The Ned Ludd Radio Hour
Episodes
Just a Love Machine (Feeding Your Fantasy)
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Would you date a chatbot? That might sound an unlikely proposition but new research suggests that 1 in 10 Gen Zers has engaged romantically with an AI...
Inside the Anti-AI Protests
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, hundreds of anti-AI protestors took to the streets of London to protest the growing ubiquity of the technology. Is this the start of a Lud...
The Death of the Authors
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is the age of literacy – the primacy of the written word – ending? Put another way, are we entering a new world where frayed attention spans, tech...
Who's Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Much of how we see the world is governed by a sense of fear. It’s what keeps me driving within the legal limits. Fear of a crash and fear of the rep...
Militant Luddism: do we need to smash up the machines?
24 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When I started this podcast, I was feeling a bit gloomy about the way that technology was heading, but I wasn’t gripped by full-on panic. Yet h...
Do We Need to End Our Subscription Addiction?
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the Ned Ludd Radio Hour a piece on 'subscription addiction' and spreadflation. Are consumers being screwed over by the rise and rise of d...
Luigi Mangione and the Gray Tribe
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A couple of weeks ago, Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old American, allegedly shot Brian Thompson, the CEO of a major health insurer in the US. Suddenly, a...
Unsubscribe! (but not to this podcast, please)
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julio Vincent Gambuto is a New York based author and marketing professional. His new book is Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!: How to Take Back Our Time, A...
The Case for Reading: do we need to rediscover a love of books?
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here in the UK we have an estimated adult literacy rate of 99%, which the US is at 86%. Amongst UN member states, the average is 86.7%. Adult literacy...
The Fall of the House of Apple: has the Silicon Valley giant become deeply uncool?
15 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
it’s time to talk about Apple. Apple that big, sleek, glossy company with a current market cap of some $3.3 trillion dollars. The same Apple with wh...
The Uncertainty Paradox
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The impact that technology has on psychology is a new field of research, and one where the multi-decade studies required to give definitive answers ar...
A Brief History of (predominantly Artificial) Intelligence
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we're speaking to Kester Brewin, an author who works for the delightfully named Institute for the Future of Work here in London. He’s just ab...
The Age of Enshittification
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
'Enshittification' is a word coined by the Canadian writer and technologist Cory Doctorow to describe, to filch Wikipedia’s definition, “the patte...
The Kids Aren't Alright
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I don’t want to be too pearl clutching in all this, but there are some kids who never touch grass, figuratively or literally. I see these groups of ...
The Work from Home Revolution
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Look, let’s get real: if you’re a bricklayer or a pilot or a veterinary nurse or a paediatric orthodontist or the pest control guy who delicately ...
The Hedge Bet on Humanity
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is an atypical episode of The Ned Ludd Radio Hour to kick things off in 2024. Rather than an interview, or a missive from Ned, this is just an au...
The Media's Annus Horribilis
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My guest for today’s discussion, which looks back on 2023, which has been labelled by some (including everyone’s favourite Substacker Matt Yglesia...
Won't Somebody Please Think of the Workers?!
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jathan Sadowski, my guest today, is an academic and our conversation is going to sound a bit academic. He’s a senior fellow at the Emerging Technolo...
The Lost Art of Making Stuff
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My guest today made a chicken sandwich. It took him 6 months and cost him $1500.Now, this wouldn’t usually be cause for inviting someone onto a podc...
The Infinite Scroll Doom Loop
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This morning, upon waking – it’s currently 7:50am as I type, but not as I read – I lay in bed for the first half hour and scrolled through Insta...
The Wikipedia Dilemma
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today, I want to talk about Wikipedia – not because I think it’s under any real threat from Elon Musk or other external forces. Instead, I want to...
Our Smartphone Addiction
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I’m a smartphone addict. I admit it. I’ve just checked my screentime on my Apple iPhone SE and it’s 1 hour and 28 minutes per day on average, a ...
The Right to Work
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is The Ned Ludd Radio Hour – your weekly dose of tech scepticism, cynicism and absurdism. Hosted by me, Nick Hilton. This is a podcast for peop...
Introducing... The Ned Ludd Radio Hour
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once a week, and with the help of guests from across the world of technology and power, I’ll relay a message from the new NED LUDD, a shadowy figure...