Techtonic with Mark Hurst is a weekly one-hour FM radio show on Jersey City-based WFMU, covering “our shift to a digital future.”
LISTEN: Stream past shows below. Livestream on wfmu.org from 6pm-7pm Eastern every Monday, as well as on 91.1 FM and 91.9 FM in the NYC/NJ metro area. See the WFMU archives.
SYNDICATION: If you’d like to run Techtonic on your radio station, check Audioport or PRX – or email syndication@wfmu.org.
PODCAST: If you use an open podcast player reader, here’s an RSS feed. If you have to use a Big Tech podcast app, here’s Techtonic on iTunes.
Past Techtonic Episodes
• November 18, 2024: Astronomer Samantha Lawler on Starlink space junk. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• November 11, 2024: Station Manager Ken Freedman guest-hosted, interviewing David Suisman about music and the military. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 4, 2024: Dystopia update. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 28, 2024: Members of the Luddite Club. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 21, 2024: Christopher Brown, author, “A Natural History of Empty Lots.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 14, 2024: Yaroslav Trofimov, author, “Our Enemies Will Vanish” – about the war in Ukraine. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 7, 2024: Silkie Carlo, director, Big Brother Watch. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 30, 2024: Tim Schwab, author, “The Bill Gates Problem.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 23, 2024: What if no one wants AI? See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 16, 2024: Helen Phillips, author of the dystopian novel HUM. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 9, 2024 (marking 7 years of Techtonic): Even more devices are spying on you. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 2, 2024: Carl Öhman, author, “The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 26, 2024: Alan from Six Degrees guest hosted, discussing Rancho Mastatal, a sustainability education center in Costa Rica. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 19, 2024: Paula Bialski, author, “Middle Tech: Software Work and Culture of Good Enough.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 12, 2024: Google antitrust decision party, celebrating Google’s defeat in court. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 5, 2024: Jon Leidecker, aka Wobbly, on Negativland and fair use. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 29, 2024: Tech and the sandwich generation: tips for protecting elders and kids from Big Tech and other predators. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 22, 2024: Brian D. guest hosted, discussing disinformation with Kirsten Eddy and Alex Mahadevan. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 15, 2024: Jason Koebler on generative AI and the “cesspool internet.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 8, 2024: How it started, how it’s going: revisiting the warnings of the past. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 1, 2024: Carissa Véliz on digital ethics. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 24, 2024: Byron Tau, author, “Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 17, 2024: Mark answers listener questions about AI, robots, and whether we should throw our phones in the river. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 10, 2024: Mark Schatzker and “Food, Inc. 2”: discussing ultra-processed foods and the history of the Dorito. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 3, 2024: Matt Warwick guest hosted, taking phone calls with the question, “What is the best robot?” See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 27, 2024: We should all switch to Linux: Mark speaks with “Peter,” a security expert living in Switzerland, about how (and why) we should all switch to Linux. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 20, 2024: What’s eating Google? Exploring Google’s descent into AI madness. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 13, 2024: Chris Gilliard on what AI is really for. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 6, 2024: Ulises Mejias and Nick Couldry, authors of “Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 29, 2024: Michael Shelley, WFMU DJ, on AI-generated music. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 22, 2024: Eve Herold, author, “Robots and the People Who Love Them.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 15, 2024: Richard Polt, author, “The Typewriter Revolution.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 8, 2024: Outrage roundup: antitrust, AI, and Big Tech invading NYC. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• April 1, 2024: Better late than never: Mark covers some tech news he’s been waiting awhile to talk about. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• March 25, 2024: Lily Wen guest hosted, interviewing Liz Pelly about Spotify and other streaming services. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• March 18, 2024: Ian Johnson, author, “Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 11, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU DJ Dave the Spazz. See playlist.
• March 4, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU station manager Ken Freedman. See playlist.
• February 26, 2024: Dystopia update: surveillance cameras everywhere and a dramatic reading of ChatGPT gone haywire. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• February 19, 2024: Scott Shapiro, author, “Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 12, 2024: Sam Lawler, astronomer, on the dangers of Starlink satellites. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 5, 2024: Vision Pro: 40 years later, Apple turns into 1984. See playlist, listen to the entire show or download the podcast.
• January 29, 2024: Can we make better choices in tech? See playlist, listen to the entire show or download the podcast.
