
The Tech Coup
How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Lorna Bennett
-
By:
-
Marietje Schaake
About this listen
Under the cover of "innovation," technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. Facial recognition firms track citizens for police surveillance. Cryptocurrency has wiped out the savings of millions and threatens the stability of the global financial system. Spyware companies sell intelligence tools to anyone who can afford them. This new reality—where unregulated technology has become a forceful instrument for autocrats worldwide—is terrible news for democracies and citizens.
In The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake explains how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can-and must-resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world. Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world—and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.
©2024 Marietje Schaake (P)2024 KaloramaListeners also enjoyed...
-
Offshore
- Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
- By: Brooke Harrington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Walden
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do the rich keep getting richer, while dodging the long arm of the law? The ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use offshore finance to escape tax obligations, labor and environmental safety regulations, campaign finance rules, and other laws that get in their way.
-
-
Informative
- By Seattle mom on 03-02-25
-
Empire of AI
- Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
- By: Karen Hao
- Narrated by: Karen Hao
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?
-
-
Well-researched. Timely. Informative. Karen is brilliant and kind!
- By Kahlil Andrews on 05-25-25
By: Karen Hao
-
Bad Law
- Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
- By: Elie Mystal
- Narrated by: Elie Mystal
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times bestselling author brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to offer a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today—an urgent yet hopeful story for our current political climate
-
-
Chicken Soup for the Political Soul
- By Gracie on 05-22-25
By: Elie Mystal
-
Money, Lies, and God
- Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
- By: Katherine Stewart
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down.
-
-
Describes a well funded international fascist cult
- By marwalk on 03-24-25
-
The Great Transformation
- China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
- By: Chen Jian, Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.
-
-
Excellent history but the narration’s mispronunciation takes away from the story
- By Anonymous User on 04-19-25
By: Chen Jian, and others
-
Murder the Truth
- Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
-
-
The current threat against journalists
- By Kirk Writes on 04-04-25
By: David Enrich
-
Offshore
- Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
- By: Brooke Harrington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Walden
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do the rich keep getting richer, while dodging the long arm of the law? The ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use offshore finance to escape tax obligations, labor and environmental safety regulations, campaign finance rules, and other laws that get in their way.
-
-
Informative
- By Seattle mom on 03-02-25
-
Empire of AI
- Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
- By: Karen Hao
- Narrated by: Karen Hao
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?
-
-
Well-researched. Timely. Informative. Karen is brilliant and kind!
- By Kahlil Andrews on 05-25-25
By: Karen Hao
-
Bad Law
- Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
- By: Elie Mystal
- Narrated by: Elie Mystal
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times bestselling author brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to offer a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today—an urgent yet hopeful story for our current political climate
-
-
Chicken Soup for the Political Soul
- By Gracie on 05-22-25
By: Elie Mystal
-
Money, Lies, and God
- Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
- By: Katherine Stewart
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down.
-
-
Describes a well funded international fascist cult
- By marwalk on 03-24-25
-
The Great Transformation
- China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
- By: Chen Jian, Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.
-
-
Excellent history but the narration’s mispronunciation takes away from the story
- By Anonymous User on 04-19-25
By: Chen Jian, and others
-
Murder the Truth
- Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
-
-
The current threat against journalists
- By Kirk Writes on 04-04-25
By: David Enrich
-
Owned
- How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
- By: Eoin Higgins
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi—once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.
-
-
More of a screed than an analysis
- By Jamie on 03-01-25
By: Eoin Higgins
-
The Haves and Have-Yachts
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ultrarich hold more of America’s wealth than they did in the heyday of the Carnegies and Rockefellers. Here, Evan Osnos’s incisive reportage yields an unforgettable portrait of the tactics and obsessions driving this new Gilded Age, in which superyachts, luxury bunkers, elite tax dodges, and a torrent of political donations bespeak staggering disparities of wealth and power. With deft storytelling and meticulous reporting, this is a book about the indulgences, incentives, and psychological distortions that define our economic age.
-
-
Excellent.
