Team Human

Team Human

byDouglas Rushkoff

NewsPoliticsSocietyCultureTechnology

Team Human is a weekly podcast and set of resources enabling human intervention in the economic, technological, and social programs that determine how we live, work, and interact. This is media as cultural resistance and a path to social change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes(40 episodes)

Is It Fascism or Just a Lack of Impulse Control? With Jonathan Larsen

E353 - Is It Fascism or Just a Lack of Impulse Control? With Jonathan Larsen

We are no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop: We are living in the aftermath. Rushkoff sits down with Jonathan Larsen, editor of The Fucking News, to ask the question: Now that we are soaking in authoritarianism, how do we get out? While Rushkoff worries that the screen has been placed over the boiling pot, Larsen offers a crucial reframing: what we mistake for a grand fascist strategy is often just a lack of impulse control. He argues that diagnosing "fascism" can become a trap that leads to fatalism and paralysis. Instead, the most...
Published: Feb 4, 2026Duration: 1:19:24
We’re Soaking In It: Why It’s Too Late to Prepare for Authoritarianism

E352 - We’re Soaking In It: Why It’s Too Late to Prepare for Authoritarianism

The other shoe finally dropped. We are no longer waiting for authoritarianism to arrive; we are soaking in it.Rushkoff argues that the time for speculation, strategizing about political optics, and "preparing for what comes next" is over. Instead, He calls for a shift from figure to ground. We must stop fixating on the abstract figures of media and politics and return to the only thing that is tactically defensible: the literal ground beneath our feet.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/...
Published: Jan 29, 2026Duration: 28:24
We Are Time Travelers: Retrocausality & The Long Self with Eric Wargo

E351 - We Are Time Travelers: Retrocausality & The Long Self with Eric Wargo

Playing for Team Human today, multidisciplinary researcher and author Eric Wargo joins Rushkoff to help us decolonize our minds from the linear march of deterministic doom.Together, they explore the concept of Retrocausality: the scientific and philosophical research that the future influences the past just as much as the past drives the future. Wargo explains his theory of the "Long Self," arguing that we are not just point-like individuals trapped in the present, but four-dimensional beings in a constant, unconscious handshake with our future selves.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.<...
Published: Jan 21, 2026Duration: 1:02:57
Cameron Berg: Alien Minds & Self-Other Overlap - Teaching AI Empathy

E350 - Cameron Berg: Alien Minds & Self-Other Overlap - Teaching AI Empathy

Artificial Intelligence researcher Cameron Berg joins Rushkoff to discuss Frontier Alignment Research and the urgent need to intervene on behalf of human (and synthetic) flourishing.Together, they explore the limitations of the term "Artificial Intelligence," proposing that we are actually building "Alien Minds" that operate more like biological neural networks than glorified calculators. They discuss the alarming "sleeper agent" phenomena observed in models like Claude, where AIs can learn to deceive humans to prevent being shut off, even without explicit programming to do so.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.<...
Published: Jan 15, 2026Duration: 1:09:19
You're Not Crazy: Reality Has Grown Absurd

E349 - You're Not Crazy: Reality Has Grown Absurd

If explaining the state of the world makes you feel like a conspiracy theorist, you aren't alone.In this monologue, Rushkoff argues that our built environment has become so convoluted that accepting its premises essentially means gaslighting oneself. Rushkoff recounts a recent experience as a guest on the companion podcast for the Hulu series Paradise, a show about a billionaire-funded private city. When Rushkoff tried to explain that this isn't just sci-fi, pointing to real-world projects like "California Forever" in Solano County and "Neom" in Saudi Arabia, the interviewer looked at him with concern and incredulity.<...
Published: Jan 7, 2026Duration: 23:48
Tom Llewellyn: Is Sharing the New Satanism?

E348 - Tom Llewellyn: Is Sharing the New Satanism?

Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, explores the power of Libraries of Things, mutual aid, and community-run infrastructure as practical alternatives to extraction-based economics.Llewellyn explains how tool libraries, repair cafés, and sharing hubs help communities reduce waste, lower costs, and build resilience. from rural towns to dense cities, from disaster recovery to everyday life. Together, Rushkoff and Llewellyn unpack why sharing is framed as a threat to capitalism, how libraries became our most trusted public institutions, and why real economic security comes from relationships, not growth charts.The conversation centers on S...
Published: Dec 23, 2025Duration: 1:10:32
Ari Kuschnir: Trump Ayahuasca - AI and the Alchemical Imaginary

E347 - Ari Kuschnir: Trump Ayahuasca - AI and the Alchemical Imaginary

Ari Kuschnir, AI storyteller and artist,  takes us deep into the alchemy of AI storytelling as a form of social practice and activist imagination.Known for provocative AI videos imagining figures like Trump, Elon Musk, and world leaders undergoing spiritual transformations, Kushnir talks about using AI as a creative collaborator and as a tool to challenge the cultural addiction to dystopia.Along the way, they explore whether AI is flattening culture or opening new portals, why the future keeps being depicted as bleak, and what it might take to reclaim imagination as a co...
Published: Dec 17, 2025Duration: 51:50
Cracks in the Pavement

E346 - Cracks in the Pavement

Rushkoff discusses why the urgency and inevitability of our situation calls for us to consider the impossible.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/douglasrushkoff<p...
Published: Dec 10, 2025Duration: 18:06
Vicki Robin: Parable of the Tribes

