On this edition of KBOO News in Depth:
The Oregon Data Center Advisory Committee was created by Governor Tina Kotek in January, to come up with policy and regulatory recommendations for data centers. How the state should balance economic opportunities with negative local impacts is a key question. The committee met for the first time Friday, February 27th. KBOO's Doug McVay reports on their meeting, and what experts say about the impact that data centers have on the communities they're built in.
Then, KBOO's David Rosenberg speaks Kylan Rutherford,a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Social Media, about the complexity of the podcast world. Many commentators have argued that podcasts were a key factor in the rise of Donald Trump. In fact, his campaign openly thanked several podcast hosts on election night for helping Trump win the presidency for the second time. Joe Rogan, who is sometimes thought of as a conservative commentator, is one of the more influential podcasters in the U.S. But researchers at New York University's Center for Social Media, AI and Politics say that Joe Rogan of the right is also Joe Rogan of the center and Joe Rogan of the left, and that, they suggest, is what makes him so effective as an influencer.
- KBOO