The Spectator Economic Innovative of the Year awards, sponsored by InvestTech, are open for entries.

If you are an entrepreneur-led business bringing radical change to its sector, please apply at www.

We are looking for entries all across the UK, and our closing date is the 4th of July.

Hello and welcome to Women of Balls where I Katie Balls speak to today's trailblazers.

Born in Iowa, my guest today graduated with a degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

She went on to work for some of the most famous tech giants in the world, including Google, Yelp, Pinterest, and finally Facebook.

Whilst there, she became shocked that the company seemed to, in her own words, harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.

Leaving the company in 2021, she became one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world,

leading to the Wall Street Journal's expose, the Facebook files.

She has since testified both in the US and UK about the harm she believes Facebook does to society

and continues to be a vocal advocate

in holding big tech to account or while the UK government's online safety bill progresses

through Parliament. My guest today is Francis Hagen. Francis, to begin in this podcast, we always ask,

would you describe yours as a happy childhood? So I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, which is one of these places that's like a town out of place.

So my parents are from the coasts.

My mother grew up outside of New York City.

My father's from Berkeley, California.

And they met in the middle in Iowa because that's where the University of Iowa is.

And Iowa City is an amazing place to be,

you know, the child of two academics because you have amazing freedom. Like my parents literally

gave me a bus pass and let me wander around in the summer when I was seven. And you can do that

safely because there's 100,000 people in town when school's in session. There's like maybe 25 or 30,000

...