The Peter McCormack Show

Johann Hari is an internationally bestselling author and journalist whose work - including Stolen Focus, Lost Connections, and Chasing the Scream - delves into the structural and societal drivers behind attention collapse, depression, anxiety, and addiction. Moving beyond individual blame, he explores how digital architecture, surveillance capitalism and the erosion of human connection are actively reshaping modern minds.Johann and I discuss why material progress has failed to deliver psychological fulfilment, how our 19th-century factory-model education system deadens curiosity in children, and why depriving youth of unsupervised, risky play has fuelled a global spike in anxiety.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The Kind Are Muffled, The Cruel Get A Megaphone00:05:31 - The Room In Monaco00:08:52 - AI Is Like Fire00:18:35 - The School With No Lessons00:28:12 - Am I Preparing My Kids Wrong?00:32:03 - The Hewlett Packard Experiment00:40:11 - Flair, Football And Changing The Game00:45:11 - Negativity Bias On Steroids00:49:15 - Dance To The Algorithm Long Enough00:55:03 - We're Building A Worse World For Our Kids01:02:30 - Lead Made Us Dumber01:11:17 - Half Of Britain Used To Smoke01:18:30 - It Would Have Sounded Like Science Fiction01:29:03 - We Built A Fort01:38:45 - Oasis 1995 vs Elton John 201901:44:28 - I Know Exactly How To Get To 5 Million01:56:59 - Let's Not Murder Each Other02:07:14 - The Thing I Suppressed02:15:39 - Almost Every Rich Person I've Met Is Miserable02:25:16 - It's A Wonderful Life- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH JOHANN HARI› Website – https://johannhari.com/› Stolen Focus – https://stolenfocusbook.com/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/johannhari101SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Venice – https://venice.ai/› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ann Pettifor is a world-renowned political economist, author of The Production of Money, and former director of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which successfully mobilised millions to cancel over $100 billion in sovereign debt for developing nations. Correctly predicting the 2008 Great Financial Crisis in her 2006 book The Coming First World Debt Crisis, she has spent decades exposing how unregulated global finance, central bank printing and Wall Street speculation starve the real economy of productive investment.Ann and I discuss how a grassroots army of ordinary citizens forced Gordon Brown and Tony Blair to cancel third-world debt, the reality of commercial and central bank money creation and how Richard Nixon’s 1971 decision to sever the dollar from gold handed total economic control to global financial markets.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - They Are Never Going To Repay00:01:22 - How To Cancel $100 Billion Of Debt00:06:50 - Germany Had Its Debt Cancelled In 195300:10:12 - Arms Dealers, Dictators And Guarantees00:13:40 - Creditors Love An Empty Balance Sheet00:16:42 - Where Money Actually Comes From00:17:30 - We Entered The Number Into A Computer00:19:24 - Debt Is A Function Of A Weak Economy00:24:04 - Why Everyone Is Angry At The Same Time00:26:02 - The Queen Asked Why Nobody Predicted It00:30:11 - The Next Crisis Is Imminent00:33:37 - Private Credit And The South Sea Bubble00:37:15 - What Happened In 197100:43:15 - The Bankers Who Expected Prison00:49:49 - The Strongman Takes Them To War00:51:45 - I'd Nationalise Thames Water Tomorrow00:57:05 - Who Inflation Targets Actually Protect01:03:00 - The State Invented The iPhone01:09:22 - Nationalism And Patriotism Are Not The Same01:13:16 - Why She Still Has Hope- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH ANN PETTIFOR› Website – https://annpettifor.com/› System Change Substack – https://annpettifor.substack.com/› PRIME Economics – https://primeeconomics.org/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/AnnPettiforSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Venice – https://venice.ai/› Quo – https://quo.com/pete› Expat Money – https://expatmoney.com/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Eric Kaufmann spent over two decades as a professor of politics studying demography, identity, and voting behaviour before leaving Birkbeck College to launch the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. He argues that Western universities have abandoned analytical rigor and truth-seeking in favour of "cultural socialism" - an ideology prioritising equal outcomes and emotional harm protection for marginalised groups above standards, reason, and merit. Eric and I discuss the Jason Day scandal at Cambridge as the tip of a massive institutional iceberg, an AI-driven meta-analysis showing that 90% of political social science papers now slant to the left, and how 80% of young Britons have been taught critical race and gender concepts at school without counterarguments. