Crashed

Welcome to Crashed, the tech podcast about everything else. Today, that means the myth of journalism collapsing, the myth of politicians being anywhere near up-to-date with anything, and the myth that data centers are fineWe’re currently in the web traffic apocalypse, the jobpocalypse, the quantum apocalypse, and the wars on many fronts actual apocalypse, with the media collapsing, trust in democracy collapsing, and journalists only being trusted more than estate agents.Can journalism be saved? And, given there are over twice as many journalists than in the 1970s, is the media industry just panicking over nothing? We're joined by the fabulous Sophia Smith Galer (https://www.instagram.com/sophiasgaler/?hl=en) to discuss where journalism might go next.

Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker are joined by journalist Ellen Scott to talk about the so-called “jobpocalypse” caused by AI and how the workforce is changing. Alex and Chris also cover how encryption has become a dirty word at Meta and just what a Cold War between the US and China looks like in the new age of AI.Follow Ellen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellencscott/?hl=en Subscribe to her Substack: https://workingonpurposenewsletter.substack.com/ Buy her book: https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780349443980/working-on-purpose

Is social media a good thing or a bad thing? Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker and guest tech journalist Taylor Lorenz get into the details of mental health, online censorship. algorithmic overreach, and just what Pivot's Scott Galloway says about it all. Follow Taylor on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/taylorlorenz

Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker interview financial psychology expert and journalist Hanna Horvath about the ‘tierification of everything”, discuss how airport lounges could be a metaphor for the downfall of the whole global economy, report from on the ground in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and try to work out if a robot is fighting someone but nobody is around to watch it, is it really a fight? Follow Hanna on Substack: Your Brain On Money

Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker are joined by academic Dr. Robert Topinka to discuss why the Right is so much better at the internet than the left, why AI could beckon the downfall of the British government, how social media is beckoning the downfall of democracy, and the internet beckoning the downfall of liberal thought… until the fightback.

Everything online feels a little bit off. Whether it’s deepfakes, the great meme-reset, or analogue communities posting about it on Instagram, presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker try to get to the bottom of what’s wrong with the internet. Also, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that deepfakes are to be thought of as the same category of crime as terrorism, and we discuss that viral essay comparing COVID-19 to the AI revolution that everybody, maybe literally everybody, has read.

Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker try to work out how addictive social media (and doomscrolling) really is, try to understand how Airbnb bookings keep going up despite governments trying to shut them down, and a couple of exclusives about the BBC and just how bad Chris's WiFi is.

Presenters Alex Hudson and Chris Stokel-Walker try to understand why Barnsley has been picked as the UK’s first Tech Town (spoiler: it’s a Reform target seat, so Alex thinks it might have something to do with it). They speak to Barnsley council leader Sir Stephen Houghton. Also… campaigner, performer, and all-around titan Paulita Pappel talks about tech innovations, censorship, and the patriarchy’s role in the adult industry.Follow Paulita here: https://www.paulitapappel.com/Finally, they discuss Elon Musk's plan to get one million satellites in orbit, and start a fight with students about the role of AI in media.