TechTank

On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, guest host Mishaela Robison will sit down with Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director of Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center and Emily Dreyfuss, a journalist, who leads the Shorenstein Center News Leaders Program, to discuss their book, Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). Hosted...

On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee will discuss the future of local news and the effects of the internet on traditional business models and the quality of investigative journalism. The episode will also correlate rising levels of misinformation to an eroding local news landscape. Podcast guests are Courtney Radsch, postdoctoral research fellow at UCLA, and Ste...

On this episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Darrell West is joined by two distinguished experts to discuss if economic decoupling is possible for the United States. Melanie Sisson is a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where she focuses on national security in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. Emily Weinstein is a research fello...

On this week’s episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-hosts Darrell West, and Nicol Turner Lee discuss the future of Biden’s tech policy agenda under the new 118 th Congress, including broadband infrastructure, anti-trust, big tech accountability, data privacy, and AI, among other issues. With a GOP majority in the House of Representatives and a Democrat-led Senate, this episode dives into which poli...

On this week’s episode of the TechTank Podcast, moderator Darrell West, Vice President of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, will discuss if it's time for the Supreme Court to regulate social media platforms and the search engines that have become prominent amongst society. To help with this conversation, the Podcast is happily joined by John Villasenor, a Professor of Engine...

On this episode, host Nicol Turner Lee explores technology adoption in Africa and universal access throughout the continent with guests Yolanda Jinxin Ma, head of Digital Policy and Global Partnerships at the United Nations Development Programme, Addisu Lashitew, Global Economy and Development nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Jane Munga, Africa Program fellow at Carnegie w...

In this episode of the podcast, co-host Darrell West speaks to Nicol Turner Lee, senior fellow in Governance Studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings and Tom Wheeler, a visiting fellow in Governance Studies and the author of a forthcoming Brookings book, “Techlash” about Twitter's future, and the consequences of recent tumultuous changes at the company. Hosted on A...

In this episode of Tech Tank, co-host, Nicol Turner Lee, speaks with Rashawn Ray, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution, and Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research, University of Maryland; and Kinnis Gosha, Executive Director and Chief Research Officer of the Center for Broadening Participation in Computing, Morehouse College...

Latino voters registered and voted in higher numbers in the 2020 presidential election than in prior years, according to a 2021 report , and recent findings from the Pew Research Center count 34.5 million eligible Latino voters, which is a significant increase since the last midterm elections. The results of the 2022 midterms will have lasting consequences on American politics and policy, mak...

To protect public integrity and faith our election, it is integral for the United States to work to combat existing misinformation, protect the safety of election officials, and guarantee that existing cybersecurity measures are adequate in protecting the vote of the American people. On TechTank, Darrell West is joined by Elaine Kamarck and Elizabeth Howard to discuss these topics and more. Hosted...

The prevalence and technical relevance of machine learning algorithms have increased over the years, making predictive decision-making tools part of the everyday lives of online users. Today, it is harder to discern what decisions are made by humans, and the others that rely upon the cognition of machines. On this new episode of the Tech Tank podcast, Darrell West is joined by Nicol Turner Lee, Se...

On this episode of TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Undersecretary Xochitl Torres Small. Together, they discuss the administration’s ongoing work to close the urban-rural digital divide, how IIJA funding has helped the USDA expand programs such as the ReConnect program, and how the USDA has been working to meet different communities’ hyperlocal needs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

Spectrum policy has been essential in determining how to encourage communications technology development, while ensuring equitable access. On TechTank, Nicol Turner Lee, Andrew Von Ah, Shane Tews and Kathleen Burke discuss pressing topics in spectrum policy and interrogate if the lack of available spectrum will be a dealbreaker in closing the digital divide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

On TechTank, Samantha Lai and Darrell West discusses his most recent book, “Power Politics: Trump and the Assault on American Democracy.” Together, they contend with how the weaponization of information threatens American democracy, and what could be done to protect it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On TechTank, guest host Samantha Lai is joined by Lydia X.Z. Brown, Alex Engler and Henry Claypool to discuss how people with disabilities are affected by existing technologies. They investigate issues with privacy, AI bias, surveillance technology and more, and consider what is needed to rectify these wrongs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not a single week of 2022 has passed without multiple mass shootings. 343 people have been killed and 1,391 injured through July 4th of this year. On TechTank, host Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, Carol Graham and Darrell West examine the role social media has played in past mass shootings and look into how the public has reacted online to prospects of gun legislation and rising political polarization in th...

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency orders and pandemic-era flexibilities for telehealth are quickly expiring, thus ending the many conveniences of telehealth that people benefited from. On TechTank, Samantha Lai is joined by Nicol Turner Lee and Niam Yaraghi to discuss their forthcoming research paper on the future of telehealth, “The roadmap to telehealth efficacy: care, health, and...

On TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Cameron Kerry and Jennifer King to discuss the current bipartisan and bicameral draft of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act and whether the U.S. can soon expect national legislation.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year’s Pride Month comes at a difficult time for LGBTQ+ rights. Over the past year, there have been over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in at least 28 states, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that aims to limit LGBTQ+ discussion in schools, and a bill in Ohio that would ban transgender women from participating in high school and college athletics that includes a “verification process”...

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the concept of the Metaverse, but questions surrounding issues of privacy, security, virtual content moderation, the sale of virtual goods, and data ownership remain. On TechTank, host Darrell West is joined by Tom Wheeler and Katherine Cross to discuss the Metaverse and what issues it raises for consumers and businesses.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

In this technological age, workforce demands for computer science skills have evolved and keep evolving. On TechTank, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Michael Hansen, Nicolas Zerbino and Kimberly Scott to discuss what it means to equitably expand access to computer science education for K-12 students. They also look at a recently-released report authored by Hansen and Zerbino, “Exploring the stat...

Semiconductor chips powered the digital revolution. However, recent shortages exacerbated by the global pandemic and geopolitical tensions have slowed production and imperiled economic activity. On TechTank, Darrell West is joined by Jeremy Mark and Emily Kilcrease to discuss what to expect going forward, ways to improve supply chain resiliency and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

On #TechTank, Dr. Turner Lee and Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, unpack the challenges of having a more inclusive tech workforce and discuss a pathway toward student success and professional achievement for under-represented students and professionals.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Internet democratized the information ecosystem and generated many different uses. But at the same time, there are concerns about ways that social media platforms enable violent speech, extremism, and human abuses. On TechTank, Darrell West is joined by Ben Wittes and Quinta Jurecic to discuss how policymakers and regulators could proceed with content moderation on social media sites. Hosted o...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought forward many important questions about the social media landscape. In this episode of TechTank, guest host Samantha Lai is joined by Jessica Brandt and Emerson Brooking to discuss the role disinformation has played in this conflict, how social media companies and the American government have responded, and what precedence this sets for the future of the...