Burning Platforms

The Holy Trinity Edition

Good things come in threes and this week’s Burning Platforms looks at the inspiration behind the new Pope’s decision to name himself Leo, the critical changes to the Labor Government’s front bench and Mark Zuckerberg maximum number of friends.
 
Regular panellists Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis and joined by Professor Dan Angus from QUT’S Digital Research Centre.

2025 Federal Election Special (or Much Ado About Nothing)

With a federal election within days, Burning Platforms looks at the lack of discussion about tech and whether that is a good or bad thing.
 
With Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea, Per Capita’s Peter Lewis and special guests, Editor of The Sizzle, Cam Wilson and Dr Rys Farthing from Reset Australia.
 
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/
 
Support our guests by checking out their content and work.
Subscribe to The Sizzle! - https://thesizzle.com.au/
Reset Australia's work on the Child Online Privacy Code - https://au.reset.tech/news/welcoming-a-children-s-privacy-code/

Distilling the Slop

As the world teeters on the brink of whatever comes after globalisation we dive deep into the way AI is transforming film-making with the director of the iconic Australian film Kenny, Clay Jacobson.
 
Our regular panel of Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health engine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis also discuss:
The theory that the Trump Tariffs were cooked up by a chatbot
The growing chance that the FTC anti-trust case against Meta is history; and 
The backlash against Chat GPT’s appropriation of Studio Ghibli’s acclaimed work.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/

Taxing Times

On this week's episode of Burning Platforms, the gang looks at global efforts to force Big Tech to pay their share of tax with special guest Dr Mark Zirnsak from the Tax Justice Network.
 
With our regular panelists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine Dan Stinton and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis.
 
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/

The National Trust

 
This week on Burning Platforms, we dive deep into a new initiative to understand the role of Trust in the relationship between society and technology with special guest, Professor Terry Flew.
 
With regular panelists Per Capita’s Peter Lewis,  Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea and Health Engine Dan Stinton, we'll also look at: 
Data Centre Diplomacy
will Google’s AI search eat itself?
and Digg’s reboot
 
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/

World Gone Wild

Burning Platforms is back for 2025.
With the tech overlords in the ascendant, particularly following the US election, we take stock of the impending inferno with our regular panel Per Capita’s Peter Lewis, Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, Health Engine Dan Stinton, and special guest, fresh from the Paris AI Summit, Professor Nick Davis from UTS’ Human Technology Institute.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/
 

Setting the Guardrails

In our final episode of 2024 we unpack the recent Senate Report into the Adoption of AI in Australia with Committee Chair Senator Tony Sheldon.
 
We also look at:
Woolworth's industrial dispute over workplace surveillance
Why Meta is building a deep sea cable to India
How TikTok was gamed to deliver an election boil over in Romania
 
With regular panellists Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea, HealthEngine CEO Dan Stinton and Per Capita's Peter Lewis.
 
Visit the Centre of the Public Square for more on our work around technology policy.
 
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast.

Strange Bedfellows

Burning Platforms dives deep into the common ground between national security and individual privacy with cybersecurity expert Miah Hammond-Errey, host of the Technology and Security podcast.
 
Also this week:
* Bunnings wrapped over facial recognition
* Trump’s crypto bonanza
* and could the Social Media Ban have a silver lining?
 
Panelists:
* Digital Rights Watch chair, Lizzie O’Shea, 
* Health Engine CEO, Dan Stinton
* and Per Capita’s Peter Lewis
 
Visit the Centre of the Public Square for more on our work around technology policy.
 
Support Miah at the TS podcast.
 
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast.

The Tech-Bro Election

 
The upcoming US Presidential elections will shape - and be shaped by - the Web3 community. We talk with Mark Monfort from the Aus De-Fi Association on what the moment means.
 
He joins our panel of Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton, digital rights advocate Kate Bower and Peter Lewis from Per Capita’s Centre of the Public Square.
 
Also this week:
* The new front on chat-bot accountability
* Is Emotional Intelligence the next killer app?
* and has AI doomer-ism turned the corner?
 
Listen to Burning Platforms: https://tinyurl.com/3sck83b6
 
Warning - This episode mentions suicide. If you or anyone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at lifeline.org.au, or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or at beyondblue.org.au/forums.

The Digital Dark Age

As researchers are locked out of digital platforms, we contemplate a new era of control and secrecy, with responsible tech academic Gina Neff.
She joins our panel of  Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie OShea, Choice’s digital campaign lead Rafi Alam and Peter Lewis from Per Capita’s Centre of the Public Square.
Also this week:The Social Media Summit takeawaysThe eyes inside our carsAnd the Nobel Prize’s AI extravaganza
Don't forget to subscribe to The Town Crier, the official newsletter of the Centre for the Public Square and Burning Platforms podcast: https://the-town-crier-2.ghost.io/