Consumer demand for wireless services continue to increase in the U.S., prioritizing the need for more licensed and unlicensed spectrum as more services migrate to mobile platforms. On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host Nicol Turner Lee sits down with Scott Blake Harris, Senior Spectrum Advisor, Office of the Assistant Secretary, National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) about the forthcoming National Spectrum Strategy. Hosted on Acast. See...

There has been considerable interest in recent months in generative AI that can answer questions, develop videos, write code, and perform many other tasks. On this week's episode of the TechTank Podcast, co-host, Darrell West, is joined by a distinguished expert, John Villasenor, professor of engineering, law, public policy, and management at UCLA and co-director of its Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy to discuss if generative AI will take jobs. Will it be possible for organizations...

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...

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

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). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

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...

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...

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...

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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...

Latino voters registered and voted in higher numbers in the 2020 presidential election than in prior years, according to a 2021 report, and recent findings from the Pew Research Center count 34.5 million eligible Latino voters, which is a significant increase since the last midterm elections. The results of the 2022 midterms will have lasting consequences on American politics and policy, making it critical to protect and amplify Latino voices along with the type of information they receive to...

To protect public integrity and faith our election, it is integral for the United States to work to combat existing misinformation, protect the safety of election officials, and guarantee that existing cybersecurity measures are adequate in protecting the vote of the American people. On TechTank, Darrell West is joined by Elaine Kamarck and Elizabeth Howard to discuss these topics and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The prevalence and technical relevance of machine learning algorithms have increased over the years, making predictive decision-making tools part of the everyday lives of online users. Today, it is harder to discern what decisions are made by humans, and the others that rely upon the cognition of machines. On this new episode of the Tech Tank podcast, Darrell West is joined by Nicol Turner Lee, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Technology Innovation who explores the need for a...

On this episode of TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Undersecretary Xochitl Torres Small. Together, they discuss the administration’s ongoing work to close the urban-rural digital divide, how IIJA funding has helped the USDA expand programs such as the ReConnect program, and how the USDA has been working to meet different communities’ hyperlocal needs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spectrum policy has been essential in determining how to encourage communications technology development, while ensuring equitable access. On TechTank, Nicol Turner Lee, Andrew Von Ah, Shane Tews and Kathleen Burke discuss pressing topics in spectrum policy and interrogate if the lack of available spectrum will be a dealbreaker in closing the digital divide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On TechTank, Samantha Lai and Darrell West discusses his most recent book, “Power Politics: Trump and the Assault on American Democracy.” Together, they contend with how the weaponization of information threatens American democracy, and what could be done to protect it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On TechTank, guest host Samantha Lai is joined by Lydia X.Z. Brown, Alex Engler and Henry Claypool to discuss how people with disabilities are affected by existing technologies. They investigate issues with privacy, AI bias, surveillance technology and more, and consider what is needed to rectify these wrongs. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not a single week of 2022 has passed without multiple mass shootings. 343 people have been killed and 1,391 injured through July 4th of this year. On TechTank, host Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, Carol Graham and Darrell West examine the role social media has played in past mass shootings and look into how the public has reacted online to prospects of gun legislation and rising political polarization in the US. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more...

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency orders and pandemic-era flexibilities for telehealth are quickly expiring, thus ending the many conveniences of telehealth that people benefited from. On TechTank, Samantha Lai is joined by Nicol Turner Lee and Niam Yaraghi to discuss their forthcoming research paper on the future of telehealth, “The roadmap to telehealth efficacy: care, health, and digital equities.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On TechTank, host Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Cameron Kerry and Jennifer King to discuss the current bipartisan and bicameral draft of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act and whether the U.S. can soon expect national legislation.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This year’s Pride Month comes at a difficult time for LGBTQ+ rights. Over the past year, there have been over 300 anti-LGBTQ bills proposed in at least 28 states, including Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that aims to limit LGBTQ+ discussion in schools, and a bill in Ohio that would ban transgender women from participating in high school and college athletics that includes a “verification process” of checking the g******s of those accused of being transgender.  On TechTank, Samantha Lai, guest...

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the concept of the Metaverse, but questions surrounding issues of privacy, security, virtual content moderation, the sale of virtual goods, and data ownership remain. On TechTank, host Darrell West is joined by Tom Wheeler and Katherine Cross to discuss the Metaverse and what issues it raises for consumers and businesses.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this technological age, workforce demands for computer science skills have evolved and keep evolving. On TechTank, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Michael Hansen, Nicolas Zerbino and Kimberly Scott to discuss what it means to equitably expand access to computer science education for K-12 students. They also look at a recently-released report authored by Hansen and Zerbino, “Exploring the state of computer science education amid rapid policy expansion”. See acast.com/privacy for privacy...