Podcasts by Big Tech
Depending who you ask, big tech is either going to save humanity or destroy us. Taylor Owen thinks it’s a little more complicated than that. Join him in conversation with leading thinkers as they make sense of a world transformed by technology.
Further podcasts by David Skok, The Centre for International Governance Innovation, The Logic, Taylor Owen, CIGI / The Logic
Podcast on the topic Technologie
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David Carroll on the Dark Side of Digital Advertising from 2022-02-22T10:48:07.050724
Online platforms like Facebook and Google Ads are positioned as superior tools for micro-targeting advertisements. The promise of greater returns on investment and granular control over who will en...
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James Der Derian on How Quantum Tech Will Change Our Lives from 2022-02-22T10:48:07.048836
Google and IBM are in a race to achieve quantum supremacy — both sides claim that they are winning. But what does quantum supremacy really mean? Quantum technologies have the ability to solve compl...
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Season 2 Begins April 23 from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.954721
The in-depth conversations around technology’s impact on our economy, society and democracy continue as co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen return for a second season of Big Tech. In this season of...
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Douglas Rushkoff on Reclaiming Our Humanity on the Internet from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.953123
The early vision of the internet has been co-opted by capitalist interests. Rather than being a place for humans to connect, it has become another extractive industry for financial gain.
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Carly Kind on Contact-tracing Apps from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.951502
A key next step toward restarting the economy following the pandemic is to track the spread of the virus. Public health authorities around the globe are looking at using mobile apps to aid in their...
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Matt Stoller on Taking on the Tech Goliaths from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.949503
The tech giants have entrenched themselves in all aspects of the internet. It has become nearly impossible to avoid interacting with one of the big five American tech companies when going online. D...
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Beeban Kidron on Why Children Need a Safer Internet from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.933461
Online platforms aren’t designed with children in mind. For example, children are unaware of the risks that recommended content, auto-play and nudges bring to their use of the internet. Do digital ...
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Lana Swartz on the Power of Payment Platforms from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.931767
The events around GameStop’s stock price show how digital platforms can impact our financial systems.
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Rod Sims on Australia’s New Law to Rebalance Media Power from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.929787
Australia’s new law seeks to fix a market failure in the journalism industry by requiring Facebook and Google to pay local media outlets and publishers for links to their work.
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Nicole Perlroth on the Cyber Weapons Arms Race from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.928074
Nation-states are building arsenals of zero-day exploits and other cyber weapons to stage surveillance, intelligence gathering and military strikes in cyberspace.
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Hong Shen on How Tech Really Works behind the Great Firewall from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.922087
Western nations often paint the Chinese tech sector as a threat to freedom, an attack on surveillance and an extension of the state. Big Tech’s guest in this episode, Hong Shen, argues this simplis...
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Jameel Jaffer on Free Speech in the Digital Era from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.875661
The US First Amendment protects free speech, but how does that protection extend to online content moderation?
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How Peter Thiel’s Contrarianism Shaped Silicon Valley — and America from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.865160
Much is made of Peter Thiel’s libertarian provocations. But Thiel biographer Max Chafkin says this framing belies the real scope of Thiel’s technological, and political, influence.
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Carissa Véliz on Why We Need to Take Back Control of Our Data from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.864379
Most people say they care about their digital privacy. And yet we continue to use products and platforms that extract, and then sell, our personal data. Carissa Véliz argues that needs to change.
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From the Beginnings of Fake News to the Capitol Riots from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.860988
We take you back, to when fake news actually meant fake news, with Craig Silverman, the journalist who popularized the term long before Donald Trump. How did those early years of fake and lucrative...
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The Entrenched Colonialism of Tech from 2022-02-22T10:48:06.857597
As much as the tech industry thinks it’s about the future, it’s astonishing how profoundly it replicates the past, including our colonial legacy. Animikii’s Jeff Doctor talks about how colonialism ...
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Nicholas Carr Is Silicon Valley’s Most Prescient Tech Critic from 2022-02-17T09:00
When Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas Carr wrote The Shallows in 2010, many were skeptical of his claims that the internet was changing the way our brains work. Twelve years later, it’s clear he wa...
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Your Facts Aren’t My Facts — Joe Rogan and Our Infodemic Age from 2022-02-10T09:00
Timothy Caulfield, professor of health law and science policy, joins host Taylor Owen to discuss how the Joe Rogan/Spotify COVID misinformation controversy reflects a moment of deep-seated mistrust...
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How Europe Is Trying to Rein in Big Tech from 2022-01-27T09:00
Following the success of the General Data Protection Regulation, the European Parliament is working on three new policy proposals to further rein in big tech.
