From The Kink Machine: The Hidden Business of Pleasure
Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
Pushkin Industries
4.4 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Streamed by millions every day, porn is everywhere. It shapes our culture, our relationships, and even technology. Yet, nobody seems to know who really controls the business. The power brokers tend to lurk in the shadows, while their performers remain quite literally exposed.
In Pushkin's new audiobook, The Kink Machine: The Hidden Business of Adult Entertainment, two Financial Times journalists, Patricia Nilsson and Alex Barker, start digging into the porn industry and following where the money flows. Their reporting uncovers a shadowy power structure that includes billionaires, tech geniuses, and the most powerful finance companies in the world.
A gripping exposé of how power operates behind the most taboo corner of the internet, Nilsson and Barker unravel a story about control, influence, and an industry with staggering cultural reach that no one really wants to talk about—until now.
Find The Kink Machine on Audible, Spotify, pushkin.fm, or wherever you get audiobooks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
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| 0:19.5 | I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist, |
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| 1:00.4 | it's impossible not to be moved. The other side of change is out now. Get your copy today, |
| 1:02.0 | wherever you like to buy books. |
| 1:11.0 | Pushkin. |
| 1:17.2 | Hey listeners, I'm Alex Barker, a journalist with the Financial Times. |
| 1:25.6 | A few years ago, my fellow reporter Patricia Nilsson and I spent six months looking at how money flows in the porn industry. |
| 1:30.3 | We gathered our findings in a new audiobook, The Kink Machine, |
| 1:36.7 | the hidden business of adult entertainment, and today I'm dropping into your feed to share a preview. |
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