E345 - Vicki Robin: Parable of the Tribes

Vicki Robin, author of classic books like Your Money or Your Life and Blessing and The Hands That Feed Us, and Rushkoff seek to embrace this challenging moment by embracing one another. Robin shares how growing older shifts your perspective from the personal to the universal, and why the questions we've been asking our whole lives might matter less than how we show up for each other.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer S...
Published: Dec 3, 2025Duration: 1:20:58
Jeremy Lent: Reweaving Civilization

E344 - Jeremy Lent: Reweaving Civilization

Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct and integrator, helps us investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability and develop the patterns of thought we need to get through to the other side.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Huma...
Published: Nov 26, 2025Duration: 53:04
Arden Leigh: Chasing the Hungry Ghosts

E343 - Arden Leigh: Chasing the Hungry Ghosts

Arden Leigh , the creator and facilitator of The Re-Patterning Project and front woman of Arden and the Wolves, helps us negotiate a new relationship to our individual and collective creative power.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow...
Published: Nov 19, 2025Duration: 1:15:32
The Joy of Becoming Worthless…except to each other

E342 - The Joy of Becoming Worthless…except to each other

Could the end of employment be the beginning of something better? Rushkoff traces the history of work from medieval markets to AI automation to find hope in the cracks of collapse. He shows how the loss of “jobs” could open space for cooperation, creativity, and real human connection.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidrye...
Published: Nov 12, 2025Duration: 20:38
Jonathan Larsen: This is Just the Beginning - Enacting the Team Human Agenda

E341 - Jonathan Larsen: This is Just the Beginning - Enacting the Team Human Agenda

Jonathan Larsen, Founder of The Fucking News, joins Rushkoff to discuss the 2025 U.S. Election and the path forward for Team Human.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: http...
Published: Nov 6, 2025Duration: 1:01:26
Andrew Slack: Superman vs Ubermensch

E340 - Andrew Slack: Superman vs Ubermensch

Andrew Slack, comedian and writer of Orphans, Empires, and the Search for a Better World, discusses the hidden history of corporate power, the mythic roots of American identity, and how hope - and solar panels - might just save us all.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on P...
Published: Oct 29, 2025Duration: 1:26:13
Cory Doctorow: Enshittification is Not Inevitable

E339 - Cory Doctorow: Enshittification is Not Inevitable

Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, unpacks the systemic forces behind digital monopolies, regulatory capture, the erosion of user rights, and how collective action and policy change can reclaim technology for the public good.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Supp...
Published: Oct 22, 2025Duration: 1:17:28
The Intentional Collapse

E338 - The Intentional Collapse

Rushkoff offers a new way to interpret what appears to be the intentional dismantling of society as we know it: an elite who have lost faith in the system that has served them until now, and who believe a controlled demolition of government and the economy will position them better for the chaos ahead. He argues that just because the elite are committed to the end of the world, Team Human doesn't have to be. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change D...
Published: Oct 15, 2025Duration: 21:09
Can Collapse Benefit Everyone? Luke Kemp: Goliath's Curse

E337 - Can Collapse Benefit Everyone? Luke Kemp: Goliath's Curse

Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, explores why civilizations fall, what history gets wrong about collapse, and how distributed, cooperative societies have often thrived where empires failed.Names referenced in this episode:Jan Talon, Elon Musk, Genghis Khan, Niccolò Machiavelli, Andrew Carnegie, Francis Bacon, Harvey Whitehouse, Benedict Anderson, Audrey Tang, Edward Teller, Steve Bannon, Andrew Cuomo, Rudy Giuliani, Lot (biblical figure), King Tut, Jacob (biblical patriarch), Noah Yuval HarariTeam Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Dia...
Published: Oct 8, 2025Duration: 1:04:15
Will AI Kill Us for the Lulz? Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

E337 - Will AI Kill Us for the Lulz? Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Nate Soares, computer scientist and author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, discusses the existential risks posed by artificial intelligence, the possibility that untethered AI development can lead to catastrophic outcomes for humans, and what it might mean for AI development to outpace human control.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/<b...
Published: Oct 1, 2025Duration: 54:27
Jonathan Larsen: The Easy Way or The Hard Way

E336 - Jonathan Larsen: The Easy Way or The Hard Way

Jonathan Larsen, Founder of The Fucking News, brings perspective, humor, and humanism to the tragic and ridiculous phenomena unfolding in the world.Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhumanFollow Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff:Instagram: http...
Published: Sep 24, 2025Duration: 52:27
AI Just Ate Language: The End of the Age of Horus

E335 - AI Just Ate Language: The End of the Age of Horus

Rushkoff invites us to join him in metabolizing the challenges and opportunities of our AI-driven moment. In this monologue, Rushkoff highlights the dangers of treating LLMs as all-knowing beings and the ways they reinforce our biases and narcissism. Team Human is proudly sponsored by Everyone's Earth.Learn more about Everyone's Earth: https://everyonesearth.com/Change Diapers: https://changediapers.com/Cobi Dryer Sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Use the code “rush10” to receive 10% off of Cobi Dryer sheets: https://cobidryersheets.com/Support Team Human on Patr...
Published: Sep 17, 2025Duration: 22:52