The Weeds

Politics is how people achieve power. Policy is what they do with it. Every week on The Weeds, host Jonquilyn Hill and guests break down the policies that shape our lives, from abortion to financial regulations to affirmative action to housing. We dive deep and we get wonky, but we have fun along the way. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

https://www.vox.com/the-weeds

subscribe
share






Is Facebook really that bad?


Dylan, German, and Dara talk about Facebook and the controversy surrounding it in recent weeks. They cover just how much — and how little — we know about Facebook’s impact on the world and talk about whether there are good policy solutions to Facebook’s problems. For the white paper of the week, they break down a study on free school lunch programs.


References:


  • The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on how Facebook’s efforts to improve the platform backfired 
  • The Washington Post’s reporting on how Facebook prioritized “angry” over “like”
  • The Washington Post’s reporting on Facebook picking engagement over fighting misinformation
  • Section 230 basics, explained 
  • Vox’s Recode Daily podcast
  • What happened when experimenters paid people to deactivate Facebook before the 2018 midterms
  • Max Fisher and Amanda Taub on Facebook-inspired anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka
  • Facebook did enable the Arab Spring
  • Farhad Manjoo on how bad regulations could make Facebook worse
  • A child psychologist on what we don’t know about Instagram’s effect on teen girls 
  • Kevin Drum’s counter-takes on Facebook
  • NBER study on school lunch programs reducing grocery costs


Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox

Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica


Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial advisor

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts


Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter 


Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices


fyyd: Podcast Search Engine
share








 November 3, 2021  53m