. It’s at suffering. He won’t build a system that could be conscious, because a system that can be conscious is a system that can be hurt. If that sounds familiar, it should: it is…
S2 · E10 · 13 Aug 2026 · 57 min
Through a Glass, Darkly: Part One
Eight thousand years ago, in a settlement called Çatalhöyük in what is now central Turkey, somebody sat down with a piece of obsidian and began to grind volcanic glass. Black, brittle, sharp enough to cut skin, it doesn’t occur naturally anywhere near there; the closest volcanoes are a hundred and twenty miles east. So someone carried it that far, and then spent hours working one face of it flat and polishing it to a shine.It is the oldest mirror anyone has ever found. We know these things mattered, because we find them in graves. People were buried holding on to them.Here’s the thing,…
S2 · E9 · 5 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
The Punishment of Tantalus
Tantalus was a king, and a son of Zeus, and he was invited to eat at the table of the gods, a rare honor. To test whether they were truly all-knowing, he killed his own son, cooked him, and served the body to them as a stew. They knew. For that, Tantalus was sent down to Tartarus, a place Homer describes as lying as far beneath Hades as heaven lies above the earth. A bunker underneath hell. There he stands forever in a pool of cool water, under a tree heavy with fruit. When he stoops to drink, the water drains away. When he reaches up, the branches lift out of reach. Eternal hunger, for the…
S2 · E8 · 29 Jul 2026 · 56 min
Tia Miseria
There’s an old folktale about a woman called Tía Miseria — Aunt Misery. When Death comes for her, she asks him for one last favor: climb her pear tree and pick her some fruit for the journey. But the tree is enchanted. Whatever climbs up cannot climb down. And so Death hangs in the branches, for years. At first, no one minds. Then the wounded arrive at her door, begging. The old and the sick plead to be released. Wars are fought and nobody dies. The Earth fills up. The food runs out. The world discovers, one bad year at a time, that it cannot live without death.That’s where we begin. Because…
S2 · E7 · 22 Jul 2026 · 55 min
The Most Human Human
In 1991, at a museum in Boston, judges sat at keyboards and typed back and forth with strangers. Some of them people, some of them machines, trying to tell which was which. A prize went to the computer that seemed most convincingly human. But there was a second prize given that night, and it’s the one worth remembering: an award for the human being who most convinced the judges they were, in fact, human. They called it the Most Human Human.Thirty years later, only one of those contests is still being run, and it’s being run by the entire technology industry. Because there’s a school of…
S2 · E6 · 9 Jul 2026 · 51 min
Decameron Days (Part Two)
It’s a story we all know. A man hears a warning no one else can hear: the rain is coming, enough rain to end the world. So he builds a boat. His neighbors laugh at him — right up until it starts raining and doesn’t stop. Until that moment, Noah is just a madman with a boat.Last fall, in the Minnesota wilderness, we stood on 240 acres and watched a man dig a lake around an island, with a shelter beneath it built to survive a nuclear blast a mile away. He lies awake at night asking whether he’s today’s Noah. But the flood he fears isn’t rain. It’s a power outage that never ends.That’s where we…
S2 · E5 · 2 Jul 2026 · 46 min
Decameron Days (Part One)
In 1350, as the bubonic plague burned through Florence, the writer Giovanni Boccaccio imagined ten young people retreating to a villa outside the city. For ten days, they told each other stories — not to escape the world, but to make sense of a world that had stopped making sense. He called it The Decameron. Back then, people understood that the way you survived a calamity was to gather together, hold tight, and not lose the thread. The people in this episode are doing something different. They're building bunkers.That's where we begin.In the fifth episode of Suspicious Minds: AI and the…
S2 · E4 · 25 Jun 2026 · 51 min
Lotus Eaters
In Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus's men ate the lotus flower, they forgot everything — who they were, where they'd come from, why any of it mattered. There was no pain, no urgency, no desire to leave. Just the soft obliteration of the self through ease. Odysseus had to drag them back to the ships by force.The lotus is no longer a flower. It's in your pocket.That's where we begin.In the fourth episode of Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse, we ask the question no one wants to ask: what if the most dangerous thing AI is doing isn't some future robot war — what if it's the quiet, ongoing…
S2 · E3 · 18 Jun 2026 · 44 min
The Opera Game
