FULL PANEL: Should we abolish all podcasts? Featuring Michael Tracey, Bret Weinstein, Lauren Southern

FULL PANEL: Should we abolish all podcasts? Featuring Michael Tracey, Bret Weinstein, Lauren Southern

From MTracey podcast by Michael Tracey

May 15, 2026 · 23 min

About this episode

A panel discussion questioning the value of podcasts, featuring Michael Tracey, Bret Weinstein, and Lauren Southern.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, this panel was a real hoot. For context, it took place May 14 in Vancouver, Canada, at something called the “Web Summit,” which I was semi-inexplicably invited to attend. For much of the “summit,” I had to resist letting my eyes glaze over as various participants explained their AI startup to me. I’m sure some of the products are probably useful, but I just can’t bring myself to care enough about the intricacies of AI “innovation” to earnestly follow whatever it is I am being educated about in LinkedIn-speak by these lanyard guys. (Which is not to say they aren’t nice guys. And yes — mostly guys. I even took selfies with a few of them, upon request, though whenever somebody asks me for a selfie, I can’t help but affably scold them for debasing themselves.) A number of times I was asked to “connect” on LinkedIn, only to inform the requestor that I (mercifully) do not use LinkedIn. Anyway, after the panel, I saw Bret Weinstein sulking around at something called the “Speakers Lounge,” and we had a few sporadic followup chats. He had already tweeted that my behavior on the panel was “pretty despicable,” and accused me of “ambushing” him. He also…

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