How does broadband policy affect our Internet access?

IMAGE BY Alexis Kenyon via DALL-E

Many of us assume everyone has access to the Internet. In light of the last few years of global pandemic, however, we observed headlines about the unconnected and the issues that were created in social, work, and educational daily experiences.

Why are some Americans, especially in the rural Midwest flyover states, left without access or with incredibly slow Internet speed?

To answer these questions and explore policy failures, we speak with Dr. Christopher Ali, a Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and Professor of Telecommunications at Penn State University. Dr. Ali’s research and advocacy work focus on exploring the lived experiences and the implications of broadband policy.

CU Boulder’s MEDLab’s radio show and podcast, Looks Like New, asks old questions about new tech.

Each month, Looks Like New team speaks with people who work with technology in ways that challenge conventional narratives and dominant power structures. The name comes from the phrase “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” repeated throughout the works of Peter Maurin, the French agrarian poet and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

Looks Like New airs the fourth Thursday of every month at 6 p.m., or by podcast on iTunes.