Dystopia Now27 Mar 2025

The Effective Altruists and the "Abundance" Movement

This week we talked about the "Abundance Agenda" and it's roots in the Effective Altruism movement.

A network of think tanks, Silicon Valley billionaires, and centrist pundits are getting all riled up about zoning ordinances, and possibly trying to take over the Democratic Party? Oh boy.

We explore the dark side of Effective Altruism, men's rights activists, IQ Realists, "race science," eugenicists and more lurking in a movement where the biggest scoundrels in society are mixing with Vox writers- EA! This episode was a wild ride, let us know what you think.

We'll be back with Thiel Part 2 next week but we had to know-- why did an Atlantic writer podcast with a Nazi?

Episoder(65)

Protopia Futures (ft. Monika Bielskyte)

Does fiction inform what we think the future should look like? Sci-fi and futurism has typically told us the inevitability of technology and dystopian cyberpunk imaginaries. Monika Bielskyte joins us ...

19 Jun 1h 2min

Pope Leo's Anti-AI Encyclical

This week, we go over the merits and demerits of the Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas and its co-presentation with Christopher Olah of Anthropic, the company branding itself as mos...

11 Jun 39min

An Independent for Nebraska (ft. Austin Ahlman)

Could a populist, independent candidate win an election in the most Republican part of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District? In a time when the Republican and Democratic Party are both notoriously co...

4 Jun 48min

Florida Man Runs for Congress as a Democratic Socialist (ft. Oliver Larkin)

Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Oliver Larkin, activist, union organizer, and Democratic Socialist, joins us this week to discuss his run for election to the U.S. House as a Flo...

28 Mai 48min

PATREON PREVIEW: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! On this special Patreon episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zep...

21 Mai 11min

Of Dawkins and Data Centers

In this week's episode we begin to go into the philosophy around consciousness and AI as New Atheist relic Richard Dawkins recently claimed "Claudia" was conscious. What are the merits and issues of t...

14 Mai 1h 5min

Altman Attack: What is Violence?

In this week's episode, we explore a question no one has ever thought of before: "What is violence?" We unpack the recent Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman's home and how his own rhetoric about (c...

7 Mai 40min

From Fordism to Muskism with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Quinn Slobodian, historian of neoliberalism, and Ben Tarnoff, internet and technology writer, join us...

30 Apr 53min