• January 22, 2024: Ashley Shew, author of “Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 15, 2024: Ben Grosser, artist and creator of Minus, a better social network. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 8, 2024: Jason Koebler, co-founder of 404 Media, on his story about New Jersey using Covid relief funds to buy surveillance cameras from a Chinese company banned in the US due to its connection to human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, China. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 2, 2024: Mark and station manager Ken Freedman discuss neurotech. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• December 25, 2023: Your favorite tech gifts: Mark reads listeners’ submissions about their favorite tech gifts in years past. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• December 18, 2023: DJs Matt and Olivia guest-hosted, taking listener calls to answer the question: “What’s the best app?” See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• December 11, 2023: Guillaume Pitron, author, “The Dark Cloud: The Hidden Costs of the Digital World.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 4, 2023: What tech is hiding: deception, surveillance, and exploitation of workers and children. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 27, 2023: Scott Williams guest-hosted, playing a wide variety of tech-themed audio and music. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 20, 2023: Kris De Decker, founder of Low-tech Magazine, a solar-powered website. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• November 13, 2023: Ed Park, author, “Same Bed Different Dreams” – about Korea, history, and a dystopian tech company. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• November 6, 2023: Tech villain update: Zuckerberg, Andreessen, Neumann, Bankman-Fried. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 30, 2023: Kashmir Hill, author, “Your Face Belongs to Us” – about facial recognition and Clearview AI. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 23, 2023: Dan Bodah guest-hosted, discussing taser-armed drones designed to fly in classrooms. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 16, 2023: Brian Merchant, author, “Blood in the Machine” – about the Luddites and their relevance today. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 9, 2023: Antitrust lawsuits against Google and Amazon. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 2, 2023: “Job” playwright Max Friedlich. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 25, 2023: Surveillance in the subway, the store, the stadium, and the sky. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 18, 2023: Michael Hearst discusses his new Mean Marcus album, “Say Hello To The Party.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 11, 2023: Jeannette Sutton speaks with Ken Freedman and Mark Hurst about disaster alerts. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 4, 2023: Coco Krumme, author, “Optimal Illusions: The False Promise of Optimization.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 28, 2023: Tamara Kneese, author, “Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 21, 2023: Updates on past shows about WeWork, Google’s Incognito Mode, ChatGPT, and more. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 14, 2023: Pat Garofalo, author of the Boondoggle newsletter, on Amazon’s data-center scam. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 7, 2023: Mark answers listener questions about AI, Japan, Starlink, and whether things are getting better or worse. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 31, 2023: Bruce Schneier, author, “A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend Them Back.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 24, 2023: Josh O’Kane, author of “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy,” on Google’s failure in Toronto. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 17, 2023: Ken Freedman guest-hosted, discussing AI model collapse and Zuckerberg and a possible “wrassle of the assles” between Zuckerberg and Musk. See playlist or listen to the entire show.
• July 10, 2023: Colby Smith filled in.
• July 3, 2023: Surveillance roundup. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 26, 2023: Paul Salopek on walking through “a handmade world.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 19, 2023: Ridiculing Apple's Vision Pro headset with Paris Marx. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 12, 2023: Internet addiction and the ITAA: Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous, featuring a member describing her journey to recovery. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 5, 2023: Station manager Ken Freedman guest-hosted, interviewing David Auerbach, author of “Meganets.” See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 29, 2023: Harold Burris-Meyer and manipulative sound, featuring Ted Houghtaling, archivist at Stevens Institute of Technology. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 22, 2023: Cybersecurity and “how the world ends” – drawing on Nicole Perlroth’s book This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race. See playlist, listen to the show, or download the podcast.
• May 15, 2023: Trying to convince Matt Warwick to say no to a brain chip. See playlist, listen to the show, or download the podcast.
• May 8, 2023: Nita Farahany, author, “The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 1, 2023: How working in the tech industry has changed, with WFMU's Dave Mandl. Also, a travel story. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• April 24, 2023: You’re being watched by surveillance glasses, Tesla cars, and robot police dogs. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• April 17, 2023: Meredith Broussard, author, “More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 10, 2023: Station manager Ken Freedman guest-hosted, interviewing Matt Taibbi about the Twitter Files. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• April 3, 2023: WFMU DJ Roger guest-hosted, interviewing college students and recent graduates about their relationship with social media. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• March 27, 2023: Sandrine Rigaud, co-author, “Pegasus.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 20, 2023: Cory Doctorow, co-author, “Chokepoint Capitalism.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 13, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU DJ Bryce. See playlist.
• March 6, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU DJ Trouble. See playlist.
• February 27, 2023: Gaylord Fields, WFMU DJ, discusses Spotify’s new AI DJ. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 20, 2023: Joe Turow, author, “Americans Can’t Consent to Companies’ Use of Their Data.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 13, 2023: Susan Linn, author, “Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 6, 2023: Our AI-generated future: Mark Hurst on AI-extruded text and music. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• January 30, 2023: Torie Bosch, editor, “‘You Are Not Expected to Understand This’: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 23, 2023: Sarah Lamdan, author, “Data Cartels: The Companies That Control and Monopolize Our Information.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 16, 2023: Craig Silverman and Google’s ad business of “porn, piracy, and fraud.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 9, 2023: Mark gives a surveillance roundup. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Bonus – January 7, 2022: Mark guest-hosted Double Dip Recess, WFMU’s Saturday morning kids’ show (9am-12pm Eastern). See playlist, or listen to the entire show.
• January 2, 2023: Mark and Station Manager Ken discuss the year ahead. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• December 26, 2022: WFMU DJ Arb guest-hosted on the theme of “digital intimacy.” See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• December 19, 2022: Darren Byler, co-translator, “The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 12, 2022: Rachel Ignotofsky, author and illustrator, “The History of the Computer” – with her husband and business partner Thomas Mason. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 5, 2022: Eric Zimmerman, author, “The Rules We Break” – a live in-studio interview about the design of games and other systems. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 28, 2022: Why you shouldn’t trust Apple. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 21, 2022: David Sax, author, “The Future is Analog: How to Create a More Human World.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• November 14, 2022: Lurking dangers of tech. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 7, 2022: Carissa Véliz, author, “Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 31, 2022: Nightmares from Silicon Valley. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 24, 2022: Adrian Hon, author, “You’ve Been Played: How Corporations, Governments and Schools Use Games to Control Us All.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 17, 2022: Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 10, 2022: Ken Freedman guest hosted, on the theme of AI and robots. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 3, 2022: Douglas Rushkoff discusses his new book “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 26, 2022: Subways and surveillance – with Christopher Robbins from Hell Gate. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 19, 2022: Aaron Sachs, author, “Up from the Depths” – on Melville, Mumford, and difficult times. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 12, 2022: Five years of Techtonic: celebrating the five-year anniversary of Techtonic with messages from listeners and clips of their favorite shows. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. Also includes The Sounds of Surveillance – by Scott Williams, Mark Hurst, Greg Harrison, Matt Fiveash, and Lily Wen.
