In this special episode, hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss how Big Tech dreams – from iPhones to social media to AI – have become nightmares. How did these decade-defining innovations end up making modern life feel sadder, lonelier, and scarier? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Using two recent books — Cory Doctorow's "Ensh*ttification" and Paul Kingsnorth's "Against the Machine" — as reference points, the hosts discuss labor practices, government regulation, the place of spirituality and religion, cottagecore fantasies, and how they personally navigate unplugging from the machine.
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In this special episode, hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss how Big Tech dreams – from iPhones to social media to AI – have become nightmares. How did these decade-defining innovations end up making modern life feel sadder, lonelier, and scarier? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Using two recent books — Cory Doctorow's "Ensh*ttification" and Paul Kingsnorth's "Against the Machine" — as reference points, the hosts discuss labor practices, government regulation, the place of spirituality and religion, cottagecore fantasies, and how they personally navigate unplugging from the machine.
Medaya Ocher and Eric Newman speak with writer Grace Byron about her debut novel, "Herculine." Set between the freelance rat race of New York and an equally cutthroat commune for trans women in rural Indiana, "Herculine" follows a narrator trying to put her life together. Featuring demons, conversion therapy, and blood rites, the novel is part horror part coming-of-age tale. Byron discusses how the book emerged from a memoir project, as well as the joys and struggles of making community and a life as a trans woman. Byron is also a critic and essayist, whose work has appeared in the "New Yorker," "New York Magazine," "Los Angeles Review of Books," "The Nation" and other publications.
LA Review of Books
In this special episode, hosts Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, and Eric Newman discuss how Big Tech dreams – from iPhones to social media to AI – have become nightmares. How did these decade-defining innovations end up making modern life feel sadder, lonelier, and scarier? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Using two recent books — Cory Doctorow's "Ensh*ttification" and Paul Kingsnorth's "Against the Machine" — as reference points, the hosts discuss labor practices, government regulation, the place of spirituality and religion, cottagecore fantasies, and how they personally navigate unplugging from the machine.