- By Carl P. Kustell on 06-24-25
By: Evan Osnos
-
The Genius Myth
- A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Helen Lewis
- Narrated by: Helen Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate. In The Genius Myth, Helen Lewis unearths how this one word has shaped (and distorted) our ideas of success and achievement. Ultimately, argues Lewis, the modern idea of genius—a single preternaturally gifted individual, usually white and male, exempt from social niceties and sometimes even the law—has run its course.
-
-
Good performance, questionable motives.
- By Hugh Jass on 06-24-25
By: Helen Lewis
-
Smart Money
- How Digital Currencies Will Shape the New World Order
- By: Brunello Rosa, Casey Larsen
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the end of the Second World War, the US dollar has been the global reserve currency, which has ensured American dominance of the world economy. But no longer. More than a hundred countries are developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), digital equivalents to cash that will utterly transform how we do business at home and abroad. Urgent, clear-eyed and groundbreaking, Smart Money shows us how CBDCs are going to impact all of our futures in ways that most of us have failed to even consider.
By: Brunello Rosa, and others
-
The Death of Expertise (2nd Edition)
- The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
- By: Tom Nichols
- Narrated by: Tom Nichols
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fully updated chapters continue to address how technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Over the past several years, the rise of populism and conspiracy theories have taken this to new levels. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.
-
-
Good Book, but Longer than Needed
- By Chuck on 06-14-25
By: Tom Nichols
-
Tech Agnostic
- How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation
- By: Greg M. Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Boyles
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging listeners to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life.
-
-
Woke nonsense
- By Fingersfive on 11-30-24
By: Greg M. Epstein
-
The Quiet Coup
- Neoliberalism and the Looting of America
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Seena Ghaznavi
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some have claimed that the neoliberal era is behind us. Baradaran shows that such thinking is misguided. Neoliberalism is a failed economic idea—it doesn't, in fact, create more wealth or more freedom. But it has been successful nevertheless, by seizing the courts and enabling our age of crypto fraud, financial instability, and accelerating inequality.
-
-
Neoliberalism dissected extensively
- By Larryfxx on 12-09-24
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
-
AI Snake Oil
- What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
- By: Sayash Kapoor, Arvind Narayanan
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. AI is everywhere—and few things are surrounded by so much hype, misinformation, and misunderstanding. In AI Snake Oil, computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor cut through the confusion to give you an essential understanding of how AI works, why it often doesn’t, where it might be useful or harmful, and when you should suspect that companies are using AI hype to sell AI snake oil—products that don’t work, and probably never will.
-
-
Mediocre
- By Amazon Customer on 05-20-25
By: Sayash Kapoor, and others
-
The Wannabe Fascists
- A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy
- By: Federico Finchelstein
- Narrated by: Tom Beyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With The Wannabe Fascists, historian Federico Finchelstein offers a precise explanation of why Trumpism and similar movements across the world belong to a new political breed, the last outcome of the combined histories of fascism and populism: the wannabe fascists.
-
-
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
- By Geoffrey Barrett on 07-02-24
-
Lawless
- How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
- By: Leah Litman
- Narrated by: Leah Litman
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the gravitas of Joan Biskupic and the irreverence of Elie Mystal, Leah Litman brings her signature wit to the question of what’s gone wrong at One First Street. In Lawless, she argues that the Supreme Court is no longer practicing law; it’s running on vibes. By “vibes,” Litman means legal-ish claims that repackage the politics of conservative grievance and dress them up in robes. Major decisions adopt the language and posture of the law, while in fact displaying a commitment to protecting a single minority: the religious conservatives and Republican officials.
-
-
Plethora of historical background information is very helpful to put a lot of this into context.
- By Natalie on 06-27-25
By: Leah Litman
-
Our Own Worst Enemy
- The Assault from Within on Modern Democracy
- By: Tom Nichols
- Narrated by: Tom Nichols
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past three decades, citizens of democracies who claim to value freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law have increasingly embraced illiberal politicians and platforms. Democracy is in trouble - but who is really to blame? In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and antidemocratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves.
