Your Undivided Attention
Forever Chemicals, Forever Consequences: What PFAS Teaches Us About AI
AI could unlock vast technological potential—if we do it right. Rob Bilott, who fought chemical giants over toxic PFAS, shares a cautionary tale: how the harms of new tech can go unchecked, and why we must align innovation with safety before it’s too late.
3 apr. 2025 - 01 hr 04 min 33 seg
Weaponizing Uncertainty: How Tech is Recycling Big Tobacco’s Playbook
From Big Tobacco to Big Tech, powerful industries have perfected the art of manufacturing doubt about their harms. In this episode, historian Naomi Oreskes reveals the playbook corporations have used throughout history to weaponize uncertainty, fund fake experts, and shift blame to individuals—and what it all means for AI.
20 mars 2025 - 51 min 20 seg
The Man Who Predicted the Downfall of Thinking
Forty years ago, Neil Postman warned that “we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.” He was writing about TV, but his insights feel eerily prophetic in our age of smartphones, social media, and AI. In this episode, we explore Postman’s ideas and what they can teach us.
6 mars 2025 - 58 min 57 seg
Behind the DeepSeek Hype, AI is Learning to Reason
DeepSeek's breakthrough in AI sent markets reeling. But behind the headlines lies a crucial shift: AI that can actually reason and think. As labs race toward self-improving AI, the real question isn't how fast we can go, but how to steer this power for the benefit of us all.
20 feb. 2025 - 31 min 34 seg
The Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to Deceive
When engineers design AI systems, they don't just give them rules - they give them values. But what do those systems do when those values clash with what humans ask them to do? Sometimes, they lie. AI researcher Ryan Greenblatt comes on the show to explore why.
30 jan. 2025 - 34 min 51 seg
Laughing at Power: A Troublemaker’s Guide to Changing Tech
The broken status quo of tech may feel immovable, but Srdja Popovic knows something about challenging power. A leader of the Serbian resistance, he's spent his life studying how to transform entrenched systems. In this episode, he shares insights that can help address our challenges with tech.
16 jan. 2025 - 45 min 47 seg
Ask Us Anything 2024
2024 was a critical year in both AI and social media. Things moved so fast it was hard to keep up. So our hosts reached into their mailbag to answer some of your most burning questions.
19 des. 2024 - 40 min 04 seg
The Tech-God Complex: Why We Need to be Skeptics
Religious thinking is shaping the future of technology: AI is talked about as a godlike force and tech leaders promise us digital salvation. Greg Epstein argues that we need to see tech as our era's most influential religion - can he help us understand where this is all headed?
21 nov. 2024 - 46 min 32 seg
What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton
Sewell Setzer’s mom, Megan, is suing Character.ai for the role it played in her son’s death. The outcome could force the company–and potentially the entire AI industry–to change its ways. Today on the show, one of Megan’s lawyers, Meetali Jain, breaks down how the case could lead to systemic change.
7 nov. 2024 - 48 min 44 seg
When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer
Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. Now, she’s suing the company that made those chatbots. On today’s episode of Your Undivided Attention: journalist Laurie Segall’s interview with Megan for her new show Dear Tomorrow.
24 okt. 2024 - 49 min 10 seg