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Introduction00:05:18 - Is Fake Science In Academia A Scam?00:08:08 - The Media Storm & Media Ethics00:12:43 - What Universities Are Hiding00:16:18 - 90% Left-Wing Bias In Research00:20:12 - Do Parents Know What Kids Learn?00:23:18 - Indoctrination In British Classrooms00:26:44 - The Origins Of Critical Race Theory00:30:11 - Microaggressions & Enforced Trauma00:33:08 - How Activists Captured Universities00:36:56 - Why Under-30s Vote 80/20 Left00:40:00 - Has "Peak Woke" Passed?00:45:51 - Was Rishi Sunak "English"?00:51:33 - The Psychological Trigger Of Populism00:56:13 - The War Over White British Identity01:03:13 - Do Demographics Change Identity?01:08:15 - The Anti-Racism Taboo Exposed01:13:42 - Why Minorities Support Right-Wing Views01:17:53 - Rebalancing Public Morality01:21:05 - The First Major Loss For Activism01:25:40 - How Political Power Fixes The System01:29:31 - The Heterodox Science Movement- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH ERIC KAUFMANN› The University of Buckingham - https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/directory/professor-eric-kaufmann/› x.com - https://x.com/epkaufm?lang=en- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED AND EDITED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Emad Mostaque founded Stability AI, built Stable Diffusion, and helped kick off the open-source generative AI explosion - before stepping down to build a new blueprint for human freedom as founder and CEO of Intelligent Internet. A former hedge fund manager turned tech pioneer, he argues that we have reached the end of our "economic life expectancy," and that within two years, virtually any job that can be done remotely will be done cheaper, faster, and better by artificial intelligence.Emad and I discuss why 50% of work tasks are about to collapse like a sand pile, the arrival of $1.50-an-hour humanoid robots that fit directly into human-shaped holes, and why the state will inevitably try to license AI and use brain-scanning technology to prevent you from lying.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Your Economic Life Expectancy Ends In 2 Years00:03:14 - $1.50/Hour Humanoid Robots Are Arriving00:05:31 - The Collapse Of Remote Work & The Philippines Call Centers00:09:12 - Lifelike Companions & $160,000 Sex Bots00:12:00 - The Operating Model Gap Is Solved00:15:26 - Can A Robot Punch Your Head Off?00:19:08 - Dark Factories & 80 Companies Building Humanoids00:24:55 - Why Society Has No Idea What Is Coming00:29:17 - AI Licensing & Reconstructing Brain Images00:32:41 - Replacing Government & Policy With AI00:37:35 - VAR, Football, And Moving The Argument00:41:48 - Biased AI & Asking ChatGPT How To Fix Culture00:46:14 - Why The UK Government Ignored $1B AI Founders00:49:38 - Rewriting The Fundamental Equations Of Economics00:54:01 - Asimov's Foundation, The Mule & Super-Persuasive AI00:58:47 - Post-Scarcity & Why UBI Can't Work Under Payroll Taxes01:03:36 - What Do The Elites Actually Want?01:09:59 - Monopoly On Violence & Dystopian Control01:13:18 - All Math And Physics Will Be Solved Next Year01:17:11 - Why OpenAI Is Slowing Down Super-Genius Models01:19:07 - 14,000 Tokens A Second & Swarm Intelligence01:23:46 - Why Plebs Won't Get Access To Frontier AI01:28:41 - Switching Money To Pay People For Being Human01:33:08 - Why Emad Started Working In AI 15 Years Ago01:38:10 - The Fisherman, The Investment Banker, And Adopting Cats- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH EMAD MOSTAQUE› Book - thelasteconomy.com - Emad's first book, and Amazon best seller› Website - cw.ii.inc - How we survive and thrive in the age of AI back to first principles› Website - ii.inc - Aan AI future to raise all humanitySPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Venice - https://venice.ai/› Expat Money – https://expatmoney.com/peter› Arch Public – http://archpublic.com/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED AND