Plutopia News Network

Civitech’s Jeremy Smith explores how technology, trust, and grassroots organizing can overcome voting barriers and engage overlooked voters. youtu.be/qvSaiobzoNo?...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: In "Below," a mysterious, destructive presence menaces a small Newfoundland community as a massive, semi-organic iceberg appears offshore. youtu.be/U57CNxSgoss?...

A Plutopia News Network panel explores participatory medicine, showing how informed patients, online communities, and collaboration with clinicians can improve care, advance long COVID research, and address barriers exposed by the pandemic. youtu.be/FgzNITjTqKY?... #SPM #participatorymedicine

EFF’s Nicole Ozer discusses AI, surveillance, digital rights, and building coalitions to ensure technology empowers people. youtu.be/gvTa5Y5xYa0

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Plutopia's Jon Lebkowsky has published a top 10 list of old sci fi/monster films, "Monsters from the Id" just in time for Halloween.. unshaved.substack.com/p/monsters-f...

Plutopia preview: Jen Thompson discusses how surviving a near-fatal crash led her to leave Republican politics, question inherited beliefs, and seek an authentic life. youtu.be/VvGXhghbVUQ?...

On the Plutopia News Network podcast, Cory Doctorow explores AI’s impact on workers, corporate power, and privacy, arguing for collective action and worker control of technology. plutopia.io/cory-doctoro...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: A South Korean border town near the DMZ is torn apart by a giant humanoid alien. What follows is a story of survival, fate, and "Hope." youtu.be/zXUdRQPLBjk?...

Preview of our discussion with Paulina Borsook focusing on the re-release of her book "Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech." youtu.be/ing-Equ02tk?...

What did Cyberselfish see coming? Paulina Borsook returns to Plutopia to revisit her critique of Silicon Valley’s libertarian culture and discuss tech billionaire power, AI hype, and an industry’s troubled relationship with the society that sustains it. plutopia.io/paulina-bors...

From Linotype to AI: what can printing’s past teach us about media’s future? Jeff Jarvis joins Plutopia to discuss Hot Type, Mark Twain’s costly bet on typesetting, and the possibilities for media built around communities. plutopia.io/jeff-jarvis-...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "Lanterns" evolves from slow burn to wild ride as one mystery follows another. youtu.be/-05WmSAmLK4?...

Tripping back in time, here's a highlight reel from the 2010 Plutopia "Science of Music" event: vimeo.com/11506968?fl=...

Finn Myrstad explains how Big Tech exploits our data and attention—and how stronger rules could help us reclaim the internet. Preview: youtu.be/CFcJ6cRysT0?...

Excerpt from last week's Plutopia podcast: youtu.be/l6NB3XgxYqc

Dr. Leonie Tanczer discusses how smartphones, connected household devices, surveillance tools, location trackers and AI can facilitate domestic abuse, allowing perpetrators to monitor, manipulate and intimidate victims. plutopia.io/leonie-tancz...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Richard Wolinsky's SPACE SHIPS! RAY GUNS! MARTIAN OCTOPODS is a book of interviews with legendary sci-fi authors and editors outlining the origin and growth of the genre. bookshop.org/a/52607/9781...

This week on Plutopia News Network: Cyborg anthropologist Amber Case talks about calm technology and much more. youtu.be/96wDV2IUCvc?...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is back with season 4. In episode 1, "Valles Marineris," a space-storm induced time shift throws the Enterprise and crew to the distant past in a familiar place. youtu.be/7FaPm2QTy5w?...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: On YouTube, an HD restoration of "Not of This Earth," a Roger Corman low-budget sci-fi film about a literally bloodthirsty alien. youtu.be/jVWN2Tx8ABk?...

Counselor Candy Marcum discusses providing affirming mental health care and her belief that LGBTQ people need support in accepting themselves. plutopia.io/living-your-...

Team Plutopia looks at the changing political landscape in Texas as foundation for a broader discussion of democracy, public policy, and the state’s future. plutopia.io/texas-at-a-c...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "Backrooms" is a horror film that manifests a wicked maze of surreal rooms that open on rooms that open on other rooms. A building that needs a psych evaluation. youtu.be/0HjdiohVOik?...

Team Plutopia looks at the changing political landscape in Texas as foundation for a broader discussion of democracy, public policy, and the state’s future. plutopia.io/texas-at-a-c...

A wide-ranging look at the changing political landscape in Texas, using Jon Lebkowsky’s experience as a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention as a springboard for a broader discussion of democracy, public policy, and the state’s future. plutopia.io/texas-at-a-c...

Hugh Forrest reflects on four decades helping shape South by Southwest and the challenges of scaling creative communities without losing authenticity. plutopia.io/hugh-forrest...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: After re-watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (before seeing "Disclosure Day"), it occurred to us that those aliens might be stocking an interplanetary zoo. youtu.be/dSpQ3G08k48?...

