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System Crash

System Crash

Written by: System Crash
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Tech giants like Google and Facebook have conquered — some would say killed — the internet. Elon Musk used his platform to help elect Trump, and Silicon Valley elites want to gut the public sector. OpenAI and Microsoft aim to wipe away millions of jobs. Uber is driving down wages. Apple is impenetrable. Amazon is inescapable. All this high tech, and our quality of life is getting lower. The system has crashed.

So, System Crash: a weekly tech news show willing to tell the hard truths about how tech — and the titans who own and operate it — is really transforming the world. Co-hosts Paris Marx and Brian Merchant dissect the stories that matter, break news of their own, offer expert commentary, and interview journalists, whistleblowers, authors, and tech workers and ordinary people fighting back.

© 2025 System Crash Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • System Crash Is Paused

    System Crash Is Paused
    Jul 17 2025

    Some news, as they say: System Crash is going on hiatus as Brian and Paris are overloaded with other projects they need to take care of. Thanks for plugging in, and stay tuned to this feed for updates on what's next.

    Until then, subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine, check out Paris’ newsletter Disconnect, and go listen to Tech Won’t Save Us.

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    6 mins
  • Palmer Luckey Wants to Arm the West With AI Weapons

    Palmer Luckey Wants to Arm the West With AI Weapons
    Jul 11 2025

    Brian is out this week, so we’re dropping one of our bonus episodes to give you a preview of the benefits of supporting the show over on Patreon. In the episode, Brian and Paris dig into Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey’s scary vision for the future of warfare — and how he plans to profit off the whole thing. Arming countries to the teeth with automated weapons, to the degree they’re considered “porcupines,” might sound bad to some people, but to Luckey it’s the obvious goal of the Western “warrior class.”

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    34 mins
  • The Ban on State AI Laws is Dead, Canada Bows to Trump and Big Tech, and the AI Backlash Grows

    The Ban on State AI Laws is Dead, Canada Bows to Trump and Big Tech, and the AI Backlash Grows
    Jul 4 2025

    This week on System Crash: Canada drops its digital services tax under pressure from Trump, the 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation is dead, and the backlash to generative AI just keeps growing. Plus, Peter Thiel and his buddies are starting a new bank named after something else from Middle Earth, Microsoft is cutting thousands of jobs, and people are using chatbots to text their friends.

    Subscribe to Paris’s newsletter Disconnect.

    Subscribe to Brian’s newsletter Blood in the Machine.

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    58 mins
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