This Machine Kills

We discuss a recent investigation by ProPublica into the convergence of real estate, private equity, and algorithmic pricing as they profile a particularly odious company (RealPage) that is selling a ...

11 Nov 20221h 8min

We talk about the chaos at Twitter as Elon drives the company into the ground, merging classic techniques of a private equity takeover with his patented impulsive incompetence. Stuff we reference: ...

8 Nov 20226min

We are joined by Jacob Silverman – contributing editor at The New Republic – to discuss his profile of David Sacks, a venture capitalist and right-wing media personality who has been on the vanguard o...

4 Nov 20221h 17min

We dig into Chapter 2 – Transforming Finance – and look at how, in the 1950s and 1960s, the economic study of finance started shifting from merely descriptive approaches to engaging in more analytical...

2 Nov 20225min

We are joined by reporter Avi Asher-Schapiro who, along with his colleague Fabio Teixeira, has published an investigation into the crypto carbon credits markets. This collision between green finance a...

28 Okt 20221h 27min

Take beta blockers before this episode. In a companion piece for our episode on Health Communism, we dig into a concrete case that exemplifies everything we talked about with the production of surplus...

24 Okt 20225min

We are joined by Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant — co-hosts of Death Panel — to discuss their truly excellent new book, Health Communism, which offers a searing analysis of how our conception...

19 Okt 20221h 24min

After an extended riff, we kick off the new TMK Book Club on An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie. In the first chapter we get an intro to some of the big th...

18 Okt 20229min