Technoprogressive Hub Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Global Cultures at Macquarie University in Australia, a cultural anthropologist whose work maps the role popular culture plays in shaping gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book, Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021), examined how commercial gay media and the bar culture of Shinjuku shapes gay male identity in Japan. His second book, Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023), is the first book-length study of the Thai BL phenomenon, drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork documenting the shift of queer cultural production in Asia from Japan to Thailand. He also co-edited East Asian Pornographies and Online Porn Cultures (Routledge, 2023) and Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia. He is currently working on two new book projects: an edited collection titled Riding the Thai Wind: Globalising Thai Media, Transnational Fandom, and Soft Power, and a monograph titled Queer Fantasies of Asia: Japanese and Korean Media Fandom in the Philippines.

Show Notes

* Thomas Baudinette’s personal website thomasbaudinette.com

* Academia.edu profile https://mq.academia.edu/ThomasBaudinette

* Boys Love Media in Thailand (Bloomsbury, 2023) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/boys-love-media-in-thailand-9781350330641/

* “Exploring the rise of activism for LGBTQ+ rights in contemporary Thailand within Boys Love idol culture” (Celebrity Studies, 2025) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2025.2521219

* Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2022) https://www.press.umich.edu/12040318/queer_transfigurations

* Marriage Equality, Thai BL Culture, and Queer Soft Power

* The Untamed https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10554898/

* Khemjira https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33258229/

* The Paradise of Thorns https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32362515

Today on Technoprogressive Hub I’m speaking with Dr. Evie Kendal, a bioethicist and public health scientist at Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology. She is the author of the provocative and influential monograph, Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis, in which she argued that artificial wombs are a potential requirement for genuine social and gender equality. In her latest volume, Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs (Bloomsbury, 2025), Dr. Kendal pivots to the “imagination as a laboratory.” She critiques the traditional bioethical reliance on sterile clinical vignettes, arguing instead that the “thick” narratives found in science fiction—from the cautionary tales of Aldous Huxley to the liberating visions of Marge Piercy and Octavia Butler—provide a more robust framework for anticipating the social and political shocks of emerging biotechnologies.

Show Notes

Evie Kendal’s recent publications https://experts.swinburne.edu.au/6209-evie-kendal/publications

Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9x0hed0AAAAJ&hl=en

Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis, Evie Kendalhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137549877

Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs, Evie Kendalhttps://www.bloomsbury.com/us/science-fiction-and-the-ethics-of-artificial-wombs-9781350542990/

“Artificial Womb: A Short History,” J. Hughes https://philarchive.org/rec/HUGAWA

Join James Hughes and George Dvorsky for a timely discussion on the Technoprogressive Hub podcast, at the intersection of technology and progressive politics. They explore the Left's identity crisis in Canada, the politics of universal access to GLP-1 drugs, and the evolving landscape of AI regulation.

Links

“What Ever Happened to the Transhumanists?” by George Dvorsky

George on Wikipedia 

George at Gizmodo  

Today on Technoprogressive Hub, Matteo and J unpack Cory Doctorow’s enshittification thesis, the emerging concept of technofascism, and the connection between them. 

“The Age of Enshittification” by Kyle Chayka. 

“The Enshittifcation of Government” by Christian Sarkar 

“Technofascism comes to America” by Kyle Chayka

“Technofascism: AI, Big Tech, and the new authoritarianism” by Mark Coeckelbergh

Richard (RJ) Eskow is a journalist and policy consultant, and host of The Zero Hour, a nationally syndicated radio and television program. He has served as a Senior Fellow with Social Security Works and the Campaign for America’s Future, and is a member of the IEET Board of Directors. 

We talk about the challenge of promoting technoprogressive solutions to progressives who associate the technologies with billionaires and fascism. We address universal basic income, regulating AI, Buddhist approaches to the self and machine sentience, and Medicare4All. 

Links: 

RJ Eskow https://www.rjeskow.com/bio

The Zero Hour https://thisisthezerohour.com/

RJ Eskow at Common Dreams https://www.commondreams.org/author/richard-eskow

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies is working to create a technoprogressive policy agenda. This Technoprogressive Hub podcast will be hosted by IEET Executive Director J. Hughes, a sociologist and ethicist, interviewing people about technoprogressive ideas. For this initial podcast Dr. J. is joined by Eli Zupnick, a Washington DC-based political operative, and Matteo McDermant who teaches in Albuquerque, New Mexico and produces the Bread and Robots podcast and Substack.

