Aiming for the Moon - 95. China's Great Firewall - Censorship in the Asian Superpower: Dr. Margaret E. Roberts (Professor in the Department of Political Science @ University of California, San Diego, and author of "Censored")

95. China's Great Firewall - Censorship in the Asian Superpower: Dr. Margaret E. Roberts (Professor in the Department of Political Science @ University of California, San Diego, and author of "Censored")

08/13/22 • 22 min

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Margaret E. Roberts (scroll down for full bio) about China and the new age of censorship.
Topics:

Methods of modern censorship
Why free speech is bad for regimes
How much does the average Chinese Citizen know?
How censorship creates factions in China
Should the West intervene?
The global impact of censorship
Democracies and censorship
Censorship and Covid-19 in China
What books have had an impact on Dr. Roberts
What advice Dr. Roberts has for teenagers

Books Mentioned: (I get a cut)

Censored: Distraction and Diversion inside China's Great Firewall by Margaret E. Roberts - https://amzn.to/3QJODtE
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - https://amzn.to/3QKcnOD

Margaret Roberts is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute at the University of California, San Diego. She co-directs the China Data Lab at the 21st Century China Center. Her research interests lie in the intersection of political methodology and the politics of information, with a specific focus on methods of automated content analysis and the politics of censorship and propaganda in China. She received a PhD from Harvard in Government (2014), MS from Stanford in Statistics (2009) and BA from Stanford in International Relations and Economics (2009). Her book, Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall, published by Princeton University Press in 2018, was listed as one of the Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2018, was honored with the Goldsmith Book Award, and has been awarded the Best Book Award in the Human Rights Section and Information Technology and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. She holds a Chancellor's Associates Endowed Chair at UCSD.

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Lessons from Interesting People substack: https://taylorbledsoe.substack.com/
Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4Moon
Taylor's Blog: https://www.taylorgbledsoe.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXk

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In this episode, I talk with Dr. Margaret E. Roberts (scroll down for full bio) about China and the new age of censorship.
Topics:

Methods of modern censorship
Why free speech is bad for regimes
How much does the average Chinese Citizen know?
How censorship creates factions in China
Should the West intervene?
The global impact of censorship
Democracies and censorship
Censorship and Covid-19 in China
What books have had an impact on Dr. Roberts
What advice Dr. Roberts has for teenagers

Books Mentioned: (I get a cut)

Censored: Distraction and Diversion inside China's Great Firewall by Margaret E. Roberts - https://amzn.to/3QJODtE
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - https://amzn.to/3QKcnOD

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94. Becoming a Free Thinker: Alex Kaschuta (Writer and Host of the "Subversive" Podcast)

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In this episode, I sit down with Alex Kaschuta, writer and host of the Subversive Podcast . We discussed the importance of subversive ideas, how to become a free thinker as a young person, and how to create a career where you get paid to think.
Topics:

Why Alex Kaschuta's podcast focuses on subversive ideas
Should offensive ideas be censored?
How to become a free thinker as a young person
College and censored ideas
Creating a career to get paid to think
What books have had an impact on Ms. Kaschuta
What advice Ms. Kaschuta has for teenagers

Resources:

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature - https://amzn.to/3p8dpbv
The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life - https://amzn.to/3PX6jSH

Alex Kaschuta is a writer, cultural critic, and podcast host from Transylvania, Romania. Her areas of interest are technology, immigration, religion, gender relations, and the broader emergence of postliberal politics in Europe and the United States. Her background is in economics, having earned a BSc. in Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and an MSc. at ESADE Barcelona. She has been active as an opinion writer for the better part of a decade and has been featured in the New York Post, the American Mind, IM1776, and other outlets. Currently, she is the host of the Subversive Podcast and writes for her Substack audience and various other publications.
Socials! -

Lessons from Interesting People substack: https://taylorbledsoe.substack.com/
Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4Moon
Taylor's Blog: https://www.taylorgbledsoe.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXk
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undefined - 96. The Religion of Work: Dr. Carolyn Chen (Author of "Work Pray Code" and Associate Professor of Ethics at University of California, Berkeley)

96. The Religion of Work: Dr. Carolyn Chen (Author of "Work Pray Code" and Associate Professor of Ethics at University of California, Berkeley)

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In this episode, I talk with Dr. Carolyn Chen, author of Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley and associate professor of ethics at the University of California, Berkeley, (scroll down for full bio), about the “religion of work” in “techtopias.”
Topics:

Work as religion
Tech workers as believers
The cult of productivity
Should we let this happen?
The sacraments and saints of Work
The monkish lifestyle of workers
What books have had an impact on Dr. Chen
What advice Dr. Chen has for teenagers

Books Mentioned: (I get a cut)

Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley - https://amzn.to/3pLH5Lx
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion - https://amzn.to/3ccvC4H
The Hidden Lives of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discovers from a Secret World - https://amzn.to/3Cno8qk
Justice: What's the Right Things to Do? - https://amzn.to/3AdgCeG

Dr. Carolyn Chen, a sociologist, is an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Getting Saved in America (Princeton) and the co-editor of Sustaining Faith Traditions. She lives in Kensington, California.