S2 E10. Digital Wasteland

The toxic waste that seeps into rivers taints everything downstream, spoiling lakes and oceans, killing flora and fauna, altering the air we breathe and raining back down. Information works the same way, media scholar Whitney Phillips says. Fueled by human passions, falsehoods permeate the mainstream media, undermine trust and hurt vulnerable people most. To untangle this trash, she argues, we need to think ecologically, too: looking not only to coders but faith leaders, teachers, even healthcare workers.

Om Podcasten

All over the world, liberal democracy is under threat. Autocrats are taking hold. They’re crushing dissent. Controlling the media. Trampling voting rights. Don’t let them. Join hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan as they put the illiberal turn in context. Hear leading thinkers discuss serious threats to government by the people: from the dark web and media disinformation, to climate change, economic inequality and violent extremism. Help save the rule of the people — one episode at a time. And make democracy work better. Listen, subscribe to the show, leave us some stars and tweet us your thoughts @DinDpodcast. New episodes drop every other Wednesday.