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Why historian Jill Lepore thinks Big Tech CEOs read sci-fi all wrong | Equity Podcast

Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products — almost as if they’re forming a new government. And whether you’re thinking of Twitter’s old “town hall in your pocket” or Anthropic’s Claude constitution, it’s a theory that doesn’t paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering…

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Historian Jill Lepore has a theory about why tech companies often use soaring language to describe their products — almost as if they’re forming a new government. And whether you’re thinking of Twitter’s old “town hall in your pocket” or Anthropic’s Claude constitution, it’s a theory that doesn’t paint Silicon Valley in a very flattering light.

In Lepore’s upcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker writer argues that tech companies are gradually taking on the functions of democratic government — whether that’s Twitter giving a distorted picture of the electorate or Facebook displacing local news. In her view, these leaders often mistake technological advancement for political progress, all while outright declaring their intention to replace the nation-state.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha talks with Lepore about her book and why she thinks today’s AI leaders — who promise a future where AI makes government more efficient, more responsive, and maybe even unnecessary — are selling an old fantasy in new packaging.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

0:49 Defining the “artificial state”

2:17 Why corporations quietly took over state functions

4:43 Could the internet have gone another way?

9:01 From the 1984 Macintosh ad to Anthropic’s constitution

10:20 The Twitter “town hall” myth

13:36 Structuring the book: history meets science fiction

17:46 The Machine Stops, and other bad manuals for the future

19:16 Musk, Heinlein, and misreading sci-fi

19:41 Why Lepore thinks the artificial state is “doomed”

21:51 Data centers, local politics, and the death of local news

24:44 Revisiting disruptive innovation, ten years later

26:54 Outro

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. @katiecannon8186

    August 9, 2026 at 6:49 am

    My MAGA family definitely feels like they’ve voted to moving the functions of the state to the corporation.

    It’s just that they don’t pay attention to logical oxymorons, so they also think they’ve voted for “taking back our government”

    Reply

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CNET

Unboxing Apple’s $149 HomePod Mini 2 in Green

Apple’s new HomePod Mini 2 is equipped with a full-range driver and dual passive radiators, made for 360-degree sound. It measures about 4 inches across, and will come equipped with the S10 chip, which Apple says analyzes music in real time to optimize it. Unbox it with us in their new green color. #unboxing #onemorething…

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October 30, 2026

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Apple’s new HomePod Mini 2 is equipped with a full-range driver and dual passive radiators, made for 360-degree sound. It measures about 4 inches across, and will come equipped with the S10 chip, which Apple says analyzes music in real time to optimize it. Unbox it with us in their new green color. #unboxing #onemorething #apple #homepodmini2 #smartspeaker

🎥: Bridget Carey

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CNET

iPhone Duo Livestream: How Many Folds Can Apple’s Phone Take? Day 5

Apple’s iPhone Duo is out and we want to see how durable it is. So we built a robot to fold it 20,000+ times a day to test its limits. How long do you think it will last? 100,000 folds? 200,000 folds? 500,000 folds? Tune in and watch the testing live. We’ll have CNET’s editors…

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Apple’s iPhone Duo is out and we want to see how durable it is. So we built a robot to fold it 20,000+ times a day to test its limits. How long do you think it will last? 100,000 folds? 200,000 folds? 500,000 folds? Tune in and watch the testing live. We’ll have CNET’s editors online to answer any of your questions.

Join us weekdays from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM PT / 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET.

Read more about the iPhone Duo Folding Test on CNET.com
The iPhone Duo Is Now in Our Custom-Made Foldable Phone Test Machine. Will It Beat the Galaxy Fold 8?

iPhone Duo Review: Late to the Foldable Party, but It Steals the Show

Check out the 3D Printer Matthew Murray used to print the sled that iPhone Duo is sitting on:
Looking for the Most Accurate 3D Printer? Our Exclusive Testing Reveals One Clear Winner

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Host: Matthew Murray
Producer: Stephen Beacham
Thumbnail Designer: Zooey Liao

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#apple #iphone #iphonefold #iphoneduo #applefoldable #foldablephone #foldable #folding

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Science & Technology

Anthropic’s IPO filing puts the AI business model to the test | Equity Podcast

After weeks of speculation and leaks, Anthropic finally released the S-1 filing for its IPO, showing revenue of $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, with a net loss of $80.7 billion. At around the same time, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sparked a backlash after boasting about using her AI app Dazzle to…

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October 30, 2026

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After weeks of speculation and leaks, Anthropic finally released the S-1 filing for its IPO, showing revenue of $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, with a net loss of $80.7 billion.

At around the same time, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sparked a backlash after boasting about using her AI app Dazzle to answer questions about her daughter for a school presentation.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and Anthony Ha dig into the long-awaited financial details behind one of the industry’s biggest companies, looking at both the enormous opportunities and the many, many risks. They’re also joined by Amanda Silberling to discuss a more basic question facing the industry: Are AI execs too out-of-touch to build products for normal people?

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all the casts. You can also follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
2:47 Marissa Mayer’s Dazzle backlash
8:47 Product problem or messaging problem?
12:46 Anthropic’s S-1
15:09 Revenue growth, losses, and the acquisition spree
20:02 The S-1’s most notable risk factors
23:57 Apollo economist: where’s the AI payoff?
25:36 Bedrock Robotics raises $600M for self-driving excavators
30:12 Rebuild raises $2.1B for domestic manufacturing
34:11 Outro

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