EPISODE

Rebecca Giblin of Melbourne Law School and Boing Boing founder and writer Cory Doctorow discuss the “plight of creative labor” To many of us, big businesses and corporations have an outsized influence on our lives. Recently, the technology giants have stepped into this limelight. Even prior to the churning of Twitter after the new CEO’s acquisition, much has been made of how companies can unilaterally change what we see, read, hear, and experience. In this September 2022 discussion, host Dave Levine chats with the authors of Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow. Well-known activists in the tech sector, Giblin and Doctorow deliver a searing indictment on what they call “chokepoint capitalism,” namely, a digital economic ecosystem where transactions flow through a select few entities such as Facebook and Google. On the show, Dave explores the competitive “moats” built by businesses, their impact on creative workers, and the benefits and drawbacks to society from the technology business world. With two experts on the other side of the mic who express their point of view well, the conversation captures some of the caveats surrounding modern technology’s impact on consumers. “Lots of people woke up today and said ‘I’m glad that there’s an easy way to order on Amazon,’ but no one woke up and said, ‘I wish there was no way to buy things except on Amazon.’” – Cory Doctorow