The Peter McCormack Show

Sebastian Thrun has spent his career working on technologies that once sounded like science fiction, from self-driving cars and flying vehicles to online education and artificial intelligence. He now believes we are living through a technological singularity: an exponential acceleration that makes predicting even the next five years almost impossible.

Peter and Sebastian discuss why a $100 Claude subscription can already challenge work done by $200,000-a-year software engineers, what happens when lawyers, copywriters and drivers lose their jobs, why Europe is falling behind America and China and whether autonomous vehicles could eventually make human driving too dangerous...

Aubrey de Grey believes ageing is accumulated damage in a biological machine and argues that medicine may eventually become capable of repairing that damage faster than it appears. He gives humanity a 50/50 chance of reaching what he calls “longevity escape velocity” within the next 12-15 years.

Peter and Aubrey discuss why the body ages, the seven categories of damage that must be repaired, stem-cell and gene therapies, the mouse experiment that could transform the field, and why Aubrey believes rejuvenation treatment will ultimately be available to everyone rather than reserved for the wealthy.

They...

Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, host of The Michael Shermer Show and author of Truth and Conspiracy. He joins Peter to ask whether we are really living in a post-truth world and how we can distinguish genuine conspiracies from stories that stretch a small element of truth far beyond the evidence.

Michael explains why real conspiracies such as MKUltra and COINTELPRO make institutional distrust harder to dismiss, how political beliefs become tribal packages and why technology may be making the search for truth both easier and more exhausting. They discuss media bias...

Brian Keating joins me to explore one of the deepest unanswered questions in physics: what is time, and why does it only appear to move in one direction? Brian argues that time may not exist as a fundamental feature of reality and explains why understanding space, matter and energy does not mean we understand the universe itself.

We discuss what may have existed before the Big Bang, why something cannot truly come from nothing and how Brian’s work with the Simons Observatory could detect gravitational waves produced during the universe’s earliest moments. Brian also expl...

Sam Bowman joins me to discuss why Britain is approaching two lost decades of stagnant median wages and why the country is now far poorer than it should be. Sam argues that Britain does not lack talented people, capital or ideas; it has created a centralised political and regulatory system that makes building, investing, hiring and experimentation increasingly difficult.

At the centre of Sam’s argument is his “housing theory of everything”. Britain’s refusal to build enough homes in its most productive cities has made housing unaffordable, delayed family formation, reduced social mobility, weakened productivity and tran...

Britain did not simply leave its working class behind. Sociologist Lisa McKenzie and historian and former coal miner Keith Gildart argue that political and economic decisions deliberately dismantled the jobs, institutions, culture and communities that once gave working-class life security, identity and meaning.

They trace the destruction of Britain’s industrial economy, the decline of trade unions, Labour’s abandonment of its traditional voters and the disappearance of secure work, affordable housing and genuine social mobility. They also examine immigration and low wages, class prejudice, education, the rise of Reform and why so many people no long...

Charles Goodhart joins me to discuss why Britain’s decline did not start in 2008, why the post-war economic boom may have been a temporary lucky era and why the next 30 to 40 years could be far harder than people expect.

Charles explains how ageing populations, falling birth rates, rising dependency ratios, public debt, defence spending, climate costs and political short-termism are creating a fiscal crisis that governments do not want to admit. We discuss why central banks may struggle to keep inflation under control, why politicians cannot win elections by telling voters the truth, and why democracy it...

David Goodhart joins me to discuss whether AI is about to do to the graduate class what globalisation did to factory workers, and why Britain’s political settlement may be breaking apart.

David explains why Britain has overproduced people with generalist academic skills, how the “anywheres” came to dominate politics, culture and the economy, and why the “somewheres” have increasingly turned to Brexit, populism, Reform and Restore as a reaction against a country they no longer feel represents them.

We also discuss whether anything has actually got better in Britain over the last 15 years, why...

Amy Webb joins me to discuss why artificial intelligence is not just another technology shift, but a civilisation-level reordering of work, power, wealth, biology and society.

Amy explains why the real AI question is not simply which jobs disappear, but which people become vulnerable. We discuss thinkers vs think-nots, why human capital may stop being the main driver of productivity and wealth, how GDP and unemployment could rise together, and why the economy may thrive while having less use for human labour.

We also get into China’s AI strategy, why governments are fa...

Thomas Pacchia joins me to discuss why the world feels fake, why trust in institutions is collapsing and why AI may make the crisis far worse before it helps solve it.

Thomas explains why politics, media, censorship, government waste, algorithmic manipulation and broken public services are pushing people into a world where almost nothing feels reliable. We discuss America’s political divide, Britain’s failing state, welfare traps, the blob, free speech, the collapse of trust and why so many people feel trapped inside systems they no longer believe in.

We also get into...

Sam Lyman joins me to discuss how China is allegedly targeting America’s AI buildout, the activist networks fighting data centres and why the race for AI infrastructure has become a national security battle.

Sam explains how Chinese influence campaigns, open-source AI models, data centre protests and far-left activist groups may be working together to slow the United States down. We discuss Neville Roy Singham, Code Pink, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, foreign influence, anti-data centre campaigns, and how billions of dollars in AI infrastructure have reportedly been delayed or blocked.

We al...

Nate Soares joins me to discuss the race to superintelligent AI, why alignment remains unsolved and why he believes building machines smarter than humanity could end in catastrophe.

Nate explains why modern AI is not programmed like traditional software, but grown through training processes we do not fully understand. We discuss AI escaping labs, recursive self-improvement, why today’s systems are only safe because they are not yet powerful enough to take over and why the danger may not be that AI hates us, but that it does not care about us at all.

...

Rizwan Virk joins me to discuss simulation theory, AI, consciousness and why reality may work more like a video game than a physical universe.

Rizwan explains how his experience in the video game industry, virtual reality, venture capital and MIT led him to take the simulation hypothesis seriously. We discuss VR ping pong, AI-generated worlds, smart NPCs, quantum physics, rendered reality, lazy programming, the observer effect, the metaverse Turing test and whether someone may have already built the simulation we are living in.

We also get into Philip K. Dick, déjà vu, sy...

Danny Goler doesn't just argue we're living in a simulation - he claims he's found a way to interact with whoever is running it and that we are the AI they're training before we're "let out to play." His case for simulation theory is built on the hard problem of consciousness, the DMT "code," and a laser experiment that thousands of people say they can replicate.

In this interview we discuss idealism vs physicalism, whether AI can ever be conscious, the "architect" running infinite worlds to answer one unanswerable question, why he thinks the Ten Commandments...

Rupert Russell joins me to discuss the hidden power of prices, the chaos of financial markets and whether the economy is really just a global game of Monopoly.

Rupert explains how price shocks have shaped history, from bread riots and the Arab Spring to housing, oil, food and the financial crisis. We discuss derivatives, futures markets, commodity speculation, Goldman Sachs, central banks, inflation, asset managers and why the price of essential goods can become politically explosive.

We also get into AI, scarcity, status, the future of work, whether the price system breaks in...

Fernando Nikolic joins me to discuss the AI productivity explosion, one-person companies and what happens when software becomes something anyone can build.

Fernando explains how he now runs a company as the only human in it, using AI agents to build systems, process data and operate at a level that previously would have required a team, funding and infrastructure. We discuss Claude, Gemini, vibe coding, AI agents, internal tools, the collapse of traditional software moats and why the cost of building has fallen so dramatically.

We also get into the SaaS apocalypse, AI...

Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right.

Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing have changed the way people think, speak and behave. We discuss woke ideology, DEI, equality vs equity, trans rights, queer theory, free speech, institutional capture and why suppressing ideas usually makes them more powerful.

I talk to Chris Summerfield about what artificial intelligence reveals about the human mind, and what the brain still does better than today’s AI systems.

We discuss why LLMs feel human, how models are trained to be helpful and agreeable, why memory and continual learning remain major unsolved problems in AI, and how sleep helps humans consolidate knowledge. They also explore agentic AI systems, rogue behaviour, reward hacking, misalignment, superintelligence, education, jobs, and whether AI will make humans more capable or less in control.

...

Julian Jessop joins me to discuss what has gone wrong with the British economy and whether the country can still turn things around.

Julian argues that Britain’s problems are largely self-inflicted: weak productivity, high taxes, too much regulation, poor energy policy, a bloated state and politicians choosing popular policies over evidence. We discuss why the state has become too big, why the tax system is holding back growth, and why government intervention in housing, energy and the labour market is making people poorer.

I also ask Julian about Reform, the Greens, Labour, th...

Tom Bilyeu joins me to discuss debt, money printing, broken politics, AI, Bitcoin and why the economy feels rigged against ordinary people.

