Explore every episode of the podcast Policy Prompt
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
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| Welcome to Policy Prompt: A CIGI Podcast | 05 Sep 2024 | 00:01:23 | |
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.
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. | |||
| CTRL+ALT+Revolt: The Tech Coup, with Marietje Schaake | 16 Sep 2024 | 00:59:45 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| A Crash Course on the “Corpocene”: The Influencer Factory, with Grant Bollmer and Katherine Guinness | 30 Sep 2024 | 01:31:44 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| History Claps Back on Techno-Optimism, with Daron Acemoglu | 11 Oct 2024 | 00:59:49 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| Siri, Tell Us About Human Rights and Robot Wrongs (a conversation with Susie Alegre) | 28 Oct 2024 | 00:50:34 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| How Every Computer Is a Chinese Computer (twirling the cord with Thomas Mullaney) | 11 Nov 2024 | 01:03:32 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| A look at News, Memes, and Wireless Tech from More than 100 Years Ago (Heidi Tworek calls from Germany) | 25 Nov 2024 | 01:00:32 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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.
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| The Competition Cage Match (Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn weigh in) | 19 Dec 2024 | 01:16:44 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| How Refrigeration Changed Our Palates, Our Plates and Our Planet (a taste of history with Nicola Twilley) | 09 Dec 2024 | 01:07:42 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| “The Empire of IP”: How Did We Get Here? (talking history of copyright with David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu) | 27 Jan 2025 | 01:14:30 | |
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:
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Credits: 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.
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 Our Computational World, What Do We Know? (seeing the many worlds with Michael Richardson) | 10 Feb 2025 | 01:12:50 | |
Join hosts Vass and Paul for their fascinating conversation with Michael Richardson, associate professor of media and culture at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, about the ideas in his book Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World (Duke University Press, 2024). Michael explores the ethical and political implications of witnessing in an age of profound instability, and how our ways of making knowledge and experiencing the world are being mediated in fundamental ways by nonhuman systems — from the embodiment of history, trauma and change in animals and natural landscapes, to the “immediately computational” witnessing by technologies such as surveillance cameras and artificial intelligence. Mentioned:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| What Does Innovation Actually Mean? (talking research, the academy and AI with Joel Blit) | 07 Apr 2025 | 00:56:32 | |
What does innovation actually mean, and how should we be thinking about it? In this episode, Vass and Paul welcome Joel Blit, an expert in innovation and innovation policy. Joel is a senior fellow at CIGI, and an associate professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, where he chairs the Council for Innovation Policy and Strategy. They discuss the mix of art and science that comprises innovation, the tensions surrounding it, and the different approaches — inside and outside the academy — that Canada and other jurisdictions are experimenting with to best generate and capture commercial and societal benefits from emerging technologies, in particular artificial intelligence. In-Show Clips:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| Measuring and Visualizing AI (grounding decisions in data with Nestor Maslej) | 24 Mar 2025 | 01:00:37 | |
AI is going to affect us all and everyone has opinions about it. But what does the data say? In this episode of Policy Prompt, Vass and Paul welcome Nestor Maslej from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, where he is the research manager of the AI Index and the Global AI Vibrancy Tool. In developing tools that track the advancement of AI, Nestor hopes to make the AI space more accessible to policy makers, business leaders and the lay public. Nestor discusses the excitement and fears surrounding this fast-moving technology and the importance of quantitative data in AI myth busting. “At the Index, we really feel that to make good decisions about this tech, whether you are in a boardroom, in a Parliament, or simply sitting in your living room, you need to have access to data and you have to actually understand what is going on with this technology.” In-Show Clips:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| Where Do Art History and Computer Science Meet? (drawing lessons with Amanda Wasielewski) | 10 Mar 2025 | 01:08:37 | |
In episode 12, artist and thinker Amanda Wasielewski joins hosts Vass and Paul to discuss the crossover and interplay between digital and capital-A art. Amanda, an associate senior lecturer of digital humanities and associate professor (docent) of art history in the Department of Archives, Libraries, and Museums at Uppsala University in Sweden, has exhibited her artwork internationally and recently published the monograph Computational Formalism: Art History and Machine Learning (MIT Press, 2023) and co-edited Critical Digital Art History: Interface and Data Politics in the Post-Digital Era, with Anna Näslund (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Amanda brings her art historian perspective to questions of data politics, including categorization, authentication, nuances lost in automation, the need to be able to see data sets, and both the fears and artistic potential surrounding generative technologies. In-Show Clips:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| How to Predict the Future with Accuracy (throwing darts with Robert de Neufville) | 24 Feb 2025 | 01:03:49 | |
