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3: Lord of the attention merchants
Feb 7, 2017

3: Lord of the attention merchants

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Kai and Molly talk with author Tim Wu about net neutrality and his new book "The Attention Merchants."

This week we’re talking with Tim Wu, professor of law at Columbia University and author of the book “The Attention Merchants.” Back in 2003, Wu coined the phrase “network neutrality,” the principle that internet service providers should enable equal access to all content and applications, and not favor one source of content over another. Hint: This is about what you are currently streaming as you read this. 

Meanwhile, pay attention. All the makers of all that content are fighting for increasingly smaller slices of your attention, and Wu talks about “the race to the bottom” when it comes to attention-grabbing tactics. Don’t think this has not happened before in history.

Also, Gloria Calderon Kellet answers our Make Me Smart question: What’s something you thought you knew that you later found out you were wrong about? Calderon Kellet is the co-creator of the rebooted “One Day at a Time” series on Netflix with legendary showrunner Norman Lear.

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