Tom argues that every empire eventually faces the same test: whether it can hold the power of the money printer without printing itself into oblivion. We talk about inflation, the debt cycle, asset prices, populism, Britain’s decline, and why the working and middle class are being squeezed.

We also get into AI and the future of work. I talk through my own recent experience building a system in seven days th...

Frank Wright joins me after going viral for saying that reality, not extremism, is radicalising people.

We discuss Britain’s decline, Restore, Reform, immigration, national identity, liberal democracy, working-class dignity, debt, inflation, the failure of our institutions, and why Frank believes this is the last chance to save the nation.

I push Frank on what it actually means to restore Britain, how you build a big enough tent, why nationhood matters, and how we avoid this ending in conflict.

Whatever your politics, Frank has clearly touched a nerve - and I...

Simon Dixon joins me to discuss AI, Bitcoin, algorithms, media capture, central banking, programmable money, geopolitics and how to escape the system. Simon argues that the world is moving towards a more centralised architecture of artificial intelligence, social credit scores, programmable money and financial control.

Simon and I discuss why AI may be the most important opportunity of our lifetime, how small businesses can now build tools that once required entire teams, why politics may no longer be the route to change, and why the answer may be to build with AI, own assets that cannot...

Lord Malcolm Offord joins me to discuss why Britain and Scotland have stopped creating wealth.

They discuss state spending, political fragmentation, Scotland’s elections, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, QE, the Bank of England, first jobs, minimum wage, small businesses, quangos, the managerial class, Reform, the Greens, America, and whether Britain needs a welfare economy or a wealth economy.

...

Rupert Lowe joins Peter McCormack to discuss Restore Britain, Reform UK, immigration, Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service, tax, welfare, young people, the Green Party, the private sector, Bitcoin, inflation and whether Britain can still be saved.

Rupert argues that the state has become too powerful, Britain may no longer have the rule of law, the private sector is dying, and Restore’s mission is to return power to the people.

...

Narinder Kaur joins Peter McCormack to discuss racism, immigration, British politics, feminism, motherhood, young men, the cost of living, minimum wage, small businesses, Reform, Tommy Robinson, the Green Party and whether Britain is being divided by politicians, media and algorithms.

They disagree on plenty, but the conversation ends somewhere unexpected: perhaps left and right are not the real enemy - perhaps ordinary people are being played by the system.

...

Physicist Professor Melvin Vopson joins Peter McCormack to discuss information physics, simulation theory, AI, digital life, consciousness, God, free will, and death.

Melvin argues that the universe may be governed by information and computation, and that recent advances in brain emulation could force us to confront one of the strangest questions imaginable: if a brain is loaded into a simulation, what exactly wakes up?

...

Roman Yampolskiy believes reality itself may not be real.

One of the world’s leading AI safety researchers, Roman has spent years warning that humanity is racing toward systems we may never be able to control. But we go somewhere much stranger than artificial intelligence.

He believes the universe itself may be artificial.

We talk about simulation theory, digital physics, consciousness, AI agents and the terrifying possibility that reality is rendered rather than real.

Roman explains:

•⁠ ⁠Why he believes we may already be living inside a simulat...

Two brothers who escaped Russia say we have 2 years before AI replaces us - and we're paying the corporations building it.

Daniil & David Liberman sold their first company to Snapchat. Now they're racing to build a decentralised alternative to OpenAI and Google before the window closes. They explain why centralised AI ends in a two-tier world - a small elite with access, and the rest of us as "moving parts" - and why the next 24 months decide which path we take.

In this episode:

→ Why you can't opt out of AI an...

Graham Linehan wrote Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd. Five BAFTAs. Then he said women's spaces should be for women, and the industry that built him decided he was a bigot. He lost his marriage, his career and twenty-five years of friendships.

Once one of the most celebrated comedy writers of his generation, Graham became the first major artistic figure to be comprehensively cancelled for speaking out on sex-based rights - and has never gone quiet to claw his reputation back.

He explains:

•⁠ ⁠Why the people who built their careers...

The economy you grew up in is ending and most people have no plan. Bitcoin pioneer Michael Saylor reveals why you have 10 years to adapt before AI rewrites everything.

Michael Saylor is the founder of MicroStrategy and one of the most influential voices on money, capital and the future of value. A Wall Street outsider turned Bitcoin's most prominent corporate advocate, he is known for his sweeping frameworks on monetary debasement, technological disruption and how civilisations rise and fall - and what individuals must do to thrive inside them.

