282 | Democracy for Sale

We talk to Peter Geoghegan of openDemocracy and Jennifer Cobbe of the Trust and Technology Initiative about Cambridge Analytica, money, power and what is and isn't corrupting our democracy.  How easy is it to buy influence in British politics? Did Cambridge Analytica break the rules, or show just how little difference the rules make anyway? Who has the power to take on Facebook? Plus we discuss why the British government's failure to handle the pandemic tells us a lot about the corrosive effects of cronyism. Order Peter’s book here…

203 | Tech Election - Part 2

We talk about the impact of different online platforms on the general election campaign, from Twitter and Facebook to WhatsApp and TikTok. Is micro-targeting getting more sophisticated? Is viral messaging getting more important? Or are traditional electioneering techniques still driving voter engagement? Plus we ask whether there's any scope left for a 'December surprise'. With Charles Arthur, former technology editor of the Guardian, and Jennifer Cobbe, from the Cambridge Trust and Technology Initiative.

106 | Talking Politics Guide to ... Summer Reading

Regular Talking Politics contributors tell us about the books they’ve most enjoyed reading, and what they are looking forward to reading next. We've added the list of books mentioned below, but have deliberately not linked through to online purveyors: if you're shopping for summer reads, please take this list into your favourite local bookstore...

• What we have been reading:
  • Aaron Rapport: The Power by Naomi Alderman
  • Helen Thompson: The Radetzky March and The Emperor’s Tomb by Joseph Roth
    Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
  • Andrew Preston: 1491: The Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
  • Jennifer Cobbe: Repeal The 8th: A Collection of Stories, Essays, Poetry and Photography around the Movement for Reproductive Rights in Ireland, edited by Una Mullally
  • David Runciman: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld;
    The Nominee by Curtis Sittenfeld
  • Chris Brooke: Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey
  • Chris Bickerton: The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon
• What we plan to read this summer:
  • Aaron: Hopefully the next in the Saga graphic novel series: written by Brian K. Vaughan, and illustrated by Fiona Staples
  • Helen: Crashed by Adam Tooze
  • Andrew: Watergate, A Novel and Finale, A Novel Of The Reagan Years by Thomas Mallon
  • Jennifer: Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies by Woodrow Hartzog
  • David: The Way Of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
    The unabridged audiobook of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan read by Peter Wickham
  • Chris Brooke: Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World by Samuel Moyn
  • Chris Bickerton: The Occupation Trilogy by Patrick Modiano

You can also find a carefully-curated reading list to support each of our summer guides over at lrb.co.uk/guides.

87 | Facebook vs the World

With the help of John Naughton and Jennifer Cobbe we unpick the Cambridge Analytica story and get to the heart of the matter: what is Facebook doing to us and can anything make it stop?  We talk about the business of surveillance capitalism and the difference between a scandal and a crisis.  Plus how working in tech is like working on the Manhattan Project and how Cambridge Analytica is like the Australian cricket team.