Naomi Klein

Things Naomi Says on Podcasts

Available now: "End Times Fascism". Bestselling author of: "Doppelganger," "This Changes Everything," "On Fire," "The Shock Doctrine," "No Logo." UBC Professor of Climate Justice. I tried to warn you...

Where to Find Them

Naomi Klein hosts and writes Patterns by Naomi Klein , writes Zeteo , writes Robert Reich , writes Doomscroll , writes W. Kamau Bell asks, "Who's With Me?" , writes The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali , writes https://zeteo.com , writes Zeteo UK and writes Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast . They have also been a guest on On the Media (3 times) , Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer (2 times) , What Next | Daily News and Analysis , Drilled , Climate One , Galaxy Brain , A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein , The Intercept Briefing , The Ezra Klein Show , On with Kara Swisher , The Interview , Mehdi Unfiltered , Tech Won't Save Us , Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 , Future Ecologies , Impolitic with John Heilemann , Offline with Jon Favreau , Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar , Prospect Magazine’s Substack and Piers Morgan Uncensored .

Recently: ““Go To HELL!” Netanyahu West Bank Terror | Ben-Gvir Aide vs Owen Jones + Naomi Klein” on Piers Morgan Uncensored (October 2026); “The Armageddon Economy” on Galaxy Brain (October 2026); “Continuing the Fight for the Living World with Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor” on Patterns by Naomi Klein (October 2026); “How to Live Forever (or Die Trying)” on On the Media (October 2026); “Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor on ‘End Times Fascism’ | Tell Me Why: a new Prospect podcast” on Prospect Magazine’s Substack (October 2026); “How the End Times Became the Far Right’s Philosophy” on What Next | Daily News and Analysis (October 2026).

What They Said

“I don't think we have ever had as much of the global economy based on a bet of something that is supposedly about to happen, but that doesn't line up at all with the product that is actually being sold, right? So that sort of sense of living in the about to, living in the imminence, I don't think we've ever been so sort of not where we are, but in the about to be. And that does feel quite religious.” — Naomi Klein, Galaxy Brain

Charlie Warzel had called AI a "faith-based technology" that is always sold on its future version. Klein replies that capitalism has always promised things are about to get better, but earlier booms at least shipped products that delivered on the pitch.

Galaxy Brain · 2026-10-23 Permalink → Listen →
Galaxy Brain Around 11:56 into the episode
Charlie Warzel

…industry, as the main way that venture capital flows in and that people gain a foothold in the industry and power. And so I think that that is really interesting, the way that there is that parallel there, that the tech industry has sort of taken on a religious nature in how just how it behaves.

Astra Taylor

…technology feels like really apt, right? It's just like, just believe, just put all the money in there, just put all the resources in there. Like, you know, don't doubt, don't doubt what we're making. But I think the lesson maybe here is as simple as like, don't worship capitalists, right?

Speaker 2

But I think the imminence point is really is really key because I, I mean, there's always an imminence in capitalism where it's just kind of always about to get better. You know, the trickle down is going to happen, like just sort of pray to those gods, right? But so there were still like actual material products that were legible that were kind of delivering the things that they said that they were going to deliver and that people were paying money for. So I don't think we have ever had as much of the global economy based on a bet of something that is supposedly about to happen, but that doesn't line up at all with the product that is actually being sold, right? So that sort of sense of living in the about to, living in the imminence, I don't think we've ever been so sort of not where we are, but in the about to be. And that is, that does feel quite religious.

Charlie Warzel

And there's an odd dynamic to all of this as well, as you mentioned the economics of the AI boom and the. Everything being built towards this speculative future. But there's also now, because of the amount of investment, because of how predicated the economy is on NVIDIA and the magnificent seven…

Speaker 2

Well, and it's not our imagination. I mean, we are being conscripted into this dream, whether we like it or not. I mean, the way the SpaceX IPO was structured, right? Where just like rather than having a wait period before the stock is in everybody's pension who has a pension, right? They change…

Charlie Warzel

I'm curious in your minds, what is the world that the tech right is trying to build? As in this whole group investing in all these different technologies, from the things that Musk is doing to things that Palantir are doing. What is the world that you see them trying to build right now?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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