Culture begets culture. Freedom begets culture. People being able to communicate freely and without interference from the profit motive begets better, richer culture.

Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us. I'm your host, Paris Marks, and today I'm joined by Maria Bustios.

Maria is the founding editor of Popula and of Brickhouse, and has also written for a number of other publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian. In today's conversation, we talk about a recent piece that Maria

wrote for the nation, about an ongoing lawsuit between the Internet Archive and publishers

who are angry at the National Emergency Lending Library that they offered during the pandemic.

In our conversation, we talk about the work of the

Internet Archive, the importance of libraries and of landing online, especially in moments like

those we're in right now, where a lot of people are spending a lot more time than usual at

home and do not have the same access to culture and to resources that they usually do.

We also discuss how this lawsuit has potential implications far beyond

just the internet archive and the library that they offered. It could make it much more difficult

for all libraries to digitally offer material that they own to the public. This is a really

important conversation and Maria ends by talking about a new initiative that she is embarking on

with a number of other independent publishers and media organizations called Brickhouse.

An unrelated note to that, Tech Won't Save Us is also joining a new independent podcast network

that's being formed in Canada called Harbinger. There are more than 20 podcasts from all across

the country who are part of this network,

dealing with local issues, provincial issues, national issues in Canada, and international

issues like we focus on here at Tech Won't Save Us. And the network includes podcasts in English,

but also in French, recognizing how Canada has two official languages. If you want to find out

a bit more about that, stay tuned to the end of the episode

after I speak with Maria. Andre Goulet, the executive director of Harbinger, will be joining me for a

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