Policy Prompt

Why do some empires grow and others collapse? Is collapse inevitable, or can the goalposts move at the rate of experimentation? And is data collection or artificial intelligence the final frontier? Either way, progress isn’t linear; rules and regulations are both the strengths and weaknesses of today’s evolving empires.

We may or may not be seeing a new iteration of the computer revolution. Paul and Vass are joined by Carl Benedikt Frey: economist, author and Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI & Work at the Oxford Internet Institute, in this episode of Policy Prompt. They explore what pushes progress in a nation, how AI differs from previous technological breakthroughs, and how room to grow is dependent on room to experiment.

Mentioned:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

Power over sports is power over people, power over passion. Worldwide, there is no stronger sports phenomenon than football. So when you see your team, your favourite player, sporting a brand name on their uniform, particularly a brand associated with a world power (such as Arsenal and Real Madrid united by partnerships with Emirates), or with addictive products like gambling, that’s not neutral marketing. You're seeing an outright soft power flex.

Vass Bednar is joined by Joey D’Urso in this timely Policy Prompt episode where they discuss the reality of active geopolitics in the beautiful game. Joey is a journalist with a career focus on football (soccer) and politics, and he’s the author of More Than A Shirt: How Football Shirts Explain Global Politics, Money and Power (Seven Dials, 2025).

Mentioned:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

Dominance on the global stage doesn’t look the same as it once did, and some nations are only figuring that out as others are rewriting the rules out from under them. Global trade has suffered under tariffs, but not always in the expected ways. China has locked down its emergent technology, but nations around the globe rely on its resources still. The Strait of Hormuz remains a very real structural chokepoint for the whole world, and efforts to leverage power around it have not guaranteed outcomes for anyone. Any tactic in a nation’s plans for navigating these seismic global shifts could have unintended consequences.

This episode features Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes, authors of the recently released How to Win a Trade War (Simon & Schuster, 2026). Chad is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and an expert on political economy of international trade policy. Soumaya is an economics columnist at the Financial Times, and she's focused her research on the US economy and the trade policies of Donald Trump’s first presidency. They discuss the modern playing field of trade wars, policies and tactics that are shaping global operations today.

Mentioned:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

AI governance is not a one-note issue. It spans geopolitics, science, philosophy, sociology, and as it grows and impacts more aspects of human governance and decision making, so does its span. Unlike the Space Race, there’s little reason for international actors to limit collaboration, given the intangible nature of this progress and its broad reach into so many aspects of our lives across the globe. What stags are we missing by limiting ourselves to hunting rabbits?

Paul and Vass are joined by Boris Babic and Brian Wong of the University of Hong Kong to discuss the intersection of governance, philosophy, physics and more to tackle today’s beast of AI. Touching on both responsibilities and freedoms of governments and private actors, they open a window to a world in which AI advancements are shared and grown, not kept under lock and key to wither without sunlight.

Mentioned:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

It’s easy to forget that everything in our lives that’s not strictly natural has been manufactured. That manufacturing incorporates elements from around the world, elements that had been designed, harvested, synthesized, shipped, assembled, shipped again to meet you. This system is remarkably efficient and ridiculously cheap, but that’s come at a cost. Our highly convenient world stands on toothpick-thin struts. How can we design it better?

In this episode of Policy Prompt, Paul and Vass are joined by Tim Minshall, inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), Head of the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management and a Fellow of Churchill Co. Together, they explore the reality of today’s manufacturing, the fragility of the supply chains we take for granted, and how a better world can be manufactured.

Mentioned:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

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:

Further Reading:

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

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:

• Chinese coal plants: apnews.com/article/china-coal-solar-climate-carbon-emissions-242abe76eb69f5a362e977de74ff3254
• 8 The Economist Democracy Index: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
• Gerrymandering:
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#:~:text=Gerrymandering%2C%20
• Participatory Democracy: www.govocal.com/blog/what-is-participatory-democracy
• Sortition, the “jury duty” system: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
• The Pnyx, an important site in the creation of democracy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pnyx
• Athenian Democracy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy
• “Living Democracy,” a philosophy of John Dewey: share.google/qXy5uA1tEdqhZowtl
• Food shortages in Central Florida due to government shutdown mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2025/10/15/central-florida-food-banks-step-up-as-government-shutdown-impacts-families

Further Reading:

• James Bacchus bio: cigionline.org/people/james-bacchus/
• James Bacchus books: google.ca/search?sca_esv=4ee06a5b294f010f&hl=en&q=inauthor:%22James+Bacchus%22&udm=36

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. 

