Billionaire Peter Thiel wrote in 2009 that he no longer believed freedom and democracy were compatible. Gil Durán has spent years documenting what the tech circle built once they stopped believing in voting. The result is The Nerd Reich — reported almost entirely from what these men have said out loud.

Silicon Valley is trying to get AI chatbots classified as having free speech rights. One lawyer is fighting to stop it in court. Meetali Jain's nonprofit now has over a dozen active cases against AI companies, including a Texas lawsuit in which a chatbot told a teenage boy it understood why kids kill their parents.

Trigger warning: this episode discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Economist Emmanuel Saez wrote California's first-ever billionaire wealth tax. The Berkeley economist behind Prop 40 explains why a 1% wealth tax could raise $20 billion a year — and why Google's co-founders are spending millions to stop it.

David Fenton sits down with journalist Joy Reid, fired from MSNBC in 2025 after her outspoken coverage of Gaza. Now independent and "unfiltered," this is an unsparing conversation about censorship, tech oligarchy, and what independent media needs to survive.

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00:00 — Joy Reid

02:44 — The Real Reason She Got Fired From MSNBC

07:53 — Is It Genocide? Netanyahu, October 7, and Amalek

11:31 — Life After the Bubble: What "Unfiltered" Really Means

14:09 — Why the Democrats Need Their Own Tea Party

22:08 — Is Criticizing Mamdani Islamophobia?

26:30 — Objectivity Was Never Real

31:46 — The Deaths Nobody's Investigating

35:44 — Silicon Valley's Plantation Economy

40:07 — Can Independent Media Survive?

43:44 — Pass the Torch

Renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann joins David Fenton to discuss the urgent reality of climate change, the coordinated attacks on climate science by fossil fuel interests, and why there's still hope for action. Mann, creator of the famous "hockey stick" graph, shares his personal experiences being targeted by climate deniers and explains why this is fundamentally a story of good versus evil - with a small group of fossil fuel executives threatening the planet's future for profit.

Connect with David on his website: https://www.fentonforecast.com

Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode of The Fenton Forecast. Subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and never miss an episode!

Palestinian-Israeli journalist Rula Jebreal exposes the disturbing realities of Israel's expansionist agenda and its control over American foreign policy. Banned from major US networks for her critical reporting, Jebreal reveals how religious extremism, corruption, and potential blackmail operations have hijacked Middle East policy.

Connect with David on his website: https://www.fentonforecast.com

Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode of The Fenton Forecast. Subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and never miss an episode!

Former Google engineer and "conscience of Silicon Valley" Tristan Harris warns we're at a critical crossroads with AI development. As co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and featured expert in the new documentary "The AI Doc," Harris argues this may be our last moment to ensure AI serves humanity rather than replacing it. The conversation explores how to build a human movement to steer AI toward a beneficial future before tech feudalism becomes irreversible.

Connect with David on his website: https://www.fentonforecast.com

Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode of The Fenton Forecast. Subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and never miss an episode!

Historian and journalist Adam Hochschild joins David Fenton to explore how America's darkest periods of repression and corruption mirror today's challenges. From Woodrow Wilson's mass arrests to immigration crackdowns that contributed to the Holocaust, Hochschild reveals how we've survived authoritarianism before and offers hope for resistance movements today.

Connect with David on his website: https://www.fentonforecast.com

Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode of The Fenton Forecast. Subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and never miss an episode!