• September 5, 2022: Workplace surveillance: a very Techtonic Labor Day. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 29, 2022: Scott Williams guest hosted, on the theme of “The Sounds of Surveillance.” See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 22, 2022: Molly Osberg and New York’s new Link5G surveillance towers. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 15, 2022: Touring the Torment Nexus: comparing the warnings issued by past guests with recent, real-world tech news. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 8, 2022: James Bridle, author, “Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Bonus – August 5, 2022: Mark guest-hosted Double Dip Recess, WFMU’s Saturday morning kids’ show (9am-12pm Eastern). See playlist, listen to the entire show, or jump to interview with Michael Hearst.
• August 1, 2022: “What now?” How to resist Big Tech if Congress fails. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 25, 2022: Paris Marx, author, “Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 18, 2022: Ben Tarnoff, author, “Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 11, 2022: Ken Freedman guest hosted, discussing Midjourney and other AI image processors with DJ Bryce. See some disturbing images on the playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 4, 2022: The July 4th montage show, featuring clips from favorite interviews in Techtonic’s third long season - from fall 2019 to spring 2020. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 27, 2022: Jonathan Crary, author, “Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 20, 2022: Our last chance to defeat Big Tech (for awhile). See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 13, 2022: Jennifer Egan, author, “The Candy House.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 6, 2022: Surveillance roundup. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 30, 2022: Jeff Deutsch, author, “In Praise of Good Bookstores.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 23, 2022: Buffalo and Big Tech, discussing how Big Tech companies enable and amplify extremist beliefs, then profit from the results. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 16, 2022: WFMU DJ Dave Mandl guest-hosted, interviewing cryptography expert Perry Metzger. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 9, 2022: Carolyn Chen, author, “Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast. (After listening to the interview, don’t miss this commentary by the Old Codger from his May 10, 2022 show.)
• May 2, 2022: On Musk and Twitter – with Paul Bradley Carr, author, 1414°. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 25, 2022: Paul Salopek discusses his “Out of Eden Walk,” a 24,000-mile (38,000-km) walk around the world that he began in January 2013 and continues today. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 18, 2022: Why you should be worried about data brokers. (This is a corrected version that fixes the transmission problems from the original live broadcast.) See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• April 11, 2022: Sasha Stiles, poet and author, “Technelegy.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 4, 2022: Justin E. H. Smith, author, “The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 28, 2022: Ethan Gutmann on digital spycraft in human rights work in China. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 21, 2022: Damon Krukowski on the Bandcamp purchase. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 14, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU DJ Matt Warwick. See playlist (showing the new Techtonic T-shirt design), listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. To get the T-shirt, pledge here: $10/month or $75 one-time pledge.
• March 7, 2022: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU station manager Ken Freedman, featuring a stunt about the Techtonic signoff. See playlist (showing the new Techtonic T-shirt design), listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. To get the T-shirt, pledge here: $10/month or $75 one-time pledge.
• Feb 28, 2022: Ukraine, NFTs, Wordle tracking, Starlink junk, Amazon’s Whole Foods palm surveillance, and IRS facerec. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Feb 21, 2022: Kelly Weill, author, “Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Feb 14, 2022: The time I met Jeff Bezos: reflecting on how success changed Amazon and Bezos. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Feb 7, 2022: Alec MacGillis, author, “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America,” now out in paperback with the subtitle “America in the Shadow of Amazon.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 31, 2022: Ken Freedman guest hosted, discussing Spotify and Neil Young’s departure. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Jan 24, 2022: Dave Holmes, creator and host of “Waiting for Impact,” a 10-episode podcast series. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 17, 2022: Darren Byler, author, “In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 10, 2022: Damon vs. DiCaprio and “Don’t Look Up”: while Matt Damon shills for crypto-bro fantasies, DiCaprio and the new movie “Don’t Look Up” give a realistic view of our moment. But there’s good news from the Elizabeth Holmes trial. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Jan 3, 2022: Station Manager Ken joins for a game of “Who Said It” – trying to tell the difference between Silicon Valley billionaires and movie villains. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Dec 27, 2021: Mark Schatzker, author, “The End of Craving.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Dec 20, 2021: Maria, Meta, Musk: Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, arrogance from Meta, and TIME's person of the year, Elon Musk. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Dec 13, 2021: Gretchen Peters, executive director of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO), discussing online crime enabled by Big Tech. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Dec 6, 2021: Steve Elkins, director, “Echoes of the Invisible.” See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 29, 2021: Ken Freedman guest hosted, discussing whether phones secretly listen to us, and describing Big Tech’s forays into sleep marketing. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Nov 22, 2021: Activision, AirPods, and (Eric) Adams: a recent tech-news roundup. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Nov 15, 2021: Paul Bradley Carr, author, 1414°. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 8, 2021: Tyson Yunkaporta, author, "Sand Talk." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 1, 2021: David Yoon, author, "Version Zero." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 25, 2021: "Red Heaven" directors Lauren DeFilippo and Katherine Gorringe, on a Mars simulation run by NASA. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 18, 2021: The return of call screener Phil. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the appearance of call screener Phil, followed by listener calls), or download the podcast.
