Policy Prompt – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to Policy Prompt, a new podcast from the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Hosted by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson, Policy Prompt will keep you abreast of the most pressing policy challenges in the digital era. Discussions with today’s thought leaders will cover the latest developments in tech and governance and their impact on communities worldwide. Join us biweekly for new episodes, available on all major podcast platforms.

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Marietje Schaake joins the hosts to discuss her book The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley (Princeton University Press, 2024). Informed by Marietje’s experience working at the forefront of tech governance, the conversation explores strategies for effective government regulation and ways citizens can counterbalance the immense power wielded by today’s tech giants, to promote a more democratic digital landscape.

Mentioned:

• The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley (Princeton University Press, released September 24, 2024 )
• The Tech Coup website
• CIGI’s Global Commission on Internet Governance

Further Reading:

• Marietje Schaake | FSI (stanford.edu) (Stanford profile page and publications)
• Marietje Schaake (ft.com) (Financial Times column page)

In-Show Clips:

• Yahoo Finance: “CEO talks Big Tech and rights of users”
• Al Jazeera English: “Social media blamed for Myanmar’s tribal dispute”
• CNBC, “Why The U.S. Government And Big Tech Disagree On Encryption”
• CNBC Television: “Facebook lays out details for content oversight board”
• Euronews: “Poland to investigate alleged use of Pegasus spyware by last government”
• CBS News: “Appeals court allows TikTok lawsuit over girl’s death in viral challenge”

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

In this episode, the Policy Prompt hosts are joined by Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness, authors of The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Corporate Personhood on YouTube (Stanford University Press, 2024), to discuss the evolving landscape of influencer culture. The episode touches on the growing phenomenon of “uncancelability” among influencers, the rise of artificial intelligence–powered avatars and the impact of fluctuating platform regulations.

Mentioned:

• The Influencer Factory: A Marxist Theory of Corporate Personhood on YouTube (Stanford University Press, 2024)
• The Influencer Marketing Hub claims that the worldwide influencer marketing industry is worth nearly US$21.1 billion, a 29 percent jump from 2022
• Jon Porter, “TikTok’s big day in court is here: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform” (The Verge, September 16, 2024)
• AI Influencer profile, Miquela “Lil Miquela” Sousa: Miquela (@lilmiquela) Instagram photos and videos; Eric Chang, “@LilMiquela is an Instagram IT Girl, Social Influencer, and Recording Artist — She’s Also a Digital Simulation” (Vogue, August 17, 2017)

Further Reading:

• Grant Bollmer’s official website
• Katherine Guinness’s official website
• Grant Bollmer’s Materialist Media Theory: An Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2019)
• Grant Bollmer’s Theorizing Digital Cultures (Sage, 2018)
• Contemporary Absurdities, Existential Crises, and Visual Art, edited by Katherine Guinness and Charlotte Kent (Intellectual Books, forthcoming October 2024)

In-Show Clips:

• Mia Maples: “Testing Tiktok VIRAL Products”
• A Beautiful Mess: “Elsie’s Home Tour Video”
• MrBeast: “Train Vs Giant Pit”
• StarTalk: “William Shatner Has Questions for Neil deGrasse Tyson”
• BeFullyDevoted: “THE DAILY GRACE CO HAUL”
• Shane Dawson: “The Secret World of Jeffree Starr”
• The Try Guys: “the new try guys”
• Lil Miquela: Miquela (@lilmiquela) Instagram photos and videos

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Do emerging technologies inherently serve the greater good? Join Policy Prompt hosts Vass and Paul in a discussion with world-renowned economist Daron Acemoglu, on his recent book Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, co-authored with Simon Johnson (PublicAffairs, 2023). Following the launch of this episode, the announcement was made that Acemoglu, Johnson and James Robinson share this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their groundbreaking research on global inequality. The hosts and Acemoglu discuss the implications of technological prowess on the global stage, the impacts of artificial intelligence on the future of work and education, and the building blocks of techno-optimism.

Mentioned:

• Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (PublicAffairs, 2023)
• GenAI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit? (Goldman Sachs, June 25, 2024)

Further Reading:

• Daron Acemoglu, “The Simple Macroeconomics of AI” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 12, 2024)
• Robin Wigglesworth, “Daron Acemoglu is not having all this AI hype” (Financial Times, May 28, 2024)
• Thomas B. Edsall, “Will A.I. Be a Creator or a Destroyer of Worlds?” (The New York Times, June 25, 2024)
• Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (Penguin Random House, 2020)

In-Show Clips:

• TED with Cathie Wood: “Why AI Will Spark Exponential Economic Growth”
• Goldman Sachs: “A skeptical look at AI investment”
• TEDxSioux Falls with Natasha Berg: “Should we let students use ChatGPT?”
• CBC News, About That: “AI's hidden climate costs”
• TODAY: “Teens open up about the impact of social media on their lives”

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

In this episode, Policy Prompt hosts chat with CIGI Senior Fellow and international human rights lawyer Susie Alegre, to unpack her latest book, Human Rights, Robot Wrongs: Being Human in the Age of AI (Atlantic Books, 2024). Listen to find out if Susie has ever been fooled by artificial intelligence, what the challenges and the tensions of rights for machines are, and why there is a palpable lack of urgency around the adoption of fully autonomous weapons.

