Best Sun Machine Media Podcasts (2025)

1
The Art of a Deal with the Devil: on Faustian Bargains from Shakespeare and Goethe to Thomas Mann and Donald Trump 38:51

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1h ago38:51

38:51

For anyone who has seen Michael B. Jordan’s excellent new movie Sinners, it’s clear that any sort of deal with the devil - what has become known as the Faustian Bargain - is still very much alive. So relevant, in fact, that cultural historian Ed Simon has a book, just out in paperback, about its enduring relevance entitled Devil’s Contract. From Sh…

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When the United Nations Actually Mattered: Remembering the Burmese Schoolteacher who Ran the U.N. in its Glory Days 56:23

3h ago56:23

56:23

How to bring peace to Gaza and Ukraine? Maybe the United Nations can help. Or, sadly, maybe not. But there really was a time, in the second half of the 20th century, when the United Nations could help bring peace to supposedly insoluble wars. The U.N.'s glory days were in the Sixties when it was run by a former Burmese school teacher called U Thant…

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How Evil 'Big Car' Has Killed More People Than World War II 36:01

4m ago36:01

36:01

Lead in gasoline powered cars have killed more people than those that died in World War Two. That’s the astonishing claim of David Obst who, in his new Saving Ourselves From Big Car, lays out a strategy to kick our self-destructive automobile addiction. The former investigative reporter, who worked with Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre story an…

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The Double Life of Robert McNamara: How America's 'Best and Brightest' Led the Nation into Vietnam While Knowing the War Was Unwinnable 58:10

6h ago58:10

58:10

There is no more shakespearean parable of the tragic rise and fall of the postwar American meritocratic elite than Robert Strange McNamara. War hero, Harvard Business School, head of Ford, begged by JFK to take a role - any role - in Camelot. Then came the equally meteoric fall as JFK and then LBJ’s Secretary of Defense - Vietnam and all its death …

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The World's Worst Bet: How America Gambled Dumbly on Globalization and Lost 43:58

12h ago43:58

43:58

Dumb globalization: America’s worst bet. That, at least, is the view of the Washington Post financial writer David J Lynch and author of The World’s Worst Bet. From Clinton to Bush, Lynch argues, America has bet stupidly on globalization and, not surprisingly, has lost. It’s no coincidence, he suggests, that the American dream has also unraveled in…

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"Beginning Before and After The End" by Jake Stein + "Last Meal Aboard the Awassa" by Kel Coleman 24:05

5d ago24:05

24:05

This episode features "Beginning Before and After The End" by Jake Stein (©2025 by Jake Stein) read by Stefan Rudnicki, and "Last Meal Aboard the Awassa" by Kel Coleman (©2025 by Kel Coleman) read by Justine Eyre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Adamant Press

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Demystify Science and Humanize Scientists: How to Rebuild Scientific Trust in our Angry MAHA Times 41:53

1d ago41:53

41:53

In our angry MAHA times, how can we get people trusting science and scientists again. According to MIT’s Alan Lightman, one of America’s greatest scientific writers, we need to both demystify science and humanize scientists. Lightman is the co-author, with Martin Rees, of The Shape of Wonder, a timely collection of essays about how scientists think…

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From Borges to Brain Scans: How our Minds Invent Reality 45:52

2d ago45:52

45:52

The human brain is so unbelievably complex that we barely understand its most basic functions. According to the British neuroscientist Daniel Yon, our brains - which some speculate are the most mysteriously complicated things in the universe - might even have minds of their own. In his latest book, A Trick of the Mind, Yon argues that our brains qu…

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The Hypocrisy of Trump's War on Universities: How Wealthy Families Game the College Admission Process 39:48

5d ago39:48

39:48

According to former college president Beverly Daniel Tatum, Trump’s war on university admissions is deeply hypocritical. On the one hand, she argues, his attack on affirmative action admissions policy is made in the populist language of “anti-woke” egalitarianism; but on the other, wealthy families are already gaming college admissions through clev…

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Borders are Back, Baby: From Trump and Transylvania to Brexit and Bolivia's Navy 38:11

4d ago38:11

38:11

Globalization is dying, maybe even dead. Borders are back, baby. That’s the message in Jonn Elledge’s sparkling Brief History of the World in 47 Borders. In this romp around world history , Elledge introduces us to 47 of the world’s oddest borders including particularly weird ones in Detroit, Kaliningrad and Bolivia. So should be celebrating or mou…

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Beware of another Silicon Valley Win-Win-Win: Can users, publishers and tech companies really all benefit from the AI revolution? 45:32

5d ago45:32

45:32

When somebody says “win-win” in Silicon Valley, check your pockets. It’s usually some elaborate prelude to a sales pitch. And the only thing dodgier than a two-way win is the “win-win-win” narrative that my friend Keith Teare is selling this week. “User, Publishers and AI: Everybody Wins” is the title of Keith’s That Was The Week newsletter this we…

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Every Day, Computers are Making People Easier to Use: The Return of IN FORMATION 47:44

