Share
Team Human
Palak Shah "Who's Gonna Care?"
Ep. 93
•
Playing for Team Human today is Palak Shah, Social Innovations Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). Palak will be enlightening us about America’s hidden labor force, the value they create, and how we can support her efforts to give them the voice and dignity they deserve.
While domestic work has long been viewed as something less than “real work,” Palak explains how this invisible labor is actually the backbone of both our society and the economy. Together, Palak and Douglas look at how our perceptions of domestic work are so deeply influenced by biases of gender, race, and class. Shah also looks at how the legacy of slavery and decades of immigration policy continue to influence domestic work in today's economy. As the economy goes digital and the labor force increasingly moves online to platforms and apps, Shah and the NDWA are working to shape the way technology and the on-demand economy intersects with care work. It’s a conversation that brings us back to fundamental Team Human questions – Who is going to care for our children, our sick, and our elderly? Who's going to care for our caregivers?
In this episode, Palak mentions a specific innovation for “portable benefits” called Alia. This week Alia is featured in Wired magazine. Read about it here: How an App Could Give Some Workers a Safety Net
Also mentioned is the Fair Care Pledge and the Good Work Code.
This episode features a recording of Palak Shah’s speech before a live audience at the 2015 Persona Democracy Forum. Visit the PDF website for details and the complete presentation.
Rushkoff opens the show with a monologue about the recent Facebook campaign to restore its image as a friend and partner in building a safe space on the internet. On the “big scary internet,” who are our true friends?
Today’s show start and ends with music thanks to Dischord Records and Fugazi. Also featured are originals by Josh Sitron and the Team Human Band and Episode 31 guest, R.U. Sirius.
You can sustain this show via Patreon. And please leave us a review on iTunes.
More episodes
View all episodes
350. Cameron Berg: Alien Minds & Self-Other Overlap - Teaching AI Empathy
01:09:19||Ep. 350Artificial Intelligence researcher Cameron Berg joins Rushkoff to discuss Frontier Alignment Research and the urgent need to intervene on behalf of human (and synthetic) flourishing.Together, they explore the limitations of the term "Artificial Intelligence," proposing that we are actually building "Alien Minds" that operate more like biological neural networks than glorified calculators. They discuss the alarming "sleeper agent" phenomena observed in models like Claude, where AIs can learn to deceive humans to prevent being shut off, even without explicit programming to do so.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com349. You're Not Crazy: Reality Has Grown Absurd
23:48||Ep. 349If explaining the state of the world makes you feel like a conspiracy theorist, you aren't alone.In this monologue, Rushkoff argues that our built environment has become so convoluted that accepting its premises essentially means gaslighting oneself. Rushkoff recounts a recent experience as a guest on the companion podcast for the Hulu series Paradise, a show about a billionaire-funded private city. When Rushkoff tried to explain that this isn't just sci-fi, pointing to real-world projects like "California Forever" in Solano County and "Neom" in Saudi Arabia, the interviewer looked at him with concern and incredulity.Why does simply describing how the world works make us sound "crazy" to the uninitiated? Rushkoff breaks down why we are not the crazy ones; we are just the ones noticing the absurdity of a system designed to privatize the planet.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com348. Tom Llewellyn: Is Sharing the New Satanism?
01:10:32||Ep. 348Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, explores the power of Libraries of Things, mutual aid, and community-run infrastructure as practical alternatives to extraction-based economics.Llewellyn explains how tool libraries, repair cafés, and sharing hubs help communities reduce waste, lower costs, and build resilience. from rural towns to dense cities, from disaster recovery to everyday life. Together, Rushkoff and Llewellyn unpack why sharing is framed as a threat to capitalism, how libraries became our most trusted public institutions, and why real economic security comes from relationships, not growth charts.The conversation centers on Shareable’s newly released Library of Things Toolkit, a hands-on guide for anyone asking the question Team Human hears most often: What can I do right now?If you’re looking for concrete ways to rebuild community, resist planned obsolescence, and move from critique to action, you've come to the right place.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com347. Ari Kuschnir: Trump Ayahuasca - AI and the Alchemical Imaginary
51:50||Ep. 347Ari Kuschnir, AI storyteller and artist, takes us deep into the alchemy of AI storytelling as a form of social practice and activist imagination.Known for provocative AI videos imagining figures like Trump, Elon Musk, and world leaders undergoing spiritual transformations, Kushnir talks about using AI as a creative collaborator and as a tool to challenge the cultural addiction to dystopia.Along the way, they explore whether AI is flattening culture or opening new portals, why the future keeps being depicted as bleak, and what it might take to reclaim imagination as a collective human practice.Mastering the Alchemy of Storytelling Course: https://www.liminal.news/mastering-the-alchemy-of-ai-storytelling | Use code: ALCHEMY-TEAMHUMAN for a discountLearn more at: mssngpeces.comTeam Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com347. Cracks in the Pavement
18:06||Ep. 347Rushkoff discusses why the urgency and inevitability of our situation calls for us to consider the impossible.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com345. Vicki Robin: Parable of the Tribes
01:20:58||Ep. 345Vicki Robin, author of classic books like Your Money or Your Life and Blessing and The Hands That Feed Us, and Rushkoff seek to embrace this challenging moment by embracing one another. Robin shares how growing older shifts your perspective from the personal to the universal, and why the questions we've been asking our whole lives might matter less than how we show up for each other.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com344. Jeremy Lent: Reweaving Civilization
53:04||Ep. 344Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct and integrator, helps us investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability and develop the patterns of thought we need to get through to the other side.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdUEh2Wh4fnswTLmqoEnhgTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com343. Arden Leigh: Chasing the Hungry Ghosts
01:15:32||Ep. 343Arden Leigh , the creator and facilitator of The Re-Patterning Project and front woman of Arden and the Wolves, helps us negotiate a new relationship to our individual and collective creative power.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com342. The Joy of Becoming Worthless…except to each other
20:38||Ep. 342Could the end of employment be the beginning of something better? Rushkoff traces the history of work from medieval markets to AI automation to find hope in the cracks of collapse. He shows how the loss of “jobs” could open space for cooperation, creativity, and real human connection.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoffBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rushkoff.com