Convenience Costs (the extraction economy with Tim Wu)

Today’s world is more convenient than it has ever been in history. It can take fewer than five discrete actions to have most anything delivered right to your door, and you don’t even have to get up from your chair. But in our world becoming so comfortable, so convenient, we must ask the question: What are we losing?

In this special episode, Vass is joined by Tim Wu, a preeminent legal scholar and former Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States, in a live conversation recorded at Hot Docs in Toronto, in November 2025. The discussion was anchored on Tim’s latest book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf, 2025), which illuminates how we can reclaim control and create a balanced economy that works for everyone in a modern world where tech platforms have been permitted to run rampant in their own self-interest under the guise of free innovation. We regulated electricity when it became clear it would change the world; why not today’s disruptive tech?

Mentioned:

• Human Potential Movement: spreadgreatideas.org/glossary/human-potential-movement/
• Clay Shirky: shirky.com/
• Raffi’s Bananaphone: wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananaphone
• Amazon sellers bidding for top spots in results: aihello.com/resources/blog/amazon-ppc-bidding/
• Lina M. Khan, former commissioner of the FTC: ftc.gov/about-ftc/commissioners-staff/lina-m-khan
• History of nursing homes: share.google/G1faVin0hpjK5p5pS
• Canadian 2025 budget: budget.canada.ca/2025/home-accueil-en.html
• Economic gardening: kauffman.org/resources/policy/economic-gardening/
• Democracy in decline worldwide: en.ara.cat/politics/democracy-in-decline-72-of-the-world-s-population-lives-in-autocracies_1_5352060.html
• Hugo Chavez launching monetary support for Venezuelan children living in poverty in 2011: reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/chavez-launches-cash-giveaway-for-poor-venezuela-kids-idUSTRE7BB1C8/

Further Reading:

• Tim Wu biography: timwu.net/
• The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf, 2025): penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691177/the-age-of-extraction-by-tim-wu/
• Agency decay from AI usage: cigionline.org/articles/the-silent-erosion-how-ais-helping-hand-weakens-our-mental-grip/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 

Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 

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