Alex saw Michael Jackson perform live in 1996. He was 14, obsessed, and desperately wanted to be one of those lucky boys he always saw by Michael's side. As the years went on, he became very glad he wasn't.

With the MJ biopic crossing a billion dollars at the box office and two active lawsuits still pending against his estate, Alex and John ask the question nobody in a theatre queue seems to be asking: what exactly are we all agreeing to ignore?

In this episode we cover the decades-long pattern of behaviour, the 1993 Jordan Chandler settlement, the evidence presented at the 2005 trial, the Australian boys, Leaving Neverland, and the $16.5 million payout to the Cascio family that almost nobody knows about.

And underneath all of it: the uncomfortable truth that his music is so woven into the fabric of our lives that the world has quietly decided the evidence just isn't worth looking at.

Michael Jackson | MJ Biopic 2025 | Leaving Neverland | Jordan Chandler | Gavin Arvizo | Wade Robson | Cascio Family Lawsuit | Michael Jackson Documentary | Don't Press the Machine Podcast

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This week on Don't Praise the Machine, we're asking the question nobody in the productivity space wants to answer: is optimization culture actually making your life worse?

When a clip of Steven Bartlett went viral, explaining how three glasses of wine with friends "ruined him for three days," the internet didn't push back on the sobriety. They pushed back on the measurement. The Whoop band. The sleep scores. The idea that a normal Thursday night had become a biometric failure.

We dig into whether treating your life as a quantifiable system to be hacked and continuously improved is quietly destroying the things that make life worth living. Friendship, spontaneity, and the occasional loaded fry.

If you've ever felt guilty for enjoying yourself, this one's for you.

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Rebel Wilson , star of Fat Pizza, Bridesmaids, and now defendant in her own defamation trial — is back in an Australian courtroom, this time on the wrong side of the lawsuit.

We break down the full saga: a Bondi Beach hives incident, an Outback debutante ball musical, nasty websites, a Ghislaine Maxwell comparison, and PR staffers privately texting that their own client is completely unhinged.

Joining the breakdown is a practicing Australian barrister who has been quietly calculating his own defamation exposure since agreeing to appear on this episode — and deploying the word "allegedly" as a legal shield throughout.

⚖️ Topics covered:

• Rebel Wilson's defamation history & previous court win
• The Charlotte vs. Rebel lawsuit explained
• How Australian defamation law actually works
• Why this case could cost Rebel millions
• The wildest cast of characters in recent celebrity litigation

🎙️ Don't Praise the Machine is your survivor's guide to the cultural apocalypse.

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