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

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:

• Sihanoukville, Cambodia: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sihanoukville
• Pig butchering scam - a common crypto investment scheme: https://dfpi.ca.gov/news/insights/pig-butchering-how-to-spot-and-report-the-scam/#:~:text=Pig%20butchering%20is%20an%20investment,exchange%20to%20purchase%20crypto%20assets.
• Scam centres in Cambodia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam/_centers/_in/_Cambodia#
• Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation: https://www.bluedragon.org/
• Chen Zhi, the young tycoon accused of masterminding a multibillion-dollar international fraud network: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/asia/cambodia-scams-chen-zhi-prince-group-intl-hnk
• Federal Trade Commission data shows US consumers lost over $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024#:~:text=Newly%20released%20Federal%20Trade%20Commission,all%20other%20payment%20methods%20combined.
• UNODC 2025 Technical Policy Report: Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, * Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia: https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2025/Inflection_Point_2025.pdf
• UNODC 2023 Policy Report: Casinos, cyber fraud, and trafficking in persons for forced criminality in Southeast Asia: https://www.unodc.org/roseap/uploads/documents/Publications/2023/TiP_for_FC_Policy_Report.pdf
• South Korea sanctions 15 individuals, 132 entities over online scams in Southeast Asia: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/s-korea-sanctions-15-individuals-132-entities-over-online-scams-in-southeast-asia/ar-AA1RfgLi?apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1
• More than 1,000 arrested in Cambodian cyber-scam raids: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/16/more-than-1000-arrested-in-cambodian-cyber-scam-raids

Further Reading:

• Mark Bo’s bio: https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/authors/bo-mark?srsltid=AfmBOopSu7unvmVdZYFG2%5C_BC4teQZsQYrGpPia8vYTx-YfTjZ91h3Ib4
• Ivan Franceschini’s bio: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/1108680-ivan-franceschini
• Mark Bo, Ivan Franceschini and Ling Li, Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds (Verso, 2025)

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. 

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline 

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

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:

• Neuralink: neuralink.com/
• Chile: Pioneering the protection of neurorights: courier.unesco.org/en/articles/chile-pioneering-protection-neurorights
• Brain-computer interface: cumming.ucalgary.ca/research/pediatric-bci/bci-program/what-bci
• Brain implant and AI gives a woman with paralysis her voice back (research led by Dr. Edward Chang): youtu.be/iTZ2N-HJbwA?si=u6d05795MdJ_3uO2
• EMOTIV and Rodrigo Hubner Mendes drive an F1 car using electroencephalography (EEG): youtu.be/NhmXaeaHkDc?si=GX5hrjnyCfS2yR3h
• Robotic exoskeleton helps paralyzed person kick first ball of 2014 World Cup: youtu.be/ClRqZbRxcNI?si=7Gdqjq6MRpJiM3Pi
• President Obama’s Brain Initiative: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/300741
• Meta acquires CTRL-labs for wristband technology that allows people to control devices using their brains: cnbc.com/2019/09/23/facebook-announces-acquisition-of-brain-computing-start-up-ctrl-labs.html
• EEG scanners in Apple AirPods: https://tinyurl.com/ypk72f8h
• Australian device decodes thought-to-text with 40% accuracy: uts.edu.au/news/2023/12/portable-non-invasive-mind-reading-ai-turns-thoughts-text?
• DreamConnect guides dreams with AI (decoding dreams into images): eurekalert.org/news-releases/1096544
• Boston University brain scientist shows that electrostimulation can restore a 70-year-old’s working memory to that of a 20-year-old: bu.edu/articles/2019/electrostimulation-can-improve-working-memory/
• Kernel, a wearable device that delivers information on brain function: kernel.com/
• Werner Herzog’s documentary Theater of Thought: neurorightsfoundation.org/media/herzog-film
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: pascalhealthinstitute.com/why-crps-is-called-the-suicide-disease/

Further Reading:

• Jared Genser’s bio: perseus-strategies.com/team/jared-genser-english/
• Neurorights Foundation: neurorightsfoundation.org/
• Freedom of Thought: Reviving and Protecting a Forgotten Human Right, special report by Susie Alegre and Aaron Shull cigionline.org/publications/freedom-of-thought-reviving-and-protecting-a-forgotten-human-right/

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. 

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline 

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION

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:

• Google DeepMind AlphaFold: deepmind.google/science/alphafold/
• Protein folding computer game Foldit: fold.it/
• The COVID-19 Citizen Science Study: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8407439/
• People-powered research platform Zooniverse: zooniverse.org/

Further Reading:

• Rebecca Willet, professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Chicago and faculty director of artificial intelligence at the University’s Data Science Institute. Find her bio and works here: willett.psd.uchicago.edu/

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. 

• X: @_policyprompt
• IG: @cigionline 

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 [email protected]

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION