Big Media Me
February 14th, 2017 | Published in Uncategorized
I got some interesting interviews in the past week or so, which I figured I'd stick here for those who care.
First, Truthout made me their "progressive pick" for a week, and Mark Karlin ran [this interview](http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/39354-futures-shaped-by-automation-and-catastrophe-peter-frase-on-capitalism-s-endgame) about the general arguments of my book.
I was invited to [this roundtable](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04rq0px) for BBC radio, in which we discussed automation and its implications for the future of work. I'll just say that when you've gotten used to hearing Owen Bennett-Jones' plummy voice in the background on your radio, it's very odd to find yourself actually on the line with him. It was a well constructed panel, including both a professor from Ghana and a self-professed Luddite from Maine. Things got interesting at the very end, when one of the other guests tried to argue that technological progress automatically leads to shorter working hours--when it's almost axiomatic to me at this point that the causality runs in the [opposite direction](http://www.peterfrase.com/2011/07/cheap-labor-and-the-great-stagnation/).
Finally, I went straight from one Manhattan studio to another (in the middle of a blizzard) so that I could shift from the BBC to [the CBC](http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/bring-on-the-robot-jobs-canada-should-think-for-itself-and-why-are-canadian-politicians-so-boring-1.3975149/why-job-stealing-robots-might-liberate-us-from-the-tedium-of-work-1.3975259). Jim Brown and I had a nice little talk about my perpetual insistence that automation can liberate us from work--but only if our side wins the class struggle.
Finally, I got [written up](http://www.rollingstone.it/cultura/libri-strisce/quattro-futuri-tutti-per-noi/2017-02-04/) at Rolling Stone Italy. But I don't speak Italian, so anyone who does is welcome to tell me if I've been horribly misrepresented.