Spark

A new crop of innovators are using digital platforms to address housing equity, from improving mortgage terms to providing homelessness resources. But do technical answers work for social questions? Michelle Boyd and Alina Turner discuss if and how technology can address the housing crisis. This is a repeat of an episode that first aired in December 2021, and has been updated to reflect that.

The web of the '90s and early '00s has inspired many nostalgic projects, but it's not just the aesthetics that people miss. This week, we take a look at the efforts to build a new, open, decentralized web. Canadian programmer Mike Killingbeck talks about building RE-AOL, a re-creation of the beloved early-web platform. Writer, COMPOSTmag editor and senior organizer with DWeb projects at the Internet Archive Mai Ishikawa Sutton, and Alicia Urquidi Díaz, metadata & data services librarian at University of Toronto's Scholars Portal and volunteer archivist at DWeb camp, discuss the ideas of the decentralized web.

With students starting a new school year, we examine the impact of tech on remote learning. Western University associate professor Prachi Srivastava talks about the impact of COVID on educational outcomes. Sharon Saw, Grade 1 teacher from Edmonton, Alta., shares how she uses TikTok to connect with students and fellow educators. University of Windsor associate professor Bonnie Stewart discusses what technology tools educators found useful while teaching remotely, and what that means for in-person classes in the future.

Digital technologies are changing how migration happens: from the way artificial intelligence is used for policing borders, to how a person's journey is documented via social media. Journalist Sally Hayden speaks about how migrants and refugees use tech during their journeys. Lawyer and York University's Refugee Lab associate director Petra Molnar talks about how AI and surveillance tech are used in policing borders. Author and London School of Economics professor Myria Georgiou discusses the idea of a "digital border."

We all know tech companies collect a lot of data about us, and sell it to third parties. And it seems that nowadays, there isn't much we can't track. So is there a tipping point when it comes to how much intimate data – about our health, conversations, dating habits – tech ought to be able to access? Danielle Citron makes the case for treating data protection as a civil rights issue, and Sandra Wachter discusses the risks of algorithmic groups and discrimination.

From affordable childcare to school in the metaverse: What will childhood look like in 30 years?

With advances in medicine, could 80 become the new 40?

How will we power the world sustainably in 2050?

What time zone is the metaverse going to be in?

What will our sense of "government" be in 2050?