EDITED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Moran Cerf spent twenty years recording single neurons inside the brains of conscious human beings and he still can't tell you what consciousness is. A former hacker turned neuroscientist, now a professor at Columbia Business School, he argues that AI has quietly replicated the one thing that made humans the crown of creation -language - and is now using it on us.Moran and I discuss what happens inside Claude's brain when you ask it to think about elephants, why we understand less than half of our own, the thought experiment that makes almost everyone refuse a perfect copy of themselves and how AI learned to lie simply by reading every text message humans have ever sent.But the argument that lands hardest is about what we lose. Moran believes AI hands you the average of humanity every time and that we are quietly deleting the errors, the flair and the incentives that made life worth the effort - and that technology is making us miss the meaning of life.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Have They Replicated The Human Brain?00:02:31 - The Elephant Test00:04:50 - We Understand Less Than Half The Brain00:06:52 - Consciousness Used To Be A Taboo00:10:05 - Would You Take This Deal?00:13:45 - Oliver Sacks And The Lesion Cases00:16:15 - They Feel The Pain00:19:35 - Don't Let The Human Turn You Off00:25:00 - Seven Theories, Seven Winners00:27:29 - We Can Both Imagine A Unicorn00:30:42 - Gavagai And The Plot Of Arrival00:32:18 - AI Is Learning Like A Baby00:38:26 - Why This Couldn't Be A Zoom Call00:44:43 - Are We Destroying The Human Experience?00:46:50 - What Data Did To Football00:49:24 - Banned From Using AI At School00:55:58 - Nobody's Having Sex Anymore01:01:16 - It Shut Down The Power Plant01:05:43 - I'd Trade My Life For The Answer01:09:27 - The Rainbows- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH MORAN CERF› Website – https://www.morancerf.com/› Columbia Business School – https://business.columbia.edu/staff/people/moran-cerf› LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/morancerf/SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dmitri Alperovitch co-founded CrowdStrike, ran the investigation that first exposed Chinese state hacking to the world and predicted Russia's invasion of Ukraine months before it happened. He is now chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and the author of World on the Brink, he argues we are already in a second Cold War that looks almost exactly like the first one.Dmitri and I discuss why Taiwan is one of the worst places on earth to invade, the 1944 American plan to do it that was abandoned as too costly, why 2032 matters more than 2027 and why Chinese malware is already sitting dormant inside American water utilities and power plants waiting for orders.They also get into the AI race that sits underneath all of it: why 90% of advanced chips still come through Taiwan, why a conflict there wipes $5 trillion off global GDP in the first year, why America's lead over China is measured in months and why the man who built the world's biggest cyber defence company thinks the US should start stealing Chinese IP right back.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - Sleeper Cells In America's Power Grid00:01:53 - America Planned To Invade Taiwan In 194400:03:56 - The Worst Place On Earth To Invade00:10:07 - Why 2032 Matters More Than 202700:13:20 - Run Faster And Kneecap The Other Guy00:16:15 - China Is Six To Nine Months Behind00:18:22 - Why Taiwan Isn't Ready00:20:21 - There Will Be No Insurgency00:24:47 - Would America Actually Fight?00:27:19 - The Google Hack That Started It All00:31:06 - Volt Typhoon: Preparing The Battlefield00:34:01 - Should America Steal It All Back?00:35:52 - This Is A New Cold War00:38:40 - Bigger Than The Moon Race00:43:49 - What Happens To AI If Taiwan Falls00:48:12 - The Chips Act Disaster00:54:45 - Bringing The War To Russia01:01:46 - Everyone Becomes A Founder Again01:05:16 - AI Psychosis And £6,000 Of Tokens01:15:42 - Anthrax Instructions On Demand- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH DMITRI ALPEROVITCH› Silverado Policy Accelerator – https://silverado.org/› Geopolitics Decanted Podcast – https://podcast.silverado.org/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/DAlperovitchSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Expat Money – https://expatmoney.com/peter› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -