Daniel Kreiss is back on the podcast with his new book Prototype Politics: Technology-Intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2016). Kreiss is associate professor in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an affiliated fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law Sc ... Show More
Nov 19
Carl Benedikt Frey, "How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations" (Princeton UP, 2025)
In How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations (Princeton University Press, 2025), Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even tod ... Show More
54m 29s
Nov 17
Cory Doctorow on Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
In this special livestream edition of Peoples & Things, host Lee Vinsel and very special guest host, danah boyd, formerly of Microsoft Research, presently Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University, chat with writer and activist, Cory Doctorow, about his new book, ... Show More
1h 36m
Nov 11
Hilary Allen, "Fintech Dystopia: A Summer Beach Read about Silicon Valley Ruining Things" (2025)
Silicon Valley wants to disrupt finance, and it might just succeed. In FinTech Dystopia, professor Hilary Allen offers an accessible, irreverent, and occasionally furious account of how tech elites are quietly taking over the financial system and making it worse in the process. D ... Show More
52m 13s
May 2024
All About Money? Elections, Campaign Spending and the Effects on Democracy
Election campaigns are becoming ever more expensive, with many parties and candidates spending large sums of money on advertising, campaign materials, and staff. But how does money affect campaign environment and electoral outcomes? Does more money mean better chances of winning? ... Show More
26m 22s
Nov 2020
Homebrew VC Hunter Walk Talks Twitter, TikTok, and Tech in the Time of Biden
During Donald Trump’s presidency, tech products became explicitly political. Operatives from both sides picked apart their algorithms and features, examining how they shaped society’s beliefs. And the companies, meanwhile, made choices about what parts of the administration they’ ... Show More
58m 53s
Sep 2023
AI can be democracy’s ally—but not if it works for Big Tech
Kennedy School Lecturer in Public Policy Bruce Schneier says Artificial Intelligence has the potential to transform the democratic process in ways that could be good, bad, and potentially mind-boggling. The important thing, he says, will be to use regulation and other tools to ma ... Show More
43m 53s
May 2024
Political ads are embracing legal loopholes and playing dirty
<p>Political advertising in the UK has been a largely regulated space, that us up until about a decade ago.</p><br><p>Historically, political advertising has been banned from broadcast aside from a small allotted period of time in the run up to an election. However, as the times ... Show More
22m 36s