6d ago47:44

47:44

It’s only been a quarter century, but IN FORMATION magazine is now back. Published by David Temkin with the tagline “Every Day, Computers are Making People Easier to Use”, IN FORMATION was originally designed in 1998 as the “Anti-Wired” - a glossily skeptical anti-tech publication for Silicon Valley insiders. And now, as more tech hysteria grips th…

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Is Roman Polanski really worth defending? 32:37

6d ago32:37

32:37

Is the convicted sex criminal Roman Polanski worth defending? Particularly in the context of “An Officer and a Spy”, his vaguely autobiographical 2019 movie about the Dreyfus case, the first Polanski film in a decade to be shown in the United States. Writing in Liberties Quarterly, Charles Taylor answers yes, intelligently making the case that we s…

1
How Parents Have Become the Social Media in Their Kids' Lives: So Taking Away Phones Won't Alone Fix the Teen Mental Health Crisis 48:10

7d ago48:10

48:10

It's become the new orthodoxy: social media is the cause of the epidemic of anxiety amongst adolescents. So the way to fix this is by taking away their smartphones. But according to Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times writer Matt Richtel, things are actually a lot more complicated than blaming everything on digital technology. In fact, we may hav…

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From Solitary to Silicon Valley: Shaka Senghor on America's Hidden Prisons 34:20

8d ago34:20

34:20

Shaka Senghor is one of America’s great survivors. Having spent 19 years in high-security prison, he has reinvented himself as a best-selling writer and public speaker on individual freedom and responsibility. In his new book, How to Be Free, Senghor argues that everyone — inside and outside jail — lives in hidden prisons of trauma, shame, and grie…

1
"Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers" by Naomi Kanakia + "To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter" by V.M. Ayala 57:02

12d ago57:02

57:02

This episode features "Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers" by Naomi Kanakia (©2025 by Naomi Kanakia) read by Roxane Hernandez, and "To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter" by V.M. Ayala (©2025 by V.M. Ayala) read by Mirron Willis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Adamant Press

1
Why Even Sam Altman Wants to be Gary Marcus: From Son of Sam to Son of Gary in a single ChatGPT Release 35:20

9d ago35:20

35:20

It hasn’t always been easy being Gary Marcus these last few years. OpenAI’s most persistently outspoken AI sceptic has been in minority, sometimes of one, in his critique both of Sam Altman’s claims about the imminence of AGI as well as the general “intelligence” and economic viability of ChatGPT. Since the supposedly “botched” release of GPT-5, ho…

1
Dr Strangelove Returns: Palantir and the New Military-Industrial-Digital Complex 35:02

10d ago35:02

35:02

Maybe he never went away. But Dr Strangelove is back now at the heart of America’s new military-industrial-digital complex. And Strangelove 2.0 might offer an even more existential threat than Kubrick’s original cigar-chewing model played with such absurdist aplomb by the great Peter Sellers. While the first Strangelove was just dumb, today’s power…

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MAGA Voters Aren't Stupid: That's Why They Don't Care What Right-Wing Podcasters Think 41:20

11d ago41:20

41:20

What’s the matter with America? We’ve been told for years about the dumb working class MAGA voter. That they are exploited by Trump, that their interests are the reverse of a self-interested Republican cultural or economic elite. But according to the iconoclastic Tablet magazine contributor Michael Lind, we’ve got it the wrong way around. MAGA Vote…

1
Getting Queerer Quicker: No, The Literary Man Isn't Disappearing—He's Just Not Longer White or Straight 41:23

12d ago41:23

41:23

For lonely young men who have forgotten how to read, the LA Times book critic Bethanne Patrick some some simple advice: Get Queer Quicker. And to make her point, Patrick discusses five great books on today’s male identity crisis - including from Keen On alums like Jessa Crispin and Andrew Lipstein. Patrick argues that reports of the literary man's …

1
Who Owns The Front Door? The Multi-Trillion Dollar Battle to Assemble the AI Jigsaw 44:43

13d ago44:43

44:43

Those who do win. Those are Keith Teare’s immortal words to describe the winners of today’s Silicon Valley battle to control tomorrow’s AI world. But the real question, of course, is what to do to win this war. The battle (to excuse all these blunt military metaphors) is to assemble the AI pieces to reassemble what Keith calls the “jigsaw” of our n…

1
From Mean Streets to Wall Street: How Trump, Koch, and the other Gods of New York Remade America 40:24

14d ago40:24

40:24

Is the history of New York City the heart of the American story? Or does it exist in parallel, perhaps even independently, from the main American narrative. As with everything about the Big Apple (so good they named it twice), the answer is both. Or everything. At least according to Jonathan Mahler, author of The Gods of New York, a new history of …

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"The Dream Tourists" by Sarah Langan + "Savannah and the Apprentice" by Christopher Rowe 1:04:19

18d ago1:04:19

1:04:19

This episode features "The Dream Tourists" by Sarah Langan (©2025 by Sarah Langan) and "Savannah and the Apprentice" by Christopher Rowe (©2025 by Christopher Rowe), both read by Stefan Rudnicki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesBy Adamant Press

