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Two Percent with Michael Easter
#52: What Convenience and Your Phone Are Costing You | Tim Wu
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About this episode
Michael speaks with Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor and author of The Age of Extraction, about how media and tech platforms learned to harvest our attention, why convenience is among the most powerful forces of our time, and what the easy option can take from us. They discuss: (00:00) Cold open(01:12) Selling attention, from 1833 to now(07:46) Why phones are changing human evolution(16:20) Why ads adapt to every backlash(18:00) Attention merchants vs. extractors(25:48) Easiest wins: the power of convenience(28:01) What convenience takes from us(34:17) Can tech serve more than profit?(39:45) What makes a good life(44:42) Is there an ethical way to fund media?(48:51) Social media, kids and…