#394 - “I Was There” Tech Elites Are Planning Breakaway Civilization | Douglas Rushkoff

Danny Jones Podcast

Danny Jones

Documentary, Society & Culture, Comedy

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 126 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Watch every episode ad-free & uncensored on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dannyjones Douglas Rushkoff is a media theorist, writer, lecturer and documentarian. He is best known for his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems, and also has written many books on topics including the occult, society, media, and technology. His latest book, "Survival of the Richest" reveals how 5 mysterious billionaires summoned Douglas Rushkoff to the desert for a private talk. SPONSORS https://stopboxusa.com/danny - Use code DANNY for 10% off StopBox. https://amentara.com/go/djp - Use code DJ11 for an EXTRA 11% off. https://irestore.com/danny - Use code DANNY for huge savings on iRestore. https://whiterabbitenergy.com/?ref=DJP - Use code DJP for 20% off. EPISODE LINKS Doug's YouTube: @douglasrushkoff https://rushkoff.com FOLLOW DANNY JONES https://www.instagram.com/dannyjones https://twitter.com/jonesdanny OUTLINE 00:00 - Escape fantasies of tech billionaires 07:39 - Peter Thiel's model of reality 15:35 - The origin of money in the middle ages 25:32 - Kessler Syndrome 30:54 - How capitalism destroyed the internet 31:41 - The "scientistic" view of reality 35:51 - Epstein funded anti-spiritual science 41:12 - How wealth corrupts empathy 42:38 - Horizontal vs. pyramidal societies 47:07 - Getting high without drugs 54:09 - Meet your neighbors 01:00:04 - Big tech controlling the media 01:01:54 - Larry Ellison's surveillance infrastructure 01:06:22 - Moment of bliss during death 01:11:43 - Benefits of quitting social media 01:13:17 - The ISTA cult 01:18:34 - How written language changed the course of history 01:23:35 - American elites weaponizing religion 01:31:17 - Danny's fitness routine 01:35:03 - What happens to kids raised with wealth 01:37:38 - Attending one of Epstein's parties 01:45:33 - Adam Curtis' HyperNormalisation 01:48:16 - Living in simulated realities 01:53:11 - The importance of "what if?" 01:58:15 - The only TED Talk that ever got censored 02:00:39 - Retrocausality Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Right, home from work, walk the dog, kids are back.
0:04.4	Mom!
0:05.0	Up the stairs for something.
0:07.8	Ugh, back down, no idea what I went up for.
0:12.0	Mom, what's for dinner?
0:13.6	Chop, sizzle, done.
0:17.1	Hello, fresh, can't slow life down, but it makes bringing everyone together around the table a whole lot easier.
0:23.6	So it's phones down, forks up.
0:25.6	Hello Fresh. Bring back dinner time.
0:28.6	Hello.
0:29.6	Nice to meet you, Doug. Good to meet you. Yeah. You are into some fascinating stuff. You've written like 25 or so books. Yeah. And all kinds of wild stuff, the history of media, culture. You can probably do a better job than me. Why don't you sort of explain your background
0:54.7	and how you got into this. I don't know. I started really, originally I started writing because I was
0:58.8	interested in alter states of consciousness. And I wrote this book that no one knows about. I wrote
1:03.7	this book when I was like 24, 25, called Free Rides, Ways to Get High Without Drugs. And the idea was that they're not so afraid of the drugs themselves.
1:17.4	The people making the laws, they're afraid of the states of consciousness that they provide
1:23.1	because then people can see alternative ways of understanding reality.
1:27.5	So once you're high on anything,
1:29.9	you come back and you go,
1:31.4	well, why did I agree that this is money?
1:33.3	Why do I agree that that is rent?
1:34.8	Why do I agree that I work for him?
1:36.6	It's like what, all your social agreements go away.
	...

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