1
Move Fast and Fix the World: Here Comes the Sun in the Nick of Time 43:33

15d ago43:33

43:33

It’s not often that there’s sunny news on the environmental front, especially from grizzled activists like the great Bill McKibben. But in his new book, Here Comes the Sun, McKibben argues that the sun - or, at least, solar power - might actually save the earth. There’s a pagan quality to McKibben’s manichaean message: the sun, he says, offers both…

1
#217 - Rebellion Headquarters w Sandee Lovas 1:12:20

15d ago1:12:20

1:12:20

Left of the Box's Sandee Lovas — author, political commentator, Canadian, artist — joins me to talk about their journey into contributing to The Young Turks' Rebel HQ to leaving Rebel HQ and now producing an upcoming video about TYT's role in the world of online politics, which of course I can very much relate to. We also talk about their book (Nec…

1
The Redistricting Apocalypse: How Chief Justice Roberts Let All the Evil Spirits out of American Democracy 35:45

17d ago35:45

35:45

Who is to blame for the redistricting farce that many fear is breaking American democracy? There’s Trump, of course, and his gang of MAGA crazies. But according to David Daley, the author of Antidemocratic, Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections, the real culprit is anything but crazy. It’s John Roberts, Chief Justice of …

1
Back to the Digital Future: Why the Future of AI Healthcare Might be a Return to the Gig Economy 40:45

18d ago40:45

40:45

Might the supposedly revolutionary future of AI healthcare actually be a return to the gig economics of Uber and Airbnb? That’s the intriguing proposition put forward by former Kaiser Permanente Chief and Stanford Medical School professor Robert Pearl, a prescient observer of the future of his industry. According to Pearl, we may be returning to th…

Sun Machine Media Podcasts

1
LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE - Science Fiction and Fantasy Story Podcast (Sci-Fi | Audiobook | Short Stories)

Adamant Press

1
How Didn't This Get Made?

Sun Machine Media

1
Winners and Losers Show

Hank Thompson

4
Keen On America

Andrew Keen

1
The Art of a Deal with the Devil: on Faustian Bargains from Shakespeare and Goethe to Thomas Mann and Donald Trump 38:51

1
When the United Nations Actually Mattered: Remembering the Burmese Schoolteacher who Ran the U.N. in its Glory Days 56:23

1
How Evil 'Big Car' Has Killed More People Than World War II 36:01

1
The Double Life of Robert McNamara: How America's 'Best and Brightest' Led the Nation into Vietnam While Knowing the War Was Unwinnable 58:10

1
The World's Worst Bet: How America Gambled Dumbly on Globalization and Lost 43:58

1
"Beginning Before and After The End" by Jake Stein + "Last Meal Aboard the Awassa" by Kel Coleman 24:05

1
Demystify Science and Humanize Scientists: How to Rebuild Scientific Trust in our Angry MAHA Times 41:53

1
From Borges to Brain Scans: How our Minds Invent Reality 45:52

1
The Hypocrisy of Trump's War on Universities: How Wealthy Families Game the College Admission Process 39:48

1
Borders are Back, Baby: From Trump and Transylvania to Brexit and Bolivia's Navy 38:11

1
Beware of another Silicon Valley Win-Win-Win: Can users, publishers and tech companies really all benefit from the AI revolution? 45:32

1
Every Day, Computers are Making People Easier to Use: The Return of IN FORMATION 47:44

1
Is Roman Polanski really worth defending? 32:37

1
How Parents Have Become the Social Media in Their Kids' Lives: So Taking Away Phones Won't Alone Fix the Teen Mental Health Crisis 48:10

1
From Solitary to Silicon Valley: Shaka Senghor on America's Hidden Prisons 34:20

1
"Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers" by Naomi Kanakia + "To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter" by V.M. Ayala 57:02

1
Why Even Sam Altman Wants to be Gary Marcus: From Son of Sam to Son of Gary in a single ChatGPT Release 35:20

1
Dr Strangelove Returns: Palantir and the New Military-Industrial-Digital Complex 35:02

1
MAGA Voters Aren't Stupid: That's Why They Don't Care What Right-Wing Podcasters Think 41:20

1
Getting Queerer Quicker: No, The Literary Man Isn't Disappearing—He's Just Not Longer White or Straight 41:23

1
Who Owns The Front Door? The Multi-Trillion Dollar Battle to Assemble the AI Jigsaw 44:43

1
From Mean Streets to Wall Street: How Trump, Koch, and the other Gods of New York Remade America 40:24

1
"The Dream Tourists" by Sarah Langan + "Savannah and the Apprentice" by Christopher Rowe 1:04:19

1
Move Fast and Fix the World: Here Comes the Sun in the Nick of Time 43:33

1
#217 - Rebellion Headquarters w Sandee Lovas 1:12:20

1
The Redistricting Apocalypse: How Chief Justice Roberts Let All the Evil Spirits out of American Democracy 35:45

1
Back to the Digital Future: Why the Future of AI Healthcare Might be a Return to the Gig Economy 40:45