Security researcher and educator Steve Bellovin discusses the increasingly centralized and balkanized internet, practical and social problems with age verification, the limited role of consumer VPNs, and the history and evolution of cryptography. plutopia.io/steven-bello...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: In "Disclosure Day," a government contractor fights to prevent full disclosure of the truth about aliens visiting earth, while a hacker and a meteorologist rush to revelation. youtu.be/icDuEHSxE-w

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Is "The Mandalorian and Grogu" science fiction, space western, or film noir? However classified, it's a great way to blast through the post-Star-Wars worlds created for the original Mandalorian stories. Pulp cinema. youtu.be/uwild1rw7Aw?...

Discussion of how AI transforms participatory medicine by giving patients new tools to understand medical research, manage personal health data, challenge institutional failures, and act with greater agency. #participatorymedicine #patientsuseAI plutopia.io/patient-powe...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" is a wild romp through a surreal version of the techn-mediated present with a mission-driven man from the future. youtu.be/Nm4WbapDzDQ?...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Cheesy but prescient "Creation of the Humanoids," with its comicbook production design Andy Warhol's favorite sci-fi film, features a human/AGI love story in a future where AGI robots fill in for humans lost in a nuclear war. youtu.be/pAaJsPTDvp0?...

Cindy Cohn discusses her new book, “Privacy’s Defender,” and reflects on her decades of work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, from the landmark Bernstein encryption case to fights against NSA mass surveillance and national security letters. plutopia.io/cindy-cohn-p...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Plutopia's Jon Lebkowsky wrote “2001 Blues” around year 2000, reflecting how "2001: A Space Odyssey" shaped his sci-fi dreams, and the more ambiguous, disappointing reality of actual year 2001. weblogsky.com/2026/05/06/2...

Immunologist David Miles discusses his book Sneeze: The History and Science of the Common Cold, discussing “the common cold” as a broad category of respiratory viral illness. He also comments on the recent hantavirus outbreak. plutopia.io/david-miles-...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Is it science fiction? Or is it an interplanetary Western? "The Mandalorian and Grogu" follows Din Djarin and his mini-Jedi pal as they work for the New Republic. youtu.be/uwild1rw7Aw?...

Dr. Edward Lenert discusses engagement with large language models and what that experience reveals about AI, thought, trust, creativity, and danger. plutopia.io/ed-lenert-ai...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice" is a crazy sci-fi gangster buddy comedy flick. The sci-fi element is a spoiler, so you'll have to trust us. youtu.be/pI-2t18TXqs?...

Helen Pearson (@helenpearson.bsky.social) discusses her book “Beyond Belief,” which traces the rise of evidence-based decision, arguing that evidence-based practice is both more recent and more fragile than many people realize. plutopia.io/helen-pearso...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Vietnam era soldiers fight dinosaurs, Russians, and wormhole-enabling technology in "Primitive War." Over a dozen types of rowdy dinosaurs, for fans of CGI VFX. youtu.be/ixXxdWY6d68?...

Journalist Tereza Pultarova discusses her path from covering space exploration to reporting on defense technology after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. plutopia.io/tereza-pulta...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: "The Lost Episode of Star Trek" is actually a whacky montage of bits clipped from various episodes. "Captain, are you all right? What about the ship?" youtu.be/AUMZaR52YaA?...

Stephen Dulaney says AI is a powerful but risky partner that can boost human work, but it still needs judgment, ethics, testing, and oversight. plutopia.io/stephen-dula...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: Steven Spielberg manifests his fascination with UFO possibility in "Disclosure Day," set for summer blockbuster release. At SXSW he said "I have a very strong sneaking suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now." youtu.be/RWgbu7uWLw0?...

In this Plutopia podcast episode, futurist and data analyst Anne Boysen argues that today’s AI systems, especially large language models and emerging AI agents, are being adopted far faster than their reliability, transparency, and testability justify. plutopia.io/anne-boysen-...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: If the invading enemy in a film is an alien from outer space, as in "War Machine," does that make it science fiction? Or is it an explosive, mindless action film? youtu.be/AFuE1LRxm80?...

Marc Abrahams discusses the Ig Nobel Prizes, awards that honor real achievements that make people “laugh and then think.” Also the “Annals of Improbable Research,” highlighting unusual but meaningful work ranging from pasta physics to fingernail growth studies. plutopia.io/marc-abraham...

Plutopia News Network Sci-Fi Saturday: “Project Hail Mary” sends a mission from Earth to Tau Ceti to solve a cosmic mystery threatening our sun. The fate of two civilizations may depend on an unlikely interstellar partnership. youtu.be/m08TxIsFTRI?...