As anxiety about data centers, AI-driven precarity, and tech oligarch authoritarianism mount, progressives have mostly responded with proposals to slow down AI. Bernie in particular has been channeling some of the existential risk concerns of Eliezer Yudkowsky, Geoffrey Hinton and Max Tegmark, and with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, promoting regulation of data center construction.

On the other hand, California Congressman and US Presidential aspirant Ro Khanna, Congressional candidate Alex Bores, and Massachusetts state legislature candidate Jason Poulos have emerged with technoprogressive policy proposals, universal basic income and services, progressive taxation and sovereign wealth funds. Some Big Tech firms, like OpenAI, are also now pushing for UBI and technoprogressive policies, while others like Palantir have fully embraced a techno-libertarian/authoritarian policy agenda.

Show Notes

IEET Summer Course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding - June 20-August 20, 2026 - Online The Technoprogressive Opportunity - Sept 19-20, 2026 - London UK https://www.meetup.com/london-futurists/events/314148857/

Ro Khanna’s “AI for the People” agenda https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ro-khanna-ai-democracy-blueprint/

Alex Bores’ AI Dividend https://www.axios.com/2026/04/20/alex-bores-ai-dividend-plan-wealth

Alex Bores’ AI Policy Framework https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores_AI_Framework.pdf

Jason Poulos, MA-4 Dem candidate platform https://poulos.house/

OpenAI’s Proposed Industrial Policy https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/

Alex Karp/Palantir’s mini-manifesto https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4

Technoprogressive Hub is an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by J. Hughes. Also check out Bread and Robots, an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by Matteo McDermant.

Today on Technoprogressive Hub we’re speaking with Aleksandra Przegalińska, a philosopher and social scientist of AI. Dr. Przegalińska is Vice Rector and the head of the Human-Machine Interaction Research Center at Kozminski University in Poland. Currently she is Senior Research Associate at the Center for Labour and Just Economy at Harvard University. She works on the future of work, humanoid and social robots, and wearable technologies. She is co-author of the book Collaborative Society and Debating Universal Basic Income.

Links

Collaborative Society (MIT Press), Aleksandra Przegalińska and Dariusz Jemielniak

Debating Universal Basic Income: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives, Aleksandra Przegalińska and Robert Wright

Aleksandra Przegalińska on Google Scholar

Aleksandra Przegalińska on Researchgate

This week on Technoprogressive Hub, Eli, Matteo and J discuss the legislation proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to restrict the building of AI data centers. “Opposing AI’ is Luddite, not technoprogressive, but the sentiment against oligarchs, AI and data centers is so strong now that we may need to accept some Luddite positioning to get the Left to promote desirable AI safety and regulation.

Links

“Seizing the Data Center Buildout for Grid Modernization” by Jane Flagal https://www.searchlightinstitute.org/research/seizing-the-data-center-buildout-for-grid-modernization/

“AI data center fight blurs political lines” Axios https://www.axios.com/2026/01/16/ai-data-center-fight-blurs-political-lines

“New Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center Construction” WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/new-bernie-sanders-ai-safety-bill-would-halt-data-center-construction/

“AI & robotics briefing: Data centres’ huge ‘water footprint’ becomes clear amid AI boom” by Katrina Krämer https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03768-y

“AI Data Centers: Big Tech’s Impact on Electric Bills, Water, and More” by Nicole Greenfield https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/

“AI data center” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AI_data_center&oldid=1346973952

“AI, Data Centers, and the U.S. Electric Grid: A Watershed Moment” by Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/ai-data-centers-us-electric-grid

“Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez push bill to impose AI data center moratorium” by Matthew Daly https://apnews.com/article/data-centers-ai-electricity-sanders-aoc-65651bd28c3d911d18eeb46cd54f4c75

“Why is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use?” by Hank Green

ProWorker AI?

This week on Technoprogressive Hub, Eli, Matteo and J are discussing proposals for pro-worker artificial intelligence laws. Recently David Autor, Daron Acemoglu, and Simon Johnson and the UK Trades Union Council have proposed a set of regulatory and legal reforms to protect workers from automation and enhance human expertise. Arguably technoprogressive, will they only work briefly until AI surpasses human labor? 

Links

“Building a pro-worker AI innovation strategy” UK Trade Union Council

“Can A.I. Be Pro-Worker?” by John Cassidy

“Can We Have Pro-Worker AI? Choosing a path of machines in service of minds” by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson (Hamilton Project)

“Building pro-worker artificial intelligence” by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson (NBER)