Episode notes
We chat about Ed’s engagement with communities pushing back against data center development in Tulsa, plus some major reporting showing the sheer scale of fossil-fuelled data center development in the United States. We’re talking more than 120 GIGAWATTS of new gas-burning power plants in development just to electrify data centers. There’s simply no way to equivocate about this amount of new pollution — new smog, new acid rain, new environmental health crises — being emitted for the purpose of spinning up more GPUs so that some of the most noxious companies in the world can become even more,…
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This Machine Kills
This Machine Kills · Tech & Science · English
A podcast about technology and political economy /// Agitprop against innovation and capital /// Hosted by Jathan Sadowski and Edward Ongweso Jr., Produced by Jereme Brown /// Hello friends and enemies Listen anywhere that fine podcasts are distributed. Subscribe at patreon.com/thismachinekills to
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11 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Patreon Preview – 474. Gym, Tan, Leverage
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3 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 29 min
473. Tech Workers of the World, Unite (ft. JS Tan, Clarissa Redwine)
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27 Aug 2026 · 8 min
Premium – 472. Australia’s AI Pitch Deck
We turn our sights down under by taking a closer look at the new all-of-government strategy for AI in Australia’s Interests. Australia has plotted out a bold, progressive vision where AI enthusiasm is mandatory, no is not an option (and. in fact, the lack of choice is actually empowering), and the country, with all its open space and valuable resources, is the next great investment opportunity for foreign capital. But don’t worry, just like mining companies before, tech firms are expected to earn their social license to operate. What does that mean in practice? Just leave the details to the…
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22 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 48 min
471. Breaking the Leviathan
We take a deep dive into New York’s police-surveillance infrastructure, a sprawling leviathan that Mayor Zohran Mamdani was outspoken against during his campaign, but has now inherited and is even warming up to as his administration settles into power. ••• Mamdani’s Surveillance State https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/mamdani-surveillance-state.html ••• Walking the Thin Blue Line https://www.thedriftmag.com/walking-the-thin-blue-line/ ••• The New York City Police Department’s Domain Awareness System (pdf)…
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6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 40 min
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We’re joined by Nik Suresh, director of Hermit Tech and excellent blogger on the software industry. You might know Nik for an incredible essay he wrote a couple years ago about piledriving anybody who mentions AI. Well he’s back at it with another great piece analysing the AI mania that has seemingly possessed every manager in every institution in every sector. We chat about where this mania comes from, how it’s manifesting, and what happens when reality eventually catches up to these delusions. ••• Nik’s company website: https://hermit-tech.com/ ••• AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global…
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467. Industrial Policy by Other Means (ft. Matt Haugen, Jesse Goldstein)
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18 Jul 2026 · 10 min
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We first open a door by talking about the great new ‘right to repair’ ruling from the FTC, which is the result of a long fight against rentier monopolies and digital enclosure, and should be precedent for expanding these battles and rights much further. We then tune back into hell by discussing how the AI-driven promises of convenience, personalization, and agentic servants are bribes meant to make people accept their own dependence, exploitation, and subservience to tech capital. Finally, a quick look at yet another way the AI boom is destroying life in San Francisco. ••• Farmers Finally…
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10 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 26 min
465. Malcolm X1 Technologies
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