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Technology and democracy are at a crossroads. Technology can potentially empower people and make our democracies more responsive. Or technology can be used to manipulate and divide us. Welcome to Impossible Tradeoffs. I’m Katie Harbath. In this weekly podcast, we’ll talk about and analyze the most fascinating headlines. We’ll make predictions about where things are going. And we’ll talk to experts about the challenges we face and how we might look for solutions. anchorchange.substack.com
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For my last podcast of season three and 2024, I’m thrilled to welcome Ravi Agrawal, the Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Policy magazine, to reflect on this historic year of elections. We discussed the significant trends and observations from the 2024 elections globally during our conversation. He highlights the challenges incumbents faced, the role of c…
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This week I had the honor of moderating a fireside chat with NPR CEO Katherine Maher and C-SPAN CEO Sam Feist at the National Conference on Citizenship’s annual conference. We were able to record it to bring to you on this podcast. Katherine and Sam both took on these roles this year, and some of the things we discuss include: * Reflections on the …
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I’m grateful this week that Aaron Rodericks, Vice President of Trust and Safety at Bluesky, made the time to join me for a conversation about how the platform is tackling the surge in users it’s seen in the U.S. since the election. This isn’t the first time they’ve seen such growth spurts—another happened in Brazil when X was briefly banned. These …
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Happy Thanksgiving! I decided to release an episode today because I figured people would want something to listen to while prepping the turkey or driving to see family and friends. I also know that Thanksgiving and the holidays can be a time when tough conversations arise, especially after an election. That’s why I wanted to talk to Lori Brewer Col…
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This week on the podcast, I chatted with Rebekah Park, Vishnupriya Das, Devika Kumar, and Laura Murray, researchers at Gemic, a global growth strategy firm. They worked with Nhu Le, Rachel Xu, and Beth Goldberg from Google’s Jigsaw on a study looking at how young people in India and the US trust online content in the age of generative AI. I wrote a…
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Image created by ChatGPT If I’m honest, I’m still processing everything. I’m giving myself and others the space to process everything. But, I still wanted to do a podcast. I have this deep fear that if I don’t stick to a schedule, I’ll fall off the wagon of creating content. It's probably not true, but I like to keep doing things to move forward. S…
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In this episode, I welcome Maria Giannopoulos who shares her unique journey at the intersection of politics and technology, particularly her role in the 2024 Republican National Convention. She discusses the extensive planning involved in organizing such a large-scale event, developing a digital strategy to engage both on-site attendees and online …
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In this episode, Nicole Schneidman discusses the critical processes involved in the electoral system, emphasizing the importance of understanding what happens after voting. She outlines key dates in the election cycle, changes in election laws since 2020, and the journey of a ballot from submission to certification. The discussion also highlights t…
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Twenty years ago, Wired editor Chris Anderson wrote “The Long Tail” - a story about how “the future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.” Also, twenty years ago, the term “podcasting” was coined thanks to the introduction of the iPod and RSS feeds that could carry audio files. Today, in these fin…
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We have another bonus podcast episode for you. One perspective I wanted to get for this season of the podcast is what people outside of the United States think about the election and this country’s overall approach to tech. There’s no one better to ask that question of than Mark Scott. Mark has covered tech as a journalist and now works at the Atla…
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In this episode, Tim Harper discusses his extensive background in election administration and technology, focusing on the intersection of democracy and technology. He elaborates on his work with the Bipartisan Policy Center's task force aimed at improving election processes, as well as his current role at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CD…
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I’ve been so lucky to have some great conversations for the podcast this Fall, but with Election Day rapidly approaching in the United States, I will do two bonus Monday episodes on top of the usual ones on Thursdays to get all of this content out. First, we have Betsy Hoover and Eric Wilson discuss with me the evolving landscape of campaign techno…
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I’m excited to welcome Allie Funk, Grant Baker, and Kian Vesteinsson of Freedom House’s technology and democracy team to the podcast, who released their 2024 Freedom on the Net report this week. Our conversation revolves around the latest Freedom on the Net report, highlighting the ongoing decline of global internet freedom for the 14th consecutive…
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Welcome to fellow newsletter writer, Bruce Mehlman who has long been a fixture in DC for his smart graphs and quarterly reports on where the trends are going, not just in politics but also in the economy, tech, national security, and more. I highly recommend you sign up for his newsletter, Bruce Mehlman's Age of Disruption. In our conversation, Bru…
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We’re back! Thanks again to everyone for your understanding of my gap week. In this episode, Amanda Elliott and Kyle Tharp, both newsletter writers focused on digital politics, discuss their experiences and insights into the evolving landscape of political campaigning. They explore the impact of digital strategies, fundraising, and the role of soci…
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Good morning. Due to some scheduling changes, I don’t have a podcast for this week. Thank you for understanding. If you are new to the pod, I recommend you check out the archives. Some of the more popular episodes include: * A conversation with Renee DiResta about her book Invisible Rulers * Dave Willner on the evolution of trust and safety in tech…