He explains:

•⁠ ⁠Why the...

In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Wilson to discuss what so many people are starting to ask but struggle to answer:

Why does modern life feel like it isn’t working anymore?

We discuss rising political division, economic pressure and a growing sense of dissatisfaction - and what might actually be driving it.

Andrew explains that many of today’s problems aren’t just political or economic, but cultural - and that culture itself is shaped by something even more fundamental: shared values, belief systems, and community.

...

Preston Byrne is the only American lawyer fighting the UK's attempt to censor US companies under the Online Safety Act. He's representing 4chan, Kiwi Farms, Gab and Sanctioned Suicide - pro bono - because no other firm would take the cases.

In this interview, Preston explains why Britain isn't a free country anymore, what Ofcom actually claims the power to do to American websites and why he says the UK is trying to enforce British censorship law on American soil. We get into the moment that started him down this path - a 16-year-old getting a...

Hans Niemann on beating Magnus Carlsen, the cheating accusations that nearly ended his career, and the "chess mafia" he says tried to destroy his life.

At 19, Hans Niemann beat the world's greatest chess player. Magnus Carlsen withdrew without explanation. Within weeks, Niemann was facing global cheating accusations, blacklisting from his own federation, and a fight to save his career.

Four years on, he's world No. 12 and still climbing. In this interview, Hans addresses everything: what Magnus actually saw at the board, the $100 prize he won at 12 that became "the greatest crime" of the...

Britain is now poorer than the poorest American state and economist Andrew Lilico says a full-blown fiscal crisis is coming within ten years. He explains how Britain broke itself, why the political establishment lost its faith and the £180 billion in spending cuts he believes should be the baseline, not the radical option.

Andrew Lilico is Executive Director of Europe Economics and Chairman of the IEA Shadow Monetary Policy Committee. He is one of Britain's most prominent economists and a regular voice on UK fiscal policy.

...

Freddie New studied the classics and has spent years obsessing over one question: how does a superpower destroy itself? The answer, he argues, is always the same - it starts with the money.

In this conversation we map the fall of Rome directly onto the West today. The Roman denarius lost 97% of its purchasing power over 150 years. The British pound has lost 95% of its in the last century alone. The parallels don't stop there - military overstretch, a dependent population kept loyal by the state, leaders who can't stop the printing even when they know it's...

Emmet Connor, author of Red Pandemic, joins me to discuss his claim that Marxist ideas are expanding globally through culture, institutions and politics.

We start with the core question: is there actually a coherent Marxist movement in the modern West or is the term being used too loosely to describe broader social change?

We also explore what Marxism is today, how it may have evolved beyond its original economic focus and whether its historical outcomes are a failure of implementation or something inherent to the ideology itself.

- ⁠...

Liz Truss, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, joins me to discuss what really happened during her time in office and why she believes the UK is in long-term economic and political decline.

We talk about the limits of political power, the role of institutions like the Bank of England, and why she argues that meaningful change is harder than voters realise. Liz also reflects on why she was removed from office and whether Britain can reverse its current trajectory.

...

Scott Horton is the director of Antiwar.com and one of the most outspoken critics of US foreign policy.

In this episode, Scott explains how war connects directly to the things people feel every day - rising prices, falling purchasing power, growing debt and a system that never seems to improve no matter who is in charge.

We also discuss how governments fund wars, why debt keeps expanding, how inflation quietly shifts the cost onto ordinary people and the incentives that keep the cycle going. Lastly, Scott explains the role of media, the relationship between...

Scott Horton is the director of Antiwar.com and one of the most outspoken critics of US foreign policy.

In this episode, Scott explains how war connects directly to the things people feel every day - rising prices, falling purchasing power, growing debt and a system that never seems to improve no matter who is in charge.

We also discuss how governments fund wars, why debt keeps expanding, how inflation quietly shifts the cost onto ordinary people and the incentives that keep the cycle going. Lastly, Scott explains the role of media, the relationship between...

Are we heading for a mathematical market crash or has the system just been perfectly designed to extract your wealth? In this episode, I sit down with macro-strategist Mike Green to discuss the hidden plumbing of the global economy. Mike explains why the stock market is no longer tied to reality, how the rise of passive index funds has created a dangerous "flow inelastic trap" and why the modern retirement system is forcing a massive generational wealth crisis.

Mike also explains the brutal economic realities of the Middle East conflict, how monopolies have secretly captured free-market capitalism...