Podcast / Start Making Sense / Oct 7, 2026

AI: What Is to Be Done? Plus Protest Under Assault

On this episode, Garrison Lovely argues that the real threat of AI is making human labor obsolete, and Annie Leonard says we need to defend and use our right to protest.

Demonstrators against the rapid expansion of AI data centres in the UK and the environmental and social impact of Artificial Intelligence in London, UK, on February 28, 2026.

(Wiktor Szymanowicz / Future Publishing via Getty Images)

The real threat of AI is not the destruction of humanity, but rather replacing human labor with machines—that’s what Garrison Lovely argues.  He’s the author of Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion Dollar Race to Replace Us—and How to Stop It.

Also: Our right to peaceful protest is under assault. To save it, we need to “respect it, defend it, and more than anything—use it.” That’s what Annie Leonard says—she’s a longtime activist who spent 17 years with Greenpeace USA, then she helped launch the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. And she’s co-author of the new book, Protest.

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AI: What is to be Done? plus Protest Under Assault / Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

The real threat of AI is not the destruction of humanity, but rather replacing human labor with machines—that’s what Garrison Lovely argues. He’s the author of Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion Dollar Race to Replace Us—and How to Stop It.

Also: Our right to peaceful protest is under assault. To save it, we need to “respect it, defend it, and more than anything – use it.” that’s what Annie Leonard says – she’s a longtime activist who spent 17 years with Greenpeace USA, then she helped launch the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. And she’s co-author of the new book, “Protest.”

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Jon Wiener

Jon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.

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