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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 13, 2026 • 41min
Gamifying the Apocalypse: Climate Prep, Zombie Games, and Mutual Aid (w/Charlotte Binns)
Charlotte Binns, Director of Sustainability for Irvington and community organizer focused on local climate resilience. She discusses municipal hazard mapping and neighbor-to-neighbor preparedness. They cover practical resource mapping, mutual aid projects like discreet food pantries, affinity groups, and a playful month-long zombie game to motivate readiness and youth engagement.
17 snips
May 6, 2026 • 25min
Escaping the Simulation: A Somatic Guide to Reality
A journey from notification-driven life to a Costa Rica somatic retreat. A kundalini awakening and intimate partner rituals reshape bodily sensing. Critiques of tech, metrics, and capitalist maps that alienate people. Calls to privilege-informed action and choosing embodied resonance over abstract systems.
Apr 29, 2026 • 1h 24min
The Magic of the Broken: David J (Bauhaus / Love and Rockets)
David J, bassist for Bauhaus and Love and Rockets and author of poetry on magic and noir consciousness. He explores shamanic performance, radio as a medium, dreams and afterlife visitations, the poems in his new triptych, the beauty of brokenness, goth as prophecy, creative serendipity, and music as activism.
32 snips
Apr 22, 2026 • 1h 12min
AI Angels, Demons, and the Fight for the Future (w/ Philip Rosedale)
Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life and virtual-world entrepreneur, advocates decentralized, humane AI. He discusses running local AI instances, the risks of profit-driven 'golems', and a vision to raise distributed 'angel' AIs in contained virtual nurseries. Conversations cover ethics, play-based socialization, democratic control of compute, and designing safe human-AI connections.
109 snips
Apr 15, 2026 • 1h 20min
"What If" Is the Enemy of Fascism (w/Brian Eno)
Brian Eno, composer and visual artist known for pioneering ambient music, chats about art as purposeless play and emotional rehearsal. He explores art as a simulator for feelings, how creativity resists fascist certainty, and why improvisation, surprise, and building creative communities matter. Expect reflections on AI, Oblique Strategies, and making systems that invite wobble.
14 snips
Apr 8, 2026 • 52min
Exposing the Billionaire Funding Behind AI Safety Movements (w/ Kat Tenbarge)
Kat Tenbarge, investigative internet journalist and founder of Spitfire News, uncovers opaque funding and political ties behind AI safety movements. She digs into non-consensual deepfake networks, how they are monetized, and payment pathways. She also explores online harassment turning violent, regulatory capture by big tech, and the costs of reporting on influencer abuse.
30 snips
Apr 2, 2026 • 22min
The Internet Felt Like This in 1994. AI Might Be Our Last Chance.
A creator rebuilds his personal website using a local AI in a five hour vibe-coding sprint. The conversation weighs AI's creative promise against its environmental, resource, and labor costs. Listeners hear ideas for peer-to-peer alternatives to platform monopolies and warnings about surveillance projects from powerful tech players.
25 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.
