Future Knowledge

In Transaction Denied: How Financial Institutions Silence Dissent and Undermine Democracy, author Rainey Reitman examines the growing phenomenon of financial censorship, in which banks, payment processors, and credit card networks can restrict access to financial services based on speech, identity, or perceived risk. From voting rights organizations and educators to adult content creators and cannabis entrepreneurs, Reitman shares stories of individuals and communities who have found themselves excluded from the financial system, and explores what these cases reveal about power, free expression, and democratic participation in the digital age. Joining Reitman in conversation is author and journalist Annalee Newitz.Grab your copy of Transaction Denied: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/transaction-denied-big-finance-s-power-to-punish-speech-9780807019115/new This conversation was recorded on 6/3/2026.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

What do jazz, gene sequences, and the World Wide Web have in common? They all reveal what’s at stake when our cultural commons shrinks. In this episode, James Boyle, author of The Public Domain, joins Molly Shaffer Van Houweling to explore why the public domain is essential for creativity, innovation, and a healthy information ecosystem. From surprising case studies to the “range wars” of the digital age, Boyle explains how expanding intellectual property rights can stifle culture—and what it will take to protect the commons we all depend on.This conversation was recorded on 12/18/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-public-domain Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

What made the early web so thrilling, and how do we reclaim that spirit today? In this special episode, recorded at Georgetown University’s historic Riggs Library, leaders who helped build the internet and those fighting for its future come together to chart a path forward.Featuring Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive), Vint Cerf (Google), Cindy Cohn (EFF), and Jon Stokes (Ars Technica), and moderated by Luke Hogg of the Foundation for American Innovation, this conversation looks back at the web’s origins to imagine what a truly open, innovative, and empowering internet could still become.This conversation was recorded on 10/27/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/wayback-to-the-future-celebrating-the-open-webCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In this conversation, Michael Menna and Anjali Vats unpack how copyright law really works for musicians outside the mainstream. While stars like Taylor Swift make headlines for reclaiming their masters, countless “fringe musicians” navigate a system that often privileges profit over creativity. Together, Menna and Vats examine the gap between copyright’s ideals and its realities—exploring how power, access, and inequity shape who benefits from the music economy and what a fairer future might look like.Read Michael Menna's paper, "The Fringe Musician, the 360 Deal, and a New Look at Copyright and Competition in Music": https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol32/iss1/3/ Read Anjali Vats' paper, "Owning Your Masters (Taylor’s Version): Postfeminist Tactical Copyright and the Erasure of Black Intellectual Labor": http://www.anjalivats.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Vats_Ch-48_Owning-Your-Masters_Scans_pp552-573.pdfThis conversation was recorded on 09/11/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In 1996, the web was still young—a chaotic, creative frontier built one page at a time. That same year, the Internet Archive set out to preserve it all. Nearly three decades later, that audacious goal has reached a generational milestone: 1 trillion web pages preserved.Co-hosts Chris Freeland (Internet Archive) and Dave Hansen (Authors Alliance) talk with Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, about how this vast public archive came to be—and what 1 trillion captures mean for humanity’s collective memory.This conversation was recorded on 10/16/2025.Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

How does copyright shape the music we love—and influence how it's made, distributed, and reimagined? In this episode, Jennifer Jenkins, author of Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture, is joined by legal scholar James Boyle for a conversation about how copyright law influences everything in our modern world from sampling and streaming to remix culture, and what that means for creators. Grab your copy of Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-copyright-creativity-and-culture-9780190945930This conversation was recorded on 4/10/2025. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/music-copyright-creativity-and-cultureCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Authors Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen join historian Abby Smith Rumsey to discuss their acclaimed book The Library: A Fragile History—a sweeping exploration of how libraries have been built, destroyed, cherished, and reinvented over the centuries. From ancient archives to modern public libraries, they trace the people, politics, and passions behind the world’s great collections, and reflect on the enduring—and vulnerable—idea of the library itself. This conversation was recorded on 7/20/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-library-a-fragile-historyCheck out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge