TechTank

By Brookings InstitutionNews Technology Government Politics

TechTank episodes

March 27, 2023 How Wikipedia Works
On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host, Darrell West, dives into how
Wikipedia handles content moderation, disinformation, and bias. The site is a trusted source of
information for many people, but little is known about how it makes decisions and handles
controversies surrounding its material. Guests are Isabelle Langrock, a PhD candidate at the
Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, who is writing a
dissertation on Open Knowledge Production and Digital Access; and Kent Campbell, a
Strategist at Reputation X, a firm that researches Wikipedia references, talk pages, and historical
editing patterns.
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38 min
March 13, 2023 How social media is changing politics
In this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, guest host Mishaela Robison, research assistant in Brookings Center for Technology Innovation, talks with Annie Wu Henry, former social media producer and strategist for U.S. Senator John Fetterman’s campaign. Described as Fetterman’s “TikTok Whisperer” by the New York Times, Henry discusses how social media and technology are changing the way voters, and society more generally engage with politics.
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28 min
February 27, 2023 How Memes Are Impacting Democracy
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).
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53 min
February 13, 2023 Reclaiming local news in the age of the internet
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 Steve Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News.
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45 min
January 30, 2023 Is Economic Decoupling Possible for the United States?
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 fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, where she focuses on U.S.-China technological competition.
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44 min
January 17, 2023 What to expect for big tech, broadband, anti-trust, and other tech issues under the new Congress
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 policy areas show
the most promise for consensus, and where there may be challenges to gain cooperation within a
divided Congress.
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42 min
January 02, 2023 Is it time to regulate social media platforms and search engines?
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 Engineering, Law, and
Public Policy at UCLA and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings. Mark MacCarthy is a Senior Fellow
at the Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy at Georgetown University and a Nonresident Senior
Fellow at Brookings.
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32 min
December 12, 2022 Technology adoption in Africa: current and future use cases for development
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 who focuses on technology policy.

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34 min
November 28, 2022 Twitter, Trump, and Online Speech
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.
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35 min
November 14, 2022 What will it take to create inclusive AR/VR for a more diverse metaverse?
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. These experts discuss the current and future possibilities of AR/VR, and the metaverse and the impact on public sector applications. We also dive into how to attract more diverse developers and subscribers
on these spaces.
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37 min

About TechTank

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TechTank is a biweekly podcast from The Brookings Institution exploring the most consequential technology issues of our time. From artificial intelligence and racial bias in…