The Anti-Dystopians
Episodes
Astronauts on Strike! Spaceports, Colonial Telescopes and Labor Unions in the Stars
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr Kate Sammler, a geographer who looks at the intersection of science and politics in the oceans, atmospheres,...
"We Cannot Rely on Five Nerds": AI Urbanism from Amazon Go to Tech Sovereignty
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Casey Lynch, the Ramon y Cajal researcher in the Department of Geography at the Universi...
A World of VCs in Miniature: Silicon Valley's Ideology
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Olivier Jutel, a lecturer at the University of Otago and an expert in cyberlibertarianism. They discuss the ide...
But Daddy, I Love Him (My ChatGPT Boyfriend): Robots and Loveability
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Dr Jenny Carla Moran, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the Trinity Long Room Hub and a faculty member at TCD-TU Dubl...
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The eye of the tiger: conservation tech, rural surveillance & the patriarchy in Indian wildlife reserves
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
FROM THE ARCHIVE: In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr Trishant Simlai, a conservation researcher studying the politics and geographies of wildli...
Why Finance Guys Are Trying to Offshore the Planet
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Connor O'Brien, a PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge researching a conceptual history of good governance ...
From the Archive: Nationalize Gmail!!!
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Alina Utrata talks with Josh Lappen, a fellow Californian and environmental historian researching at Oxford University, who studies ...
On Dystopia, Fearing the Future and Political Imagination
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Anti-Dystopians talks to an expert in dystopia! Matthew Cole is a scholar of political theory and an Assistant Professor of Humanities ...
An Intellectual History of LLMs
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata interviews Amira Moeding, a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Cambridge where they held fellowships with Cam...
Abolish AI!!: Decomputing with Dan McQuillan
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Dan McQuillan, a senior lecturer in Critical AI at Goldsmiths University and the author ...
Public, Private and DOGE - Hybrid Sovereignty with Swati Srivastava
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Alina Utrata talks to Swati Srivastava, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University and a Faculty Associate at Ha...
From DOGE to Subsea Cables: Global Infrastructures and Corporate Control
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Andrew Dougall, a departmental lecturer in international relations at DPIR and associate member at St Antony’...
The Final Fun-Tier: WALL-E, Treasure Planet and Disney’s Nazi Rocket Scientist
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Rowena Squires, a PhD Candidate in Children’s Literature at Cambridge University. They discuss the strange le...
South Africa and Silicon Valley: From Gold Mines to Elon Musk
01 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr. Tim Karayiannides, a junior research fellow at Emmanuel College, about his recent article about the similar...
From the Suez Canal Company to SpaceX: Experts, Expertise, Science in the Political
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s podcast, Alina Utrata talks to Jan Eijking, a William Golding Junior Research Fellow and Martin Fellow at Oxford University. Jan’s ...
Engineering Territory: Silicon Valley in Space
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, your usual host is in the hot seat! Guest host Benjamin Tan, PhD Candidate at Cambridge, asks Alina Utrata abo...
Digital Misogynoir
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata speaks with Julia Slupska, Olivia Andrews and Hilary Watson about a recent report by Glitch UK en...
Political Economy, AI and the Politics of Knowledge
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata spoke with Catriona Gray, a PhD at the University of Bath working at the intersection of sociolo...
"Automating Apartheid": Facial Recognition Tech in Palestine
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Dr Matt Mahmoudi, the lead researcher on the Amnesty International report "Automating A...
Data colonialism and its discontents
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s episode of The Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata spoke to Paola Ricurate, an associate professor in the Department of Media and Digital C...
Feminism, Reproductive Rights and Tech
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Maha Atal is back to discuss feminism, reproductive rights and technology. Host Alina Utrata asks her: how has...
Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks Mary-Jane Rubenstein, a professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University and the author of the ...
A History of Libertarian Exit
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Raymond Craib, professor of American History and a Latin Americanist at Cornell University, about his most rece...
Elon Musk’s favorite philosophy: the perils of longtermism
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the podcast, Alina Utrata speaks with Emile Torres, a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hannover and the author of the forthcomin...
Period-Tracking Post-Roe: Reproductive Justice, Eugenics & Feminist Cybersecurity
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Julia Slupska, a DPhil Candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute researching feminist approaches to cybersecur...
The Anti-Fascist Approach to AI
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Anti-Dystopians is back from its summer hiatus! In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dan McQuillan, a Lecturer in Creative & Social Computin...
Social media and political publics in Kenya
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Steph Diepeveen, a senior research associate at Cambridge University, research fellow in...
Platform Socialism
10 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to James Muldoon, a senior lecturer at Exeter University and the author of “Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim Our Digital Future...
The Road to Nowhere: Paris Marx on the automobile, Silicon Valley and the future of transportation
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Paris Marx, host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us, about their upcoming book “Road to Nowhere: What Silico...
Time, Space and Social Media: The Politics of Technology and Temporality
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata chats with Nanna Saeten, a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge about her research on time,...