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We’re back! Welcome to season three of Impossible Tradeoffs. This season will focus mainly on the U.S. election, how the campaigns use tech, how tech companies respond, and what people outside the United States are watching. First up is Paolo Carozza, a member of the Meta Oversight Board and law professor at Notre Dame. Earlier this week, the Overs…
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I’ve got another special episode of the Summer Spectacular podcast for you with my good friend Emi Kolawole. Emi has 10 years of experience in communications, design, and tech. In our conversation, she shares her insights from attending the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Socrates program. She highlights the importance of including diverse voices, par…
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Ahead of TrustCon next week, I wanted to bring you a conversation I’ve been trying to set up since Duco released the Trust and Safety Market Research Report in March. Guests, investors Lauren Wagner and Shu Dar Yao, join me to discuss their involvement in the report and the reasons behind it. They highlight key takeaways from the report, such as th…
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I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting to do my first Summer Spectacular episode quite this quickly. However, when Saurabh Shukla with NewsMobile pinged me on WhatsApp to offer to talk about what had happened in the Indian election, I jumped at the chance. I then saw former Integrity Institute resident fellow Alexis Crews post about her work in the EU, and…
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Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube! This is the last episode of season 2! Thank you all for listening. I’ll be taking a break over the summer and returning with season 3 in the Fall. Between now and then, I might be planning a few summer spectacular episodes, so keep your eyes out. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to end the season with.…
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Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube! This week Claire Wardle and Daniel Bramatti discuss their work in creating fact-checking coalitions around elections as a follow up to the guide we published back in April. They highlight the importance of collaboration and trust-building among news organizations and social media platforms. They also discuss th…
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Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube! I’m so honored to have my good friend and expert extraordinaire Kat Duffy as my guest this week. I have no words other than you should listen to everything she says. Summary Kat Duffy, a senior fellow for digital and cyberspace policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses her work in the trust and safe…
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ACK! I totally forgot to schedule this last night. So sorry for my delay. Don’t forget to follow us on YouTube! This week we welcome Nina Jankowicz to the podcast. She talks about the importance of recognizing Russia's use of disinformation as a geopolitical strategy and the need for more vocal online presence in countering disinformation. Nina als…
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Kate Dommett, a professor of digital politics, discusses her book “Data-Driven Campaigning and Political Parties” and her research on how political parties use data in election campaigns. She explores the prevailing narratives around data-driven campaigning and how they often do not match reality. Dommett also discusses the role of regulation in da…
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Sorry for the slight delay today. The tech gods were not being kind. Watch this on YouTube! NOTE: A lot of this summary and show notes were generated via a new AI tool by Riverside.fmIn this episode, Brian Fishman, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Cinder, discusses his background in studying terrorism and his work at Facebook. He shares ins…
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Watch this episode on YouTube. As most of you know, I started working full-time as the Global Affairs Officer of Duco Experts in January. One of the things I like about the job is getting to work across the industry and seeing how companies tackle similar problems differently. Thus, I thought it would be fun to bring the leadership team on the podc…
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I’m trying something different for this week’s podcast. I originally hoped I would have a webinar to repurpose, but we ended up rescheduling it, so rather than not doing a podcast this week, I thought I would record the answers to questions I get quite often. In this discussion, I go into seven different areas of interest. Topics and time stamps ar…
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Watch the video of our conversation on YouTube! This week, I welcome Professor Kate Klonick to the podcast. The name of this episode comes from some amazing swag Kate made for a conference she put on last year on the history of the Trust and Safety profession. (You know how much I love swag.) Kate is among the foremost experts on many things, inclu…
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Don’t forget you can watch all of these on YouTube! This week, we are discussing all things online influence operations with one of the foremost experts - Olga Belogolva. We’re talking about Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and other actors who want to influence the online information environment. The title of this episode comes from one of her classes…
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Don’t forget you can also watch this on YouTube! This week, we are talking to Michael Bąk. Michael brings more than two decades of experience across international development, peacebuilding, diplomacy, and tech policy. Throughout his career, he has sustained a strong commitment to democratic governance, human rights, and information integrity. He i…
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Don’t forget you can also watch these on YouTube! This week we welcome Stanford Law Professor Nate Persily to the podcast. I’ve known Nate since 2013/2014 when he held a gathering at Stanford with folks in the tech/digital industry and the Federal Elections Commission. Nate has been a thought leader his entire career with experiences across technol…
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Don’t forget you can now also watch these conversations on YouTube! This week, we are diving deep into elections and specifically where people go to get information on the election. Rachel Orey is the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Senior Associate Director where they are responsible for the organization’s election administration policy development, st…