• October 11, 2021: David Bodanis, author, "The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• October 4, 2021: The Facebook outage: what just happened? And what should we do next? See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 27, 2021: Joe Turow, author, "The Voice Catchers: How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 20, 2021: Ten reasons to smash your smartphone, inspired by recent tech news. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. (BTW the movie was Duel, and the black smoke from trucks is rolling coal.)
• September 13, 2021: Dave Ackley, founder of the T2 Tile Project, on decentralizing computers. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• September 6, 2021: DJ Matt Warwick joins Mark to discuss cryptocurrencies and dodgy smartphone apps. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 30, 2021: Amanda Nazario guest hosted, interviewing WFMU DJs Paul Bruno and Abby from Mars about smartphone games and social media. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• August 23, 2021: Shannon Mattern, author, "A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 16, 2021: Eliot Brown, author, "The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 9, 2021: Vaccine apps - with Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• August 2, 2021: Sports and tech with Mark's friend Paul from Miami. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 19, 2021: Jon Fasman, author, "We See It All: Liberty and Justice in an Age of Perpetual Surveillance." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• July 12, 2021: Annette LeMay Burke, photographer and author, "Fauxliage: Disguised Cell Phone Towers of the American West." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 28, 2021: Craig Taylor, author, "New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• June 21, 2021: Cook, Khan, and a crypto explainer. Also, Pink Floyd. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 14, 2021: Cupertino, Cuban, crypto, Cadence, Cena, China, and calling cicadas. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 7, 2021: Amelia Pang, author, "Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 24, 2021: Listeners banning tech - clips of 10 listeners describing what one technology they would like to ban. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• May 17, 2021: Marci Brennan and Chris George on managing photos - and the difficulty of escaping Big Tech while running a small business. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 10, 2021: Pete Davis, author, "Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• May 3, 2021: Frank Pasquale, author, "New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 26, 2021: Dennis Glover, author, "Factory 19." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 19, 2021: Bob Ostertag, musician and author, "Facebooking the Anthropocene in Raja Ampat: Technics and Civilization in the 21st Century." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 12, 2021: Station manager Ken Freedman guest-hosted, interviewing Brandy Schillace, author of "Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey's Head, the Pope's Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• April 5, 2021: Tim Harford, author, "The Data Detective" (outside the US, "How to Make the World Add Up"). See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 29, 2021: Disinformation and a stuck boat: clips from Zuck/Pichai/Dorsey in Congress last week, and thoughts on the Suez Canal container ship. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the hearings clips), or download the podcast.
• March 22, 2021: Paul Kingsnorth, author, "Alexandria." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• March 15, 2021: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by WFMU station manager Ken Freedman, featuring a stunt about the Techtonic signoff. See playlist (showing the new Techtonic T-shirt design), listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. To get the T-shirt, pledge here: $10/month or $75 one-time pledge.
• March 8, 2021: Fundraising marathon show, cohosted by Sheila B., host of WFMU's Sophisticated Boom Boom (Fridays 3pm-6pm Eastern), who talks about deleting her social media accounts. See playlist (showing the new Techtonic T-shirt design), listen to the entire show, or download the podcast. To get the T-shirt, pledge here: $10/month or $75 one-time pledge.
• March 1, 2021: Nabiha Syed, president of The Markup. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 22, 2021: Annie Jacobsen, author of "First Platoon: A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 15, 2021: Andrea Pitzer, author of "Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• February 8, 2021: Discussing the WFMU comment board with station manager Ken Freedman and Mark Hurst. See playlist, listen to the entire show or download the podcast.
• February 1, 2021: Adrian Daub, author of "What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry Into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 25, 2021: Jonathan Lethem, author of "The Arrest." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 18, 2021: Sarah Brayne, author of "Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• January 11, 2021: Big Tech's role in the insurrection: a discussion with station manager Ken Freedman. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• January 4, 2021: Sheila Liming, author of "Office," on the past and future of our conceptions of the office. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 28, 2020: Best of 2020: tech books and video games, as chosen by Mark Hurst and DJ Paradox. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to video games with DJ Paradox), or download the podcast.
• December 21, 2020: Elisa Gabbert, author of "The Unreality of Memory and Other Essays," interviewed by station manager Ken Freedman. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 14, 2020: J. Khadijah Abdurahman on Timnit Gebru's firing and "the moral collapse" of AI ethics. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to the interview), or download the podcast.
• December 7, 2020: Tron Life and a surveillance gift guide. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to Tron Life), or download the podcast.