Mentioned:

• Susie Alegre, Human Rights, Robot Wrongs: Being Human in the Age of AI (Atlantic Books, 2024)
• “Machine learning cracked the protein-folding problem and won the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry” (The Conversation, October 9, 2024)
• “How good is the latest version of ChatGPT?” (BBC News, May 16, 2024)
• “The agony of Sophia, the world’s first robot citizen condemned to a lifeless career in marketing” (Wired, June 1, 2018)
• Susie Alegre, Freedom to Think: Protecting a Fundamental Human Right in the Digital Age (Atlantic Books, 2023)

Explore further: 

• “Human rights lawyer Susie Alegre: ‘If AI is so complex it can’t be explained, there are areas where it shouldn’t be used’” (The Guardian, May 11, 2024)
• Susan Ariel Aaronson, Susie Alegre, Duncan Cass-Beggs and Jeni Tennison, “Can We Have Our AI Cake and Eat It Too?” (CIGI, November 30, 2023)
• Susie Alegre, “Technological Threats to Our Freedom of Thought” (CIGI, September 14, 2022)

In-Show Clips:

• CBC News: “Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data: Companies under investigation”
• TalkTV: “AI Girlfriend ‘Told Intruder To Assassinate The Queen In Windsor Castle’”
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Using AI to discover new antibiotics”
• The Jakarta Post: “Meet Sophia: The first robot declared a citizen by Saudi Arabia”
• Bloomberg Technology: “Microsoft, AWS Speakers Exit Event Over Fake Female Profiles”
• BBC News: “Scarlett Johansson 'shocked' by AI chatbot imitation”

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

 Amid the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War, the Chinese computer emerged. Despite the complexity of formatting tens of thousands of characters for digital use, the race for ingenuity resulted in the revolutionary computing of non-Latin script and unprecedented typing speeds — feats that continue to shape the devices we use today. Join Policy Prompt hosts for a deep dive into the history of digital technology in China with Thomas S. Mullaney, American sinologist, professor at Stanford University and author of The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age (MIT Press, 2024). 

Mentioned:

• Thomas S. Mullaney, The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age (MIT Press, 2024)
• Tom Mullaney, “America has a rich history of innovation by Asian immigrants” (Quartz, May 29, 2021)
• Thomas S. Mullaney, The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press, 2018)
• SILICON (Stanford Initiative on Language Inclusion and Conservation in Old and New Media)

Further Reading: 

• Your Computer Is on Fire, edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip (MIT Press, 2021)
• Tom Mullaney, “Behind the painstaking process of creating Chinese computer fonts” (MIT Technology Review, May 31, 2021)
• Thomas S. Mullaney, “QWERTY in China: Chinese Computing and the Radical Alphabet” (Technology and Culture 59 (4): S34–S65)

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Before Google and Meta dominated the digital landscape, the news agencies and technologies of the early twentieth century captured unprecedented influence. Join hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson in conversation with Heidi Tworek, a leading expert in international history and public policy from the University of British Columbia, as she explains the historic prevalence, power and manipulation of media and wireless technology. Her latest book, News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900–1945, is available from Harvard University Press.

Mentioned:

• Heidi J.S. Tworek, News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900–1945 (Harvard University Press, 2019)
• Matthew Goldstein, “What to Know About Trump Media Now That the Election Is Over” (The New York Times, November 13, 2024)
• Caitlyn Becker, “These are the major newspapers that have and haven’t endorsed Trump and Harris” (The Hill, October 26, 2024)

Further Reading: 

• Heidi Tworek’s official website
• Robert Diab, “Google’s AI Podcasts Signal a New Era in Media” (CIGI, November 14, 2024)
• Devin Coldewey, “Generative disinfo is real — you’re just not the target, warns deepfake tracking nonprofit” (TechCrunch, November 12, 2024)

In-Show Clips:

• PeriscopeFilm: “LAYING OF WESTERN UNION TRANS-ATLANTIC CABLE 1928 TELEGRAPH”
• KTLA 5: “U.S. House passes TikTok ban”
• PeriscopeFilm: “‘HOW TO READ A NEWSPAPER’ 1950s EDUCATIONAL FILM”
• BlueLotusFilms: “1950’s Vintage Pharmaceutical Commercials”
• BBC News: “US journalist Evan Gershkovich jailed in Russia”

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Join the Policy Prompt crew for a different kind of episode: recorded with a live audience at Perfect Books in Ottawa, host Paul Samson interviews Denise Hearn (resident senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, author, applied researcher and adviser) and Vass Bednar (CIGI senior fellow, Public Policy Forum fellow and executive director of the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University) to discuss “kayfabe capitalism,” and why our nation’s competition policy leaves much to be desired. Listen to learn how Canada can promote competition, encourage citizen engagement and create a more level playing field. Denise and Vass’s book, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, is available now from Sutherland House Press.

