54 min listen
They Don’t Represent Us — with Larry Lessig
They Don’t Represent Us — with Larry Lessig
ratings:
Length:
40 minutes
Released:
Oct 20, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
We often talk about the need to protect American democracy. But perhaps those of us in the United States don't currently live in a democracy.As research shows, there's pretty much no correlation between the percentage of the population that supports a policy and its likelihood of being enacted. The strongest determinant of whether a policy gets enacted is how much money is behind it.So, how might we not just protect, but better yet revive our democracy? How might we revive the relationship between the will of the people and the actions of our government?This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're doing something special. As we near the election, and representation is on our minds, we're airing a talk by Harvard Law professor and Creative Commons co-founder Larry Lessig. It's a 2019 talk he gave at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, DC about his book, They Don't Represent Us.The book title has two meanings: first, they — as in our elected representatives — don't represent us. And second, we — as in the people — don't represent ourselves. And this is where social media comes in: we don't represent ourselves because the more we use social media, the more we see extreme versions of the other side, and the more extreme, outraged, and polarized we ourselves become.Last note: Lessig's talk is highly visual. We edited it lightly for clarity, and jump in periodically to narrate things you can’t see. But if you prefer to watch his talk, you can find the link below in Recommended Media. RECOMMENDED MEDIA Video: They Don't Represent UsThe 2019 talk Larry Lessig gave at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC about his book of the same nameBook: They Don't Represent UsLarry Lessig’s 2019 book that elaborates the ways in which democratic representation is in peril, and proposes a number of solutions to revive our democracy -- from ranked-choice voting to non-partisan open primariesTesting Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens Princeton's Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page study measuring the correlation between the preferences of different groups and the decisions of our government RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESDigital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tanghttps://www.humanetech.com/podcast/23-digital-democracy-is-within-reachHow Political Language Is Engineered with Drew Westen and Frank Luntzhttps://www.humanetech.com/podcast/53-how-political-language-is-engineeredYour Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_
Released:
Oct 20, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Down the Rabbit Hole by Design: When we press play on a YouTube video, we set in motion an algorithm that taps all available data to find the next video that keeps us glued to the screen. Because of its advertising-based business model, YouTube’s top priority is not to help us learn to play the accordion, tie a bow tie, heal an injury, or see a new city — it’s to keep us staring at the screen for as long as possible, regardless of the content. This episode’s guest, AI expert Guillaume Chaslot, helped write YouTube’s recommendation engine and explains how those priorities spin up outrage, conspiracy theories and extremism. After leaving YouTube, Guillaume’s mission became shedding light on those hidden patterns on his website, AlgoTransparency.org, which tracks and publicizes YouTube recommendations for controversial content channels. Through his work, he encourages YouTube to take responsibility for the videos it promotes and aims to give viewers more control. by Your Undivided Attention