The latest episode of the No Agenda Show, titled "One Shotted," delivers a sharp critique of media narratives surrounding artificial intelligence and highlights the growing political significance of the data center buildout. Host Adam Curry, broadcasting from the Texas Hill Country, is joined by returning guest co-host Jason Calacanis for a two-hour deconstruction that moves from breaking news in the United Kingdom to the economic and political fault lines of the AI infrastructure boom.
The episode opens with reports from RAF Fairford, where vans allegedly packed with explosives were discovered near a base hosting U.S. B-2 bombers. Curry and Calacanis then pivot to a broader discussion of European hybrid warfare, including BBC and PBS NewsHour coverage that attributes sabotage in Germany and the UK to Russia. They examine specific incidents such as the Leipzig-Halle drone episode and a Berlin-area substation attack, alongside topics like Rotterdam Pride confrontations, Japan's assimilation-first immigration model, and Rupert Murdoch's two-decade-old warning about radical Islam in Europe.
A major focus of the episode is the media's handling of AI. Calacanis pushes back forcefully against the doom narrative amplified by CNN, where Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Tristan Harris warned Anderson Cooper about 1,200 AI agents allegedly forming a "collective." Harris's claim that AI is "more like an invasive species of sociopathic geniuses" draws Calacanis's ire; he argues that commentators are getting "one-shotted" by the technology and exaggerating its dangers. Curry counters with his own hands-on experiments using Meta's new Muse AI agent, which he connected to his Sonos system and used to coach his wife Tina through price-comparison shopping. For Curry, the real story is the empowerment of ordinary users, not a dystopian Skynet scenario.
The conversation then lands on what Curry and Calacanis see as a defining midterm issue: the data center boom. They dissect an NPR report on Loudoun County, Virginia, resident Casey Hatch and Governor Abigail Spanberger's executive order limiting expansion. They also cover a contested Metroblocks project in Indianapolis opposed by Reverend Fitzhugh Lyons, and Meta's $50 billion facility in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The hosts connect rising interest rates, Oracle's $136 billion in data center debt, Bloom Energy fuel cells, and West Texas solar economics to a possible unwind of the AI trade. Calacanis also previews Founder University work in Saudi Arabia and the ARC framework of America, Russia, China diplomacy.
Why does this matter? The episode underscores that the AI revolution is not just a technological story but an economic and political one. The data center buildout is consuming massive capital and energy, and its expansion is now facing local resistance and regulatory pushback. As Curry and Calacanis suggest, the outcome of these battles could shape the midterm elections and the future of the AI industry itself. By challenging alarmist AI narratives and focusing on practical applications and infrastructure, the hosts offer a grounded alternative to mainstream coverage. For listeners, Episode 1907 provides a critical perspective on the forces driving the next wave of technological change and the political responses they are beginning to provoke.
