Episode description

Playing for Team Human today: musician, investor, reformer, and the author of Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe, Roger McNamee.

Roger will be talking about his mentorship of Mark Zuckerberg and what went wrong. Was it naive idealism? The imperatives of growth-driven capitalism? Greed? Rushkoff and McNamee look at how things have derailed and what must be done to reclaim the driver’s seat for technologies run amok.

“There are no rules today.” McNamee warns of online surveillance and the increasing power of behavioral modification. We’ve gone from being exploited as “the product” to becoming “fuel for the fire.”

Join Douglas and Roger for a behind-the-scenes look at what is driving these powerful and pernicious platforms.

Douglas opens with a monologue proposing a hypothetical. What if Zuckerberg had stayed in school? Would a little more study of history, literature, or a few more ethics courses have prevented the Facebook catastrophe?

This special episode of Team Human was recorded live in front of a studio audience in collaboration with WNYC’s Podcast Mixtape at the Greene Space. Look for future live dates on teamhuman.fm.

Check out Douglas’s regular column on Medium, featuring expanded versions of the monologues you hear each week opening the show.

Team Human happens each week thanks to the generous support of our listeners on Patreon. Your support makes the hours of labor that go into each show possible. You can also help by reviewing the show on iTunes.

On this episode you heard Fugazi’s “Foreman’s Dog” in the intro thanks to the kindness of the band and Dischord Records. Mid show you heard Roger McNamee's band Moonalice. Our outro features Mike Watt ’s beak-holding-letter-man.

Live Photos thanks to @EDLphotography

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