Okay, we are going to just basically get started today. This is going to be a little bit of a different format because Brian is celebrating his wedding anniversary. So he is not going to be joining us today

which gives me a whole lot of space to stretch out and go deep into a topic

that I'm very personally interested in, have thought a lot about, and have actually kind of been, I don't know, engaged in a ongoing conversation with Justin over months and months through his tech policy press, which

is a podcast and a publication that he operates.

And I'd love to learn a little bit more about that.

And that he has recently also collaborated with Paul and Grant on

writing a report. But before I get there I want to say first welcome everyone to the Tech Me ride home experience for Wednesday, September 22nd.

I can't believe September is almost over but here we are. And today we are, as I mentioned, going to dive right in. We're going to be talking

about Facebook, about polarization, about social media, about who's to blame, who's responsible, what to do about media about this

this, this, this, I don't know, this mess, this reality, this humanity,

society, etc.

But first, Justin Ball, why don't you guys come up, introduce yourselves, give us a little

bit of background on where you're from, the work you do, and how you're coming to this conversation

today.

Justin, you want to go first? I can do Paul.

So I'm Justin Hendricks and I am the editor of a site called Tech Policy Press,

which has been around for about a year.

It focuses on the intersection of tech and democracy.

I'm also a research, associate research scientist at NYU where I do some work related to looking at disinformation and I teach a course called technology media Media, and Democracy that looks at the intersection of those issues,

and I look forward to being part of the conversation tonight.

Awesome.

Paul? Yeah, hi. Awesome.

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