Future Knowledge

Libraries are increasingly facing restrictive eBook licensing terms that can make digital books more expensive, less durable, and harder to preserve than print. In this live discussion, we explore a growing state-by-state movement to establish fairer terms for library eBook contracts—and what these laws could mean for libraries, publishers, authors, and readers. Joining the conversation are Kyle K...

As the Internet Archive turns 30, founder Brewster Kahle looks back at the origins of the Archive and considers the future of libraries, digital preservation, and access to knowledge. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kahle explores how libraries can work together to preserve our digital culture, build collections that remain accessible, and make use of new technologies—including AI—without givin...

In this episode of Future Knowledge, Alexis Durante-Tierney and Helen Vogelsong-Donahue , hosts of the Born Digital podcast, explore how growing up under constant surveillance may be changing the way young people socialize, experiment, and have fun. From smartphones and social media to school surveillance and cameras in public spaces, they ask what happens when there’s no expectation of privacy—or...

As AI reshapes how information is created and accessed, libraries, publishers, and educators are confronting a new question: open for whom? In this live discussion, we explore the tensions between open knowledge and AI—from the strain on library infrastructure and concerns about AI training to the challenges facing Open Educational Resources. How can we address legitimate concerns about AI while p...

The public record is the foundation of an informed democracy, but in the digital age, it is more fragile than ever. In this timely conversation, Merrilee Proffitt (Democracy’s Library at the Internet Archive), James Jacobs (Stanford University), and Christopher Marcum (Federation of American Scientists) examine the growing challenges of preserving government information in the digital age. As gove...

In Big Fiction, author and Emory University professor Dan Sinykin examines how decades of mergers and acquisitions have transformed the publishing industry, and how those changes have shaped what it means to be an author. Sinykin explores the rise of the “Big Five” publishing houses, the pursuit of blockbuster titles, and what the consolidation of publishing means for the books we read and the cul...

In Reclaiming Fair Use , copyright scholars Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi argue that fair use is not merely an exception to copyright law, but one of its core principles, enabling creativity, scholarship, journalism, education, and cultural participation. In this discussion they explain how fair use works in practice, dispel common misconceptions, and show how creators, educators, librarian...

What does it mean to preserve culture in an age of disappearing websites, platform-controlled media, and fragile digital memories? In the final episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , Future Knowledge hosts Dave Hansen and Chris Freeland sit down with musician and series host Vida Vojić and producer Alice Bridgwood to reflect on the conversations, ideas, and lessons that emer...

Languages can vanish just as easily as books, websites, or archives, and when they do, entire ways of understanding the world can disappear with them. In the fifth episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , host Vida Vojić speaks with Peter Scholing of Biblioteca Nacional Aruba and the Coleccion Aruba digital heritage platform about the importance of preserving Papiamento, Aruba...

Folktales are living records of culture, identity, and collective memory. In the fourth episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , host Vida Vojić speaks with writer and researcher Helen Nde , founder of Mythological Africans, and folklorist Laura Gibbs about the importance of preserving African folklore in the digital age. Together, they explore how stories help communities und...

Queer history has often been overlooked, erased, or excluded from traditional archives. In the third episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , host Vida Vojić speaks with writer, artist, and archivist Brooke Palmieri about the vital role queer archives play in preserving memory, identity, and community. Drawing on his work with CAMP BOOKS and his research into LGBTQ+ history, B...

Why preserve a cookbook? In the second episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , host Vida Vojić speaks with Katie Livingston , a doctoral researcher at Stanford University who studies domestic culture and women’s literature. Through the lens of family cookbooks, recipe collections, and food traditions, Katie explores why everyday cultural artifacts deserve preservation and wha...

As more of our cultural heritage moves online, a troubling question is emerging: what happens when the things we create, share, and cherish simply disappear? In the first episode of our special six-part series on Vanishing Culture , host Vida Vojić speaks with author and humanities scholar Luca Messarra , author of the Internet Archive’s Vanishing Culture , about the growing threat of cultural los...

