Digital Life Is a Moral Mess
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2022
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A listener voicemail sends the show’s Senior Digital Producer Kousha Navidar on a search for moral clarity with philosopher and senior lecturer in ethics and public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Dr. Christopher Robichaud. Then, Shirin Ghaffary, senior reporter at Recode and co-host of the podcast Land of The Giants, shares the story of Facebook, and why it has been so hard of them to respond to the damage their technology has created.
*You can read more about Land of the Giants, and hear new episodes, here.
*And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.
Companion listening for this episode:
The Promise and Failure of Cryptocurrency (7/11/2022)
Cryptocurrency promised to democratize the financial world by giving people equal access to banking tools. It has potential, but also a long way to go.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | New technologies always coming out, cryptocurrency is a big one, NFTs, etc. |
| 0:06.0 | And people are talking about the morality and ethics around them. |
| 0:09.0 | So if you knew that technologies like those were being used for illicit activities, |
| 0:14.0 | would it prevent you from using them in the future? |
| 0:16.0 | That would affect my use of crypto if I knew. |
| 0:19.0 | Bitcoin is good, NFTs are good, but I'm old school. |
| 0:22.0 | I'm not going to let that control my life. |
| 0:24.0 | Yeah, you can buy some illegal things, but I don't know, on real life, |
| 0:29.0 | we could use and buy those things too. |
| 0:32.0 | So I don't know, maybe we can start from the education. |
| 0:35.0 | But the shift is going to happen with the crypto market |
| 0:38.0 | and that being our new form of currency, which is going to happen. |
| 0:41.0 | We want to be smart. |
| 0:42.0 | Like, you can become a millionaire all for it. |
| 0:44.0 | You have to look at the trends, you have to be realistic. |
| 0:47.0 | One thing I say, play the game, don't let it play. |
| 0:49.0 | You have to be smart in everything that you do. |
| 0:51.0 | This is the United States of anxiety. |
| 0:59.0 | I'm Kai Wright, and welcome to the show. |
| 1:02.0 | We're talking tonight about moral choices. |
| 1:05.0 | And I'll say this episode is prompted by a question that one of you sent to us. |
| 1:10.0 | So let me bring in Kusha Navidar, who is one of our producers, |
... |
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