-
-
Interesting but shallow
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-21
By: Tom Nichols
-
On Xi Jinping
- How Xi's Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World
- By: Kevin Rudd
- Narrated by: Kevin Rudd
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In On Xi Jinping, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd provides an authoritative account of the ideological worldview driving Chinese behaviour both domestically and on the world stage—that of President Xi Jinping, who now holds near-total control over the Chinese Communist Party and is now, in effect, president-for-life. Rudd argues that Xi’s worldview differs significantly from those of the leaders who preceded him, and that this ideological shift is reflected in the real world of Chinese policy and behaviour.
-
-
Informed research with deep insights, but very hard to follow.
- By Josh Carter on 02-18-25
By: Kevin Rudd
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Offshore
- Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
- By: Brooke Harrington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Walden
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do the rich keep getting richer, while dodging the long arm of the law? The ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use offshore finance to escape tax obligations, labor and environmental safety regulations, campaign finance rules, and other laws that get in their way.
-
-
Informative
- By Seattle mom on 03-02-25
-
Tech Agnostic
- How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation
- By: Greg M. Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Boyles
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging listeners to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life.
-
-
Woke nonsense
- By Fingersfive on 11-30-24
By: Greg M. Epstein
-
Owned
- How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
- By: Eoin Higgins
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi—once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.
-
-
More of a screed than an analysis
- By Jamie on 03-01-25
By: Eoin Higgins
-
The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World . . .
- Essays
- By: David Graeber, Nika Dubrovsky - editor
- Narrated by: Jacques Servin, Savitri D
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently," wrote David Graeber. A renowned anthropologist, activist, and author of such classic books as Debt and the breakout New York Times bestseller The Dawn of Everything (with David Wengrow), Graeber was as well-known for his sharp, lively essays as he was for his iconic role in the Occupy movement and his paradigm-shifting tomes.
-
-
An important read
- By zoia krioukova on 01-28-25
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Contrarian
- Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power
- By: Max Chafkin
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the days of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, no industry has made a greater impact on the world than Silicon Valley. And few individuals have done more to shape Silicon Valley than Peter Thiel. The billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur has been a behind-the-scenes operator influencing countless aspects of our contemporary way of life, from the technologies we use every day to the delicate power balance between Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington. But despite his power and the ubiquity of his projects, no public figure is quite so mysterious.
-
-
Don’t burn a credit.
- By John on 09-27-21
By: Max Chafkin
-
The Unaccountability Machine
- Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind
- By: Dan Davies
- Narrated by: Peter Dickson
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members.
-
-
Illuminating.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-12-25
By: Dan Davies
-
Offshore
- Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
- By: Brooke Harrington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Walden
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do the rich keep getting richer, while dodging the long arm of the law? The ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use offshore finance to escape tax obligations, labor and environmental safety regulations, campaign finance rules, and other laws that get in their way.
-
-
Informative
- By Seattle mom on 03-02-25
-
Tech Agnostic
- How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation
- By: Greg M. Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Boyles
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging listeners to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life.
-
-
Woke nonsense
- By Fingersfive on 11-30-24
By: Greg M. Epstein
-
Owned
- How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
- By: Eoin Higgins
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi—once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.
-
-
More of a screed than an analysis
- By Jamie on 03-01-25
By: Eoin Higgins
-
The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World . . .
- Essays
- By: David Graeber, Nika Dubrovsky - editor
- Narrated by: Jacques Servin, Savitri D
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently," wrote David Graeber. A renowned anthropologist, activist, and author of such classic books as Debt and the breakout New York Times bestseller The Dawn of Everything (with David Wengrow), Graeber was as well-known for his sharp, lively essays as he was for his iconic role in the Occupy movement and his paradigm-shifting tomes.
-
-
An important read
- By zoia krioukova on 01-28-25
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Contrarian
- Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power
- By: Max Chafkin
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the days of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, no industry has made a greater impact on the world than Silicon Valley. And few individuals have done more to shape Silicon Valley than Peter Thiel. The billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur has been a behind-the-scenes operator influencing countless aspects of our contemporary way of life, from the technologies we use every day to the delicate power balance between Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Washington. But despite his power and the ubiquity of his projects, no public figure is quite so mysterious.
