Survival of the Richest with Douglas Rushkoff

The Response

Today on the show, we’ve brought on Douglas Rushkoff to talk about his new book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.

Douglas is Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at Queens/CUNY and a research fellow at the Institute for the Future. Named one of the world’s ten most influential intellectuals by MIT, he hosts the Team Human podcast and has written many award-winning books including: Team Human, based on his podcast, as well as the bestsellers Present Shock, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Life Inc, and Media Virus.

He coined such concepts as “viral media,” “screenagers,” and “social currency,” and has been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice.

In this interview we explore the strange, dark expressions of AI futurism and tech utopianism growing within the billionaire class. Island bunkers, missions to mars, the Metaverse and the impulse to escape in the face of looming climate and social collapse. These are the fantasies of the rich and powerful, but there is an alternative path for humanity, one anchored in mutual aid, disaster collectivism, and human interdependence. We’ll explore all of this and more in this episode.

Episode credits:

• Host and exectutive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Presenter and editor: Robert Raymond
• Theme Music: “Meet you on the other side” by Cultivate Beats

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The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters