Tim Wu, author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia University, and Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, join to discuss Wu’s new book The Age of Extraction. The book investigates how today’s dominant platforms manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality. Wu urges us to recognize their influence and reclaim control to create a balanced economy that works for all.
“A sharp and eye-opening introduction to how we arrived at platform capitalism—where no good click goes unmonetized.” — Kirkus Reviews
Featured Author and Moderator:
Tim Wu
Tim Wu is an author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia University, best known for coining the term “net neutrality.” In 2006, Scientific American named him one of 50 leaders in science and technology; in 2007, 01238 magazine listed him as one of Harvard’s 100 most influential graduates; in 2013, National Law Journal included him in “America’s 100 Most Influential Lawyers”; and in 2014 and 2015, he was named to the “Politico 50.” He formerly wrote for Slate, where he won the Lowell Thomas Gold medal for Travel Journalism, and is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. In 2015, he was appointed to the Executive Staff of the Office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as a senior enforcement counsel and special adviser.
Mohammad Tajsar
Mohammad Tajsar is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. His work focuses on national security and counterterrorism policy, as well as government surveillance and consumer privacy.
Mohammad’s current docket includes Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, the timely challenge against the Trump administration’s indiscriminate detention raids in Los Angeles; Fazaga v. FBI, a challenge to the FBI’s surveillance of mosques in Orange County; and Adlerstein v. Customs and Border Protection, a constitutional challenge to the surveillance and detention of immigrant rights lawyers and non-profit leaders.
Mohammad also has significant experience protecting individuals’ civil rights and privacy against public and private sector use of surveillance technology, and regularly speaks on digital rights, consumer privacy, and how communities and consumers can protect themselves online and in the world.
