The Internet Is a Misery Machine With Hank Green

Galaxy Brain

The Atlantic

Technology

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this inaugural episode of Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel examines the state of the internet as it stands now in November 2025 with Hank Green, a true citizen of the internet—somebody who has made a living riding the algorithmic waves of the social web. Warzel and Green look back on a time when the internet felt small, more serendipitous, and inspiring, and try to tease apart what went wrong. Are people starting to leave TikTok? How exactly did the internet turn into a misery machine? What makes a great headline? Why is it easier now for some people to trust creators over institutions? Green helps make sense of the internet we live on and offers his reasons for why it might get worse before it gets better (but it could get better!). Sign up for the Galaxy Brain newsletter. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When was the last time you indulged your desires, felt true Ranger Rover refinement? The last time you felt
0:05.6	total serenity, total confidence, no matter the terrain? Limitless, effortless, peerless. How far can
0:11.8	Rangerover take you? Rangerover, designed for distinction. Like the thing that really gives me hope is
0:16.6	watching teenagers think that what I do is so goddamn cringe. And I'm like, yes, I'm going to do it more so that you think it's more cringe.
0:26.2	And you never do what I've done with my life.
0:29.6	Stay away from this box.
0:32.0	Stay away.
0:33.0	Stay away from the misery square.
0:36.9	You know, away from the misery square.
0:45.4	I'm Charlie Warzel, and welcome to Galaxy Brain.
0:49.0	Thank you for joining me here on the ground floor of this project.
0:51.2	I am thrilled that you are here.
0:57.4	This show is nominally about the internet and attention and the ways that all the tools and the media that we use and consume change us in weird and unexpected ways.
1:02.0	And for a long time, I used to describe the internet as this black box, right?
1:06.1	That we piped culture and politics and the economy and society into.
1:09.9	And what came out at the other end
1:11.9	was the same thing only slightly misshapen and unpredictably weird. But technology has always
1:18.5	just been a cheat code for me. It is a way for me to tell stories and figure things out about the
1:23.2	world. The internet is so firmly a part of every aspect of our lives that basically every story is a technology story.
1:30.3	All the stories that I love to tell are about us as humans, how we come together, how we're manipulated, how we talk to each other,
1:38.3	and how these tools change the way that we see ourselves and the way we see our neighbors.
1:43.3	I want Galaxy Brain to
	...

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