• November 30, 2020: Adrian Hon, author, "A New History of the Future in 100 Objects." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• November 23, 2020: Shoshana Wodinsky, Gizmodo staff reporter, on Spotify. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• November 16, 2020: Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel, editors, "Voices from the Valley." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• November 9, 2020: The election and Big Tech: the good news, then some criticism. Also: Zuck at the Section 230 hearings. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• November 2, 2020: William Deresiewicz, author, "The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 26, 2020: Station manager Ken Freedman guest-hosted, interviewing Matt Taibbi. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 19, 2020: Is it safe to use the new Covid Alert app? with Daniel Kahn Gillmor, aka dkg. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 12, 2020: A video game challenge and Mark's thoughts on the new anti-trust report from Congress. Featuring DJ Paradox. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• October 5, 2020: Alan Jacobs, author, "Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 28, 2020: Ken Freedman, filling in as host, runs a YouTube experiment, takes phone calls, and plays "geek speak" audio. See listener comments, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 21, 2020: Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel prizes. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 14, 2020: Steve Lambert, co-founder, The Center for Artistic Activism. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 7, 2020: Cory Doctorow, author, "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 31, 2020: Ben Hunt, from Epsilon Theory, on corruption in finance and Big Tech. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 24, 2020: Katie Mack, author, "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" - about the end of the universe. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 17, 2020: Elaine Kasket, author, "All the Ghosts in the Machine" - about the afterlife of our personal data. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 10, 2020: Joel Kotkin, author, "The Coming of Neo-Feudalism" - and one more Big Tech hearings clip, on Jeff Bezos's amnesia about Diapers.com. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 3, 2020: The Big Tech hearings - and Lisa Macpherson from Public Knowledge on how "the game is rigged." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• July 27, 2020: A discussion about free speech, featuring novelist Scott Johnston, author of "Campusland." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• July 20, 2020: Reading during a pandemic, featuring novelist Ed Park, author of "Personal Days." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• July 13, 2020: Zoom in schools, surveillance & police, and deepfakes, including a quick chat with DJ Paradox. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• July 6, 2020: Ben Green, author, "The Smart Enough City." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• June 29, 2020: Mark Zuckerberg finally blinks, thanks to the advertiser boycott. Also: Snapchat's Juneteenth filter, reverse-engineering TikTok, Google's laughable "privacy" pledge, Adobe as data broker, drones on protesters, racist facial recognition, Maria Ressa and Facebook in the Philippines, Big Tech stock growth, and a Grimes song. (Whew!) See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 22, 2020: Voices in tech 4: Apple, eBay, facial rec, Joe on Zuck, and Auden. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• June 15, 2020: Jason Fried, cofounder of Basecamp, on launching Hey.com, an email service that respects user privacy. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• June 8, 2020: Chris Gilliard, on Big Tech's declarations of support for the Black community, even as Big Tech exploits and oppresses the Black community for profit. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• June 1, 2020: Ryan Walsh, on the OpenAI Jukebox. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• May 25, 2020: Steven Levy, author, "Facebook: The Inside Story." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• May 18, 2020: Scott Williams, filling in as host, presents music and sounds created with tech. See playlist or listen to the entire show.
• May 11, 2020: Jathan Sadowski, author, "Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting Data, Controlling Our Lives, and Taking Over the World." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• May 4, 2020: Movies covering pandemics, dystopias, AI, and tech gadgets, chosen by Paul in Atlanta. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• April 27, 2020: Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff technologist at the ACLU, on contact tracing. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• April 20, 2020: Toby Ord, author, "The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• April 13, 2020: David Sax, author, "The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• April 6, 2020: Chris Gilliard, privacy scholar on surveillance during corona. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• March 30, 2020: Kyle Chayka, author, "The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• March 23, 2020: Albert Fox Cahn and Liz O'Sullivan from STOP - the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project - the spread of facial recognition, and other surveillance, in the time of corona. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• March 16, 2020: Special reporter Dan Casey on Big Tech contractors, generative architecture, and some ridiculous emails. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• March 2 and March 9, 2020: Fundraising shows for the 2020 marathon - the first hosted by Mary Wing, and the second hosted by station manager Ken Freedman, who interpreted the Jealous Corona song. If you missed it, you can make a pledge here to get the 2020 Techtonic Tips printed booklet. (Pledge $10/mo or $75, be sure to click "1 DJ Premium", then on next page, under Monday, click "Techtonic Tips".)
• Feb 24, 2020: Rana Foroohar, author, "Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles - And All Of Us" See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Feb 17, 2020: Jumana Abu-Ghazaleh, founder, Pivot for Humanity See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Feb 10, 2020: Voices in tech 3: facial recognition, anti-competitive Big Tech giants, & a robot. See playlist, listen to the entire show, or download the podcast.
• Feb 3, 2020: David Courtwright, author, "The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 27, 2020: Melanie Mitchell, author, "Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 20, 2020: Jonathan Fischer, Slate's tech editor, on "The Evil List." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 13, 2020: Aaron Roth, co-author, "The Ethical Algorithm." See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Jan 6, 2020: Tech trends in 2020 with WFMU station manager Ken Freedman. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Dec 30, 2019: The Dvorak keyboard and tech tips, feat. DJ Paradox. See playlist, listen to the entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Dec 23, 2019: Scott Williams, filling in as host, presents Christmas Special: A Toyland Dystopia! See playlist or listen to the entire show.
• Dec 16, 2019: Matt Klinman and Sam West, creators of the "Smartr" podcast series. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the episode as a podcast. (And here's the Smartr podcast.)
• Dec 9, 2019: Doug Hill, author, "Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology." See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Dec 2, 2019: Joe Hollier, co-founder of The Light Phone. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 25, 2019: Voices in tech 2: Sacha Baron Cohen, Aral Balkan, and Dr. Chris Gilliard. See show notes, listen to entire show, or download the podcast.
• Nov 18, 2019: Whistleblowers in tech - featuring Jack Poulson, Irene Knapp, Liz O'Sullivan, and Delphine Halgand. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 11, 2019: Tim Maughan, author of "Infinite Detail" on what would happen if the Internet went down completely. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• Nov 4, 2019: NYC Mesh organizers Scott Rasmussen and Jillian Murphy on providing high-speed Internet access without using Big Telecom. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 28, 2019: Bron Gondwana, CEO of Fastmail, on running a tech company that actually treats users with honesty. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 21, 2019: Station Manager Ken Freedman, discussing human-on-robot violence. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 14, 2019: Astra Taylor, author, "Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone." See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• October 7, 2019: David Dichelle, live from Leipzig, Germany, on resisting the global monoculture. David is the host of Continental Subway on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 30, 2019: Juul, scooters, and TikTok. See show notes, listen to entire show, or download the podcast.
• September 23, 2019: Luther Lowe, SVP of public policy at Yelp, on Google antitrust. See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 16, 2019: Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA professor and author of "Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media." See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 9, 2019: Arthur Holland Michel, author of "Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All." See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• September 2, 2019: Carl Miller, author of "The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab." See show notes, listen to entire show (you can jump to interview), or download the podcast.
• August 26, 2019: Jeremiah Moss, author of "Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• August 19, 2019: Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann, authors of "Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• August 12, 2019: Amy Webb, author of "The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity," about AI and the future. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• August 5, 2019: The tech-tips episode. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to tips. Don't miss GE's tip on how to reset its "smart" lightbulb, starting here, which I remixed a bit.
• July 29, 2019: Juliette Kayyem on terrorism & social media; Facebook's Libra; and Elon Musk and his Neuralink mind-control device. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview with Juliette Kayyem.
• July 22, 2019: Showdown on Capitol Hill: Big Tech vs. Democracy, featuring multiple Congressional hearings from July 16. See show notes, listen to entire show. (Here's a thread linking to each clip: Rep. Cicilline vs Amazon and vs Google; the disturbing testimony of Andy Parker; Sen. Hirono's obvious question and Google's deceitful response; Dr. Robert Epstein's testimony about Google manipulating elections; Sen. Hawley's question and Google's deceitful response about their pedophilia business, which I covered here; and finally, Matt Stoller's overview of Facebook's Libra currency and the enormous risks it brings. Discussion here of Google's deceptions during the hearings.)
• July 15, 2019: Matt Stroud, author of "Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing," about Tasers and solutionism. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• July 8, 2019: Chris Gilliard, aka @hypervisible, on how surveillance affects marginalized communities. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• (July 1: archive show from May 13, feat. Shoshana Zuboff)
• June 24, 2019: Scott Urban, creator of Reflectacles, "privacy eyewear." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• June 17, 2019: Damon Krukowski, author, "Ways of Hearing." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• June 10, 2019: Jenny Odell, author, "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• June 3, 2019: Joseph Menn, author, "Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• May 27, 2019: Justin E. H. Smith, author, "Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• May 20, 2019: Daniel J. Clark, director of "Behind the Curve," a new documentary about flat-earthers. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• May 13, 2019: Shoshana Zuboff, author, "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• May 6, 2019: Roger McNamee on his new book "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• April 29, 2019: Four voices raising the alarm on tech: See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to intro of first clip.
• April 22, 2019: Paul Mozur, from the New York Times, on surveillance in China and the fate of the Uighurs: See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• April 15, 2019: Clive Thompson on his new book "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• April 1, 2019: "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz on autonomous vehicles and his book "No One at the Wheel." See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• March 25, 2019: Kevin Dugan, live in-studio, on "Earnin," a Silicon Valley-based app that definitely doesn't offer payday loans, and surely doesn't charge an interest rate! They call it "non-recourse transactions with optional tips" - that annualize to an APR of over 400%. See show notes, listen to entire show, or jump to interview.
• March 18, 2019: Nis Frome, live in-studio, on losing weight and getting fit in the digital age. See show notes, listen to the whole show, or jump to interview.
• March 4 and March 11, 2019: Fundraising shows for the 2019 marathon - the first cohosted by Pseu Braun, and the second by station manager Ken Freedman. (If you missed it, you can make a pledge here to get the 2019 Techtonic "angler fish" t-shirt, pictured on the show notes page.
• Feb 25, 2019: Tim Harford, economist and author, on using behavioral economics to kick his smartphone addiction - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes, including a link to Tim's essay about the process and his site, timharford.com. Also, Kevin Roose's essay on kicking his smartphone addiction mentioned past Techtonic guest Catherine Price. So we include a call from Catherine Price.
• Feb 18, 2019: Maxim Pozdorovkin, director, "The Truth About Killer Robots," live in-studio - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes, including a link to Maxim's movie.
• Feb 11, 2019: Matt Novak, editor of Paleofuture, on past visions of the future - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Feb 4, 2019: Prof. Susan Crawford, author of "Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution and Why American Might Miss It" - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Jan 28, 2019: Douglas Rushkoff, author of "Team Human" (and past WFMU host!) - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Jan 21, 2019: Prof. Safiya Noble, author of "Algorithms of Oppression" - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Jan 14, 2019: David Lowery, of the bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, on music in the digital age - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Jan 7, 2019: Station Manager Ken Freedman on tech in 2019, whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Dec 31, 2018: Matt Haughey on getting scammed, and reviewing the Internet in 2018 - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Dec 24, 2018: Special holiday 2018 episode - whole show, or jump to Mark's reading of Jacques Ellul. Here are show notes.
• Dec 17, 2018: Dava Whisenant, director of the outstanding documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway" about corporate musicals of the 1950s and 60s - listen to the whole show, or jump to the interview, or straight to the brilliant song My Bathroom. Here are show notes, including a link to the movie site bathtubsoverbroadway.com.
