202 | Tech Election - Part 1

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In a special live edition recorded at the Bristol Festival of Economics we discuss the impact of the technology revolution on democratic politics. Has the rise of automation contributed to the rise of populism? Is China winning the AI wars against the West? And do any democratic politicians - from Elizabeth Warren to Jeremy Corbyn - have the policies to get big tech back under control? With Rana Foroohar, author of Don't Be Evil, and Carl Frey, author of The Technology Trap, plus Diane Coyle, founder and programme director of the Bristol Festival of Economics. Next week: the Facebook election.

134 | Talking Politics guide to ... Human Rights in the Digital Age

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David talks to Ella McPherson about whether digital communication is making it easier or harder to hold human rights abusers to account. What has been the impact of the social media revolution on reporting human rights violations and does anonymity help or hinder the pursuit of justice?

87 | Facebook vs the World

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With the help of John Naughton and Jennifer Cobbe we unpick the Cambridge Analytica story and get to the heart of the matter: what is Facebook doing to us and can anything make it stop?  We talk about the business of surveillance capitalism and the difference between a scandal and a crisis.  Plus how working in tech is like working on the Manhattan Project and how Cambridge Analytica is like the Australian cricket team.
 

76 | Reformation Then and Now

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Before we get stuck into 2018, we go back to the sixteenth century to explore another technology revolution that overthrew the established order.  John Naughton recently published his 95 theses for the digital age and we talk to John about the theology of technopoly and the Church of Facebook.  Plus we're joined by Helen to discuss the parallels between the current revolt against the elites and what happened five hundred years ago.  From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: where does this story end?
 

59 | Pax Technica

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John Naughton talks to Philip Howard of the Oxford Internet Institute about whether the digital revolution has been good or bad for democracy.  Will the Internet of Things usher in an era of universal peace or universal surveillance?  What happened to the hopes of tech liberation that came with the Arab Spring?  Is there anything we can do about fake news?  A fascinating conversation between two recovering utopians about the past, present and future of the internet age.