Podcast – Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

This week on my podcast, I read Why businesses lie about AI, a recent essay from my Pluralistic newsletter that breaks down Nikhil Suresh’s essay describing the total absence of any proof that any business is benefiting from AI deployment. One person who’s had a lot of opportunity to observe the shear between the stated... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/08/09/why-businesses-lie-about-ai/" class="more-link" title="Read Why businesses lie about AI">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Post-political, a recent essay from my Pluralistic newsletter, about the material, irreconcilable differences between leftism and other political beliefs. But when it comes to a “post-politics that is neither right nor left,” the definition I turn to most often comes from science fiction writer Steven Brust, who once... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/07/26/post-political/" class="more-link" title="Read Post-political">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, Hell Is Other People, about the solipsistic fantasy underpinning the AI bubble. Sartre was (arguably) an optimist. It’s not that other people are unpleasant: quite the contrary! There’s nothing that makes the day (or, pointedly, the night) sweeter than agree­able human companionship. And... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/07/12/12659/" class="more-link" title="Read Hell Is Other People">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Zuckerberg’s increasingly bizarre war on whistleblowers, about Mark Zuckerberg’s campaign of terror against the whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams. More than a decade ago, a group of young, internet-connected Belarusian dissidents launched a series of increasingly high-stakes, increasingly surreal confrontations with the corrupt, authoritarian government of Alexander Lukashenka, a man... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/07/05/test/" class="more-link" title="Read Zuckerberg’s increasingly bizarre war on whistleblowers">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, audio from Sunday’s launch in Menlo Park for The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI at Kepler’s Books with Angie Coiro. Catch me next tonight in Toronto at Osler Records, tomorrow in NYC with Jonathan Coulton at The Strand, Thursday in Philly with David Williams and Friday in Chicago... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/06/23/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-launch-at-keplers-books-with-angie-coiro/" class="more-link" title="Read The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI launch at Kepler’s Books with Angie Coiro">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read a recent post from my Pluralistic newsletter, “The World Has Moved On,” which analogizes Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to the Enshittification hypothesis. In the Dark Tower novels, we crisscross a fallen world in which decay is all around us. The buildings are rotten, the machines have stopped... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/06/14/the-world-has-moved-on/" class="more-link" title="Read The world has moved on">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, “The Age of Vapor,” about the role science fiction imaginaires plays in fueling high-tech investment bubbles. It’s one thing to make everything about imaginary technology when you’re writing SF. The point of those imaginative exercises is to illumi­nate: To provoke reflection on our... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/06/07/the-age-of-vapor/" class="more-link" title="Read The age of vapor">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read AI and a world without migrants, a recent essay from my Pluralistic blog, which psychoanalyzes the sociopathic fantasies that are driving the AI investment bubble. I don’t care who you are, there will always be times when hell is other people. Not because other people are horrible –... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/05/31/ai-and-a-world-without-migrants/" class="more-link" title="Read AI and a world without migrants">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I present an hour-long excerpt from the audiobook for The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, which is currently on pre-order through my latest Kickstarter campaign: A short, provocative guide to what’s good, bad, and stupid about AI and the discourse around AI, by the author of Enshittification. In... <a href="https://craphound.com/podcast/2026/05/17/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/" class="more-link" title="Read The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Comrade Trump, a recent column from my Pluralistic newsletter, which will be syndicated in The Nerve. All of which means that my experience of the Trump years is decidedly weird. On the one hand, I exist in a near-perpetual state of anxious misery, as Trump and his chud... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/05/03/comrade-trump/" class="more-link" title="Read Comrade Trump">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Not Normal, my latest Locus Magazine column, about the surreal and terrible world we’ve been eased into thanks to anti-circumvention laws. If you were paying attention in 1998, you could see what was coming. Computers were getting much cheaper, and much smaller. From cars to toast­ers, from speakers... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/04/05/not-normal/" class="more-link" title="Read Not Normal">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read All laws are local a recent post from my Pluralistic.net blog, about the ephemerality of our seeming eternal verities. In other words, things that seem eternal and innate to the human condition to you are apt to have been invented ten minutes before you started to notice the... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/02/08/all-laws-are-local/" class="more-link" title="Read All laws are local">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read “Threads’ margin is the Eurostack’s opportunity,” a recent post from my Pluralistic.net blog, about the tactics that digital sovereignty advocates can deploy to counter Meta’s (further) enshittification of Threads. The funny thing is, the OG App creators were just following the Facebook playbook. When Facebook opened up to... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/02/01/threads-margin-is-the-eurostacks-opportunity/" class="more-link" title="Read Threads’ margin is the Eurostack’s opportunity">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read “Code is a liability (not an asset),” a recent post from my Pluralistic.net blog, about the bad ideas behind the drive to replace programmers with chatbots. Code is a liability. Code’s capabilities are assets. The goal of a tech shop is to have code whose capabilities generate more... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/01/19/code-is-a-liability-not-an-asset/" class="more-link" title="Read Code is a liability (not an asset)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I play the audio from (Digital) Elbows Up: How Canada Can Become a Nation of Jailbreakers, Reclaim Our Digital Sovereignty, Win the Trade-War, and Disenshittify Our Technology, a speech I delivered on November 27, 2025 at OCADU in Toronto, Canada (video here, transcript here). I recognize that this is all... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/01/12/digital-elbows-up-ocadu-november-27-2025/" class="more-link" title="Read (Digital) Elbows Up (OCADU, November 27, 2025)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I play the audio from A post-American, enshittification-resistant internet, a speech I delivered on December 28, 2025 at 39C3, the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Germany (video here, transcript here). Trump has staged an unscheduled, midair rapid disassembly of the global system of trade. Ironically, it is this system that... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2026/01/01/the-post-american-internet-39c3-hamburg-dec-28/" class="more-link" title="Read The Post-American Internet (39C3, Hamburg, Dec 28)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I sit down with my daughter Poesy, for our annual Daddy-Daughter Podcast, a tradition we’ve had since she was three (she’s 17 now!). This year, Poe recaps her graduation, her triumphs with her dance team, and her life at college! She offers us a tutorial on playing Egyptian War, and... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2025/12/14/daddy-daughter-podcast-2025-edition/" class="more-link" title="Read Daddy-Daughter Podcast, 2025 Edition">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, “Show Me the Incentive, I’ll Show You the Outcome,” about the process by which we ended up with an enshittogenic policy environment: The whole point of the conservative project is to take away choices, and corral us into “preferences” that we disprefer. Eliminate... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2025/11/23/show-me-the-incentive-ill-show-you-the-outcome/" class="more-link" title="Read Show Me the Incentive, I’ll Show You the Outcome">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I’ve got the audio from last week’s Enshittification book-tour event with Ed Zitron and Whitney Betran at the Seattle Public Library (you can watch the video here). I’ve got many more cities to go on the tour – I hope to see you at one (or more) of them! MP3

This week on my podcast, I’ve got the audio from last week’s Enshittification book-tour event with former FTC Chair Lina Khan at the Brooklyn Public Library (you can watch the video here). lI’ve got 24 more cities to go on the tour – I hope to see you at one (or more) of them! MP3

The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh This week on my podcast, I read “The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh,” a recent column from my Pluralistic newsletter; about the looming economic crisis threatened by the AI investment bubble: A week ago, I turned that book into a speech, which I delivered as the annual... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2025/10/06/the-real-economic-ai-apocalypse-is-nigh/" class="more-link" title="Read The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read “By all means, tread on those people,” a recent column from my Pluralistic newsletter; about the way that the American descent in fascism is connected to its abandonment of the rule of law more broadly: Just as Martin Niemöller’s “First They Came” has become our framework for understanding... <a href="https://craphound.com/podcast/2025/09/07/by-all-means-tread-on-those-people/" class="more-link" title="Read By all means, tread on those people">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

It’s the 500th edition of my podcast, and to celebrate, I’m bringing you an hour-long excerpt from the audiobook of my forthcoming book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It (Farrar, Straus and Giroux US/Canada; Verso UK/Commonwealth). Because Amazon won’t carry my audiobooks (or any DRM-free audiobooks), I have to... <a href="https://craphound.com/podcast/2025/08/28/enshittification-episode-500/" class="more-link" title="Read Enshittification (episode 500!)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I conclude my reading of my 2003 Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine story, Nimby and the D-Hoppers” (here’s the first half). The story has been widely reprinted (it was first published online in The Infinite Matrix in 2008), and was translated (by Elisabeth Vonarburg) into French for Solaris Magazine, as well... <a href="https://craphound.com/stories/2025/04/13/nimby-and-the-d-hoppers-conclusion/" class="more-link" title="Read Nimby and the D-Hoppers CONCLUSION">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I once again read my 2003 Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine story, Nimby and the D-Hoppers” The story has been widely reprinted (it was first published online in The Infinite Matrix in 2008), and was translated (by Elisabeth Vonarburg) into French for Solaris Magazine, as well as into Chinese, Russian, Hebrew,... <a href="https://craphound.com/stories/2025/04/06/nimby-and-the-d-hoppers-2/" class="more-link" title="Read Nimby and the D-Hoppers">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Why I don’t like AI art, a column from last week’s Pluralistic newsletter: Which brings me to art. As a working artist in his third decade of professional life, I’ve concluded that the point of art is to take a big, numinous, irreducible feeling that fills the artist’s... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2025/03/30/why-i-dont-like-ai-art/" class="more-link" title="Read Why I don’t like AI art">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, “There Were Always Enshittifiers,” about the historical context for my latest novel, Picks and Shovels: It used to be a much fairer fight. It used to be that if a com­pany figured out how to block copying its floppies, another company – or... <a href="https://craphound.com/novels/redteamblues/2025/03/23/there-were-always-enshittifiers/" class="more-link" title="Read There were always enshittifiers">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

Last night, I traveled to Toronto to deliver the annual Ursula Franklin Lecture at the University of Toronto’s Innis College. The lecture was called “With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It.” It’s the latest major speech in my series of talks on the subject,... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2025/02/26/with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshittification-conquered-the-21st-century-and-how-we-can-overthrow-it/" class="more-link" title="Read With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I bring you the audio from yesterday’s Jacobin virtual book launch for my book Picks and Shovels, with Yanis Varoufakis, hosted by David Moscrop. You have until Monday night to order personalized, signed copies of the book from Los Angeles’s Secret Headquarters (I’m dropping by the warehouse to sign them... <a href="https://craphound.com/novels/redteamblues/2025/02/16/picks-and-shovels-virtual-launch-with-yanis-varoufakis-and-david-moscrop-presented-by-jacobin/" class="more-link" title="Read Picks and Shovels virtual launch with Yanis Varoufakis and David Moscrop, presented by Jacobin">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing, a recent post from my Pluralistic newsletter. MLMs prey on the poor and desperate: women, people of color, people in dying small towns and decaying rustbelt cities. It’s not just that these people are desperate – it’s that they only... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/02/09/mlms-are-the-mirror-world-version-of-community-organizing/" class="more-link" title="Read MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Canada shouldn’t retaliate with US tariffs, a recent post from my Pluralistic newsletter. But you know what Canada could make? A Canadian App Store. That’s a store that Canadian software authors could use to sell Canadian apps to Canadian customers, charging, say, the standard payment processing fee of... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/02/02/canada-shouldnt-retaliate-with-us-tariffs/" class="more-link" title="Read Canada shouldn’t retaliate with US tariffs">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I’m reading “The Weight of a Feather (The Weight of a Heart),” my short story in Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions, commissioned by J. Michael Straczynski. Margaret came into my office, breaking my unproductive clicktrance. She looked sheepish. “I got given one of those robots that follows you around,”... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/01/26/the-weight-of-a-feather-the-weight-of-a-heart/" class="more-link" title="Read The Weight of a Feather (The Weight of a Heart)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I’m reading “Enshittification isn’t caused by venture capital,” the latest post from my Pluralistic.net blog. It’s about the new “Free Our Feeds” project and why I think the existence of Mastodon doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to making Bluesky as free as possible. When tech critics fail to ask... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/01/20/enshittification-isnt-caused-by-venture-capital/" class="more-link" title="Read Enshittification isn’t caused by venture capital">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I’ve got Wil Wheaton reading the first chapter of the audiobook of Picks and Shovels, the next Martin Hench novel, which is out next month. Please consider supporting my work by pre-ordering the book as a hardcover, DRM-free ebook, or DRM-free audiobook in my Kickstarter! The year is 1986. The... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/01/10/picks-and-shovels-chapter-one/" class="more-link" title="Read Picks and Shovels Chapter One">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, it’s our annual Daddy-Daughter Podcast, a tradition since 2012! The kid’s sixteen now, a senior in high school and getting ready to head off to university next year, so this may well be the final installment in the series. Here are the previous year’s installments: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017,... <a href="https://craphound.com/overclocked/2024/12/17/daddy-daughter-podcast-2024/" class="more-link" title="Read Daddy-Daughter Podcast 2024">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read the sixth and final installment of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. Spill will be reprinted in Allen Kaster’s 2025 Year’s Best SF... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/12/08/spill-part-six-finale-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part six (FINALE) (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read part five of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. I didn’t plan to go to Oklahoma, but I went to Oklahoma. My day... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/12/01/spill-part-five-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part five (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read part four of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. I didn’t plan to go to Oklahoma, but I went to Oklahoma. My day... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/28/spill-part-four-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part four (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read part three of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. I didn’t plan to go to Oklahoma, but I went to Oklahoma. My day... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/26/spill-part-three-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part three (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read part two of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. I didn’t plan to go to Oklahoma, but I went to Oklahoma. My day... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/26/spill-part-two-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part two (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read part one of “Spill“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Clay F Carlson and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. Doctors smoke. Driving instructors text and drive. Dentists eat sugary snacks before bed. And... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Spill, part one (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read “Vigilant“, a new Little Brother story commissioned by Nelda Buckman and published on Reactor, the online publication of Tor Books. Also available in DRM-free ebook form as a Tor Original. Kids hate email. Dee got my number from his older brother, who got it from Tina, my sister-in-law,... <a href="https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/09/29/vigilant-a-little-brother-story/" class="more-link" title="Read Vigilant (a Little Brother story)">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Pluralistic.net column, “Anti-cheat, gamers, and the Crowdstrike disaster” about the way that gamers were sucked into the coalition to defend trusted computing, and how the Crowdstrike disaster has seen them ejected from the coalition by Microsoft: As a class, gamers *hate* digital rights management (DRM), the... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/09/15/anti-cheat-gamers-and-the-crowdstrike-disaster/" class="more-link" title="Read Anti-cheat, gamers, and the Crowdstrike disaster">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, “Marshmallow Longtermism” a reflection on how conservatives self-mythologize as the standards-bearers for deferred gratification and making hard trade-offs, but are utterly lacking in these traits when it comes to climate change and inequality. I’m no fan of Charles Koch, but I agree that... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/09/08/marshmallow-longtermism/" class="more-link" title="Read Marshmallow Longtermism">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read a recent post from my Pluralistic.net blog/newsletter: “AI’s productivity theater,” about the severe mismatch between the bosses who buy AI to increase their workers’ efficiency, and the utter bafflement of the workers who are expected to use the AI…somehow. A new research report from the Upwork Research Institute... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/08/04/ais-productivity-theater/" class="more-link" title="Read AI’s productivity theater">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Locus Magazine column, Unpersoned>; about the enormous power that we’ve given to tech giants to determine who can participate in modern life, and why the answer to the giants’ failure to wield that power wisely is to take it away, rather than attempting to perfect their... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/07/29/unpersoned/" class="more-link" title="Read Unpersoned">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read The reason you can’t buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you, a column from one of last week’s editions of my Pluralistic newsletter; it describes a monopoly pattern whereby companies execute a series of mergers to dominate a sector, leaving... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/06/30/the-reason-you-cant-buy-a-car-is-the-same-reason-that-your-health-insurer-let-hackers-dox-you/" class="more-link" title="Read The reason you can’t buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read my Microsoft DRM talk, first delivered 20 years and one day ago in Redmond, Washington. It was a viral hit in the nascent blogosphere and became a defining document in the fight against DRM. Greetings fellow pirates! Arrrrr! I’m here today to talk to you about copyright, technology... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/06/16/my-2004-microsoft-drm-talk/" class="more-link" title="Read My 2004 Microsoft DRM Talk">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

This week on my podcast, I read Against Lore, a recent piece from my Pluralistic blog/newsletter, about writing and the benefits of nebulously defined backstories. Warning: the last few minutes of this essay contain spoilers for Furiosa. In the recording, I give lots of warning so you can switch off when they come up. One... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/06/02/against-lore/" class="more-link" title="Read Against Lore">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>

Today for my podcast, I read Wanna Make Big Tech Monopolies Even Worse? Kill Section 230, my EFF Deeplinks Blog post on the competition aspects of sunsetting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act: In an age of resurgent anti-monopoly activism, small online communities, either standing on their own, or joined in loose “federations,” are... <a href="https://craphound.com/news/2024/05/26/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230/" class="more-link" title="Read Wanna Make Big Tech Monopolies Even Worse? Kill Section 230">more <i class="fa fa-chevron-right"></i></a>