In his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis explores how giant tech firms, both in the US and China are expanding their control over the planet. His analysis is that, whilst material resources certainly matter, the real battle ground is over digital real estate. 

Aaron sat down with Yanis to talk about how Europe’s power has faded, Elon Musk’s wet dreams and why the US is really afraid of China.

Novara Audio: Radio For A Different Politics

Downstream: Europe is Over w/ Yanis Varoufakis

Economist and former Greek finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, speaks at the University of Sydney. Yanis discusses his new book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, and its implications for Australia as the world enters a ‘New Cold War’ of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China.

Varoufakis argues that big tech has replaced capitalism’s twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power. This is Technofeudalism: the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself.

Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis will explain this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.

Australia & The New Cold War In The Age Of Technofeudalism

In the recent European elections, the far right won unprecedented gains. From the success of the AfD in Germany, to Le Pen’s National Rally in France, the elections saw nationalist and eurosceptic parties sweep up nearly a quarter of the seats in the European parliament.

In the UK, the next general election is just days away. Voters will be heading to the polls against a backdrop of decades of economic failure, crumbling public services and a cost of living crisis that has left more than four in 10 households unable to afford life’s essentials.

But you wouldn’t know it from the way a lot of our political leaders are talking. Voters are being told, yet again, that times are tough, government spending power is weak, and there is no magic money tree. Oh, and of course, it really is time to crack down on migration, once and for all.

So, how can we understand the promises, or lack thereof, of the people vying for our votes, within a broader context of political upheaval across Europe? In a time of such great need, why are Labour and the Conservatives offering so little? And as the dust settles on the European elections, is the UK really an anomalous country leaning the left, while our continental neighbours lurch rightward?

This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Yanis Varoufakis - economist, academic, formally Greece’s finance minister, and author of a number of critical books, the latest of which is Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. They discuss: how do we build a Pan-European progressive movement that can win?

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Why the far right is winning in Europe, with Yanis Varoufakis

City Lights and Melville House present Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with Peter Maravelis, discussing "Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism" by Yanis Varoufakis, published by Melville House.

Purchase here: https://citylights.com/topographies/technofeudalism/

Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.

Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.


Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and academic, a bestselling author, and the former finance minister of Greece. He is a co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. His books include "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?," "Talking to My Daughter About the Economy," "Adults in the Room," and "Foundations of Economics."

Praise for "Technofeudalism:"

“Blending intellectual memoir, history, and economic and technological history, Varoufakis creates an intimate atmosphere that is a genuine pleasure to read … It’s hard to read this book and deny its power … illuminating.” — The Washington Post

“An outstanding economist and political analyst.” — Noam Chomsky

"Arresting … an ambitious thinker and a lively writer … Varoufakis is right that we are in thrall to digital platforms, who hold our data hostage and prevent us from switching to 'a competing cloud fief'" ― The Times (London)

Originally broadcast via Zoom on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. https://citylights.com/foundation/

Yanis Varoufakis

Ben Norton joins us to discuss his recent article at the Geopolitical Economy Report titled, "How US Big Tech monopolies colonized the world: Welcome to neo-feudalism." After the interview, we hear a new "Rotten History" by Renaldo Migaldi.

Check out Ben's article here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/08/19/us-big-tech-monopolies-neo-feudalism/

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Welcome to the New Feudalism / Ben Norton

Steve Bannon, en torr hudflik med puls, har blivit arg på Elon Musk och anklagar honom för att vilja införa teknofeodalism på global skala. Teknofeodalism är ett begrepp myntat av den grekiske vänsterprofilen, ekonomen och Greklands fd finansminister Yanis Varoufakis. I det här avsnittet förklarar jag så gott jag kan vad teknofeodalism är och vad jag tror att den kommer att bli - en allomslutande kaotisk cyberpunkdystopi. Men det är kul att MAGA bråkar. 

Länk: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/12/steve-bannon-calls-elon-musk-racist

Kronotopi 006

hold me until im warm

After capitalism comes communism, according to Marxist doctrine. But in the meantime, what should we call our increasingly unequal system? 'Neofeudalism', suggests political theorist Jodi Dean, might be the best way to describe our growing society of serfs and servants.

She talks to Eleanor Penny about a vision of class struggle led by the 'servant vanguard'. Capital's Grave is available from Verso.

Comments, corrections, suggestions? fm@novaramedia.com

Novara FM: Is This What Neofeudalism Looks Like? w/ Jodi Dean

Steven Yates explains how we've seen a gradual structural move back to a fundamentally feudal system (technofeudalism/technocracy) in which Big Tech overlords, owners of cloud capital, have replaced landed gentry. And if we till the soil of its platforms for a fee, we’re cloud serfs or cloud proles. He also discusses expatriating to Latin America.

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About Steven Yates
Steven Yates is a (recovering) ex-academic with a PhD in Philosophy. He taught for more than 15 years total at several colleges and universities in the Southeastern U.S. He has authored three books, more than 20 articles, numerous book reviews, and review essays in academic journals and anthologies. Refused tenure and unable to obtain full-time academic employment (and with an increasing number of very fundamental philosophical essays refused publication in journals), he turned to alternative platforms and heretical notions, including about academia itself.

In 2012, he moved to Chile. He married a Chilean national in 2014. Among his discoveries in South America: many of the problems in the U.S. are problems everywhere, because human nature is the same everywhere.

He has a Patreon.com page. Donate and become a Patron if you benefit from his work and believe it merits being sustained financially.

Steven Yates’s book Four Cardinal Errors: Reasons for the Decline of the American Republic (2011) can be ordered on Amazon.

His philosophical work What Should Philosophy Do? A Theory (2021) can be obtained on Amazon.

His cosmic horror novel The Shadow Over Sarnath (2023) (written for the sheer fun of it) can be gotten on Amazon.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Steven Yates: Navigating Technofeudalism as a Cloud Serf #573

Award-winning podcast about the economic and political forces shaping our world, with Ayeisha Thomas-Smith and guests. Brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the independent think tank and charity campaigning for a fairer, sustainable economy.

The Geopolitics & Empire Podcast conducts interviews with prominent international experts on a wide-range of topics.

Past guests have included diplomats, government officials, whistleblowers, soldiers, spies, economists, academics, scientists, wealthy investors, dissidents, journalists, and musicians.

The broadcast seeks to gain insight from guests who come from the left, right, and beyond. It should go without saying that the host does not always agree with beliefs espoused by podcast invitees, but maintains an open mind, and believes it important to respectfully listen to a multitude of voices and let listeners come to their own conclusions.

*Music used in podcast intro is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

The official podcast for City Lights Publishers & Booksellers in San Francisco. Featuring readings and archives. Hosted by City Lights events coordinator Peter Maravelis.

The School of Social and Political Sciences is home to one of the most successful academic groups in the world for research and teaching in the social sciences. From health security to economic policy, human rights and political participation, our work interprets and makes sense of societies, nation states and people.

New tracks tagged #technofeudalism