Episode 22: Balancing on the Abyss, with Dave Karpf

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Welcome back to Dreaming Against the Machine. I'm your host, Adam Becker. This week's guest is our first returning guest. It is Dave Karp, again, who you may remember from a very early episode where we talked about a couple of books that we both didn't like. And this week... Dave, who is a professor of political communication at George Washington University and the author of several books. Dave and I are going to be talking about both the horrors of staring into the abyss of the tech industry and the current political moment, but also what we do to be able to keep doing that work in our daily lives, because that work is tough. It is soul crushing. And so we need things that can restore our souls. Whether or not you believe in a soul, I think it's important to work on taking care of it. And so that is what we're talking about this week. We're talking about balance. And so here's Dave. I blame vibe coding.

It is 2026. Everything's just slightly worse all the time.

If only there were a word for that coined by someone who's been on this podcast. Yeah, this could be awesome. Use all of this. It's perfect. Yes. Welcome to Dreaming Against the Machine. This is our first repeat guest. Dave, welcome back. You know what this means. What does this mean? It means that your book didn't suck.

That's true. That's true. Excellent callback. You are one of the few people who has read it so far. Yes. And I'm honored and relieved to be invited back. Yes. Because we did say what it would mean if I wasn't.

Yes, that's right. Turns out your book does not suck. But we are not here specifically to talk about your book, although I think we should have