Patreon Preview – 474. Gym, Tan, Leverage

More from This Machine Kills All episodes →

1. 

   9 Oct 2026 · 5 min

   Patreon Preview – 478. Keep Honking, I’m Watching Microdramas While Weaving Through Traffic

   We discuss a deep dive into the ascendency of microdramas – the short-form video series that are already bigger than the conventional film industry in China and are quickly taking over studios in Hollywood. We chat about the financial and cultural antecedents of microdramas, and the strange impacts of these videos on media production and consumption today, and the unevenly distributed futures of AI generated entertainment. ••• Are 60-Second Microdramas the Future of Hollywood, or the End? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/magazine/microdramas-tv-shows-hollywood-entertainment.html Standing…

2. 

   1 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

   477. Amerikkka Intelligence

   We get into the new decree from Trump that “artificial intelligence” is now called “super intelligence” – it sounds less fake and more powerful — and the broader currents of tech advice and policy in the Trump administration. Then we discuss how OpenAI and Anthropic are behaving like rogue agents, who are also irresponsible and incompetent to a degree that should be unbelievable. ••• Trump says the US is officially renaming AI to ‘super intelligence’ https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/998816/donald-trump-ai-super-intelligence ••• OpenAI Has Gone Rogue…

3. 

   26 Sep 2026 · 8 min

   Patreon Preview – 476. Can You Believe What Leftists Think About AI

   We learn all about how leftists are against any new regulations for AI. It’s the unbelievable return of horseshoe theory as we discuss the curious new discourse cycle being promoted by prominent pundits. ••• The Curious Left-Wing Argument Against New AI Regulations https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/ai-regulation-anti-monopoly-challenge/688707/ ••• Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us – and How to Stop It – book review https://www.counterfire.org/article/obsolete-the-ai-industrys-trillion-dollar-race-to-replace-us-and-how-to-stop-it-book-review/ Standing…

4. 

   17 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 24 min

   475. Never Let a Computer Tell Me Shit

   We jump off from the OpenAI - Hugging Face hacking incident as a way to talk about the misleading, cynical, and hysterical ways we talk about AI and the stranglehold that existential risk has on our framings and discourses. The OAI-HF event shows that rather than treating machine learning as certain kind of technology that does things in ways that can be explained and contextualized, even when our understanding is somewhat murky or incomplete, AI is proffered as an emergent god with mystified intentions, a great becoming that is equally horrifying and awe-inspiring. ••• LLMs are real, AI is…

5. 

   3 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 29 min

   473. Tech Workers of the World, Unite (ft. JS Tan, Clarissa Redwine)

   [We had technical difficulties and had to use a backup recording, sorry!] We chat with JS Tan and Clarissa Redwin — both veteran tech workers and labor organizers — about their new book which chronicles the tech worker movement over the last ten years. JS and Clarissa have been deeply involved in this movement, which gives them the perfect vantage point to trace the catalyzing events and organizing efforts, as well as discuss what went right, what went wrong, and how the tactics for class consciousness and worker resistance must be adapted for the tech sector. ••• Against Tech Oligarch |…

6. 

   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…

7. 

   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)…

8. 

   12 Aug 2026 · 8 min

   Patreon Preview – 470. Choking on Data Exhaust

   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,…

9. 

   6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 40 min

   469. The Maniacs are Running the Asylum (ft. Nikhil Suresh)

   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…