This episode turns a critical eye on the dominant discourse around UBI in the context of AI-driven job disruption, investigating whose interests these narratives actually serve. Talking to experts on UBI policy and AI-elite rhetoric, Joe gets behind the sales pitch, asking whether the UBI we're being offered is a genuinely transformative proposal, or a moral alibi for existing power imbalances? Could it entrench tech-elite power if implemented uncritically and undemocratically, and what would a better alternative look like?

Chapters

• (00:00) - Intro
• (03:17) - Techno-supremacy doctrine
• (14:03) - Empires of AI
• (20:06) - Tech-elites' motivations & worldviews
• (29:34) - Homogeneity
• (35:42) - Supposed inevitability of tech
• (42:43) - UBI as a progressive economic policy?
• (48:41) - Outro

Host Joe Williams shares the story that sparked the series: watching his freelance translation work dry up in late 2025 as AI reshaped his industry. In this audio-documentary style podcast, Joe uses this opportunity to ask bigger questions. If automation does hollow our the job market, what happens to the social contracts around work? If work is not only a paycheck, but also a source of identity as it is for many people, what might we be able to do to build up societal resilience now?

Joe begins to explore these ideas through reflection, The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as well interviews with Andrew White and Héctor Pérez-Urbina.

Chapters

• (00:00) - Intro
• (10:22) - Inequality in the digital economy
• (15:02) - Automation, AI and Work
• (17:04) - The Meaning of Work
• (20:24) - Relationships with Work
• (21:44) - Work Culture
• (23:25) - Work and Moral Value
• (26:10) - Work as Self-Realisation
• (28:03) - Value of Non-Paid Work
• (32:43) - Paid vs Non-Paid Work
• (38:44) - AI-Elites and UBI Discourse
• (42:29) - Outro