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Owning the Narrative

August 28, 2026 · 1 h 33 min

Show notes

Dolly Parton owned a very American narrative of being born poor but making something out of nothing through talent and hard work. In contrast, tech tried to control its narrative and instead stoked backlash to their grand project of AI. Plus: A celebration of nerding out, from the Stick Guy to Emma Camp to David Senra. And a conversation with the WSJ computational journalist John West about why the successor to the open web is small private groups.

* Buy John West’s new book - The Internet Will Die and So Will You

* Watch us on YouTube

* Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter

* Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter

* Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer

* Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter

* Join our community - PvA Field Notes

Chapters:

* 00:00 Internet Impermanence

* 02:44 Dolly Parton Legacy

* 10:04 AI Narrative Crisis

* 29:35 Fine Line of Authorship

* 38:13 Celebration of Nerding Out

* 44:17 Carney is an Interesting Character

* 50:23 AI Newsrooms And APIs

* 56:08 Flock Cameras And Privacy Backlash

* 01:03:38 John West On AI And The Dying Web

* 01:17:38 Importance of Forgetting

* 01:27:30 What is a Computational Journalist?



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.peoplevsalgorithms.com

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