The Internet is an Occult Machine (w/ Shira Chess)
Ep. 358
Has the internet always been a magical space?
Shira Chess, a Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia and a leading scholar of digital folklore, dive into her new book, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse, to explore the hidden spiritual architecture of our digital lives.
My Dinner With Jeffrey: What the Epstein Files Tell Us About All of Us
Ep. 355
"Why are you in the Epstein files?"
It is a question Rushkoff received from his own daughter, and in this raw monologue, he gives the full answer.
Do Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead? (w/ Taylor Lorenz)
Ep. 354
Is the online safety legislation moving through Congress actually a Trojan horse for mass surveillance? And do the tech billionaires building our future actually care if the rest of us survive it?
Rushkoff sits down with Taylor Lorenz, the internet’s premier culture reporter and founder of User Mag, to discuss her departure from legacy media (The New York Times, The Washington Post) and the dangerous reality of the new tech authoritarianism.
The Esoteric State of the Union: Magic, Will, and the New Neighborhood with Mitch Horowitz
Ep. 353
Is magic just "positive thinking," or is it a causative force that can reshape reality? Rushkoff sits down with occult historian and author Mitch Horowitz (Occult America, Daydream Believer) to explore the boundaries of will, belief, and the material world.
Is It Fascism or Just a Lack of Impulse Control? With Jonathan Larsen
Ep. 352
We are no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop: We are living in the aftermath. Rushkoff sits down with Jonathan Larsen, editor of The Fucking News, to ask the question: Now that we are soaking in authoritarianism, how do we get out?
Become the Ground: How to Build Resistance When the Other Shoe Drops
Ep. 351
The other shoe finally dropped. We are no longer waiting for authoritarianism to arrive; we are soaking in it.
Rushkoff argues that the time for speculation, strategizing about political optics, and "preparing for what comes next" is over.
We Are Time Travelers: Retrocausality & The Long Self with Eric Wargo
Ep. 350
Multidisciplinary researcher and author Eric Wargo joins Rushkoff to help us decolonize our minds from the linear march of deterministic doom.
You're Not Crazy: Reality Has Grown Absurd
Ep. 349
If explaining the state of the world makes you feel like a conspiracy theorist, you aren't alone.
Tom Llewellyn: Is Sharing the New Satanism?
Ep. 348
Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, explores the power of Libraries of Things, mutual aid, and community-run infrastructure as practical alternatives to extraction-based economics.
Ari Kuschnir: Trump Ayahuasca - AI and the Alchemical Imaginary
Ep. 347
Ari Kuschnir, AI storyteller and artist, takes us deep into the alchemy of AI storytelling as a form of social practice and activist imagination.
Cracks in the Pavement
Ep. 346
Rushkoff discusses why the urgency and inevitability of our situation calls for us to consider the impossible.
Vicki Robin: Parable of the Tribes
Ep. 345
Vicki Robin, author of classic books like Your Money or Your Life and Blessing and The Hands That Feed Us, and Rushkoff seek to embrace this challenging moment by embracing one another. Robin shares how growing older shifts your perspective from the personal to the universal, and why the questions we've been asking our whole lives might matter less than how we show up for each other.
Jeremy Lent: Reweaving Civilization
Ep. 344
Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct and integrator, helps us investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability and develop the patterns of thought we need to get through to the other side.
Arden Leigh: Chasing the Hungry Ghosts
Ep. 343
Arden Leigh, the creator and facilitator of The Re-Patterning Project and front woman of Arden and the Wolves, helps us negotiate a new relationship to our individual and collective creative power.
The Joy of Becoming Worthless…Except to Each Other
Ep. 342
Could the end of employment be the beginning of something better? Rushkoff traces the history of work from medieval markets to AI automation to find hope in the cracks of collapse. He shows how the loss of “jobs” could open space for cooperation, creativity, and real human connection.
Andrew Slack: Superman vs Ubermensch
Ep. 340
Andrew Slack, comedian and writer of Orphans, Empires, and the Search for a Better World, discusses the hidden history of corporate power, the mythic roots of American identity, and how hope - and solar panels - might just save us all.
Cory Doctorow: Enshittification is Not Inevitable
Ep. 339
Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, unpacks the systemic forces behind digital monopolies, regulatory capture, the erosion of user rights, and how collective action and policy change can reclaim technology for the public good.
The Intentional Collapse
Ep. 338
Rushkoff offers a new way to interpret what appears to be the intentional dismantling of society as we know it: an elite who have lost faith in the system that has served them until now, and who believe a controlled demolition of government and the economy will position them better for the chaos ahead. He argues that just because the elite are committed to the end of the world, Team Human doesn't have to be.
Can Collapse Benefit Everyone? Luke Kemp: Goliath's Curse
Ep. 337
Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, explores why civilizations fall, what history gets wrong about collapse, and how distributed, cooperative societies have often thrived where empires failed.
Will AI Kill Us for the Lulz? Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
Ep. 336
Nate Soares, computer scientist and author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, discusses the existential risks posed by artificial intelligence, the possibility that untethered AI development can lead to catastrophic outcomes for humans, and what it might mean for AI development to outpace human control.