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This week on the podcast, we are taking you to SXSW and discussing a conversation I had with Sasha Issenberg about his new book, Lie Detectives: How Political Campaigns Fight Disinformation. You might remember him from his popular book Victory Lab, which was published after Obama won. Sasha’s book looks at people in the U.S. and Brazil who were at …
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We’re back! I didn’t intend to take two full months off from the podcast, but as many of you know, I started a new job in January as the Chief Global Affairs Officer of Duco Experts - a technology consulting firm. It has been overwhelming, in a good way, but it took me a bit to get started again with the podcast. I’ve got some exciting guests lined…
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In this special episode of Impossible Tradeoffs, I sit down with Latika Bourke - a journalist who I first met in Sydney ten years ago - who now has her own Substack at Latika Takes . In celebration of Facebook’s 20th birthday we sat down to take a look back at the role the platform has played in politics and elections and what we might expect going…
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It’s our last podcast of the year! Thank you all for joining my journey in starting this podcast. As a reminder, I’ll take some time off before restarting episodes in 2024. Don't forget to fill out this short form if you have ideas for what you’d like to see. This week’s fun trade-off is: For our last guest of 2023, I’m welcoming Sarah Oh to the po…
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You all like your guacamole! In last week's poll, 64% of you voted for it over queso. I have friends who have strong feelings on either side of this debate. Maybe someday I’ll expand this podcast beyond just impossible tradeoffs in tech. By the way, I’m on team queso. This week’s fun tradeoff question is: This week, we are traveling to Mexico. They…
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There are only a few more episodes of Impossible Tradeoffs for 2023! Today’s fun tradeoff question is a real challenge: From past tradeoff questions, most of you who took the polls prefer to live in the city (81%) rather than the country (19%). An equal number of you like to travel by plane and automobile (38%), and 25% of you like to take the trai…
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Welcome to this week’s podcast. The fun question to kick things off with is … For this week’s podcast, we are heading to India. I’ve been following Indian politics since late 2013 and find it absolutely fascinating. Their elections are unlike any anywhere else in the world. To help us navigate all of that, Shoaib Daniyal joins me from the news webs…
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Hi all, we are back after a week break for Thanksgiving with a new episode! This week, I recorded three more interviews, which, along with the ones I already have in the hopper, will take us through December 28th. After that, I plan on taking a short break - no more than a few weeks - to think about how I can make the podcast better. I’ve enjoyed p…
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Hey all, since I’m off elk hunting, there’s no fun question or intro interview for this episode. Instead, we’re going to jump right into the main discussion. This week, I chatted with Phumzile Van Damme, a fellow at Harvard and a long-time expert at the intersection of technology and human rights. She was kind enough to walk me through all things e…
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From last week's poll, most of you prefer physical books to digital ones. Physical books won 73 percent to 27 percent. This week’s question is: This week, we are nerding out on all things digital campaigning and the platforms’ approach to elections. First up is my interview with Henri Makembe who is the CEO of Do Big Things - a creative services fi…
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Welcome to another episode of Impossible Tradeoffs! Thank you all for bearing with me as I get used to being a podcast host. Listening to this latest episode, I realize I use some phrases a lot - like I’m always very excited for my guest. I'm going to work on standardizing some of these things. But this is another interesting episode — first, the f…
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I have to apologize to you all. I forgot to put a poll in last week’s podcast notes about our fun tradeoff, which was how you would want to unwind. I won’t make that same mistake this week! The hard question for you today is: This week, we are joined by a bunch of exciting guests. First up is Diane Chang. Diane is a journalist-turned-product manage…
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We’re back after a week off! At the beginning of this month, I was freaking out that scheduling guests was going slower than expected. However, in the last ten days, I’ve recorded six episodes (including this one) and one more to come. In the hopper includes conversations on India, the European Union, Africa, the United Kingdom, the history of tech…
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Turns out I’m in the minority for last week’s fun tradeoff - 72% of you said you would choose the beach over going to the lake. This week’s question is, would you order pancakes or waffles? This week, I’m joined by two fabulous guests - Josh Lawson and Yoel Roth. Josh was a colleague of mine at Facebook and is now doing work with the Aspen Institut…
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Welcome to the second Impossible Tradeoffs podcast! This week’s fun, hard question is: Would you rather go to the lake or the beach? Vote below on what you would choose, and feel free to debate it in the comments! I’m solo this week for the opener, so I tried out sharing all my hot takes on: * The elections coming up in Slovakia and Poland. * My ta…
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This week, my guest host is Crystal Patterson. She was on my team at Facebook for seven years and now is President of the Washington Media Group. She joins me to answer the hard questions such as if you could only order one of these would you choose french fries or ice cream? We also get into last week’s Congressional gathering on AI with tech exec…
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Technology and democracy are at a crossroads. Technology can potentially empower people and make our democracies more responsive. Or technology can be used to manipulate and divide us. Welcome to Impossible Tradeoffs. I’m Katie Harbath. In this weekly podcast, we’ll talk about and analyze the most fascinating headlines. We’ll make predictions about…
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continue reading
