trashfuture

Balthasar Speedboat: Skincare Edition feat. Alex Haddow

Nothing but riffs. Nothing but jokes. Noting but Riley revealing more about himself and everyone saying 'I'm confused' or 'oh, that makes sense.' And this one features friend of the show and repeat guest Alex Haddow as well.

Manic Pixie Dream Paramedic

It's the free one!

In this special episode, we revisit an old startup from 2019 that’s still getting huge government contracts to provide a service we can only describe as ‘the ambulance driven by clowns that drops you off in the middle of the woods.’ This is not an exaggeration.

Plato’s Goon Cave feat. Paris Marx

This week, Riley, Milo, and Alice join special guest (and beloved friend of the show) Paris Marx of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast for a discussion about Apple Vision Pro. Yes, the ridiculous snowboarding goggles that let you see pop up ads everywhere, the next iteration of Google Glass (but worse, and weirder). Our message to you is: bully anyone wearing these things.

Check out Tech Won’t Save Us here: https://www.tec...

Save Us, Swiss Spartans

It's the free one!

This week, it’s an all-dessert episode hosted by Alice with Milo and Hussein. We discuss Peter Thiel and his acolytes’ plan to make the drugs Olympics in which you take as many performance enhancers as possible and turn into Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. However, the real icing on the cake is a Telegraph article that claims Switzerland possesses an eternal martial spirit, but Britain is too woke to have conscription (and not racist enough)...

Trashfuture: Live in London 13th March

Please join us on 13 March for another night of thrills and spills at Backyard Comedy Club on 13th March.

A discount code for £5-off tickets is available for $10+ patrons on those tiers

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Cheers,

The TF Gang

Trashfuture: Live in London 13th March (DISCOUNT CODE)

Dear $10+ patrons!

Please join us on 13 March for another night of thrills and spills at Backyard Comedy Club on 13th March.

As our extra VIP higher tier patrons you get £5 off the ticket price with code tfhog69

Enjoy and see you there!  

Cheers,

The TF Gang

Left on Read: Blindsight (Again)

*This is supposed to be January's second LOR and we're going to pull out the stops to make sure you get a second LOR this month as well. Sorry!*

ALSO: Audio issues stole the last five minutes of the episode, so we will try and see if Alice remembers her final thoughts on the book.

He did it again and nobody can stop him - Riley has made another episode about Peter Watts’ hard sci-fi novel Blindsight, and he has made Alice read it too.

Tradecraft in the Doha Panda Express

For this week's bonus, Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice discuss an offshore oil rig theme park that Saudi Arabia is building (it just sounds like an oil rig). We also discuss the recent ICJ proceedings, and examine the contradictions in what liberal democratic states say about international law when confronted with potentially having to apply it to their client states. In the words of Bryan Ferry, you can guess the rest.

Information Flamewar-fare

It's the free one!

This week, we’re talking about a terrible surveillance startup, an anti-DEI Ackman guy running to primary Joe Biden (he also sucks), and the recent news that the Israeli government is using what you might call Combat Tweetdeck to try to suppress or overwhelm all the negative attention it’s getting from… things that its own soldiers share on social media. Call it the ‘posting through it’ school of warfare.

Parallel Hooniverse feat. Dan McQuillan

*SORRY FOR THE LATE BONUS*

Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice speak with Goldsmiths researcher Dan McQuillan, the author of 'Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence' regarding the breathless optimism of politicians in the UK and elsewhere (particularly in Queensland, Australia) claiming they'll use AI to administer state benefits and services. Probably not a good idea!

You can purchase Dan's book here: 2024-01-29 15:52:20 +0000 UTC View Post

Britainology 78: Da Ali G Show

*UNLOCKED TO THE $5 TIER BECAUSE NATE IS EXHAUSTED RIGHT NOW AND THE BONUS IS LATE*

For this month's second Britainology, Nate and Milo discuss Sacha Baron Cohen's 2000s comedy program Da Ali G Show, its appearances in America, the type of guy it's supposed to be making fun of, and what their American equivalent would be. Like Proust's madeleine, this discussion also prompted Nate's reminiscences about some guys at his high school who created a rap label in 1999 called Tight Yo Reco...

As A Large Language Howitzer,

It's the free one!

For this week’s free episode, Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Nate discuss the recent news that ChatGPT has both dropped its official guidelines around working with weapons systems and also entered into a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. This is notionally to help reduce veteran suicide, but as Riley indicates, there are plenty of combat uses that are probably going to get integrated, even (or especially) if they’re bad. We also do a qui...

Shrinkflation for the Arts

For this week's regular TF bonus, Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice discuss a startup from Brisbane, Australia that sees a way forward for video game voice actors: make AI do it, but worse. We also discuss a recent announcement that you can get NFTs inside your Mercedes for some reason.

Left on Read: When We Cease to Understand the World

Riley and Alice read yet another piece of South American literature in translation, this time it’s Benjamin Labatut’s fictionalised historical account about the unravelling of certainty that came with the discovery of quantum mechanics. Think “scientific horror.”

Britainology 77: Save Our XL Bullies feat. Hussein Kesvani

For this month's first Britainology, we bring on Hussein Kesvani—our special guest with whom we've never done another podcast—to discuss the recent UK Government ban on XL Bully dogs, British dog ownership culture in general, kissing your dog on the mouth, and much more. 

