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This Is Not a Browser—Did René Magritte Really Predict the End of the Web Age?
The Belgian surrealist René Magritte was a smart artist, but could the 20th century futurist really have predicted the end of the Worldwide Web age? …
11 months, 3 weeks ago
The Panic of the Intellectuals: From Ezra Pound to the Trumpagies of Today
American intellectuals always seem to believe they are living through the end times. From the fascist poet Ezra Pound in the 1930s to the historian o…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
How to Choke Your Enemy: Why America Turned the World Economy into its Weapon of Global Domination
How should America choke enemies like Iran, Russia and China? Not on the battlefield—according to Edward Fishman, that’s yesterday’s game. Today, Fis…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
All Religions Are Absurd Because We Are Absurd: How the Internet is Creating the First New Form of Religious Community in 250,000 Years
Twenty years ago, the religious scholar Reza Aslan wrote his first book, There is No god but God, about the origins, evolution and future of Islam. I…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Why the Real Road to Serfdom Runs Through Silicon Valley: Tim Wu on the Extractive Economics of Platform Capitalism
Last time the anti-monopoly crusader Tim Wu appeared on the show, he was warning broadly about the road to serfdom. But in his new book, The Age of E…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Are We Still Fighting the Hundred Years War? Why Joan of Arc, Agincourt, and the Black Death Aren't Quite Dead
A couple of years ago, I asked the great military historian Richard Overy if World War Two had ended yet. Overy answered inconclusively, suggesting t…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
From Cancelled Students to Coddled Autocrats: The Crisis of Free Speech in America
Two years ago, free speech champion Greg Lukianoff came on the show to express his concerns about conservative students getting cancelled on college …
11 months, 3 weeks ago
The Deliveroo Effect: Why Instant Delivery Politics and Economics Is Harming Democracy and Making Us Miserable
What the former Finance Minister of Chile Andres Velasco has called the Deliveroo effect is most evident in Poland. Despite unprecedented economic gr…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
A Giant Crypto Grift: Xbox Chief on His New Blockchain Thriller and Why Web3 Still Matters
In the midst of today’s AI hysteria, have we forgotten about blockchain technology and the seductive Web3 promise of decentralization? Robbie Bach, l…
11 months, 4 weeks ago
An American Epidemic of Speculation: Bubble Blowing in Silicon Valley and Washington DC
Bubble or not? But the debate that’s been raging over the current AI exuberance might be missing the bigger point. Yes, of course, it’s a trillion-do…
11 months, 4 weeks ago