The Predatory World of Prediction Markets with Jathan Sadowski

Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have promised a world where you can gamble on virtually anything, from presidential elections and global military conflicts to the weather and pop culture. Tech billionaires frame these prediction markets as the ultimate "democratization of finance" and objective "truth machines."

Behind the techno-utopian pitch, prediction markets are playgrounds for insider trading. As their CEOs dodge regulation, they threaten to turn the entire world into a high-stakes casino, where those with power always win.

In this episode, we’re joined by Jathan Sadowski, co-host of the podcast This Machine Kills and author of The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism. Jathan exposes how these wealth extraction machines cater to a tiny minority of insiders and skilled pros who extract profits from everyday traders. We discuss how prediction markets prey directly on this economic anxiety, luring desperate people into high-risk gambling under the guise of financial empowerment.

We share clips from Kalshi founder Tarek Mansour, who views all of human experience as a tradeable asset. As Jathan wrote in his piece The Kalshi-fication of everything: “Financialization is a predatory logic. It is not just one more way of organizing the world among many others. The goal is to eliminate other competing worldviews and reengineer society into a casino where the hedge funds always win. The only human values that matter are the ones that can be turned into tradeable assets and sold to the highest bidder.”

Check out more of Jathan’s work here:

The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism book

This Machine Kills podcast

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