Podcast / Tech Won’t Save Us / Oct 16, 2025

Smart Glasses Are Ushering In an Antisocial World

On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us: Chris Gilliard on how tech CEOs are hawking their latest luxury line of AI-powered smart glasses.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Smart Glasses Are Ushering In An Anti-Social World w/ Chris Gilliard | Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss how tech CEOs are pushing a new generation of AI-powered smart glasses by promising they’ll be stylish and indispensable to workers in a desperate attempt to convince us we should want their luxury surveillance gadgets.

Chris Gilliard is the co-director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute and is working on a book called Luxury Surveillance.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

$799 Meta Ray-Ban Display AI glasses at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

(David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Paris Marx is joined by Chris Gilliard to discuss how tech CEOs are pushing a new generation of AI-powered smart glasses by promising they’ll be stylish and indispensable to workers, in a desperate attempt to convince us we should want their luxury surveillance gadgets.

Chris Gilliard is the codirector of the Critical Internet Studies Institute and is working on a book called Luxury Surveillance.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Tech Refusal Has a Very Long History w/ Thomas Dekeyser / Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

We are often told that resisting technological development is impossible and ‘progress’ is inevitable, but history says otherwise. Thomas Dekeyser joins Paris Marx to discuss how understanding radical resistances of the past can help us rethink our modern relationship with technology and reshape our vision of the future.

Thomas Dekeyser is a lecturer in human geography at the University of Southampton, author of Techno-Negative: A Long History of Refusing the Machine, and co-creator of the documentary Machines in Flames.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts

Paris Marx

Paris Marx is the author of Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires. He hosts the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and writes the Disconnect newsletter.

More from The Nation

President Franklin D. Roosevelt endorses New Deal candidates during a radio broadcast from his Hyde Park home.

How the New Deal Invented the National Security State—With Andrew Preston How the New Deal Invented the National Security State—With Andrew Preston

Andrew Preston joins Danny and Derek to trace the evolution of the American national security state, from the early republic to the Cold War and beyond.

Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison

The Plan for November—and After

The Plan for November—and After The Plan for November—and After

Ben Wikler lays out Democratic strategy, and John Nichols talks about progressive candidates for the Senate.

Jon Wiener

President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during the daily morning briefing at Palacio Nacional on July 15, 2026, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Borderlands—With Ken Salazar  Borderlands—With Ken Salazar 

Former Senator Ken Salazar joins Fighting Fascism to discuss immigration, the US-Mexico border, Democratic strategy, and the politics of Mexico under AMLO and Claudia Sheinbaum.

Free-press advocates project messages opposing the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger during the News & Documentary Emmy Awards held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 27, 2026, in New York City.

Fighting Monopoly Power Fighting Monopoly Power

Zephyr Teachout on how to combat the corporate consolidation.

Jeet Heer

The US Resumes the Iran War, the Ebola Outbreak Surges in the DRC, Andy Burnham Becomes the UK’s PM

The US Resumes the Iran War, the Ebola Outbreak Surges in the DRC, Andy Burnham Becomes the UK’s PM The US Resumes the Iran War, the Ebola Outbreak Surges in the DRC, Andy Burnham Becomes the UK’s PM

Danny and Derek round up the week’s global news, from Iran, Gaza, and Yemen to Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, the ICC, and shifting US-China influence.

Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison

A demonstrator holds a placard during a march against the implementation of digital ID cards, in central London on October 18, 2025.

Tech Refusal Has a Very Long History—With Thomas Dekeyser Tech Refusal Has a Very Long History—With Thomas Dekeyser

Paris Marx is joined by Thomas Dekeyser to explore how past movements that resisted technological change can reshape how we think about technology and progress today.

Paris Marx

x