Please enjoy the attached images which are all the ones we discussed on the episode—Milo found them in the wild.

Things Can Only Get Sensible

It's the free one!

This week, we’ve got Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice discussing a bathroom-related AI startup, the impending election year in the UK, new Government policy facilitating the sell-off of all local council assets and properties, and a recent speech by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer KC about why we cannot actually solve any problems.

700 Miles an Hour Into Your Ass feat. Justin Roczniak

For this week's bonus, Justin Roczniak of the Well There's Your Problem podcast joins the assembled cast of Riley, Milo, Hussein, and Alice to discuss the formal and total shuttering of HyperLoop. Because it was never a real thing, but it sure did make a lot of annoying people and related billionaires claim we didn't need high-speed rail!

(Editor's note: there were some serious issues with the audio files which were assembled into this episode, so if it sounds a little funny... that's w...

Just One More Front ft. Seamus Malekafzali

It's the free one!

Alice and Riley talk with Seamus Malekafzali about Israel’s ever-expanding war with Palestine, and the ramifications on its neighbours near and far.

If you want to read Seamus' work, check out his newsletter here: https://www.seamus-malekafzali.com/

Left on Read: A Confederacy of Dunces (ft. Min Straussman)

Friend of the show Min joins Riley and Alice to discuss John Kennedy Toole's strange and only book, A Confederacy of Dunces.

Balthasar Speedboat: Australian Spider-Man feat. Tom Walker and Demi Lardner

It's all riffs and no theme. It's Tom and Demi joining us to discuss z-grade robot toys, counterfeit Spider-Man, reinterpreting Goatse for the modern age, and much more. We hope your enjoy.

Honk If You’re Honu feat. Dr Gareth Fearn

It's the free one!

This week’s episode is the first free one of 2024 and was recorded before the new year; it features Riley, Milo, and Alice discussing the UK government’s attempts to make schools officially practice cruelty to trans kids as a matter of policy. Also discussed: an AI startup that wants to automate the entirety of business from start to finish, and a separate segment where Riley and Dr Gareth Fearn discuss the state of planning and development the UK...

Q&A December 2023: Oxygenated Wine Edition

For this week's bonus, we gathered the entire cast of Riley, Milo, Hussein, Nate, and Alice, and responded to the questions that you submitted. Needless to say, we had to ask food-related ones that would get Riley talking about his passions.

Woslam’s Reverse Hierarchy of Needs feat. Mattie Lubchansky

It's the last regular episode of the year and we've brought on friend of the show and premium points member Mattie Lubchansky to discuss...well, a lot of things: Adam Neumann's new sensitive landlord venture that's totally not a cult, the sentencing statement of Nikola electric truck company CEO Trevor Milton after his conviction for securities fraud, and our despised but eternally entertaining recurring character: NYC mayor Eric Adams.

Britainology 76: Christmas Songs (and Number Ones)

For this month's second Britainology, Milo introduces Nate to the hermetically sealed world of British contemporary Christmas music, and Nate gives recorded-live reactions to his first time hearing Wizzard perform "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday." A lot of music-talk digression follows as well—we hope you enjoy this!

Q&A Question Form

In preparation for our upcoming Q&A episode, please ask your questions using the attached form. We'll sort through the responses and read the questions on the episode recording later this week.

The Ackman-aniacs

We revisit our old pal Bill Ackman, who was one of Wall Street's most notorious activist investors, to become the SPAC king, to finally settling into his new role as a billionaire culture warrior. Also, we discuss the suspension of a delightfully moronic Tory MP, and check out how Neom is finally building some stuff that's not just different shaped hotels.

CHRISTMAS ANNOUNCEMENT: The TF team will be taking some time off, so instead of a free episode in the week of the 2...

Britainology 75: Love Actually (2003)

For this month's first Britainology, Nate and Milo discuss the now-timeless 2003 Richard Curtis film LOVE ACTUALLY, and what it says about Britain. Milo loves it, Nate's wife loves it, Nate is lukewarm on it but it did make him laugh, and Boris Johnson Voice makes an appearance.

L'histoire de Melody McClurg

For this week's bonus, it's full-court press of useless tech: reactionaries' trying and failing to turn Elon Musk's ultra gen X large language model transphobic; Wes Streeting getting dazzled by an app in Singapore, and a surveillance tech company riding the wave of teen vape interdiction and kicking people out of public housing. The name of the podcast isn't ironic. 

National Gooning Database

The gang talks about the upward spiral of xenophobia that the UK's moderates think they can keep riding to stay in power - the Rwanda Bill, new immigration restrictions, and so on, before moving onto the new Online Safety Bill and its potential to create a kind of AI overmind of British goons. However, the rest of this episode needs only three words: Georgian Peter Griffin.

The Ballad of George and Tommy

We meet a bevy of new Guys using strategic litigation to undo the United States federal regulatory system. This one is a "preserved in amber" 2011 era Tea Party radio host! Also, we look at Israeli's AI and QR code systems and think about what the *real* purpose of those systems is, as well as checking out a startup and reading all about country living.