• Dec 10, 2018: Rex Sorgatz, author of "The Encyclopedia of Misinformation," live in-studio - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Dec 3, 2018: Letting go of the iPhone, a conversation with Mark's friend Brian - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Nov 26, 2018: Jonathan Tepper, author, "The Myth of Capitalism" - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Nov 19, 2018: Prof. Frank Pasquale, author of "The Black Box Society," on secret algorithms - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Nov 12, 2018: M.T. Anderson predicted the future in his novel "Feed" - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes.
• Nov 5, 2018: Journalist Ava Kofman on New York's LinkNYC kiosks - whole show, or jump to interview. Here are show notes, including her article on LinkNYC kiosks in the Intercept.
...see earlier Techtonic episodes in the WFMU archives.
A Little Slice of Tech Pie
Just two minutes (or so) each! A Little Slice of Tech Pie is Mark Hurst's weekly segment on Wake & Bake, WFMU's weekday morning show hosted by Clay Pigeon. Hear it every Monday morning at 7:35am Eastern.
• Aug 31, 2020 Tech Pie: The final Tech Pie segment, for now, focuses on the humble Rubik's Cube. (See The Speed Cubers on Netflix.)
• Aug 24, 2020 Tech Pie: Microsoft Flight Simulator has a few glitches. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4)
• Aug 17, 2020 Tech Pie: We're returning to feudalism. Joel Kotkin explains. (Source: 1)
• Aug 10, 2020 Tech Pie: Zuck lies to Congress during the recent Big Tech hearings, before his off-camera lawyers tell him to issue a retraction. (Source: 1)
• July 27, 2020 Tech Pie: Elon Musk weighs in on topics that he probably shouldn't. (Sources: 1, 2)
• July 20, 2020 Tech Pie: Twitter got hacked, and we should learn a lesson from it.
• July 13, 2020 Tech Pie: Google's LinkNYC shows how not to design tech in cities, featuring Ben Green (from the July 6 Techtonic).
• July 6, 2020 Tech Pie: An AI robot will star in an upcoming sci-fi movie. (Sources: 1, 2)
• June 29, 2020 Tech Pie: Apple's ankle bracelet will listen to your handwashing - and everything else.
• June 22, 2020 Tech Pie: Jason Fried on how to do the right thing when running a software company.
• June 15, 2020 Tech Pie: What to watch during quarantine, courtesy of the library.
• June 8, 2020 Tech Pie: OpenAI's version of Elvis has some scary lyrics. (Source: 1, 2)
• June 1, 2020 Tech Pie: Steven Levy on getting to know Mark Zuckerberg - an excerpt of our May 25 interview.
• May 25, 2020 Tech Pie: Speaking backwards like it's the 1980s, with a nod to Scott Williams.
• May 18, 2020 Tech Pie: Why we should pay attention to China, including a quote from Jathan Sadowski, author of "Too Smart." (Source: May 11 Techtonic)
• May 11, 2020 Tech Pie: Movies, and dreams, during a pandemic. (Source: May 4 Techtonic)
• April 20, 2020 Tech Pie: Researchers find that deleting Facebook makes people "more content". (Sources: 1, 2)
• April 13, 2020 Tech Pie: Health surveillance is full of potential for abuse. (Source: 1)
• April 6, 2020 Tech Pie: The class of 2020 won't have an in-person graduation, so students are building virtual models of their schools. (Sources: 1, 2)
• March 30, 2020 Tech Pie: News of a videogame wedding, rather than two irritating stories. (Sources: FBI app, Zoom app, wedding)
• March 24, 2020 Tech Pie: Sicilians are playing music together from their balconies. (Source: 1)
• March 9, 2020 Tech Pie: Coronavirus resources. (Sources: covidfaq.org and Johns Hopkins Corona tracker. See also this Corona FAQ on Medium, the NYT's Corona resources, and NBC's Corona updates.)
• March 2, 2020 Tech Pie: Stephen King, Mark Hamill, and Elon Musk agree - it's time to deletefacebook.com. (Sources: Hamill, King, Musk)
• February 17, 2020 Tech Pie: Elections and digital tech: be very skeptical.
• February 10, 2020 Tech Pie: A man, a wagon, and 99 smartphones outsmarted Google Maps.
• February 3, 2020 Tech Pie: Solving the mystery of the creepily accurate Facebook ad (done without listening in via microphone).
• January 27, 2020 Tech Pie: Responding to Matt Warwick's comment about surveillance devices.
• January 20, 2020 Tech Pie: Get ready for digital alerts... from your clothing. (Source: 1)
• January 13, 2020 Tech Pie: Why tractors from 1979 are in high demand. (Source: 1)
• January 6, 2020 Tech Pie: Drones, toilet paper, and a mystery in the Colorado night skies. (Sources: 1, 2)
• December 30, 2019 Tech Pie: Be careful around distracted drivers during the holidays.
• December 16, 2019 Tech Pie: Toys 'R' Us is back. Kids beware.
• December 9, 2019 Tech Pie: A warning about "smart" TVs comes from an unusual source.
• December 2, 2019 Tech Pie: Uber plans to record all audio in its cars.
• November 25, 2019 Tech Pie: Safety tips for iZombies.
• November 11, 2019 Tech Pie: Google wants to buy Fitbit, and that's not a good thing.
• November 4, 2019 Tech Pie: The nationwide scam on AirBNB.
