Cargo Cult – Détails, épisodes et analyse
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Cargo Cult is a podcast hosted by Naomi Karavani and Michele Greenstein that pulls back the curtain on these often forgotten forces shaping our digital world.
A cargo cult is what happens when people copy the visible parts of something they think is successful — without understanding the deeper systems that actually make it work.
The term comes from World War II. Allied forces landed on remote Pacific islands, bringing with them cargo: food, medicine, equipment, and more. To the islanders, this sudden arrival of wealth and technology seemed magical. They noticed planes landing on runways, soldiers in uniforms, and people waving flags. After the war ended and the soldiers left, some islanders built fake airstrips and wooden control towers, hoping the cargo would return. They copied the form, not the function.
Today, “cargo cult” is used as a metaphor — especially in science, business, and tech — to describe similar behavior: loving the surface level symbols of surface of success but missing what actually made it happen.
So what does this have to do with Big Tech?
A lot.
In the tech world, there’s a tendency to imitate what successful companies look like on the outside — without really understanding what made them powerful in the first place. Teams copy Google’s culture, Amazon’s strategies, or Facebook’s experiments — but often miss the context that made those things effective.
We believe the real engines of Big Tech’s rise are rarely talked about: deep partnerships with the state, access to elite networks, and the invisible support of powerful institutions. Our podcast, Cargo Cult, is about exposing this reality — and pushing back on the myth that tech’s biggest winners got there through merit, hustle, or pure technical innovation alone.
The truth is, many of these companies were shaped from the beginning by their relationships with the U.S. government and intelligence community. Google got early funding connected to DARPA. Amazon’s cloud arm, AWS, landed massive contracts with the CIA and Department of Defense. Palantir was funded by In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture fund. Microsoft has long been a major federal contractor and now runs one of the largest government cloud platforms on the planet.
These companies weren’t just building better software. They were aligning with the long-term agendas of state power — especially around surveillance, data collection, and behavior control. And yet, all over the world, tech founders and governments keep chasing and advertising the aesthetic of Big Tech: innovation labs, AI initiatives, moonshot pitches, and “disruption” — without understanding the political and financial structures that actually enabled these companies to dominate.
This is the heart of cargo cult thinking.
It’s not that Big Tech didn’t have talented engineers or good products. And we have nothing against open-plan offices or slick pitch decks. But the story we’re often told — of scrappy underdogs changing the world with nothing but brains and code — leaves out everything that made that kind of success possible in the first place. Regulatory capture, government funding, military contracts, surveillance programs, the workings of capitalism, and aligning with long-term elite agendas — these are the real foundations of Big Tech, and it's the stuff we like to talk about on the show. We also talk about pop culture sometimes.
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Complain at cargocultpod@gmail.com
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Historique des publications
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Requiem for a Friend
Saison 2 · Épisode 24
mardi 3 septembre 2024 • Durée 58:47
Friendship is so important. Photo: Avi Schiffman
STOP SPYING!!!!! (ft. Albert Fox Cahn)
Saison 2 · Épisode 23
mardi 27 août 2024 • Durée 01:00:00
We ask Albert Fox Cahn, founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), about how local policing has turned into local surveillance, the campaign to ban facial recognition in New York State, personalized "AI" pricing, opting out at airport security, and more.
- Cahn's Business Insider piece on home insurance spying: https://www.businessinsider.com/homeowners-insurance-nightmare-cancellation-surveillance-drone-ai-future-2024-8
- Cahn's Business Insider piece on AI pickpocketing: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-quietly-picking-your-pocket-with-personalized-pricing-2024-7
- Cahn's WIRED piece on expanding surveillance after January 6: https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-capitol-attack-doesnt-justify-expanding-surveillance/
- STOP's Pregnancy Panopticon Report: https://www.stopspying.org/pregnancy-panopticon
- Ban the Scan NY: https://www.banthescan.org/
Mark the Cable Guy (Underwater Internet P2)
Saison 2 · Épisode 14
mardi 28 mai 2024 • Durée 59:05
Private U.S. corporations like Google and Meta mediating access to the internet is lowkey goated when digital colonialism is the vibe. Photo: Mark Zuckerberg
ChatGPT Lost Her Voice
Saison 2 · Épisode 13
mardi 21 mai 2024 • Durée 59:49
Scarlett Johansson is suing OpenAI for using a voice "eerily similar" to hers for ChatGPT 4o. We also yap about NYC Mayor Eric Adams's voice clone speaking Yiddish, ElevenLabs turning every news article into a podcast, BBL Drizzy, Joaquin Phoenix's high-waisted pants, and Google entering its "Gemini era."
Deep Blue CIA (Underwater Internet P1)
Saison 2 · Épisode 12
mardi 14 mai 2024 • Durée 59:53
We're talking about the iPad commercial, German anti-Tesla activists, AI dating concierges, and the underwater internet cables of the deep sea bourgeoisie. Photo: Jeff Bezos
Digital Money Honey
Saison 2 · Épisode 10
mardi 23 avril 2024 • Durée 01:06:40
We talk about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which will enable a new level of financial surveillance and social control. And we’re joined by John F O’Donnell, a guy with horrible karaoke etiquette. We promise we're not a con op lim hang !!! Photo: Jerome Powell
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Kitty History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Lvv1f5Qu4
Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Act of 2023: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5776?s=1&r=42#:~:text=Introduced%20in%20House%20(09%2F27%2F2023)&text=This%20bill%20directs%20the%20Department,the%20ages%20of%2018%2D65.
