Life Online: Power, Risk and Resistance

How has life online reshaped society in real life? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by 3 guests who are investigating the digital sphere, and in some cases resisting its ubiquity.

The filmmaker Baroness Beeban Kidron exposes how digital platforms exploit and divide in her book, Users: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back. She argues for more political and civic action to counter their unchecked influence.

The business journalist Katherine Dunn explores how GPS shapes so many aspects of everyday life, from dating and supermarket shopping to global trade and navigation. In Little Blue Dot she also reveals the hidden fragility of this technology.

The Indian novelist Meena Kandasamy talks about Fieldwork as a Sex Object, a fierce exploration of online misogyny, deepfakes and digital mob violence, where the internet’s political and cultural conflicts spill into the real world with devastating consequences.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Start the Week returns after our summer break on Monday 7th September.