Mentioned:

• Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians (Sutherland House Press, 2024)
• Competition Act RSC 1985, c C-34
• Perfect Books, 258A Elgin St., Ottawa

Further Reading: 

• Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, “We live in the age of kayfabe capitalism” (The Globe and Mail, October 13, 2024)
• Vass Bednar, “In Canada, we bank where we buy” (The Globe and Mail, May 5, 2024)
• Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn, The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition (Wiley, 2018)

Show notes: 

• Vass Bednar’s Lately podcast with The Globe and Mail, centring on trends and key actors in business and tech
• Vass Bednar’s Substack, Regs to riches, a newsletter about start-ups and public policy
• Denise Hearn’s newsletter, Embodied Economics, focuses on today’s economic frameworks and financial structures through a nuanced lens

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Is refrigeration really that revolutionary? In this episode of Policy Prompt, the hosts are joined by Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (Penguin Press, 2024) and co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast. They explore the “modern marvel” of enjoying fresh foods from around the globe year-round, and the science that makes it all possible.

Mentioned:

• Nicola Twilley, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (Penguin Press, 2024)
• “Gastropod. Food with a side of science and history”

Further Reading: 

• Nicola Twilley’s official website
• Nicola Twilley, “How to Get Rich From Peeping Inside People’s Fridges” (Wired, July 1, 2024)
• Nicola Twilley, “How the Fridge Changed Flavor” (The New Yorker, June 8, 2024)

Show notes: 

• The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in Norway, is home to gene banks that are preserving more than one million seeds from around the world.
• A remedy for rampant food waste? Nicola Twilley and co-host Cynthia Graber explore “surprise bags” in an episode of Gastropod.

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.

Copyright has become a tool for privatizing everything — the opposite of what it was designed to do when it was invented in the eighteenth century to protect published works. In their book Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs (Penguin Random House, 2024), Princeton professors David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu provide a lively account of that turnaround, to the point where “the bulk of American culture is in copyright prison,” the world’s largest companies earn their revenue from intellectual property, and creative rights to everything from wallpaper, computer code, choreography, a “vibe” or a banana costume can be disputed, claimed and monetized. Join Vass and Paul for this engaging tag team with David and Alexandre as they discuss both historical and contemporary examples of the power of copyright and where we might be headed with new technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.

Mentioned:

• Statute of Anne of 1710: www.copyrighthistory.com/anne.html
• Landmark copyright case, Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. 499 US 340 (1991)
• Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17): www.copyright.gov/title17/
• “Fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer to defend your right to create”: Lawrence Lessig in Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity (Penguin Random House, 2005, chapter 12)
• TRIPS Agreement: www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/intel2_e.htm
• Berne Convention of 1886: www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/
• Copyright Act (RSC 1985, c C-42): https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/Index.html

Further Reading: 

• David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu, Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs (Penguin Random House, 2024)
• Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity (Penguin Random House, 2005)
• Katy Waldman, “Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story?” (The New Yorker, January 6, 2025)
• CBC Arts, “Court tosses out another Da Vinci Code plagiarism case” (CBC, November 13, 2006)
• Associated Press: “Media Talk; Dustin Hoffman Loses Appeals Court Case” (The New York Times, July 9, 2001)
• Racheal Muldoon and Mark Bailey: “Getty v Stability AI: A ‘tantalising glance’ of what’s to come for AI firms and creators” (Charles Russell Speechlys, January 16, 2025)
• Kari Paul, “Court of a-peel: nasty split over banana costume leads to legal monkey business” (The Guardian, August 1, 2019)

Show Notes:

• More on copyright history, current questions around legislation, and rights of publicity: BBC Arts & Ideas podcast, “Dickens, Disney and copyright” (with guests David Bellos, Katie McGettigan and Hayleigh Bosher; December 21, 2023)
• On Creative Commons movement and Wikipedia: Creative Commons, “Celebrating 20 Years of CC Licenses — Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig” (YouTube, April 6, 2022)

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

Be sure to follow us on social media.

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @_policyprompt

Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt biweekly on major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.