The “Who Surveils the Surveillors?” Edition

Noah Efron, Allison Kaplan Sommer, and Don Futterman discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week.

Looking for this week's extra segment? It's available on www.patreon.com/promisedpodcast

Surveilling Belligerents

Israel’s got a machine-learning AI system for identifying lone terrorists before they act. Should this bit of real-scifi-Minority Report-ism make it easier for us to sleep at night, or cause us to toss-and-turn in Orwellian angst?

Surveilling Rabbis

An activist spends long hours going over videos of rabbinic lectures, getting the sexist and homophobic bits on the nightly news. Is this smart progressive politics, or kind of creepy stalking?

Surveilling Prices

Israel’s Chamber of Commerce says the time has come to repeal a law mandating little sticky price-tags on every item in the supermarket, in favor of smart screens, q-codes and surge pricing in the freezer aisle. Is this the voice of progress, or of rapacious capitalists who want to squeeze a little more cash from consumers?

Music: The Amazing Persian-Georgian Groove of Hadar Maoz!

Lali Lavat 

Azizam

Hadar Maoz Esh Avotay

Labhoi Turo Blues