Introducing How We Got Here -- NLW's new podcast

0:00Hello, AI Daily Brief friends. Today, I'm launching a new podcast. It came directly out of making AIDB. Pretty frequently, there are important topics that just have way too much backstory to fit into a daily episode. This new show is the place for those stories. It's called How We Got Here, and it's the deep dive story of how today's most important trends, events, and phenomenon came to be. The first episode starts with anger over data centers, then goes back 15 years to explain how America fell out of love with the tech industry. Episode 2 is about how stuff got cheap while life got expensive. So it's not just tech.

0:34Anything in society, culture, or economics is fair game. The bigger idea behind it is that a lot of modern cynicism comes from feeling like the way things are was inevitable when really it was the outcome of a set of decisions. When we understand the decisions that got us here, we realize we have a lot more agency to shape what comes next. New episodes come out every Monday, run for about 45 minutes to an hour, and each one comes with a fully illustrated companion essay. So here's what would be so helpful from you. Go follow How We Got Here wherever you listen and rate and review it. The link is in the show notes, and launch week is when those things count

1:07the most. In just a second, you'll hear the first five minutes of episode one, How Tech Lost America.

1:14Back in June of 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro made an announcement that had become an increasingly common type of announcement at that time. Excitedly, he shared that Amazon planned to invest $20 billion into his state, representing the largest capital infrastructure in Pennsylvania Commonwealth history. That $20 billion, in fact, was, of course, to build new state-of-the-art data center campuses across the state. This was, Shapiro made clear, a thing to be excited about. Governor Shapiro said it would create thousands of good-paying, stable jobs, generate new revenue for Pennsylvania's local

1:50communities, and, quote, ensure that the future of AI runs right through Pennsylvania. Fast forward just 14 months later, and what Governor Shapiro had to say about data centers had changed quite a bit. On August 18th of 2026, he posted, I just signed an executive order implementing the strictest standards in the nation for AI data centers because I will not allow Pennsylvanians to be bullied by greedy developers and bulldozed by the lawyers working for these big tech companies. I'm putting these developers on notice and letting them

2:23know that we will not let them bully Pennsylvanians, disregard our constitutional right to clean air and pure water, and drive up our utility bills. So what happened to get this sort of head-spinning shift in just a little more than a year? Well, what happened is that data centers, which were never particularly popular, but also weren't really on most people's radars, went from benign disinterest to hot-button oppositional political topic du jour. Right around the same time that Shapiro was signing that first deal, back in August of 25,

2:56a pollster asked American voters whether they'd support a data center being built near their home. It was basically a tie. In fact, the in favors slightly nudged out the opposed 43 to 42 percent. By February of 2026, things had shifted, with 51 percent opposed. By May of this year, it was up to 70 percent opposed. And by August, a full three-quarters, 75 percent of Americans who were polled were opposed to local data center development, with more than 60 percent strongly opposed. Wrote journalist Robinson Mayer,

3:27Americans have swung a remarkable 33 points against data centers. It's a faster and deeper shift in American public opinion than I would have once thought possible on any issue. Over the past few months, as the midterms creep closer, broad, bipartisan, and growing discontent with data centers has made it an issue on both sides of the aisle. In fact, in at least one key senatorial race in Ohio, the Senate GOP's campaign arm warned in a memo that the data center issue was likely to lose them the election. The memo was sent out not just to campaign staffers in Ohio,

3:58but to all of the key tech companies and hyperscalers as well. And even as President Trump has tried to push back, arguing that data centers are good for communities, that AI, or as he now calls it SI, superintelligence, is essential and vital to American national success, his message has not resonated even with his base. An economist and YouGov poll from August of this year found that while 35 percent of 2024 Trump voters supported a data center near them, 47 percent opposed them. Part of this is, of course, about AI itself. What's fascinating, though, is that when you dig into

4:34the numbers, it's very clear that this is not the AI industry's problem alone. In fact, what becomes clear is that generative AI came into public consciousness with a handicap, handed down from the perceptions of previous technology platforms, movements, and leaders that had nothing to do with AI. Here's the reality. Over roughly 15 years, tech went from one of the most admired and trusted large industries in America to the embodiment of people's deepest anxieties about money and power.

5:04Back in 2013, technology was, according to Edelman's Global Trust Survey, the most trusted industry at 77 percent. It had been the number one industry the year before as well. In 2015, 71 percent of Americans told Pew that tech companies had a positive effect on the country. But by 2019, just four years later, that number was down to 50 percent. This decline was also not partisan, with both Democrat and Republican attitudes cratering. In gallop ratings of people's overall view of different industries, the computer industry peaked at 75 percent positive in 2017

5:36and has come all the way down to 48 percent this year. The internet industry, meanwhile, went from 59 percent positive in 2017 to a net negative by 2021, with just 35 percent positive ratings compared to 40 percent who viewed it negatively. To understand how we got here, you have to go back to when the tech industry was nothing but promise and potential. All right, friends, well, that is the beginning of How Tech Lost America. The full episode is out right now on the How We Got Here feed. Again, I would so appreciate it if you would follow the show,

6:10rate it, and review it. The link is in the show notes. I appreciate you guys listening, as always, and I'll see you back here on the AI Daily Brief.