-
-
Don’t burn a credit.
- By John on 09-27-21
By: Max Chafkin
-
The Unaccountability Machine
- Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind
- By: Dan Davies
- Narrated by: Peter Dickson
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we avoid taking a decision, what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies examines why markets, institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer, a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences, capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members.
-
-
Illuminating.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-12-25
By: Dan Davies
-
The Big Myth
- How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
- By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
- Narrated by: Liza Seneca
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with 'big government' and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor.
-
-
Refuting the Chicago School
- By Todd W. Laveen on 06-01-23
By: Naomi Oreskes, and others
-
Invisible Rulers
- The People Who Turn Lies into Reality
- By: Renee DiResta
- Narrated by: Anna Caputo
- Length: 15 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renée DiResta’s powerful, original investigation into the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed reveals how a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists increasingly shapes public opinion. While propagandists position themselves as trustworthy Davids, their reach, influence, and economics make them classic Goliaths—invisible rulers who create bespoke realities to revolutionize politics, culture, and society. Their work is driven by a simple maxim: if you make it trend, you make it true.
-
-
the more things change...
- By Gina S. on 07-01-24
By: Renee DiResta
-
Technofeudalism
- What Killed Capitalism
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China. Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.
-
-
The narration is literally the worst.
- By Shakeiad on 09-24-24
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
Autocracy, Inc.
- The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran.
-
-
A Triumphant Work -Puts It All Together With Laser Clarity
- By Sjhoffman on 09-19-24
By: Anne Applebaum
-
Erasing History
- By: Jason Stanley
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our modern political landscape, Erasing History issues a dire warning for America and the world: the worst fascist movements of humanity’s past began in schools; the same place so many of today’s right-wing political parties have trained their most vicious attacks. Yale professor Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the right’s tactics and traces their inspirations and funding back to some of the most dangerous ideas of human history.
-
-
The bias attitude of the author
- By Elizabeth ohanna on 09-30-24
By: Jason Stanley
-
The Jungle Grows Back
- America and Our Imperiled World
- By: Robert Kagan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse.
-
-
Out of date: covid, Trump nobel nominations etc
- By David on 11-13-18
By: Robert Kagan
The accuracy and detail
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantastic listen! Ahead of its time!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author identifies four specific technological manifestations that need to be curbed: commercial spyware, data brokerage, facial recognition technologies, and crypto-currencies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an increasingly relevant technology that requires regulation to keep it from running amok to dangerous effect—especially as AI aggregates vast amounts of private data for processing in Large Language Models (LLM). Schaake names some of the companies and corporate executives who are unjustly profiting off of their theft and illicit use of private information, and illustrates how they have captured governments for their own advancement at the expense of the public interest. The profit motive also overrides any scruples about dealing with authoritarian governments, and in yielding to their demands that the tech companies become tools of autocratic oppression.
Schaake demonstrates how government service can provide better technology deliveries without unacceptable dependency on private entities, and suggests the way to do that is to build a public stack—that is, build a public tech infrastructure through civic initiatives (after all, the Internet itself originated from public research). The Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI) provides good directions to the way forward. The DFI is a global initiative signed by 61 nations promoting an open, free, secure, and inclusive internet, which reflects a collective commitment to counter digital authoritarianism and uphold democratic principles in the digital space.
However, as Schaake aptly points out, governments cannot be trusted to do the right thing on their own—new coalitions of people are needed to reverse the tech coup, and recover from the corruption of the current order. As part of doing that, we'll need to free those caught in the cult of right wing ideology and its associated false emotional manipulation—although they may want a Daddy to set things straight, what they get instead is an alcoholic father who abuses his family to satisfy his own whims and those of his following (who are not you). Even authoritarian governments have to bend to public pressure—we have the road map, let's start driving.
We need a public tech stack
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.