2. Kayfabe Country

In 1987, the same year Hulk Hogan body-slammed Andre the Giant, something else happened that would change America's relationship with the truth forever - a Washington regulator abolished the law that required broadcasters to present both sides of an argument.What followed was Mor ...  Show more

In the early 2000s, a young man in New Jersey was writing thousands of fake university essays for paying students. Around the same time, financial analysts in New York were rating toxic debt as safe. And in Silicon Valley, a new business philosophy was taking hold: fake it till y ...  Show more

Our lives are increasingly moving from the offline to the online world, leaving a long trail of data in our wake. These data can be used to wield economic and political power, and to define us as communities and as individuals. What are the opportunities and risks?

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The internet was supposed to set us free. But somewhere along the way, it became a tool for surveillance, extraction, and control. What happened? And is there still time to reclaim the weird, untapped potential of the digital world? This week, Sean is joined by Douglas Rushkoff. ...  Show more

Meta - the owner of Facebook - has launched Threads, a text-based social media app. Tech Life's correspondent in San Francisco tells us about the launch. And we look at the development of social media with Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor in the Department of Communicati ...  Show more

What if the polarizing mess of social media, clickbait headlines and addictive algorithms isn't a breakdown of media but a transition to something better? Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie explores how independent creators are growing a new media "garden," where trust beats enga ...  Show more