Warren Buffett once said he would rather trust his money to monkeys throwing darts than financial advisers. So how do the monkeys’ chances of hitting the target stack up against those of, say, pollsters, Magic 8 Balls or star charts? Maybe the monkeys have practised. Meet Robert de Neufville, who is super at forecasting: someone whose predictions have proved far more accurate than regular forecasting and regularly outperform intelligence analysts’. Robert holds degrees in government and political science from Harvard and Berkeley, co-hosts the NonProphets: (Super)forecasting Podcast and has extensive experience in analyzing existential risk. Robert and hosts Vass and Paul discuss everything from Buffett’s monkeys and Moneyball to the importance of parking your biases, knowing what to research and the difference between hype and meaningful signal, to the value of expertise, new things to worry about and the need to stay skeptical. Mentioned:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| From Shipping Things to Spreading Ideas (unboxing global trade with Marc Levinson) | 05 May 2025 | 00:56:11 | |
In episode 16, hosts Vass and Paul talk to Marc Levinson — economist, historian and author of The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, published in 2016, and the follow-up, Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas (both Princeton University Press). Marc brings to life a topic freighted with importance but often out of mind: how an innovation involving the shipping container, 200 years in the making, transformed economic geography and the transport of cargo around the globe. The three discuss, as well, the current challenges in figuring out the value of international trade that is unpackaged and, so far, not well accounted for — exchange in services, ideas and intangibles, of increasing significance in the global economy. Mentioned:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| Perfect Fit Content (from elevator music to your AI DJ with Liz Pelly) | 22 Apr 2025 | 00:50:07 | |
How do you discover music? College radio, word of mouth, serendipity — or your very own AI DJ? In 2006, Spotify’s founders discovered music as “a traffic source” for an advertising model, and have since transformed the music industry. But what are their goals or values when it comes to music and culture beyond the pursuit of profit, and what does it mean for musicians and music lovers? And why aren’t policy makers more concerned about this mega platform? In this episode of Policy Prompt, hosts Vass and Paul welcome Liz Pelly, music and media critic, and the author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (Atria, 2025). Together they chat about how we’ve consumed our music over the years, and how it’s been fed to us, from the “stimulus progression” of Muzak’s elevator tunes to the “mood-driven logic” of Spotify’s algorithmic curation. In-Show Clips:
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Credits: 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.
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. | |||
| Decoding Brain Data (the possibilities and pitfalls of neurotech with Jared Genser) | 09 Dec 2025 | 01:04:41 | |
Neurotechnology is a dual-use technology transforming lives — from implantable devices that use deep brain stimulation to ease tremors from Parkinson’s disease to commercial wearables that promise more effective meditation. But without the necessary legal, ethical, and regulatory safeguards, the misuse and abuse of neurotechnology and the data it collects becomes inevitable. In this episode, hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson speak with Jared Genser about neurotechnology, its implications for humanity, and the emerging dilemmas around neuro-rights, freedom of thought, and mental privacy. Jared is an international human rights lawyer and managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies. He is a co-founder and general counsel to the Neurorights Foundation, and a special adviser on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States. Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||
| Scientists and AI: Partners in Discovery (understanding AI’s role in scientific research with Rebecca Willett) | 11 Nov 2025 | 00:59:17 | |
Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact on science, from data analysis to scenario simulation and predicting protein structure — its full potential is still unknown. Today, many scientists are dedicated to better understanding AI and how to integrate it into research to accelerate the pace of scientific discoveries without compromising rigour and principle. Is there a future where AI will make new scientific discoveries on its own? Join hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson as they speak with Rebecca Willett about the role machine learning and AI play in scientific research now and how she sees it impacting scientists in the future. Rebecca is a professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Chicago and faculty director of artificial intelligence at the University’s Data Science Institute. Her research focuses on machine learning and making sense of complex, large-scale datasets, as well as data science. Rebecca completed her PhD in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University and is a member of the Computer Science Study Group at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In-Show Clips: 00:15:03: NOVA scienceNOW, "What Will the Future Be Like?": FoldIt: A Protein Puzzle Game (PBS LearningMedia, 2013) 00:15:17: Nature Video: Foldit: Biology for gamers (YouTube, August 4, 2010) Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||
| Space Is a Human Domain (discussing governance challenges with Esther Brimmer and Jessica West) | 14 Oct 2025 | 00:59:33 | |
Often compared to ocean shipping lanes, Earth’s orbital layers act as channels to almost 14,000 satellites moving at around 7 km/second. These orbital pathways are becoming increasingly congested as a rapidly growing number of commercial actors enter what was once a predominantly state-run domain. Can the 1967 Outer Space Treaty hold up against this space revolution? Can international structures quickly modernize and work together to ensure all players in the space race are committed to a safe and sustainable future? Join hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson as they speak with guests Esther Brimmer and Jessica West about a comprehensive and collaborative approach to space governance. Esther is a senior fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations, a former US assistant secretary of state and an expert in international institutions. Jessica is a CIGI senior fellow and a senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, a Canadian peace and security research institute, where she focuses on technology, security and governance in outer space. In-Show Clips:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Lynn Schellenberg, social media engagement by Isabel Neufeld, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||
