An AI revolution is underway, but so is the resistance. People across the country are feeling the strain of the huge energy-sucking data processing centers that AI requires, and telling their elected officials to slow down or stop new big tech projects for firms like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. Data from a 2025 Pew study shows that only 17 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years. But its a David vs. Goliath battle. Todays guests say AI expansion is not a red or blue issue; its about who gets to decide how human and natural resources are distributed, who controls the technology, and who stands to benefit. Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of the labor-focused news platform More Perfect Union, and serves as a political advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. John Cassidy, staff writer at the New Yorker, is the author of the recent book, Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI, in which he draws our attention back to the Luddites, the 18th century workers whose revolt deserves our closer attention. Plus, our correspondents coverage of a shocking scene at a public comment meeting in Wisconsin when a local woman was arrested and dragged away. If AI is the new face of capitalism, what is the new alternative?
The Laura Flanders Show explores actionable models for creating a better world by reporting on the people and movements driving systemic change. We spotlight the solutions of tomorrow, today. The 28minute radio program (released 5pm Wednesdays) also airs as a TV Show on PBS stations reaching 80% of U.S. households. Laura Flanders is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center. Says Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation, who has known her for 25 years, “Flanders’ fearless and humane journalism never fails to challenge our downsized politics of excluded alternatives. But it does more — Flanders wants her reporting to shift power, seed bold ideas and offer people a way forward that is about transformative not transactional change”.