In Transaction Denied: How Financial Institutions Silence Dissent and Undermine Democracy , author Rainey Reitman examines the growing phenomenon of financial censorship, in which banks, payment processors, and credit card networks can restrict access to financial services based on speech, identity, or perceived risk. From voting rights organizations and educators to adult content creators and can...

In AI Tools, Not Gods , policy researcher Caroline De Cock examines how myths about artificial intelligence—framing it as an all-knowing mind or an unstoppable force—have come to shape public policy and public understanding. By unpacking the narratives that dominate conversations about AI, De Cock argues for a clearer, evidence-based approach that recognizes AI for what it is: a set of human-built...

In Law and Technology , legal scholar Ryan Calo explores one of the defining challenges of our time: how societies can govern rapidly evolving technologies before those technologies reshape laws, rights, and institutions. Rather than treating each new innovation as a completely unique problem, Calo argues for a more durable framework for thinking about technology policy that helps lawmakers, court...

As artificial intelligence reshapes how information is created, accessed, and controlled, a quieter crisis is emerging: the potential loss of the web’s historical record. In this episode, tech writer Mike Masnick , Mark Graham of the Internet Archive, and public interest tech and media lawyer Kendra Albert come together for a timely conversation on what it means to preserve the web in the age of A...

In Vanishing Culture , editors Luca Messarra , Chris Freeland and Juliya Ziskina bring together voices exploring what it means to lose access to our shared cultural record in the digital age. From disappearing websites and delisted music to fragile licensing agreements and platform shutdowns, the book traces how corporate control, technological change, and neglect are reshaping what survives... an...

In Data Cartels , legal scholar Sarah Lamdan exposes the shadowy industry built around collecting, packaging, and selling our personal data. She reveals how powerful companies hoard information and use aggressive tactics to maintain control—turning data into a commodity that can deepen inequality and restrict the democratic flow of knowledge. Heather Joseph , executive director of the Scholarly Pu...

In The Secret Life of Data , authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore how the information we generate every day—email addresses, phone numbers, browsing habits, even biometric data—circulates through vast digital systems that shape our lives in ways we rarely see. Their book examines the hidden infrastructures of data collection, surveillance, and algorithmic decision-making, revealing how...

In The Apple II Age , historian Laine Nooney tells the story of the computer that helped launch Apple, and reshape personal computing. Introduced in 1977, the Apple II became a cultural phenomenon not just because of its hardware, but because of the vibrant software ecosystem that grew around it, from classroom staples like The Print Shop to early games and creative tools that defined a generation...

In Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age , journalist Vauhini Vara explores how the technologies we use to understand the world—search engines, social platforms, and now AI systems—are also reshaping how we understand ourselves. Drawing from her own experience using chatbots to write about her sister’s death, Vara reflects on what happens when our most human questions, memories, and emotions are f...

For more than three decades, Cindy Cohn , the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been at the center of the fight to protect privacy, free expression, and innovation online—taking on the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, defending encryption, and pushing back against efforts to weaken digital security in the name of safety. In her new book, Privacy's Defender , she r...

Computer scientist Sayash Kapoor joins legal scholar Kevin Frazier to discuss “AI as Normal Technology,” the paper he co-authored with Arvind Narayanan, arguing that artificial intelligence is not an apocalyptic superintelligence or miraculous cure-all, but a powerful, ordinary technology shaped by human institutions and incentives. Kapoor challenges today’s AI hype and panic, urging us to see AI...

Author Edward Wilson-Lee joins Brewster Kahle to uncover the astonishing true story behind The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books . Wilson-Lee chronicles the adventures of Hernando Colón, who sailed with his father Christopher Columbus before setting out to build a library of everything ever printed—a quest marked by shipwreck, mutiny, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Grab your copy of The Cat...