System Crash
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.
System Crash
The Great Crypto Conquest of 2024 ft. Molly White
Brian Merchant and Paris Marx are back with the very first guest of System Crash: Molly White! With Molly’s help, we walk through the biggest stories in the crypto world. We explore the resurgence of crypto, how its backers influenced the election and won Trump’s favor, what the crypto industry wants from the incoming administration—and how it plans to wield power.
Mentioned this week:
- Molly White is the creator of Web3 is going just great and Follow the Crypto.
- Paris wrote about the return of self-driving hype and its relationship to the broader AI bubble.
- Molly was part of a complaint alleging Coinbase violated campaign finance laws.
- Brian wrote about Luigi Mangione and how the rise in violent politically coded acts reflects a growing despair over failing institutions.
- The Hawk Tuah girl launched a memecoin and (unsurprisingly) seems to have done a rug pull.
- OpenAI launched a $200 ChatGPT subscription and claimed to make its Sora video generator public, but many people couldn’t actually access it.
- GM has pulled the plug on its Cruise robotaxi and self-driving division after spending nearly $10 billion on it.
Theme music is “Dystopia” by YACHT. Production is by Eric Wickham.
