Polarisation is seen as a threat to democracy - and social media is seen as a cause. But what can be done? Does the blame really lie with tech alone? And what could the virtual public square look like if we dared to hit "reset" and redesigned our apps from scratch? A radical and counter-intuitive conversation between Chris Bail, head of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, and Samira Shackle, editor of New Humanist magazine, on tribalism, extremism, and not logging off. For fans of Azeem Azhar, Jonathan Haidt, Nick Srnicek and Shoshana Zuboff.

Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON

Hosts: Samira Shackle and Niki Seth-Smith
Executive producer: Alice Bloch
Sound engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs

Further Reading:

"Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing" (2021) Chris Bail

www.polarizationlab.com

"Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream" (2014) Chris Bail

"The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" (2012), Jonathan Haidt

"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" (2018) Shoshana Zuboff

"Platform Capitalism" (2016) Nick Srnicek

"Does the Left Have a Problem with Empathy?" (2020) Nicola Cutcher, New Humanist Magazine