Dystopia Now
Kate Willett and Emile Torres
Show overview
Dystopia Now launched in 2025 and has put out 70 episodes in the time since. That works out to roughly 65 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 48 min and 1h 4m — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. Roughly 20% of episodes carry an explicit flag from the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Society & Culture show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 days ago, with 23 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Kate Willett and Emile Torres.
From the publisher
Dystopia Now is a show where a comedian (Kate Willett) and an academic (Emile Torres) explore the philosophies and religions of Silicon Valley and tech billionaires shaping our country, our world, and our future.
Latest Episodes
View all 70 episodesEnshittification and Reverse Centaurs: Cory Doctorow on How Tech Platforms Took Over the Economy
Technology and Palestinian Liberation with Stanford SJP
Bickering Over Galaxies: "AI 2040" and the Pursuit of Cosmic Utopia
UNLOCKED: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout
Why Life on Mars Would Probably Suck
Protopia Futures (ft. Monika Bielskyte)
Pope Leo's Anti-AI Encyclical
An Independent for Nebraska (ft. Austin Ahlman)
Florida Man Runs for Congress as a Democratic Socialist (ft. Oliver Larkin)
PATREON PREVIEW: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout
Of Dawkins and Data Centers
Altman Attack: What is Violence?
From Fordism to Muskism with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
The AI Con with Alex Hanna and Emily Bender
Big Tech is Watching You with Taylor Lorenz
EJournalist Taylor Lorenz joins us to discuss Section 230, how Big Tech is already tracking everything from eye movements to finger presses, the ongoing erosion of online privacy through right-wing tech policy and identity verification. Find Taylor on YouTube @TaylorLorenz and her publication UserMag on Substack. Further Reading Taylor Lorenz, Usermag, The Media Lied About the Social Media Addiction Trial Taylor Lorenz, The Biggest Lies About Section 230 Mick Masnick, TechDirt, Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They're Actually Cheering For KWCH, AI-powered cameras on Wichita school buses raise privacy concerns for one driver WBAL, 'Just holding a Doritos bag': Student handcuffed after AI system mistook bag of chips for weapon
Understanding the U.S. Blockade on Cuba with David Ramírez Álvarez
David Ramírez Álvarez, secretary at the embassy of Cuba in the US, joins us to understand the escalating blockade on Cuba.
The Ethics of Human Extinction Part 1
EFind Part 2 coming soon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow This week we dive into Emile's area of expertise, the ethics of human extinction and how these ethics are shaping Silicon Valley. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/making-sense-of-the-human-extinction Books Mentioned The Last Man, Mary Shelley Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation, Émile Torres
Data Centers in My Backyard with Dylan Gyauch-Lewis
Support the show at https://patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow Researcher and journalist Dylan Gyauch-Lewis joins us this week to discuss the views behind ongoing data center buildout for AI despite community resistance. Find Dylan's work at the American Prospect and https://therevolvingdoorproject.org Further Reading Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The American Prospect: More AI Means More Cancer Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The Revolving Door Project: Support for Data Centers in Shor Supply
Gilded Rage with Jacob Silverman
Find Jacob Silverman on Substack at https://substack.com/@jacobsilverman or Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/jacobsilverman.com Further Reading from Jacob * The Shady Financial Past of a Major Trump Crypto Investor: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/andrei-grachev-dlw-labs-world-liberty-financial-trump/ * The President Took A $75 Million Bribe And We All Saw It: https://www.jacobsilverman.com/p/the-president-took-a-75-million-bribe Books Mentioned Gilded Rage, Jacob Silverman Easy Money, Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman Survival of the Richest, Douglas Rushkoff More Everything Forever, Adam Becker The Technological Republic, Alex Karp
The Unabomber
EThis week, we discussed the biography of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his brand of tech doomerism. Further Reading Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-and-the-unabomber