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The Brain Is Not a Computer from 2022-01-20T09:00
The discovery of neuroplasticity is one of neuroscience’s most important recent advances. Dr. Norman Doidge reflects on how technology is rewiring the brain and shares his views on the societal imp...
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What Does Real Democracy Look Like? from 2022-01-13T09:00
Hélène Landemore thinks that for a government to be truly democratic, it needs to involve citizen deliberation. She calls this radical proposal “open democracy.”
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Best of: Nicole Perlroth on the Cyber Weapons Arms Race from 2021-12-30T09:00
Nation-states are building arsenals of zero-day exploits and other cyber weapons to stage surveillance, intelligence gathering and military strikes in cyberspace.
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Best of: Bishop Steven Croft on Keeping Humanity at the Centre of New Technology from 2021-12-23T09:00
It is important to keep that which makes us human at the centre, both when building and using new technology.
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Catherine McKenna on Cutting through Online Hate to Have Meaningful Discussions on Climate Change from 2021-12-16T09:00
Internet trolls dubbed Catherine McKenna “Climate Barbie.” Over her term as environment minister, that online harassment escalated, making meaningful dialogue on what to do about climate change and...
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C. Brandon Ogbunu on Afrofuturism as a Tech Framework from 2021-11-25T09:00
Afrofuturism is an aesthetic that centres the Black diaspora in imaginings of the future. What can Silicon Valley learn from Afrofuturists’ concerns with questions of power and about how tech is ne...
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Season 4 Begins Thursday, November 25 from 2021-11-12T09:00
Since concluding the last season this past August, a lot has happened in the big tech governance and regulation space. Whistle-blower Frances Haugen and the Facebook Papers shone light on social me...
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Taylor Owen on Six Insights from Season Three from 2021-08-19T08:00
Taylor reflects on six themes that emerged this season in conversations about big tech’s transformation of our economy, society and lives.
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Geoffrey Cain on China’s Dystopian Surveillance State from 2021-07-22T08:00
China has created a technology-driven Orwellian surveillance state, where AI pre-crime systems and social credit scores can decide your fate.
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Victor Pickard on the Future of Journalism from 2021-06-24T08:00
If we consider the history of the US news industry, it’s clear that journalism has never fully achieved its potential. Now that the traditional model is faced with a complete market failure, it’s t...
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Pranav Dixit on Modi’s Moves to Manipulate Platforms from 2021-06-10T08:00
The Indian government has imposed new “IT rules” that compel platforms to give the state unprecedented access to and control over user content.
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Kate Crawford on the Toll AI Is Taking on Humans and the Planet from 2021-05-27T08:00
AI development has been met with questions about its many impacts on our world. Maybe we should consider if it’s worth developing at all?
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Eliot Higgins on Citizen Journalists' New Form of Intelligence Gathering from 2021-05-13T08:00
Using the vast volumes of publicly available data from videos, satellite imagery and social media posts, online open-source investigators are able to verify or debunk state-led propaganda and expos...
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Ethan Zuckerman on Why Institutional Failure Can Spur Positive Change from 2021-04-29T08:00
Trust in our institutions is at an all-time low. Mistrust can lead to the spread of misinformation and conspiracy thinking, such as seen in movements like QAnon and anti-vaccination campaigns, but ...
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Naomi Klein on Entering the Tech Governance Debate from 2021-04-15T08:00
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re starting to see the results of our rapid incorporation of technology into our no-touch pandemic-proofed work, home and education lives.
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Mutale Nkonde on How Biased Tech Design and Racial Disparity Intersect from 2021-03-18T08:00
Tech entrepreneurs are, predominantly, white males. Because of this, much of our technology has inherent biases that align with those of its creators and disadvantage under-represented groups.
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Bishop Steven Croft on Keeping Humanity at the Centre of New Technology from 2021-02-18T09:00
It is important to keep that which makes us human at the centre, both when building and using new technology.
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Joan Donovan on How Platforms Enabled the Capitol Hill Riot from 2021-01-21T09:00
The January 6 attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, demonstrated how online disinformation, amplification and platform algorithms have real-world impacts.
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Ron Deibert on Resetting Our Relationship with Technology from 2020-12-22T09:00
The systems that underlie modern technology have gaping vulnerabilities that are being exploited by nations around the globe to maintain power and exert control.
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Heidi J. Larson on the Root Causes of Vaccine Hesitancy from 2020-12-10T09:00
COVID-19 vaccines are now being approved and deployed around the world. But will there be a sizable enough segment of the population willing to get them?
