Science Fiction and Artificial Wombs

Transnational Queer Media

Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Global Cultures at Macquarie University in Australia, a cultural anthropologist whose work maps the role popular culture plays in shaping gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book, Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021), examined how commercial gay media and the bar culture of Shinjuku shapes gay male identity in Japan. His second book, Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023), is the first book-length study of the Thai BL phenomenon, drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork documenting the shift of queer cultural production in Asia from Japan to Thailand. He also co-edited East Asian Pornographies and Online Porn Cultures (Routledge, 2023) and Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia. He is currently working on two new book projects: an edited collection titled Riding the Thai Wind: Globalising Thai Media, Transnational Fandom, and Soft Power, and a monograph titled Queer Fantasies of Asia: Japanese and Korean Media Fandom in the Philippines. Show Notes * Thomas Baudinette’s personal website thomasbaudinette.com [http://thomasbaudinette.com] * Academia.edu profile https://mq.academia.edu/ThomasBaudinette [https://mq.academia.edu/ThomasBaudinette] * Boys Love Media in Thailand (Bloomsbury, 2023) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/boys-love-media-in-thailand-9781350330641/ [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/boys-love-media-in-thailand-9781350330641/] * “Exploring the rise of activism for LGBTQ+ rights in contemporary Thailand within Boys Love idol culture” (Celebrity Studies, 2025) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2025.2521219 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2025.2521219] * Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2022) https://www.press.umich.edu/12040318/queer_transfigurations [https://www.press.umich.edu/12040318/queer_transfigurations] * Marriage Equality, Thai BL Culture, and Queer Soft Power * The Untamed https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10554898/ [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10554898/] * Khemjira https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33258229/ [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33258229/] * The Paradise of Thorns https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32362515 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32362515] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com [https://technoprogressives.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Science Fiction and Artificial Wombs

Today on Technoprogressive Hub I’m speaking with Dr. Evie Kendal, a bioethicist and public health scientist at Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology. She is the author of the provocative and influential monograph, Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137549877], in which she argued that artificial wombs are a potential requirement for genuine social and gender equality. In her latest volume, Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/science-fiction-and-the-ethics-of-artificial-wombs-9781350542990/] (Bloomsbury, 2025), Dr. Kendal pivots to the “imagination as a laboratory.” She critiques the traditional bioethical reliance on sterile clinical vignettes, arguing instead that the “thick” narratives found in science fiction—from the cautionary tales of Aldous Huxley to the liberating visions of Marge Piercy and Octavia Butler—provide a more robust framework for anticipating the social and political shocks of emerging biotechnologies. Show Notes Evie Kendal’s recent publications https://experts.swinburne.edu.au/6209-evie-kendal/publications [https://experts.swinburne.edu.au/6209-evie-kendal/publications] Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9x0hed0AAAAJ&hl=en [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9x0hed0AAAAJ&hl=en] Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis, Evie Kendalhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137549877 [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137549877] Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs, Evie Kendalhttps://www.bloomsbury.com/us/science-fiction-and-the-ethics-of-artificial-wombs-9781350542990/ [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/science-fiction-and-the-ethics-of-artificial-wombs-9781350542990/] “Artificial Womb: A Short History,” J. Hughes https://philarchive.org/rec/HUGAWA [https://philarchive.org/rec/HUGAWA] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com [https://technoprogressives.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Technoprogressive Politicians Emerge