How (Not) To Regulate Big Tech (Europe’s version)
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Alina Utrata talks to Jennifer Cobbe, a senior research associate in the computer science department at Cambri...
Elon Musk, Twitter and the ‘Great Men’ of Social Media
24 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata sits down with John Naughton, a technology columnist at the Observer, senior research fellow in CRASSH and co-founder of the Minderoo Cen...
‘Corporations are Robots’: David Runciman on AI, states and the first singularity
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Runciman is a professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the host of the critically acclaimed podcast Talking Politics. In this episode o...
The Return of (Amazon) Ring
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata speaks with Lauren Bridges, a PhD candidate at the the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvani...
The Feminine Meme: Geeks, memes, incels and toxic masculinity at tech hackathons
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Dr Siân Brooke, a Leverhulme Fellow in the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics and an associate at the ...
The eye of the tiger: conservation technology, rural surveillance and the patriarchy in Indian wildlife reserves
06 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr Trishant Simlai, a conservation researcher studying the politics and geographies of wildlife conservation in...
Who is Amazon?
30 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Rowena Squires, an ancient historian, asks Alina Utrata everything you ever wanted to know about Amazon. How d...
Grab ‘em by the data: gender, technology and systems of oppression
22 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s episode, Alina Utrata talks to Stefanie Felsberger, a PhD in Gender Studies at Cambridge University, and Muskan Shafat, an MS in Data...
(Tech) Company Rule
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Dr Maha Atal, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow who studies the political economy of corporate power and was previously an...
Human rights and internet infrastructure
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Dr Corinne Cath-Speth, a recent graduate from the doctoral program at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and a cultural anthrop...
Snake oil or substance? Tech companies talk climate at COP26
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Josh Lappen, an environmental historian studying at Oxford University, returns to discuss the climate crisis and tech companies ahead of COP...
Financial imperialism on the blockchain: Bitcoin in El Salvador
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Alina Utrata is joined by Mallika Balakrishnan to talk about the protests over the adoption of bitcoin in El Salvador. What exactly is bitc...
The Digital Landscape of Southeast Asia: From Fake News to 5G
19 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back from our summer holiday! To kick off season 2 of the Anti-Dystopians, we’re zeroing in on some of the global aspects of technology—th...
Lost in Space: Audio Reading
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode, an audio recording of Alina Utrata's recent article in the Boston Review "Lost in Space" about the tech billionaires attempti...
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the Colonization of Outer Space
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To kick off the new season of the podcast, Alina Utrata and Shikha Srinivas discuss space colonization and the tech billionaires in outer space. Why a...
Can your computer see you?: A history of the screen, from radar to AR.
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Anti-Dystopians hosts Louisa Shen, a PhD candidate at Cambridge University who has written about the history of the screen. Louisa expl...
State, corporation, people: the global dimensions of tech regulation
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kyra Jasper, Josh Simons and Alina Utrata discuss the global dimensions of tech regulation. In this episode, they examine three case studies: Google a...
Nationalize Gmail!: Climate Change, Critical Infrastructure, and the USPS
07 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks with Josh Lappen, a fellow Californian and environmental historian researching at Oxford University, who studies some of the most i...
Is Facebook (and Google) a Public Utility?
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For this week’s episode, Alina Utrata talks to Josh Simons, a PhD candidate in Government at Harvard University and a Labour candidate for local off...
The Digital Periphery: Technology, Migration and Racial Capitalism
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr. Matt Mahmoudi, who just completed his PhD in Development Studies at Cambridge University as a...
Social Media and Social Movements: The Rise of the European Far-Right
02 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For this week’s episode, Alina Utrata talked to Julia Rone, a post-doc at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at Cambridge University. ...
Corporations, Content Moderation and Community-Centered Tech
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
2020 was one hell of a year (literally). Alina Utrata, Mallika Balakrishnan and Kyra Jasper break down some of the things that happened in 2020’s te...
No Tech for Tyrants
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Mallika Balakrishnan, one of the original founders of the collective No Tech for Tyrants. They discuss tech activism, problems w...
Biden and Big Tech
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anjali Katta and Alina Utrata talk about the Big Tech issues a Biden Administration will inherit, from the FTC and DOJ anti-monopoly cases against Fac...
Data flows: gender, colonization and the limits of surveillance capitalism
25 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks to Stefanie Felsberger, a PhD candidate at Cambridge University, about her research on surveillance, data flows and mensuration tra...
The Philosopher King of Silicon Valley
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata talks with Andrew Granato about the so-called Philosopher King of Silicon Valley: Peter Thiel. Thiel is one of the original co-...
The Politics of Tech Monopolies
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the first episode of the Anti-Dystopians, Kyra Jasper and Alina Utrata discuss the politics of anti-monopoly in tackling technology companies, foc...
Trailer
25 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Anti-Dystopians is the politics podcast about tech. We'll be discussing questions, like: is social media really destroying democracy? Should Faceb...