Introducing Season 4

Transcript

Manoush Zomorodi: Does this sound okay? Yeah. Should I just go for it? Okay.

I’m Manoush Zomorodi and I’m hosting season four of IRL. Online life is real life. It’s an original podcast from Mozilla. Do you get the feeling that we’re at the start of a reckoning for the internet? In 2018, social media giants admitted that their platforms spread misinformation and disinformation around the world. It’s the same year that some governments passed privacy laws protecting our data, and others promised regulation to come. It’s also the year the #metoo movement found it’s way into the boardrooms of big tech.

And, that’s what progress looks like! Hard conversation and debates are happening. People like you and me are standing up for a safe, open, and free internet, an internet that is awesome for everyone. Okay, so, why am I hosting this show? Well, I’m a journalist, and my thing is investigating how tech changes our lives and our world. Sometimes for good, sometimes not so good, and I’ve been using the phrase, “ethical tech,” I don’t know if that’s a real phrase, let’s use it, because I really think that we can build technology that is ethical, it’s what Mozilla does, it’s what they stand for. Both of us want the same thing, to have choice, control, and transparency, when it comes to the internet.

And, it’s through that lens, that this season we’re gonna look at how even the most basic things we do online are shaped by those who build those basic things. From, how we shop to what we read, who moderates our content, even how we pick our passwords. We’ll unpack those ideas, learn who gets represented, and who gets ignored.

November 26th, that’s when the first episode drops. We are gonna get nerdy, we are gonna get human, we’re gonna also have some fun. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, or wherever you like listening.

IRL from Mozilla, the company that makes the Firefox browser. Come listen, come learn, and come demand a better internet.