For this week’s bonus, it’s Riley, Hussein, and November discussing: Masayoshi Son’s desire to create AI God (actual), Labour’s march towards total alienation of everyone in hopes of governing from the void, a bizarre profile of Keir Starmer in which he seems to suggest he has never read a book, and a very strange encounter with Reform UK’s argumen…

It’s the free one for the week and we’re discussing Balaji Srinivasan, and the Network State freaks of the Bay Area, with extremely experienced California journalist Gil Duran (@gilduran76). However, we’re also discussing the indentured-servitude coding boot camp that got hemmed up by the CFPB, as well as a story where McDonald’s had to shelve its …

For this week's TF bonus, we're speaking with Welsh journalist Becca Wilks about the Welsh government's usage of automatic facial recognition, the privacy nightmare it creates, and their frankly bonkers justifications for why they want to use it everywhere. Don't worry, it won't cause any.....actually we're just getting an update that it's already …

For this month's first Britainology, we've watched the season of the military-themed and emphatically strange UK reality TV show "Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins," featuring....Matt Hancock. It's exactly what you think it is. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/britainology-85-106954905 *EDINBURGH LIVE SHOW ALERT* We'…

We've unlocked our discussion of Master and Commander to the free tier, and we've unlocked the sequel, Post Captain, to the $5 tier... so check them out, and if you like them, you can check out the next instalment - HMS Surprise - now on the $10 tier! November and Riley read the first in Patrick O'Brian's Aubery-Maturin series, and what follows is …

For this week’s free one, we’ve Riley, Milo, and November discussing the Reform manifesto, which reads like a handful of Volk-centred social democracy policies with a lot of what you can only called overt fascism. Great to know that this will be “sensible politics” in about five years. We also read a paean to Nigel Farage’s f**kability. Of course i…

For this week's bonus, we're talking EU elections and weird European politics with Corner Späti's Ciarán Dold. Learn about Ursula Von Der Leyen's anti-wolf vendetta, Cypriot Mr. Beast somehow getting a parliamentary seat, the hypothetical return of François Hollande in a move they're calling Opposite Day PASOK, and Riley's conjecture about a maneuv…

For this week’s free one, we’re talking about a Thiel-funded startup to invent future guns that is apparently run by a 9-year-old. We’re also talking about AI Steve, the strange but 100 percent not made up story of a guy who’s claiming he’ll make an AI chatbot and represent its views in parliament if elected. However, we’ve also got an interview se…

For this week's bonus, we're joined by US politics observer Josh (@ettingermentum), who runs the Ettingermentum newsletter. We're talking Bidenism, Starmerism, Bidenism Without Biden, the UK now having two parties who refuse to govern, Third Way guys advising the Labour Party on how to be more right-wing, and much more. Check out Josh's newsletter …

Josh (@Boshj) from The Worst of All Possible Worlds joins the gang to discuss the Humane AI Pin's latest new feature (gets really hot), Lars Windhorst's latest personal update ("I am not on the run"), and the return of Nigel Farage to frontline politics. Then, for our main discussion - a hot new company that intends to be the Netflix of AI, but tha…

We continue to follow the election with stony faced horror, as the decision is put to the country: “which group of sociopathic bigots do you want to be in charge of pushing the nuclear button, which they have promised to push”? Then, a reading from the Tony Blair Institute on their plan to circumvent the need for democracy by creating a new, digita…

For this week’s free episode, we’re joined by returning guest and author Dan Davies, whose recent book “The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind” inspired a discussion of bad AI getting used at the DWP, the post-1970s shareholder revolution, and an incident involving Dutch airport cargo…

For this week's bonus, Jathan Sadowski of This Machine Kills podcast joins the gang to talk about the “new” generation of AI models announced by Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and others - all of which seem to want to imitate the movie Her. The value proposition of this to a normal person is unclear. Get the whole thing on Patreon here: https://www.pat…

The cast joins guest Jason Koebler of 404 Media to discuss the recent downward spiral of Facebook, a platform currently being destroyed by AI and a total lack of content moderation that cannot admit the causes of its crisis because it, too, is dumping money into AI. And yet it is among the notionally most valuable companies on earth. But don’t worr…

For this week's bonus, it's Riley, Milo, Hussein, and November discussing the recent news about ICC arrest warrants (and US/UK politicians statements about wanting to bomb the Netherlands as a result), but we're also discussing a very strange UK business claiming it's going to build a sort of British Neom in a Napoleonic-era fortress in Dover. That…

For this month's first Britainology, we examine an unambiguously good (and strange) British crime film: Jonathan Glazer's 2000 debut SEXY BEAST. Why is the film so atmospheric and detached? Why is Ben Kingsley so good at being an ultra-geezer? Is the plot saying definitively that Ian McShane had to let James Fox top him in order to learn about a ba…

Hesse from Seeking Derangements and Movie Mindset joins the gang to watch Scoop - the story behind the news night interview that blew up the Prince Andrew story and made him lose his job as the nation’s special little boy for upwards of eight months. If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes, and powerful Dis…

Friend of the show and Financial Times journalist Rob Smith joins us to discuss Euro finance guys. Why are they so louche and strange? Why are they just sort of hanging around connecting people? Why is this entire episode a name alert? We also discuss Volocopter and Neom some more. It's an episode you don't want to miss. Get the whole episode on Pa…

For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Milo, Hussein, and November discussing London local elections, the UK media’s reactions to pro-Palestine student protests in British universities, the huge backtracking on workers’ rights proposals from Starmer, and much more. If you want access to our Patreon bonus episodes, early releases of free episodes…

For this week's bonus, the gang watched Lift, a movie where Kevin Hart plays a gentleman thief who lives in the Battersea Sky Pool building. Also, it contains the line: “I paid my $22m… I want my NFT.” Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/2023-direct-to-103996656 *LIVE SHOW ALERT* See us live in London on May 29th wi…

For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Hussein, and November with special guest and friend of the show Victoria Scott (@mikurubaeahina) in a discussion about Tesla’s recent earnings call, its recall of its non-warhead-equipped ramming missile / bad looking truck combination, and US car manufacturers hoovering up immense amounts of personal data …

We're joined by top tier friend of the show Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis) of the Rail Natter YouTube channel to discuss 'Great British Railways,' the new Labour plan to 'renationalise' (sic) the trains while leaving all of the immense problems, rent-seeking middlemen, and supply chain issues in place. But also we cautiously venture north of the bor…

For this week’s free episode, it’s Riley, Hussein, and November discussing some interesting UK politics news regarding a little-known political entity called the Labour Party and a little-known digital voting software platform they designed and adopted that’s now being investigated by a little-known group called the Metropolitan Police Cybercrime U…

For this week's bonus, Riley, Hussein, and November discuss some recent UK news where one of Britain's most tendentious morons has been trying to claim that the Met Police are in cahoots with Hamas somehow and people are expected to take this seriously. We also discuss recent Tory and Labour talking points about replacing sick notes with apps and h…

Milo is in Australia and the time zone difference is killing us, but in his absence we convened Joe Kassabian and Francis Horton to discuss the American Midwest with Hussein. We cover the strange post-industrial wasteland of pretty much the entire region, the concept of Precious Moments ceramic figurines (Funko Pops for meemaws), and Hussein reads …