It’s a Native America Calling tradition to invite Pueblo musician Jir Anderson and his troupe of songwriters into the studio to play live during their run in Albuquerque. Native Guitars Tour always presents a diverse set of musicians with a focus on guitars. We’ll hear about what’s new with the tour and listen to some live music.
The gang get together to discuss RFK’s plans for people with autism, immigration detention of citizens, the legal battle over rendition, FBI raids in Michigan, tariffs and Mia drops some economy knowledge.
Privacy Guy continues the conversation about encryption and state-level powers. Art Vandelay notes recent issues with tariffs and supply chains. Multiple Conspiracy Realists follow up with Ben and the gang on the actions of an insurance-adjacent business called Evicore. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
In which the documentary films of the Arctic are revealed to be full of lies, leading to one misunderstood rodent, and John thinks about a vole in a bowl. Certificate #25575.
As scores of talented musicians and artists assemble in Albuquerque during the Gathering of Nations Powwow, we’ll sample some of the musical offerings happening on stages around town. We begin with two established and popular shows featuring hip-hop and metal music: the Gathering of MCs and Merciless Savages. We’ll talk with organizers from each of the shows and take in some of the new music and some old favorites.
We return to an old enemy of the show by discussing the latest developments in the crypto industry. We trace how crypto has evolved from a grift largely focused on defrauding retail investors into a grift now focused on creating financial infrastructure to facilitate very direct and obvious forms of political influence peddling. Of course, the Greater Idiot Theory still holds as many investors still think that bitcoin is a hedge against the stock market and a reservere of stable value in a volatile economy, but the crypto industry is now driven by the needs of the greatest idiots of them all: Donald J. Trump and Family.
Also, here are links for the pictures we were joking about in the beginning: https://x.com/captgouda24/status/1913254322864894178 and https://x.com/luke_d_ismas/status/1913406583188369497
••• Crypto Crime is Legal | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-81/
••• Trump’s Newest Grift: Building a Cryptocurrency Empire While Destroying its Regulators | Molly White https://www.citationneeded.news/trump-crypto-empire/
••• TMK in the New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/how-to-survive-the-ai-revolution
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
Robert walks through several of the likeliest scenarios for what we're going to see over the next six months to a year, from domestic unrest and fascism's next power grab to the age of weird terrorism.
What if you had the perfect spy? Not some glitzy James Bond-type, but instead a person -- or an entire family -- spending decades in a hostile country, slowly acquiring information and status, while waiting for the right signal from command. It's one of the most fascinating stories in all of tradecraft: the "sleeper spy," a concept made famous in works of fiction like The Americans. As Ben and Noel discover in tonight's episode, it turns out the conspiracy is real - welcome to Operation Ghost Stories.
The PBS program "Frontline" examines the financial, cultural, and human toll of climate change on the western Alaska coastline and the Native people that have always called it home. Hopi producer Patty Talahongva takes a fresh look at the warming temperatures, increasingly destructive storms, and retreating wildlife that are forcing a drastic change in how some Alaska Native live. We’ll hear about the issue from those involved in the documentary.
Crafting. Motorcycle repair. Banjo lessons. Hobbies aren’t a reward, but tools to save your mental and physical health. Journalist/author of “The Connection Cure,” — and professional Salugenology expert — Julia Hotz explains the science behind going outside, rediscovering what makes you happy, scheduling time for hobbies if you have no time for hobbies, free support, how quarantine affected mental health, what if social interaction gives you the willies, what if depression keeps you from doing the things that lift depression, the scientific deal with cold-plunging, where to volunteer, saving money by joining knitting circle or fishing club, if protesting is a good hobby, how capitalism can literally kill us, and why she hates the title of her own book.