A Proposal for CBDC based UBI: https://www.institute.global/insights/tech-and-digitalisation/proposal-web3-based-universal-basic-income
IMF’s CBDC Virtual Handbook: https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/fintech/central-bank-digital-currency/virtual-handbook
“Greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884
Digital Currency vs. Existing Electronic Currency: https://www.nttdatapay.com/blog/types-of-digital-currency/#:~:text=What%20distinguishes%20digital%20currency%20from,those%20connected%20to%20the%20Internet.
The Federal Reserve Dissing Crypto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SxNyL3YFaM
IMF Dissing Crypto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4NpCf5Phj0
BIS Dissing Crypto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mvSsM1uqGo
The benefits of a cashless society: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/benefits-cashless-society-mobile-payments/
Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/
Atlantic Council Donors: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/2022-annual-report/
IMF Working Hard on Global CBDC Platform Concept, Georgieva Says: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-19/imf-working-hard-on-global-cbdc-platform-concept-georgieva-says?embedded-checkout=true
BIS Survey on CBDCs: https://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap136.pdf
BIS Explained: https://www.bis.org/about/index.htm
BIS Livestream, “Central bank digital currencies, digital payments, and the future of money”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVD1ZFPzcbg
Biden Executive Order on CBDCs: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/03/09/executive-order-on-ensuring-responsible-development-of-digital-assets/
Statement from Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on the Release of Reports on Digital Assets: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0956
US Policy Objectives for a CBDC System: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/09-2022-Technical-Evaluation-US-CBDC-System.pdf
The IMF on Nigeria’s CBDC: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/11/15/na111621-five-observations-on-nigerias-central-bank-digital-currency
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announces “Catalyst: Inclusive Cashless Payment Partnership” for India: https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/india/press-releases/oct-14-2016-usaid-launches-catalyst-drive-cashless-payments-india
Indian PM Modi Announces Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 to be Pulled Out of Circulation immediately: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/rs-500-and-rs-1000-notes-pulled-out-of-circulation-immediately-pm-narendra-modi/articleshow/55315473.cms
The Federal Reserve on Programmable CBDC: https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-20220120.pdf
JP Morgan on Programmable Money: https://www.jpmorgan.com/onyx/programmable-payments-purpose-bound-money
Bank of England calls on ministers to decide whether a CBDC should be programmable: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/21/bank-england-tells-ministers-intervene-digital-currency-programming/#:~:text=Bank%20of%20England%20tells%20ministers%20to%20intervene%20on%20digital%20currency%20'programming',-Digital%20cash%20could&text=The%20Bank%20of%20England%20has,is%20spent%20by%20the%20recipient.
Eswar Prasad on the “Future of Money” at the WEF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyANVmHJB3c
Factchecking the Eswar Prasad Quote: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-world-economic-forum-cashless-society-false-cbdc-592718364311
Ron DeSantis on CBDC and “Woke Banking”: https://www.c-span.org/video/?532981-1/governor-ron-desantis-campaigns-hampton-nh
Republican Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Ban a CBDC in the U.S.: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/27/republican-lawmakers-introduce-legislation-to-ban-a-cbdc-in-the-us-again/
Trump Campaign Vows to Block CBDC: https://thehill.com/business/4416139-trump-vows-to-block-creation-of-digital-dollar/
Trump Admin Floats Idea of “USDC,” US Digital Currency: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/17/22888225/jared-kushner-us-treasury-mnuchin-government-federal-cryptocurrency-trump-white-house
Better than Cash Alliance: https://www.betterthancash.org
Digital Dollar Project: https://digitaldollarproject.org
The IMF’s Tobias Adrian on a Synthetic CBDC: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2019/05/13/sp051419-stablecoins-central-bank-digital-currencies-and-cross-border-payments
The IMF’s Tobias Adrian used to be at the NY Fed Before the IMF: https://www.tobiasadrian.com/About
John’s 17 Plugs: https://linktr.ee/therealjfod
Lavender & Just Walk Out Shopping
Saison 2 · Épisode 9
mardi 16 avril 2024 • Durée 01:16:18
We talk about Israel’s automated kill lists generated by an “AI” assassination machine named Lavender and Amazon’s automated checkout experience called “Just Walk Out.”
Robodoggy Style
Saison 2 · Épisode 8
mardi 2 avril 2024 • Durée 01:21:27
Talking about Truth Social and killer robots.
Yer Grounded
Saison 2 · Épisode 7
mardi 26 mars 2024 • Durée 59:28
Boeing has certainly helped kill people in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But did it also kill a Southern funcle? Fasten your seatbelt, because this Boeing story has it all. Plane crashes, union busting, offshoring, whistleblowers, and a mysterious parking lot death. We also talk about the Justice Department’s new lawsuit against Apple for monopolizing smartphone markets. Btw rejected titles for this episode include No Plane No Gain, Error Plane Mode, Airline Fractures, Plane in the Neck, and Boeing Pains.
TikTok & the Face Race (ft. Pat Burtscher)
Saison 2 · Épisode 6
mardi 19 mars 2024 • Durée 01:03:44
Here we discuss the TikTok ban and Clearview AI, a US company with a database of more than 40 billion facial images from the public internet. We also listen to big tech kingmaker Peter Thiel explain why artificial intelligence and facial recognition are "kind of communist." And we're joined by Pat Burtscher (https://www.instagram.com/patburtscher/), the nation's foremost cabbage diet expert. Photo: Hoan Ton-That
For nerds who like to sign petitions: https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/