• October 28, 2019 Tech Pie: Japanese pop star is stalked via her selfie; you're stalked via the Amazon Ring video doorbell.
• October 21, 2019 Tech Pie: Apple is about to release a "head-mounted augmented reality device," joining Amazon and Facebook in creating a new zombie invasion.
• October 14, 2019 Tech Pie: The Pew Research question: do you know who owns popular apps?
• October 7, 2019 Tech Pie: Why you should stay away from e-scooters.
• September 30, 2019 Tech Pie: CTRL-labs and its "neural interface" just got bought.
• September 23, 2019 Tech Pie: Permanent aerial surveillance: pretty soon you'll be tracked from the sky, every time you leave the house. (Quote from my Sept 9 interview with Arthur Holland Michel.)
• September 9, 2019 Tech Pie: Elon Musk's misconceptions about AI, delivered in China.
• August 26, 2019 Tech Pie: With 10,000 new pieces of spacejunk, what if they collide?
• August 12, 2019 Tech Pie: Facebook's mind-reading helmet is here. (The 50th Tech Pie segment!)
• August 5, 2019 Tech Pie: Researchers in China are creating human-monkey hybrids.
• July 29, 2019 Tech Pie: Internet connected diapers aren't really "smart".
• July 15, 2019 Tech Pie: How smartphone usage may be changing our bone structure (as reported by the Washington Post, though Snopes.com and PBS dispute the claim).
• June 24, 2019 Tech Pie: WFMU is superior to Spotify, and Damon Krukowski explains why.
• June 17, 2019 Tech Pie: How to do nothing: put down the phone and take a deep breath.
• June 10, 2019 Tech Pie: Revisiting a prediction for 2019: let's hear it for the Department of Justice!
• June 3, 2019 Tech Pie: Where "flat earthers" come from: Google/YouTube's toxic algorithm and a lack of science education.
• May 20, 2019 Tech Pie: Google is trying to redefine the word "privacy".
• May 13, 2019 Tech Pie: Chris Hughes, cofounder of Facebook, warns against Facebook - and he's not alone.
• May 6, 2019 Tech Pie: "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz describes how self-driving cars will change dating (among other things).
• Apr 29, 2019 Tech Pie: Five tips for a better digital life.
• Apr 22, 2019 Tech Pie: Tech is appearing in the night sky.
• Apr 15, 2019 Tech Pie: Why Uber and Lyft don't pay benefits to their drivers.
• Apr 8, 2019 Tech Pie: Hidden cameras in AirBnBs, Korean hotels, and now in hospital operating rooms.
• Apr 1, 2019 Tech Pie: Driving with Waze? Google might try to manipulate the directions.
• Mar 25, 2019 Tech Pie: From addiction to sugary foods to... addiction to a fitness app?
• Mar 18, 2019 Tech Pie: Replacing Facebook with positive, real-world activities (feat. Tim Harford).
• Feb 25, 2019 Tech Pie: Playing dumb: Facebook, Amazon, and Google act surprised when their creepy plans come to light.
• Feb 18, 2019 Tech Pie: Amazon Nest surveillance device gets hacked.
• Feb 4, 2019 Tech Pie: Facebook encourages "friendly fraud".
• Jan 28, 2019 Tech Pie: DNA testing services aren't as accurate as you might think.
• Jan 21, 2019 Tech Pie: AirBNB hosts and secret cameras.
• Jan 14, 2019 Tech Pie: Amazon Ring cameras and what "smart" gadgets really do.
• Jan 7, 2019 Tech Pie: Facebook and mind control via the WAND.
• Dec 31, 2018 Tech Pie: Why you have to click all the stoplights and storefronts to "prove you're not a robot".
• Dec 24, 2018 Tech Pie: Holiday anti-gift guide.
• Dec 10, 2018 Tech Pie: Amazon's deceptive baby registry.
• Dec 3, 2018 Tech Pie: How Silicon Valley ruined thermometers.
• Nov 19, 2018 Tech Pie: Amazon HQ2 demands billions of dollars from New Yorkers.
• Nov 12, 2018 Tech Pie: LinkNYC kiosks in New York have hidden cameras... and a hidden owner.
Media
• Frequency and Amplitude, The FM dial: Woke-hop, left factions, freeform, free jazz and more (September 2020): "On issues of technology/surveillance, and their intersection with capitalism, Techtonic is one of the most informative shows on the radio."
• The Culture Crush, Interview with Tech Humanist Mark Hurst (February 2020): "For my show . . . I can say what I think and what I believe about technology." (Quoted also in No Way Out, by Elizabeth Skolnick, in the same issue.)
• Ali Winston, investigative reporter, Aug 27, 2019: "Despite NYC lagging behind West Coast cities on debating/regulating surveillance technologies & privacy issues, the city still has a phenomenal weekly radio show devoted to the subject. Listen to Techtonic on WFMU, hosted by Mark Hurst."
• Kevin Dugan, New York Post reporter, Feb 23, 2019: "MARK HURST IS THE BEST. His show on WFMU - the world's greatest radio station - is the only one I'm aware of engaging in real conversations about the problems with technology, the interests of Silicon Valley, and how it's affecting us all. He's been doing this for YEARS. follow him."
• Douglas Rushkoff, author and host of Team Human, Feb 1, 2019: "Tech humanist Mark Hurst interviewed me for his Techtonic podcast and radio show. He was one of the first to argue for a more appropriate engagement with our tech."