Who can switch your AI off, and what you can run yourself instead.
Switchback is a new weekly video podcast where we work out what Sovereign AI really is, together. Axel Sooriah hosts; the first episodes are in production now, and the founding guests will help decide what this show becomes.
What Switchback will be
Switchback is a weekly video podcast about Sovereign AI, hosted by Axel Sooriah and published on YouTube in English with a French track. Each episode runs two tracks: decoding the policy, governance, regulation and the contest to control AI, and the hands-on practice of building with your own stack of open-weight models. The show is pre-launch: the first episodes are in production, and founding guests are being recruited now. A weekly newsletter, The Next Bend, accompanies the show.
Switchback is a weekly video-first podcast where host and guests work out what Sovereign AI is, one bend at a time. Nobody has the full map yet, so the show learns in the open along two tracks: decoding the policy, governance, regulation and the contest to control AI; and the hands-on practice of building with your own stack. New episodes every week, in English with a French track. Policy is the why; the practitioner's stack is what to do about it. Every episode walks both.
Policy and geopolitics
National AI strategies, compute sovereignty, the EU AI Act, chip export controls, and the deals that decide who controls the models you depend on.
Builders and self-hosting
Open-weight models, self-hosting with Ollama and vLLM, on-prem inference, and building a stack nobody can pull out from under you.
Each episode closes with The Next Bend: what to watch next week, mirrored by the newsletter of the same name.
Why Europe
The French and European side of this story is under-covered in English. Switchback treats it as the main event: Mistral, OVHcloud, the EU AI Act, and the national strategies shaping what you'll be allowed to run.
Help shape the first season
The show is being built in the open, and the first guests get a say in what it becomes. Pick the bend you know best, set the bar for the conversations that follow, and reach an audience that wants policy and practice joined up rather than covered in separate rooms.
- A prepared hour, not an ambush: questions shared ahead, recorded remotely or in person.
- Video, audio and clips, published under your name with full credit and links to your work.
- Record in English or French. Both tracks are first-class.
- Early guests shape the format itself: segment length, depth, and what The Next Bend covers.
Builders and founders
People building open-weight models and the tools around them, from labs like Mistral to the wider open-source model community.
An episode could ask: what does a European lab owe the people who build on its weights?
Infrastructure and cloud leaders
People running sovereign cloud and on-prem AI infrastructure, at companies like OVHcloud and Scaleway or inside enterprises making the move.
An episode could ask: what actually breaks when a company tries to bring inference in-house?
Policy and geopolitics voices
Analysts and practitioners working on the EU AI Act, compute sovereignty, and export controls, who can explain what the rules mean for what you can run.
An episode could ask: which clause of the AI Act will bite self-hosters first?
Practitioners self-hosting in production
Engineers running open-weight stacks for real workloads: the quiet experts with the war stories the hype cycle never surfaces.
An episode could ask: what did your first month of on-prem inference really cost?
First episode coming soon
The opening conversations are being recorded now. If you want to be in one of them, this is the moment.
About the show
What is Switchback?
Switchback is a weekly video podcast where host Axel Sooriah and his guests work out what Sovereign AI means in practice. Each episode runs two tracks: the policy, governance, regulation and contest to control AI on one side, and building with your own stack on the other.
What is Sovereign AI?
Sovereign AI is the ability to run, govern and switch off your own AI systems without depending on another company or country. It covers national compute strategies and regulation as well as practical choices: open-weight models, self-hosting, on-prem inference.
How do I become a guest on Switchback?
Email hello@switchback.fm with a line about the bend you know best: a topic in AI policy, infrastructure or self-hosting you can speak to first-hand. The first episodes are being recorded now, and founding guests help shape the format.
Who is Switchback for?
Switchback is for people in AI, product, infrastructure and policy who follow the news but want the sovereignty angle joined up: engineers self-hosting open-weight models, and policy readers tracking the EU AI Act and compute sovereignty.
Who hosts Switchback?
Switchback is hosted by Axel Sooriah, a product management and applied AI evangelist based in Brittany, and the producer behind Product in Practice and Product Squad, France's leading product podcast.
When does Switchback launch?
The first episodes are in production now. Subscribe to The Next Bend newsletter or the YouTube channel @switchbackfm to hear when episode one lands.
About Axel
Axel Sooriah is a product management and applied AI evangelist, and the producer behind Product in Practice and Product Squad, France's leading product podcast. He's based in Brittany, and he's one bend ahead of you on this trail, not at the summit.