A Conversation With Franklin Foer

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2019

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the monologue, Al talks about the appointment of Pat Pizzella as the acting Secretary of Labor. If you agree that the House should hold hearings on Pizzella’s past, check out Al’s petition here:

https://alfranken.com/read/petition

This week, author and Atlantic Monthly staff writer, Franklin Foer joins me to discuss Big Tech. Are filter bubbles dividing us? Is Facebook deliberately keeping us angry and upset? Is everyone's attention span dwindling? Is Google selling records of all your searches? Is the Big One coming? You know - the day everyone who's ever watched pornography will be revealed to everyone else who's ever watched pornography?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Elf Rankin Podcast, add free on Amazon Music.
0:06.0	Download the Amazon Music app today.
0:08.7	Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, host of Wondery's Podcast American Scandal.
0:12.7	Our newest series looks at the trial of the Chicago Seven, a case involving protests of
0:17.3	the Vietnam War and the legal fight that became a referendum on the soul and future of America.
0:23.0	Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.0	Hi, it's Al Franken, and we've got a tremendous podcast for you today.
0:37.0	Franklin Four has been one of the most brilliant progressive American journalists over the last 25 years.
0:44.0	And I'm a huge admirer of him from his days at Slate, from its inception.
0:50.0	He's been the editor-in-chief of the New Republic a couple times.
0:55.0	Franklin now writes cover stories for the Atlantic Monthly and took some time out from the one he's just finishing up right now on Amazon.
1:03.0	And he's also done brilliant cover stories on Paul Manafort and on Ice.
1:10.0	And actually we start the conversation really about Ice and what's behind these new raids.
1:17.0	And he's one of the few political journalists who has been writing about Big Tech and the dangers that it presents and has been doing in a prescient and very thoughtful way.
1:30.0	His latest book, World Without Mind, the existential threat of Big Tech just won some prestigious international award that I can't pronounce.
1:41.0	And that's what we really care about on the Al Franken podcast prestige.
1:46.0	That's primarily what we're going for here on the podcast.
1:51.0	So Franklin and I will be talking about the effects of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and on the way Americans get their information, how clicks have affected journalism and how our attention span.
2:10.0	I'm sorry.
2:13.0	No. And how are our attention span.
2:18.0	Oh, I'm sorry. I just I was looking at my phone. I got a text message. I'm babysitting tonight. Anyway, was I lost my train.
2:35.0	My dad always said that if you can't remember what you were talking about, it wasn't important in the first place.
	...

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