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Cory Doctorow on the True Dangers of Surveillance Capitalism from 2020-11-26T09:00
Where does the tech industries’ power lie? Are they “mind-control” platforms capable of influencing elections through algorithmic muscle, or does their true threat to society lie in market concentr...
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Season Three Trailer from 2020-11-19T05:00
Depending who you ask, big tech is either going to save humanity or destroy us. Taylor Owen thinks it’s a little more complicated than that. Join him in conversation with leading thinkers as they m...
Listen
Ellen Jorgensen on Biotech’s Potential and the Complexities of Regulation from 2020-08-13T08:00:03
Advances in molecular biology, such as the gene-editing technology CRISPR, are enabling rapid developments in gene manipulation and a growing do-it-yourself community of biohackers. Genetic modific...
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Damian Collins on Joining Forces to Regulate Big Tech from 2020-07-30T08:00:08
Individual nations are looking to find solutions to online harms occurring on platforms. The scope of platforms is global, and common issues emerge. Nations can share their knowledge with one anoth...
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Emily Bell on Journalism in the Age of Social Media from 2020-07-16T08:00:10
The internet presents great opportunities for journalists to share their reporting, but it has also had negative impacts on the industry. Social media platforms have siphoned ad revenue from newspa...
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Maria Ressa on How Social Media Can Destabilize Democracy and Journalism from 2020-06-16T08:00:04
Journalism’s role in balancing power in democracy is being undermined by the spread of disinformation on social media platforms. By allowing any content to be posted online, regardless of its valid...
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Joseph Stiglitz on a Post-COVID-19 Economy from 2020-05-21T08:00:10
Across many sectors, businesses are suspending operations to stay afloat and weather the storm. Tech firms on the other hand are seeing a rise in their market values. Tech companies were already do...
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Angie Drobnic Holan on the Importance of Fact-checking during a Pandemic from 2020-04-23T08:00:07
Access to credible information is key to combating a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid an outbreak, fact-checking websites are becoming increasingly important.
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Sasha Havlicek on Mitigating the Spread of Online Extremism from 2020-03-12T08:00:02
Companies, international organizations and government agencies are all working to identify and eliminate online hate speech and extremism. It’s a game of cat and mouse: as regulators develop effect...
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Mark Scott on Europe’s New Data Strategy from 2020-02-27T09:00:30
Earlier this month, Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg travelled to Europe ahead of the European Commission’s announcement of a new data strategy plan. The proposed regulations would seek t...
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Ben Scott on the Internet’s Evolving Role in Politics from 2020-02-13T09:00:10
In this episode of Big Tech Taylor Owen sits down with Ben Scott, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Luminate, to discuss how the internet has evolved throughout Scott’s time in Washington, DC. Sco...
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Joanna J. Bryson On Regulating the Software Behind Artificial Intelligence from 2020-01-30T09:00:16
There’s a false narrative surrounding artificial intelligence (AI): that it cannot be regulated. These idea stems, in part, from a belief that regulations will stifle innovation and can hamper econ...
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Katherine Maher on Tools for Combating Disinformation from 2019-12-19T09:00:01
Truth and facts are not the same thing. To find truth, we must combine the best available information (what we know to be facts) with our own lens. This is especially challenging on social media: p...
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Kate Klonick on Facebook’s Oversight Board from 2019-11-21T05:10:03
Facebook is establishing a 40-person oversight board to pass rulings on whether or not content should remain on their platform. The board aims to represent all regions of the world, rulings are set...
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Rana Foroohar on How Tech Lost Its Way from 2019-11-21T05:05:10
After discovering several small charges to her credit card that totaled upward of US$900, Rana Foroohar figured her card must have been stolen. She quickly realized those micro-transactions were co...
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Nobody Cares About Privacy and Technology: Taylor and David Introduce the Big Tech podcast from 2019-10-25T03:54:14
Taylor Owen and David Skok have known each other for many years; their work in democracy and journalism ensures that their paths often cross. Taylor is an academic studying technology’s transformat...
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Nobody Cares About Privacy and Technology: Taylor and David Introduce the Big Tech podcast from 2019-10-25T03:54:14
Taylor Owen and David Skok have known each other for many years; their work in democracy and journalism ensures that their paths often cross. Taylor is an academic studying technology’s transformat...
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Nobody Cares About Privacy and Technology: Taylor and David Introduce the Big Tech podcast from 2019-10-25T03:54:14
Taylor Owen and David Skok have known each other for many years; their work in democracy and journalism ensures that their paths often cross. Taylor is an academic studying technology’s transformat...
Listen