| The Trust Battle: Stablecoins, Crypto and the Future of Money (with Ali Abou Daya and Morva Rohani) | 23 Sep 2025 | 00:57:16 | |
For centuries, the power to create money was isolated to traditional issuers, who built trust over the ages. But now stablecoins are starting to pull at that monopoly, rising up in relevance as a massive innovation on infrastructure. Some jurisdictions are turning things upside down with digital asset adoption, while others are holding back, with important geopolitical implications. On season two’s opener, hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson welcome Ali Abou Daya and Morva Rohani to discuss the emergence and transformative nature of crypto and stablecoins. Ali is the chief executive officer of Transactix Financial, a stablecoin company, and Morva is the executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council, an industry organization that advocates for responsible public policy. Together the four consider the digitalization of traditional finance, and the challenges surrounding establishing trust and who controls what. Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Lynn Schellenberg, social media engagement by Isabel Neufeld, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io.
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| Convenience Costs (the extraction economy with Tim Wu) | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:39:44 | |
Today’s world is more convenient than it has ever been in history. It can take fewer than five discrete actions to have most anything delivered right to your door, and you don’t even have to get up from your chair. But in our world becoming so comfortable, so convenient, we must ask the question: What are we losing? In this special episode, Vass is joined by Tim Wu, a preeminent legal scholar and former Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States, in a live conversation recorded at Hot Docs in Toronto, in November 2025. The discussion was anchored on Tim’s latest book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf, 2025), which illuminates how we can reclaim control and create a balanced economy that works for everyone in a modern world where tech platforms have been permitted to run rampant in their own self-interest under the guise of free innovation. We regulated electricity when it became clear it would change the world; why not today’s disruptive tech? Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||
| Ordinary People Rule (finding a path to true democracy with James Bacchus) | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:45:39 | |
Ever since the ancient Athenians first attempted a democratic approach to governance, nations worldwide have been attempting to perfect it. Some things we’ve gotten right; for instance, many nations have decided that the Athenians’ exclusion of many groups of people was not conducive to democracy, and instead have elected to include all people, not just men who owned land. But we’ve oftentimes gotten things wrong, too. How can we reinvent democracy, given what we know now? In this episode of Policy Prompt, Paul and Vass welcome James Bacchus, a former member of the US Congress, a founding judge, twice chairman and chief judge of the Appellate Body at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, director of the Center for Global Economic and Environmental Opportunity at the University of Central Florida, CIGI senior fellow, and much more, to discuss how a true global democracy could be formed, one that accurately represents all nations and that dutifully involves all humankind. Many of us are quite removed from the “democratic” proceedings of our nations. What if we had the right to participate? Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||
| Victims, Scammers, and Scammers Who Are Victims (the dark side of the digital economy with Mark Bo and Ivan Franceschini) | 20 Jan 2026 | 00:55:51 | |
The playing field for modern scams is bigger than ever. Entire guarded compounds are dedicated to online and phone fraud, and the network of influence and intimidation these organizations hold grows daily, facilitated by emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and mass automation. An epicentre has emerged in East and Southeast Asia; Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China and more are both sources and victims of organized scams. Local governments have been cracking down to an extent, but this hydra has heads at all levels of public influence — a stronger, more coordinated approach is needed to conquer this beast. This episode features experts Mark Bo and Ivan Franceschini in conversation with Paul on the scam industry and its victims, how organized scam syndicates can start to take over local economies through corruption and human trafficking, and what most people misunderstand about how these organizations operate. Based in East and Southeast Asia for two decades, Mark is a researcher who utilizes his background in corporate and financial mapping to investigate Asia’s online gambling, fraud, and money laundering industries. Ivan, a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, Asia Institute, focuses his research on globalization, labour, and the evolving dynamics of crime in the digital age, particularly on the cyber-fraud industry. Mentioned:
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Credits: Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. Original music by Joshua Snethlage. Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. Be sure to follow us on social media.
Listen to new episodes of Policy Prompt on all major podcast platforms. Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach out to CIGI’s Policy Prompt team at info@policyprompt.io | |||