Podcast / Tech Won’t Save Us / Feb 20, 2025

How DOGE Is Remaking the US Government

In this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Makena Kelly on DOGE, government employees, and the American public.

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.

How DOGE is Remaking the US Government w/ Makena Kelly | Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

Paris Marx is joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and the wider public. 

Makena Kelly is a senior writer at WIRED and writes the weekly Politics Lab newsletter.

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A protestor holds a sign during a rally against Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in New York City on February 19, 2025.

(Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu via Getty Images)

On this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, we are joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and the wider public.

Makena Kelly is a senior writer at Wired and writes the weekly Politics Lab newsletter.

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.

Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein w/ Tim Schwab | Tech Won’t Save Us
byThe Nation Magazine

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss the evolving story of Bill Gates and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the issues that arise from allowing billionaires to use philanthropy to push personal political agendas and launder their reputations.

Tim Schwab is the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

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Paris Marx

Paris Marx is a tech critic and host of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast. He writes the Disconnect newsletter and is the author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation.

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