As anxiety about data centers, AI-driven precarity, and tech oligarch authoritarianism mount, progressives have mostly responded with proposals to slow down AI. Bernie in particular has been channeling some of the existential risk concerns of Eliezer Yudkowsky, Geoffrey Hinton and Max Tegmark, and with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, promoting regulation of data center construction. On the other hand, California Congressman and US Presidential aspirant Ro Khanna, Congressional candidate Alex Bores, and Massachusetts state legislature candidate Jason Poulos have emerged with technoprogressive policy proposals, universal basic income and services, progressive taxation and sovereign wealth funds. Some Big Tech firms, like OpenAI, are also now pushing for UBI and technoprogressive policies, while others like Palantir have fully embraced a techno-libertarian/authoritarian policy agenda. Show Notes IEET Summer Course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding [https://technoprogressives.substack.com/p/an-introduction-to-technoprogressive] - June 20-August 20, 2026 - Online The Technoprogressive Opportunity [https://www.meetup.com/london-futurists/events/314148857/] - Sept 19-20, 2026 - London UK https://www.meetup.com/london-futurists/events/314148857/ Ro Khanna’s “AI for the People” agenda https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ro-khanna-ai-democracy-blueprint/ [https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ro-khanna-ai-democracy-blueprint/] Alex Bores’ AI Dividend https://www.axios.com/2026/04/20/alex-bores-ai-dividend-plan-wealth [https://www.axios.com/2026/04/20/alex-bores-ai-dividend-plan-wealth] Alex Bores’ AI Policy Framework https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores_AI_Framework.pdf Jason Poulos, MA-4 Dem candidate platform https://poulos.house/ [https://poulos.house/#issues] OpenAI’s Proposed Industrial Policy https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/ [https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/] Alex Karp/Palantir’s mini-manifesto https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4 [https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4] Technoprogressive Hub [https://technoprogressives.substack.com/podcast] is an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by J. Hughes. Also check out Bread and Robots [https://breadandrobots.substack.com/], an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by Matteo McDermant. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com [https://technoprogressives.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Aleksandra Przegalińska on the Future of Work

Today on Technoprogressive Hub we’re speaking with Aleksandra Przegalińska, a philosopher and social scientist of AI. Dr. Przegalińska is Vice Rector and the head of the Human-Machine Interaction Research Center at Kozminski University in Poland. Currently she is Senior Research Associate at the Center for Labour and Just Economy at Harvard University. She works on the future of work, humanoid and social robots, and wearable technologies. She is co-author of the book Collaborative Society and Debating Universal Basic Income. Links Collaborative Society (MIT Press), Aleksandra Przegalińska and Dariusz Jemielniak Debating Universal Basic Income: Pros, Cons, and Alternative [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364506737_Debating_Universal_Basic_Income_Pros_Cons_and_Alternatives]s [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364506737_Debating_Universal_Basic_Income_Pros_Cons_and_Alternatives], Aleksandra Przegalińska and Robert Wright Aleksandra Przegalińska on Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gkCrlTkAAAAJ] Aleksandra Przegalińska on Researchgate [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aleksandra-Przegalinska] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com [https://technoprogressives.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

How Technoprogressive is Bernie/AOC's AI Data Center Proposal?

This week on Technoprogressive Hub, Eli, Matteo and J discuss the legislation proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to restrict the building of AI data centers. “Opposing AI’ is Luddite, not technoprogressive, but the sentiment against oligarchs, AI and data centers is so strong now that we may need to accept some Luddite positioning to get the Left to promote desirable AI safety and regulation. Links “Seizing the Data Center Buildout for Grid Modernization” by Jane Flagal https://www.searchlightinstitute.org/research/seizing-the-data-center-buildout-for-grid-modernization/ “AI data center fight blurs political lines” Axios https://www.axios.com/2026/01/16/ai-data-center-fight-blurs-political-lines “New Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center Construction” WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/new-bernie-sanders-ai-safety-bill-would-halt-data-center-construction/ “AI & robotics briefing: Data centres’ huge ‘water footprint’ becomes clear amid AI boom” by Katrina Krämer https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03768-y “AI Data Centers: Big Tech’s Impact on Electric Bills, Water, and More” by Nicole Greenfield https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/ “AI data center” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AI_data_center&oldid=1346973952 “AI, Data Centers, and the U.S. Electric Grid: A Watershed Moment” by Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/ai-data-centers-us-electric-grid “Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez push bill to impose AI data center moratorium” by Matthew Daly https://apnews.com/article/data-centers-ai-electricity-sanders-aoc-65651bd28c3d911d18eeb46cd54f4c75 “Why is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use?” by Hank Green This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com [https://technoprogressives.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]