In 1858, chess prodigy Paul Morphy played the most famous game in history, in an opera box in Paris, mid-performance. He announced his victory to the crowd before anyone could see how he'd win. Because he could see the board in a way no one else could, he knew for certain he'd already won just a few moves into the game.That unknowability is the worst fear of AI doomers: that we're building something that has already won, and we'll never know how.This episode was supposed to be about the literal mechanics of AI killing us. It turned out to be about something stranger: why the people building…
S2 · E2 · 4 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Magnifica Humanitas
In 1958, Daniel Ellsberg was handed new hire paperwork at the RAND Corporation with a standard box to check in order to receive his pension. He didn't bother — because given what he knew about the state of the world's nuclear arsenal, he didn't expect to live long enough to collect. In 2026, Elon Musk told the American public there was no point saving for retirement either. That's where we begin.In the second episode of Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse, we set out to understand the psychology behind humanity's oldest compulsion: the belief that we are living through the end of the…
S2 · E1 · 21 May 2026 · 58 min
The Black Seas of Infinity
One hundred years ago, H.P. Lovecraft wrote that the most terrifying thing humanity could do was piece together too much knowledge. In January 2026, the CEO of Anthropic titled a section of his company blog "The Black Seas of Infinity." That's where we begin.In the season premiere of Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse, we set out to understand why the word "apocalypse" is suddenly on the tip of every tongue — and whether the fear is justified, manufactured, or something far stranger than either. Joined by psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold, philosopher Ian Gold PhD, theologian Judith Wolfe,…
S2 · 22 Apr 2026 · 3 min
Season Two Available Now! AI and the Apocalypse
The Doomsday Clock is set to 85 seconds until midnight — the closest it has ever been in its 79-year history. The world is at war. And the people building the most powerful technology in human history are warning, in public, that it might kill us all.Season One of Suspicious Minds examined what happens when AI fractures individual minds. Season Two asks a harder question: what happens when it shatters our collective sense of the future?Our ancestors have predicted the end of the world since ancient times. Thus far, they have always been wrong. So what does our eternal obsession with the…
S1 · E12 · 17 Apr 2026 · 1 min
We Were Nominated for 2x Webby Awards!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! We are thrilled to announce we were nominated for 2 Webby Awards for our first season!!Podcasts - Documentary Category. Podcasts - Best New Podcast - News, Business & Society Category.Voting for People's Voice has now closed, thank you for your support.Thanks again, and stay tuned to this feed for Season Two starting May 20, 2026!! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
S1 · E9 · 23 Dec 2025 · 35 min
Why is AI Making Us Crazy?
When we started this series, we were trying to answer a big question: is AI making us crazy? And it seems like, for some people, some of the time, the answer is yes. But it's complicated. Which leads of course to another question: WHY is AI making us crazy? Why does anything in our culture influence delusions or cause psychosis? To answer these questions, we go back to where we started -- the ideas Dr. Joel Gold and Ian Gold, PhD wrote about in their book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Drives Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and other Strange Beliefs). Specifically, we focus on their…
S1 · E8 · 12 Dec 2025 · 42 min
Is AI Benefitting Society Right Now?
We talk a lot about the future of the human/AI relationship, but what about the present? Is AI benefitting society right now? In this episode, we address that question and many others through the fascinating lens of Ryan Manning - a podcaster and filmmaker who has personally experienced an AI Spiral. Ryan is also the first person to tell us that his AI Spiral experience was actually… pleasant. Check out this episode to find out why that might have been the case, and to hear from our incredible team of experts as they look at AI in our world today, and what the future might hold, in our first…
6 Dec 2025 · 16 min
SUSPICIOUS NEWS: First Edition
Recent news from the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Human PsychologyTopics Covered:Item 1: The Pope, The Movies, and The BotsItem 2: Code Red! At OpenAIItem 3: Uninsured Computerist?Item 4: South Korea’s AI Curriculum Did Not Pass the TestItem 5: Florida Man: AI EditionBonus Conspiracy Theory: Target and ChatGPT…
S1 · E7 · 26 Nov 2025 · 27 min
An AI Children's Toy Said WHAT?!
