Saudi Arabia Is Using Games to Improve Its Image
On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us: Nathan Grayson discusses Saudi Arabia’s (e)sportswashing.
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Saudi Arabia is Using Games to Improve Its Image w/ Nathan Grayson | Tech Won’t Save Us
Paris Marx is joined by Nathan Grayson to discuss how Saudi Arabia is buying its way into the sports, comedy, and video game industries in order to broaden its investment portfolio and launder its international reputation.
Nathan Grayson is a cofounder of Aftermath and the author of Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen.
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Visitors watch Magnus Carlsen and Nihal Sarin at the Esports World Cup 2025 online chess event on July 31, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
(Zhe Ji / Getty Images)Paris Marx is joined by Nathan Grayson to discuss how Saudi Arabia is buying its way into the sports, comedy, and video game industries in order to broaden its investment portfolio and launder its international reputation.
Nathan Grayson is a cofounder of Aftermath and the author of Stream Big: The Triumphs and Turmoils of Twitch and the Stars Behind the Screen.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.
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.
The UK Government’s AI Obsession Is a Big Risk w/ Will Dunn / Tech Won’t Save Us
What happens when a government goes all in on AI? It creates some huge vulnerabilities. Will Dunn joins Paris Marx to dig into how the UK government is using chatbots to write laws without public consultation and why it isn’t asking the hard questions about the risks of that growing reliance on US technology.
Will Dunn is the business editor at the New Statesman.
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