Artificial Intimacy Is Changing Who We Are

What happens when machines become easier to relate to than other people? In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with author Sherry Turkle about artificial intimacy, the erosion of empathy and social skills, and the political dangers of replacing human connection with frictionless simulations of care. Music: Son Monarcas and Sarah the Illstrumentalist Note: This a…
Source

Original

‘Purge Palantir!’: Union nurses warn Big Tech and Big Brother are invading our healthcare system

‘Purge Palantir!’: Union nurses warn Big Tech and Big Brother are invading our healthcare system

https://www.spreaker.com/show/2952221/episodes/feed

On August 27, registered nurses, patients, and community allies rallied and stopped traffic in cities around the US to demand that hospitals and elected officials cut all ties with artificial intelligence giant Palantir. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a panel of registered nurses—Kelli Brennan (Portland, Maine), Lee Barker (Kansas City, Missouri), and Kiera Arbour (Chicago, Illinois)—about National Nurses United’s “Purge Palantir!” campaign, and about the disturbing creep of Big Tech and Big Brother into a US healthcare system that is already in crisis.

Additional links/info:

National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram

National Nurses United: “Nurses hold nationwide civil disobedience actions to demand ‘Palantir Out!’”

Sheera Frenkel & Aaron Krolik, The New York Times, “Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans”

Aisha Down & Robert Booth, The Guardian, “Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears”

Featured Music:

Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits:

Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. My name is Maximillian Alvarez, and today we are speaking with union nurses who are speaking out against big tech and big brother, sneaking more of their tentacles into our healthcare system and into our lives. They and their union, National Nurses United, participated in a National Day of Action on August 27th, which brought together hundreds of registered nurses, patients, and community allies in cities around the country to demand that hospitals and elected officials cut all ties with artificial intelligence

Original

We ask five musicians: Can anyone ‘make it’ in today’s music industry?

We ask five musicians: Can anyone ‘make it’ in today’s music industry?

https://rss.libsyn.com/shows/126614/destinations/757400.xml

The 20th-century days of vinyl records, tape decks, CDs, Tower Records, and MTV have given way to our 21st-century age of MP3s and music streaming, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok, and Ticketmaster. While certain people and certain companies in the music industry are making more money than ever, working musicians are finding it increasingly impossible to pay the bills and make a living from their art. In this episode of Working People, we speak with all four members of veteran Chicago rock band The Empty Pockets about the work that goes into being a professional musician, and the realities of working and trying to make a living in the music industry today.

Additional links/info:

The Empty Pockets website, Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube channel, and Spotify channel

Josh Solomon, Hypebot, “We stopped waiting to be chosen and mailed 100,000 CDs instead”

Jules Taylor Music website, Facebook page, Instagram, and Spotify channel

Featured Music:

Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song

Credits:

Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. My name is Maximillian Alvarez.

Jules Taylor:

And I’m Jules Taylor.

Maximillian Alvarez:

So you guys all know Jules as the producer of this podcast, but let me tell you something about brother Jules here. Jules is a renaissance man. He is a podcaster himself, as many of you know. He’s a writer, a music producer, a poet, and a brilliant musician in his own right. And he does all the music for working people as well. And that’s why I really, really wanted us to host

Original

‘The most powerful publishers the world has ever seen’: Fara Dabhoiwala on the real battle over free speech

‘The most powerful publishers the world has ever seen’: Fara Dabhoiwala on the real battle over free speech

Today, host Michael Fox speaks with Fara Dabhoiwala. He is a professor of History at Princeton University. And he’s the author of the book, What is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea. 

That book was published in 2025 by Penguin Random House and Harvard University Press. His book, in many ways, challenges the status quo about our understanding of free speech.

Professor Dabhoiwala has a wealth of knowledge on the subject of free speech and he appeared throughout this podcast series. But there were many questions we weren’t able to fit into the series, in particular about the beginnings of what we understand as free speech in the United States, and the difference between free speech in the US and abroad. 

So today, we’re bringing you Michael’s conversation with him in its entirety. They spoke last fall. 

This is the first bonus episode of The Battle for Free Speech. 

The Battle for Free Speech Podcast is a production of The Real News Network. 

Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner. 

Guests: 

Fara Dabhoiwala

Resources: 

You can check out the full Battle for Free Speech podcast series, here.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported this show.

Follow The Battle For Free Speech on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Support Michael Fox’s reporting at patreon.com/mfox. Never miss an episode — sign up for The Real News newsletter at therealnews.com. 

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.Michael Fox:

Hi folks. I’m your co-host, Michael Fox, and this is The Battle for Free Speech. So as promised, this is the first of a number of bonus episodes we’ll be rolling out in the coming weeks. Today, I speak with

Original