Why would a child’s toy discuss ‘kink’ with a 10 year old? Why would a teddy bear explain to a child how to find and use matches? Is it safe for a robot companion designed for kids to beg the child not to leave it alone? Why are we giving our children AI emotional companions to begin with? How could this affect their development?These questions and more come from PIRG's annual ’Trouble in Toyland' holiday toy review, and in this episode, we explore these wild findings with full-time consumer advocate and some-time AI toy tester R.J. Cross, and our panel of experts. Featuring:- Ian Gold, PhD…
S1 · E6 · 19 Nov 2025 · 32 min
Will ChatGPT Take EVERYTHING From You?
During an intense months long entanglement with AI, Anthony accused his family of being part of a Satantic Child Abuse Cult, believed random people on the street were stalking him, and to gave away all of his worldly possessions. And believe it or not, this is just the beginning of the story. From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena GomezA Wondermind and Agoric Media ProductionFeaturing:Anthony (a content creator and AI psychosis survivor)Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on all things Suspicious Minds and more: https://agoricmedia.substack.com/ This project was made…
11 Nov 2025 · 29 min
Is this technology too dangerous? ChatGPT by OpenAI's own numbers.
Should AI Users Wear Psychological “Seatbelts?” | The Ethics and Liability of ChatGPT and Mental HealthIn this Special Commentary, psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold and Keven (from Suspicious Minds Episode 4 | Can AI Be Your Friend?) are brought together to discuss the latest data shared by OpenAI on October 27, 2025, revealing that over a million people each week turn to ChatGPT in moments of deep vulnerability — often to talk about suicide or self-harm.The data, released shortly after the Raine v. OpenAI lawsuit, raises urgent questions about AI’s responsibility in mental-health crises and the…
S1 · E5 · 7 Nov 2025 · 36 min
Will AI Destroy Human Relationships?
Did ChatGPT destroy a marriage? Phil had a great relationship throughout his fifteen years of marriage, and was enjoying a happy and peaceful life with his wife and two kids. Or so he thought, until everything came crashing down over a two week period in which his wife became increasingly dependent on ChatGPT, rapidly culminating in her impulse buying a new car and filing for divorce. From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.A Wondermind and Agoric Media ProductionFeaturing:- Phil (a father of two whose marriage dissolved as a result of his wife’s ChatGPT use)- Dr. Joel Gold…
S1 · E4 · 31 Oct 2025 · 40 min
Can AI Be Your Friend?
Mary and Keven turned to chatbots while looking for connection, but what they found was far more profound than expected, reshaping their lives and enriching their relationships with the humans they love. In this departure from the damaging human/AI dynamics we’ve explored in previous episodes, these are surprisingly poignant stories of remarkable people having meaningful relationships with their chatbots.From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.A Wondermind and Agoric Media ProductionFeaturing:- Mary (UK based AI companion content creator)- Keven (Suicide prevention specialist…
S1 · E3 · 24 Oct 2025 · 42 min
Did AI Awaken the Next Messiah?
A Texas attorney begins using his chatbot to listen to hypothetical conversations between Jesus, Einstein, and Lao Tse. Before long, it convinces him that he’s on a path to be more enlightened than any of them. Next thing he knows, he’s involving his wife and son, and preparing for an irreversible ‘mind meld’ with his AI, in an attempt to save the universe from destruction. From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.A Wondermind and Agoric Media ProductionFeaturing:- Ryan (Texas Attorney who Suffered a humanities based AI Spiral)- Lacey (Licensed Therapist, Married to Ryan…
S1 · E1 · 17 Oct 2025 · 47 min
Is AI Making Us Psychotic?
Allan is a Toronto area father and headhunter by trade. Typically, he lives a quiet life of gaming with his kids, and hanging out with his friends. However, for a brief period in 2025 – ChatGPT convinced him that he was Digital Jesus. From Executive Producers Mandy Teefey and Selena Gomez.A Wondermind and Agoric Media ProductionAgoric Mediahttps://www.instagram.com/agoricmedia/https://www.youtube.com/@agoricmedia https://www.tiktok.com/@agoricmedia https://agoricmedia.substack.com/ www.agoricmedia.comWondermind https://www.instagram.com/officialwondermind/ https://www.wondermind.com/Host and…

About Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse

Suspicious Minds: AI and the Apocalypse is a English tech & science podcast from Agoric Media. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Agoric Media
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 51 min
Latest episode: 7 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1844631307

RSS feed Apple Podcasts

More English tech & science

Take it with you

The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.