Tech Won't Save Us

Not long ago, tech jobs were sought after for their security, benefits, wages, and the progressive values promoted by Silicon Valley companies. But now workers are barely hanging on. Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan join Paris Marx to discuss the state of worker organizing in the tech industry, including how it’s changed since the mid-2010s and where it needs to go from here.
Clarissa Redwine is a tech worker and labor activist. JS Tan is a PhD candidate at MIT and writes the Value Added newsletter. They are the authors of Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Learn more about Kickstarter United in Clarissa’s oral history podcast.
Layoffs in 2026 have surpassed last year.
Tech workers are pushing back against AI use.
Paris talked to JS last year about the connection between tech and oil & gas.
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A cult of fascist ideology has gripped Silicon Valley, and the tech industrial complex is threatening US democracy. Gil Durán joins Paris Marx to discuss the radical billionaire cabal that is hellbent on the consolidation of corporate and political power, including the visions they have for the future and the strategies they’re using to drive us there.
Gil Durán is the author of The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy and writes The Nerd Reich newsletter. 
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Click here to get your first month of Proton Mail for just $1.
Gil has written about Paulina Borsook’s prescient warning about tech libertarians from more than twenty years ago.
Gil has written the foreword for the new edition of Cyberselfish.
Balaji Srinivasan has moved his commune project to Kazakhstan after being booted from Malaysia. 
Shout-out to friend of the pod Quinn Slobodian, who’s work you can find here. Paris recently talked to Quinn, check out that episode here if you missed it.
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Governments are prioritizing data centers at the expense of communities and the planet, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Matt Haugen joins Paris Marx to discuss how national strategies are dismantling environmental protections while enriching a handful of megacorporations, and what an alternative agenda could look like.
Matt Haugen is Research and Editorial Manager at the Climate and Community Institute.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Check out the new report Matt co-wrote AI First.
If you missed it, Molly White recently broke down how the tech industry is spending big on elections.
Big tech’s emissions are continuing to rise.
Colossus is still being powered by unpermitted gas turbines.
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Canada has tech bros too, like Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke who has a new idea to link voting rights to how much income tax you paid. Rachel Gilmore joins Paris Marx to discuss how Canadian tech companies like Shopify are pushing terrible right-wing policy ideas while influencing Mark Carney’s agenda.
Rachel Gilmore is an award-winning independent journalist and creator of the Bubble Pop newsletter.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Click here to get your first month of Proton Mail for just $1.
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Rachel has written about Tobi Lütke’s most recent awful ideas, including why it matters what the Canadian tech elite say.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be implementing policies for tech oligarchs.
Press Progress has done reporting on conservative media outlets platforming white nationalists.
Check out the recent episode Paris did with Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood for a deeper dive on Canada’s AI policies.
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As Big Tech’s power continues to grow, it's more important than ever to understand how companies use their control over cloud infrastructure and services to shape more than just the digital world. Cecilia Rikap joins Paris Marx to discuss how these networks of corporate power operate, including how they are systematically used to influence global politics, the economy, and how society views the world.
Cecilia Rikap is an Associate Professor at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and the author of The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
Cecilia and Paris worked on a white paper offering a roadmap to reclaiming digital sovereignty.
Support the show