Podcasts
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Innovation Files: Where Tech Meets Public Policy

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Explore the intersection of technology, innovation, and public policy with the world’s leading think tank for science and tech policy. ITIF’s Innovation Files podcast serves up expert interviews, insights, and commentary on topics ranging from the broad economics of innovation to specific policy and regulatory questions about new technologies. Expect to hear some unconventional wisdom.
March 6, 2023
Podcast: The Future of Smart Cities in a Data-Driven Society, With Jonathan Reichental
To improve quality of life for as many people as possible, the places to start are cities. Rob and Jackie sat down with multiple award-winning technology and business leader Jonathan Reichental to discuss why the United States is falling behind other countries in the “smart city” movement and why it matters in a data-driven world.
February 13, 2023
Podcast: Should Section 230 Cover Algorithms? What’s at Stake in Gonzalez v. Google, With Ashley Johnson
Google doesn’t create terrorist propaganda videos, doesn’t allow them on YouTube, and takes them down as fast as it can when extremist groups post them anyway. But a question now before the Supreme Court is whether Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects Google and other platform operators from liability if their algorithms end up spreading harmful content.
January 23, 2023
Podcast: Microchips Are the New Oil, With Chris Miller
Semiconductors are arguably the most important core technology in the modern world. You can’t fully understand the current state of politics, economics, or technology until you consider the role they play. Rob and Jackie sat down with economic historian Chris Miller to discuss the extent to which microchips are the new oil.
December 15, 2022
Podcast: Will a Western “NATO for Tech” Work? (Atkinson Guest Appearance on ‘What China Wants’)
ITIF’s Rob Atkinson appears on the podcast What China Wants by Sam Olsen to talk through the realities of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposal to create a “NATO for Tech” to counter Chinese influence.
December 12, 2022
Podcast: Measuring the Whole Spectrum of Mathematics Achievement, With Richard Rusczyk
Teaching students to combine basic ideas to solve novel, difficult problems is imperative to lay a foundation for STEM pursuits.
November 28, 2022
Podcast: Growth and the Character of Society, With Benjamin Friedman
Economics is about more than the economy. It also intersects public and private institutions, culture, religion, morality, and politics. Rob and Jackie explored these subjects with Benjamin Friedman, a professor of Political Economy at Harvard and author of The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth and Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
October 24, 2022
Podcast: Seven Ways Nations Attain and Keep National Competitiveness, With Michael Mazaar
The U.S. is currently lacking most if not all of identified characteristics that are associated with competitive advantage, but there are potential steps that can be taken moving forward.
October 3, 2022
Podcast: How Henry Ford’s Populist Attitude Led Him to Share Tech With Enemies, With Stefan Link
Rob and Jackie sat down with Stefan Link, Associate Professor of History at Dartmouth University, to discuss Henry Ford and his “open door policy” regarding methods and engineering.
September 12, 2022
Podcast: Three Historic Tech Booms Shaping Our Times, With Peter Leyden
There are techniques in place to thoroughly think through how technology will get adopted, what their implications will be, how they will spur growth, and how they will create new industries.
August 15, 2022
Podcast: What Happens to the Economy When Patent Protections Are Weakened, With Jonathan Barnett
Robust intellectual property rights provide the incentives necessary to drive innovation by allowing markets to form for tangible and intangible assets. Without them, incentives get distorted and innovation slows.