Weapons of Math Destruction (Originally aired: Sept. 20, 2017)

Weapons of Math Destruction (Originally aired: Sept. 20, 2017)

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 734 , Segment 4

Episode: History of Government Shutdown, Brandon Sanderson, Make Your Face Look Younger

  • Jan 26, 2018
  • 15:43 mins

Guest: Cathy O’Neil, PhD, Author, “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” Founder and Data Scientist, O’Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing Company Are you one of those “lucky” people who gets credit card offers every day? Well, the offer in your mailbox might be different from the one in your neighbor’s because your credit score, your income, your outstanding debt and other factors are mysteriously processed by a number-crunching algorithm and out pops your APR. But that mysterious process—that algorithm—might not be as objective as you think.

Other Segments

The History of Shutdown Politics

19 MINS

Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor, History BYU Two weeks from today we’ll be back in government shutdown watch mode, unless Republicans and Democrats have come to an agreement on spending and immigration by then. The three-day shutdown that happened over the past weekend was the first to occur with a single party controlling the White House and Congress. But it’s not as if U.S. leaders all the way back to George Washington have managed to pass a budget on time every year. It’s just that until fairly recently, the whole government did not shut down when Congress missed a budget deadline. So why does it happen now? And are we better off for it as a nation?

Guests: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Associate Professor, Political Science, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Assistant Professor, History BYU Two weeks from today we’ll be back in government shutdown watch mode, unless Republicans and Democrats have come to an agreement on spending and immigration by then. The three-day shutdown that happened over the past weekend was the first to occur with a single party controlling the White House and Congress. But it’s not as if U.S. leaders all the way back to George Washington have managed to pass a budget on time every year. It’s just that until fairly recently, the whole government did not shut down when Congress missed a budget deadline. So why does it happen now? And are we better off for it as a nation?