Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff sits down with scientists, activists, artists, philosophers, and researchers asking the same question: who actually benefits from the way we've built this world — and what do we do about it? Team Human is a weekly podcast about technology, power, consciousness, and what it means to stay human in a world that increasingly doesn't seem designed for us. No corporate backing. No network. No algorithm deciding what gets said. Just honest, rigorous conversation with people working at the edges of the most important questions of our time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
6 snips
Mar 27, 2026 • 56min
Disaster Capitalism and the Case for Leveling Down - Rushkoff on Crazy Town
Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist and author known for critiquing disaster capitalism, joins to discuss leveling down and navigating late-stage capitalism. He shares stories about tech billionaires, how crises privatize public assets, and why media design numbs civic action. Short takes cover money as a social construct, the environmental blindspots of tech, AI pressures on creators, and practical steps like commons and local resilience.
16 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 1h 2min
The Lobotomy of History: Reclaiming Our Extraordinary States (w/ Jeffrey Kripal)
Jeffrey Kripal, Rice University professor who studies religion, mysticism, and extraordinary experience. He argues the humanities have cut out visions and altered states and explores the vertical dimension as a real way of knowing. He discusses how literature and art amplify consciousness, the marketing problem of making the humanities appealing, and why reclaiming the weird could transform scholarship.
12 snips
Mar 18, 2026 • 27min
The Holy War Delusion: Is it Time to Retire Our Religions?
A critique of how religious identities are weaponized by nationalism and literalist readings. A look at the Axial Age idea that scripture-based linear narratives shaped modern violence and state power. An argument that new media and AI invite non-linear, all-at-once ways of thinking. A call to rescue living spiritual practices while rejecting holy-war frameworks.
15 snips
Mar 11, 2026 • 1h 14min
Grant Morrison: The Enemies of Humanity Are Wielding Occult Power
Grant Morrison, comic writer and chaos magician known for The Invisibles, joins to map how imagination and ritual shape culture. He argues magic is collective agreement and warns that tech elites use algorithmic binding spells. Conversation covers gods as idea-energies, networked creativity versus centralized power, reclaiming narrative, and practical rituals for weakening elite stories.
62 snips
Mar 6, 2026 • 28min
The Tech Elite’s “Frictionless” Fantasy (And Why It Will Fail)
A reflection on the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth and what unchecked digital expansion means for the planet. A look at the real material costs of AI data centers, from energy to water. An argument about how tech consolidation and surveillance media extract value from the physical world. A call to reclaim messy, local human interaction as essential to democracy and life.
60 snips
Mar 2, 2026 • 1h 8min
The Internet Is an Occult Machine (w/ Shira Chess)
Shira Chess, a professor of Entertainment and Media Studies and scholar of digital folklore, explores the internet’s hidden spiritual architecture. She traces internet-born cryptids, techno-shamanic 90s roots, reality-shifting rituals, meme magic’s political force, algorithmic conspirituality, and how AI is treated like a spirit. Short takes on reclaiming agency and repurposing corporate platforms appear throughout.
22 snips
Feb 26, 2026 • 31min
My Dinner With Jeffrey: What the Epstein Files Reveal About Us All
A personal story about being swept into elite circles and the chilling social norms he witnessed. A mid-90s dinner reveals how powerful men treated women as commodities. An argument that certain scientific ideas helped normalize dehumanizing behavior. A critique of the permission structures that allow exploitation to flourish.
34 snips
Feb 18, 2026 • 1h 9min
Do Tech Billionaires Want Us Dead? (w/ Taylor Lorenz)
Taylor Lorenz, tech culture reporter and founder of UserMag, discusses leaving legacy outlets to build independent media. Short takes cover media misogyny and the selfie panic, how proposed child-safety laws risk mass surveillance, biometric identity monetization, and elites planning to insulate themselves from collapse. The conversation highlights privacy-first regulation, digital homesteading, and resisting tech authoritarianism.
18 snips
Feb 11, 2026 • 1h 16min
The Esoteric State of the Union: Magic, Will, and the New Neighborhood with Mitch Horowitz
Mitch Horowitz, occult historian and author known for Occult America and Daydream Believer, discusses magic as causative ritual and the power of defined will. They explore retrocausality, communicating with nonhuman intelligences, and petitionary practice. Topics also include chaos magic in politics, UAPs as interdimensional phenomena, and how AI and quantum ideas challenge consciousness.
12 snips
Feb 4, 2026 • 1h 24min
Is It Fascism or Just a Lack of Impulse Control? With Jonathan Larsen
Jonathan Larsen, editor of The Fucking News, offers sharp media and political commentary. He reframes alarmed talk of fascism as often impulse-driven chaos. Short, tactical responses beat grand diagnoses. The conversation covers voter suppression backlashes, dangers of dehumanization, media consolidation, and local, issue-focused resistance.
