Redefining Society and Technology Podcast

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Musing On Society, Technology, and Cybersecurity | Hosted by Marco Ciappelli Let’s face it: the future is now. We live in a hybrid analog-digital society, and it’s time to stop ignoring the profound impact technology has on our lives. The line between the physical and virtual worlds? It’s no longer real — just a figment of our imagination. We’re constantly juggling convenience, privacy, freedom, security, and even the future of humanity in a precarious balancing act. There’s no better place than here, and no better time than now, to reflect on our relationship with technology — and redefine what society means in this new age.

  1. 12/07/2025

    Nothing Has Changed in Cybersecurity Since the 80s — And That's the Real Problem | A Conversation with Steve Mancini | Redefining Society and Technology with Marco Ciappelli

    Dr. Steve Mancini: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-steve-m-b59a525/ Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/ Nothing Has Changed in Cybersecurity Since War Games — And That's Why We're in Trouble "Nothing has changed." That's not what you expect to hear from someone with four decades in cybersecurity. The industry thrives on selling the next revolution, the newest threat, the latest solution. But Dr. Steve Mancini—cybersecurity professor, Homeland Security veteran, and Italy's Honorary Consul in Pittsburgh—wasn't buying any of it. And honestly? Neither was I. He took me back to his Commodore 64 days, writing basic war dialers after watching War Games. The method? Dial numbers, find an open line, try passwords until one works. Translate that to today: run an Nmap scan, find an open port, brute force your way in. The principle is identical. Only the speed has changed. This resonated deeply with how I think about our Hybrid Analog Digital Society. We're so consumed with the digital evolution—the folding screens, the AI assistants, the cloud computing—that we forget the human vulnerabilities underneath remain stubbornly analog. Social engineering worked in the 1930s, it worked when I was a kid in Florence, and it works today in your inbox. Steve shared a story about a family member who received a scam call. The caller asked if their social security number "had a six in it." A one-in-nine guess. Yet that simple psychological trick led to remote software being installed on their computer. Technology gets smarter; human psychology stays the same. What struck me most was his observation about his students—a generation so immersed in technology that they've become numb to breaches. "So what?" has become the default response. The data sells, the breaches happen, you get two years of free credit monitoring, and life goes on. Groundhog Day. But the deeper concern isn't the breaches. It's what this technological immersion is doing to our capacity for critical thinking, for human instinct. Steve pointed out something that should unsettle us: the algorithms feeding content to young minds are designed for addiction, manipulating brain chemistry with endorphin kicks from endless scrolling. We won't know the full effects of a generation raised on smartphones until they're forty, having scrolled through social media for thirty years. I asked what we can do. His answer was simple but profound: humans need to decide how much they want technology in their lives. Parents putting smartphones in six-year-olds' hands might want to reconsider. Schools clinging to the idea that they're "teaching technology" miss the point—students already know the apps better than their professors. What they don't know is how to think without them. He's gone back to paper and pencil tests. Old school. Because when the power goes out—literally or metaphorically—you need a brain that works independently. Ancient cultures, Steve reminded me, built civilizations with nothing but their minds, parchment, and each other. They were, in many ways, a thousand times smarter than us because they had no crutches. Now we call our smartphones "smart" while they make us incrementally dumber. This isn't anti-technology doom-saying. Neither Steve nor I oppose technological progress. The conversation acknowledged AI's genuine benefits in medicine, in solving specific problems. But this relentless push for the "easy button"—the promise that you don't have to think, just click—that's where we lose something essential. The ultimate breach, we concluded, isn't someone stealing your data. It's breaching the mind itself. When we can no longer think, reason, or function without the device in our pocket, the hackers have already won—and they didn't need to write a single line of code. Subscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human. My Newsletter?  Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    43 min

  2. 11/24/2025

    Author Kate O'Neill's Book "What Matters Next": AI, Meaning, and Why We Can't Delegate Creativity | Redefining Society and Technology with Marco Ciappelli

    Author Kate O'Neill's Book "What Matters Next": AI, Meaning, and Why We Can't Delegate Creativity | Redefining Society and Technology with Marco Ciappelli Kate O'Neill: https://www.koinsights.com/books/what-matters-next-book/ Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/  When Kate O'Neill tells me that AI's most statistically probable outcome is actually its least meaningful one, I realize we're talking about something information theory has known for decades - but nobody's applying to the way we're using ChatGPT. She's a linguist who became a tech pioneer, one of Netflix's first hundred employees, someone who saw the first graphical web browser and got chills knowing everything was about to change. Her new book "What Matters Next" isn't another panic piece about AI or a blind celebration of automation. It's asking the question nobody seems to want to answer: what happens when we optimize for probability instead of meaning? I've been wrestling with this myself. The more I use AI tools for content, analysis, brainstorming - the more I notice something's missing. The creativity isn't there. It's brilliant for summarization, execution, repetitive tasks. But there's a flatness to it, a regression to the mean that strips away the very thing that makes human communication worth having. Kate puts it plainly: "There is nothing more human than meaning-making. From semantic meaning all the way out to the philosophical, cosmic worldview - what matters and why we're here." Every time we hit "generate" and just accept what the algorithm produces, we're choosing efficiency over meaning. We're delegating the creative process to a system optimized for statistical likelihood, not significance. She laughs when I tell her about my own paradox - that AI sometimes takes MORE time, not less. There's this old developer concept called "yak shaving," where you spend ten times longer writing a program to automate five steps instead of just doing them. But the real insight isn't about time management. It's about understanding the relationship between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them. In her book "What Matters Next," Kate's message is that we need to stay in the loop. Use AI for ugly first drafts, sure. Let it expedite workflow. But keep going back and forth, inserting yourself, bringing meaning and purpose back into the process. Otherwise, we create what she calls "garbage that none of us want to exist in the world with." I wrote recently about the paradox of learning when we rely entirely on machines. If AI only knows what we've done in the past, and we don't inject new meaning into that loop, it becomes closed. It's like doomscrolling through algorithms that only feed you what you already like - you never discover anything new, never grow, never challenge yourself. We're living in a Hybrid Analog Digital Society where these tools are unavoidable and genuinely powerful. The question isn't whether to use them. It's how to use them in ways that amplify human creativity rather than flatten it, that enhance meaning rather than optimize it away. The dominant narrative right now is efficiency, productivity, automation. But what if the real value isn't doing things faster - it's doing things that actually matter? Technology should serve humanity's purpose. Not the other way around. And that purpose can't be dictated by algorithms trained on statistical likelihood. It has to come from us, from the messy, unpredictable, meaningful work of being human. My Newsletter?  Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    49 min
  3. AI in Healthcare: Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who's at Risk in Our Hybrid Analog Digital Society | Expert Panel Discussions With Marco Ciappelli & Sean Martin

    11/15/2025

    AI in Healthcare: Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who's at Risk in Our Hybrid Analog Digital Society | Expert Panel Discussions With Marco Ciappelli & Sean Martin

    AI in Healthcare: Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who's at Risk in Our Hybrid Analog Digital Society 🎙️ EXPERT PANEL Hosted By Marco Ciappelli & Sean Martin Dr. Robert Pearl - Former CEO, Permanente Medical Group; Author, "ChatGPT, MD"Rob Havasy - Senior Director of Connected Health, HIMSSJohn Sapp Jr. - VP & CSO, Texas Mutual InsuranceJim StClair - VP of Public Health Systems, AltarumRobert Booker - Chief Strategy Officer, HITRUSTI had one of those conversations recently that reminded me why we do what we do at ITSPmagazine. Not the kind of polite, surface-level exchange you get at most industry events, but a real grappling with the contradictions and complexities that define our Hybrid Analog Digital Society. This wasn't just another panel discussion about AI in healthcare. This was a philosophical interrogation of who benefits, who pays, and who's at risk when we hand over diagnostic decisions, treatment protocols, and even the sacred physician-patient relationship to algorithms. The panel brought together some of the most thoughtful voices in healthcare technology: Dr. Robert Pearl, former CEO of the Permanente Medical Group and author of "ChatGPT, MD"; Rob Havasy from HIMSS; John Sapp from Texas Mutual Insurance; Jim StClair from Altarum; and Robert Booker from HITRUST. What emerged wasn't a simple narrative of technological progress or dystopian warning, but something far more nuanced—a recognition that we're navigating uncharted territory where the stakes couldn't be higher. Dr. Pearl opened with a stark reality: 400,000 people die annually from misdiagnoses in America. Another half million die because we fail to adequately control chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. These aren't abstract statistics—they're lives lost to human error, system failures, and the limitations of our current healthcare model. His argument was compelling: AI isn't replacing human judgment; it's filling gaps that human cognition simply cannot bridge alone. But here's where the conversation became truly fascinating. Rob Havasy described a phenomenon I've noticed across every technology adoption curve we've covered—the disconnect between leadership enthusiasm and frontline reality. Healthcare executives believe AI is revolutionizing their operations, while nurses and physicians on the floor are quietly subscribing to ChatGPT on their own because the "official" tools aren't ready yet. It's a microcosm of how innovation actually happens: messy, unauthorized, and driven by necessity rather than policy. The ethical dimensions run deeper than most people realize. When Marco—my co-host Sean Martin and I—asked about liability, the panel's answer was refreshingly honest: we don't know. The courts will eventually decide who's responsible when an AI diagnostic tool leads to harm. Is it the developer? The hospital? The physician who relied on the recommendation? Right now, everyone wants control over AI deployment but minimal liability for its failures. Sound familiar? It's the classic American pattern of innovation outpacing regulation. John Sapp introduced a phrase that crystallized the challenge: "enable the secure adoption and responsible use of AI." Not prevent. Not rush recklessly forward. But enable—with guardrails, governance, and a clear-eyed assessment of both benefits and risks. He emphasized that AI governance isn't fundamentally different from other technology risk management; it's just another category requiring visibility, validation, and informed decision-making. Yet Robert Booker raised a question that haunts me: what do we really mean when we talk about AI in healthcare? Are we discussing tools that empower physicians to provide better care? Or are we talking about operational efficiency mechanisms designed to reduce costs, potentially at the expense of the human relationship that defines good medicine? This is where our Hybrid Analog Digital Society reveals its fundamental tensions. We want the personalization that AI promises—real-time analysis of wearable health data, pharmacogenetic insights tailored to individual patients, early detection of deteriorating conditions before they become crises. But we're also profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of an algorithm replacing the human judgment, intuition, and empathy that we associate with healing. Jim StClair made a provocative observation: AI forces us to confront the uncomfortable truth about how much of medical practice is actually procedure, protocol, and process rather than art. How many ER diagnoses follow predictable decision trees? How many prescriptions are essentially formulaic responses to common presentations? Perhaps AI isn't threatening the humanity of medicine—it's revealing how much of medicine has always been mechanical, freeing clinicians to focus on the parts that genuinely require human connection. The panel consensus, if there was one, centered on governance. Not as bureaucratic obstruction, but as the framework that allows us to experiment responsibly, learn from failures without catastrophic consequences, and build trust in systems that will inevitably become more prevalent. What struck me most wasn't the disagreements—though there were plenty—but the shared recognition that we're asking the wrong question. It's not "AI or no AI?" but "What kind of AI, governed how, serving whose interests, with what transparency, and measured against what baseline?" Because here's the uncomfortable truth Dr. Pearl articulated: we're comparing AI to an idealized vision of human medical practice that doesn't actually exist. The baseline isn't perfection—it's 400,000 annual misdiagnoses, burned-out clinicians spending hours on documentation instead of patient care, and profound healthcare inequities based on geography and economics. The question isn't whether AI will transform healthcare. It already is. The question is whether we'll shape that transformation consciously, ethically, and with genuine concern for who benefits and who bears the risks. Listen to the full conversation and subscribe to stay connected with these critical discussions about technology and society. Links: ITSPmagazine: ITSPmagazine.comRedefining Society and Technology Podcast: redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1 hr

  4. 11/11/2025

    New Event | Global Space Awards 2025 Honors Captain James Lovell Legacy at Natural History Museum London | A conversation with Sanjeev Gordhan | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli

    ____________Podcast  Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com    ____________Host  Marco Ciappelli Co-Founder & CMO @ITSPmagazine | Master Degree in Political Science - Sociology of Communication l Branding & Marketing Advisor | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | #Technology #Cybersecurity #Society 🌎 LAX 🛸 FLR 🌍 WebSite: https://marcociappelli.com On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ciappelli/ ____________This Episode’s Sponsors BlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity protection to corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals to protect against hacking, reputational loss, financial loss, and the impacts of a corporate data breach. BlackCloak:  https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb ____________Title New Event | Global Space Awards 2025 Honors Captain James Lovell Legacy at Natural History Museum London | A conversation with Sanjeev Gordhan | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli ____________Guests: Sanjeev Gordhan General Partner @ Type One Ventures | Space, Deep-Tech, Strategy On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjeev-gordhan-3714b327/ ____________Short Introduction  The inaugural Global Space Awards celebrates the Golden Era of Space on December 5, 2025, at London's Natural History Museum. Hosted by physicist Brian Greene, the event honors Captain James Lovell's legacy and recognizes innovators transforming space from government domain to commercial frontier in our Hybrid Analog Digital Society. ____________Article  "There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen." Those words from Captain James Lovell defined his life—from commanding Apollo 13's near-disastrous mission to inspiring generations of space explorers. This December, London's Natural History Museum will host the inaugural Global Space Awards, an event dedicating its first evening to Lovell's extraordinary legacy while celebrating those making things happen in space today. Sanjeev Gordhan, General Partner at Type One Ventures and part of the Global Space Awards organizing team, joined me to discuss why this moment matters. Not just for space enthusiasts, but for everyone whose lives are being transformed by technologies developed beyond Earth's atmosphere. "Space is not a sector," Sanj explained. "It's a domain that overrides many sectors—agriculture, pharmaceuticals, defense, telecommunications, connectivity. Things we engage with daily." The timing couldn't be more significant. We're witnessing what Sanj calls a fundamental shift in space economics. In the 1970s and 80s, launching a kilogram into space cost $70,000-$80,000. Today? Around $3,000. That 20x reduction has transformed space from an exclusive government playground into a commercially viable domain where startups can reach orbit on seed funding. This democratization of space access is precisely why the Global Space Awards emerged. The industry needed something beyond its echo chambers—a red-carpet moment celebrating excellence across the entire spectrum, from research laboratories to scaling businesses, from breakthrough science to sustainable investments. The response exceeded all expectations. The first-year event received 516 nominations from 38 countries. Sanj and his team were "gobsmacked"—they'd hoped for maybe 150-200. The overwhelming engagement proved what they suspected: the space community was hungry for recognition that spans the complete journey from laboratory to commercial impact. What makes this particularly fascinating is how space technology circles back to solve Earth's problems. Consider pharmaceuticals: crystallization processes in microgravity create flawless crystal structures impossible to achieve on Earth. The impact? Chemotherapy treatments that currently require hours-long hospital visits could become subcutaneous injections patients self-administer at home. That's not science fiction—that's research happening now on the International Space Station, waiting for commercial space infrastructure to scale production. Or agriculture: Earth observation satellites help farmers optimize crop yields, manage water resources, and predict harvests with unprecedented accuracy. Space technology feeding humanity—literally. The investment mathematics are compelling. For every dollar invested in space innovation, the return to humanity measures around 20x. Not in stock market terms, but in solving problems like food security, medical treatments, climate monitoring, and global connectivity. These aren't abstract future benefits—they're happening now, accelerating as launch costs plummet and commercial operations expand. The Global Space Awards recognizes this multifaceted reality through eight distinct categories: Playmaker of the Year, Super Scaler, Space Investor, Partnership of the Year, Innovation Breakthrough, Science Breakthrough, Sustainability for Earth, and Sustainability for Space. Each award acknowledges that space progress requires diverse contributions—from the scientists doing foundational research to the investors providing capital, from the engineers building systems to the partnerships bridging sectors. And then there's the James Lovell Legacy Award, presented to his family at this inaugural event. The choice is deliberate and symbolic. Lovell commanded Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, then led Apollo 13's dramatic survival when an oxygen tank exploded en route to the lunar surface. His calm under pressure, innovative problem-solving with limited resources, and unwavering commitment to bringing his crew home safely epitomize what space exploration demands: courage combined with pragmatism, vision tempered by reality. The Lovell family's response to the tribute captures this spirit perfectly: "His words continue to guide not only our family, but all those who dare to dream beyond the horizon." That phrase—"dream beyond the horizon"—resonates deeply in our current moment. We're transitioning from the heroic Apollo era to something more complex and perhaps more consequential. Space is becoming infrastructure, not just exploration. The question isn't whether humans will have a permanent presence beyond Earth, but how quickly and sustainably we'll build it. The Natural History Museum setting adds another layer of meaning. Here's a building celebrating Earth's evolutionary history hosting an event about humanity's next evolutionary step—becoming a spacefaring species. The juxtaposition of dinosaur fossils and rocket technology, of ancient geology and future lunar economies, captures where we stand: creatures evolved on one small planet now reaching beyond it. Physicist Brian Greene hosting the event is equally symbolic. Not an astronaut or rocket scientist, but someone who makes complex physics comprehensible to non-specialists. Space's future depends on broad understanding, not just specialized expertise. When space technology becomes as mundane as aviation—when we stop thinking about the satellites enabling our GPS or the space-tested materials in our smartphones—that's when the real transformation completes. Sanj mentioned something that stuck with me: people ask why we spend billions on space when Earth has so many problems. The answer is that space spending helps solve Earth's problems. Better farming through satellite data. Life-saving pharmaceuticals manufactured in microgravity. Climate monitoring. Disaster response. Global internet access for remote regions. The false choice between Earth and space collapses when you understand space as a domain enabling solutions, not a destination draining resources. Looking forward, the opportunities expand exponentially. We haven't even begun exploiting lunar resources or manufacturing in zero gravity at scale. The next 5-15 years will bring benefits we can barely imagine today—but we must start now. Space infrastructure takes time. The ISS took over a decade to build. Commercial space stations, lunar bases, and orbital manufacturing facilities will require similar long-term commitments. That's why events like the Global Space Awards matter. They connect the dots between research and commerce, between investment and impact, between legacy and future. They remind us that space isn't just about rockets and astronauts—it's about chemists and farmers, investors and engineers, visionaries and pragmatists all working toward the same horizon. The finalists will be announced from the stratosphere—literally, on a screen carried by balloon—because why not? If you're celebrating space, do it with flair. As our conversation ended, I found myself hoping to attend. Not because I'm a space professional (I'm not), but because I'm fascinated by how technology reshapes society. And space technology is reshaping everything, whether we notice it or not. In our Hybrid Analog Digital Society, space represents the ultimate extension of human capability—using technology not to replace our humanity but to expand what humanity can accomplish. Captain Lovell's quote rings true: some make things happen, some watch, some wonder. The Global Space Awards celebrates those making things happen. The rest of us should at least watch—because what happens in space increasingly happens to all of us. Subscribe to continue these conversations about technology, society, and humanity's next chapter. Because the future is being built right now, and it's more exciting than most people realize. ____________About the event GLOBAL SPACE AWARDS DEDICATES EVENING TO HONOR THE LEGACY AND EXTRAORDINARY CONTRIBUTIONS OF CAPTAIN JAMES LOVELL Inaugural James Lovell Legacy Award Introduced and Presented to the Lovell Family  Red-Carpet Awards Event Taking Place on December 5 at The Natural History Museum, London London

    27 min

  5. 10/30/2025

    New Book | STREAMING WARS: How Getting Everything We Want Changed Entertainment Forever | Journalist Charlotte Henry Explains How Streaming Changed Entertainment Forever | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli

    ____________Podcast  Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com    ____________Host  Marco Ciappelli Co-Founder & CMO @ITSPmagazine | Master Degree in Political Science - Sociology of Communication l Branding & Marketing Advisor | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | #Technology #Cybersecurity #Society 🌎 LAX 🛸 FLR 🌍 WebSite: https://marcociappelli.com On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ciappelli/ ____________This Episode’s Sponsors BlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity protection to corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals to protect against hacking, reputational loss, financial loss, and the impacts of a corporate data breach. BlackCloak:  https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb ____________Title New Book | STREAMING WARS: How Getting Everything We Want Changed Entertainment Forever | Journalist Charlotte Henry Explains How Streaming Changed Entertainment Forever | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli ____________Guests: Charlotte Henry Author, journalist, broadcaster who created and runs The Addition newsletter looking at the crossover between media and tech. The Media Society https://theaddition.substack.com/ On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotteahenry/ ____________Short Introduction  Journalist Charlotte Henry reveals how streaming transformed entertainment in her new book "Streaming Wars: How Getting Everything We Want Changed Entertainment Forever." From Netflix's rise to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, she examines how we consume media, express ourselves, and the surprising return to "old-fashioned" weekly releases in our Hybrid Analog Digital Society. ____________Article  We used to learn who someone was by looking at their record collection. Walk into their home, scan the vinyl on the shelves, and you'd know—this person loves Metallica, that person's into jazz, someone else collected every Beatles album ever pressed. Media was how we expressed ourselves, how we told our story without saying a word. That's gone now. And we might not have noticed it disappearing. Charlotte Henry, a London-based journalist and author of "Streaming Wars: How Getting Everything We Want Changed Entertainment Forever," sat down with me to discuss something most of us experience daily but rarely examine deeply: how streaming has fundamentally altered not just entertainment, but how we relate to media and each other. "You can't pop over to someone's house after a first date and see their Spotify playlist," Charlotte pointed out. She's right—you can't browse someone's Netflix queue the way you could their DVD collection, can't judge their Kindle library the way you could scan their bookshelf. We've lost that intimate form of self-expression, that casual cultural reveal that came from physical media. But Charlotte's book isn't a nostalgic lament. It's something far more valuable: a snapshot of this exact moment in media history, a line in the sand marking where we are before everything changes again. And in technology and media, change is the only constant. Her starting point is deliberate—the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Not the beginning of streaming's story, but perhaps its most symbolic moment. Writers, actors, costume designers, transportation crews, everyone who keeps Hollywood running stood up and said: this isn't working. The frustrations that exploded that summer had been building for years, all stemming from how streaming fundamentally disrupted the entertainment economy. My wife works in Hollywood's costume department. She lived through those strikes, felt the direct impact of an industry transformed. The changes Charlotte documents aren't abstract—they're affecting real careers, real livelihoods, real creative work. What struck me most about our conversation was how Charlotte brings together all of streaming—not just Netflix and Disney+, but Twitch, Spotify, Apple Music, the specialized services for heavy metal or horror movies, the entire ecosystem of on-demand media. No one had told this complete story before, and it needed telling precisely because it's changing so rapidly. Consider this: streaming is both revolutionary and circular. We cut the cord, abandoned cable packages, embraced freedom of choice. But now? The streaming services are rebundling themselves into packages that look suspiciously like the cable bundles we rejected. We've come full circle, just with different branding. The same thing is happening with release schedules. Remember when Netflix revolutionized everything by dropping entire seasons at once? Binge-watching became our cultural norm. But now services are reverting to weekly releases—Stranger Things spread across quarters to ensure multiple subscription payments, Apple TV+ releasing shows one episode per week like it's 1995. We're going back to the future. Charlotte's analysis of the consumer psychology is fascinating. We've been trained to expect everything, everywhere, immediately. Not just TV shows—beer subscription services, meal kits, next-day Amazon delivery. We subscribe rather than own. We stream rather than collect. And that shift has changed not just how we consume media, but how we think about possession, patience, and value. The economic impact goes deeper than most realize. Writers who once created 24-episode seasons now produce 8-episode limited series but remain contractually bound to exclusivity, earning less while being unable to take other work. Meanwhile, streamers pump money into content, taking risks on shows that traditional networks never would have greenlit, creating opportunities for voices that wouldn't have been heard before. It's complicated. Like all technological transformation, streaming brings both disruption and opportunity, loss and gain. The data-driven nature of streaming is particularly interesting. Charlotte notes that often the most-watched content isn't the prestigious shows we discuss—it's the mediocre background programming people half-watch while scrolling their phones. Netflix figured this out and adjusted strategy accordingly. They still want the big shows, the water-cooler moments, but they've also embraced the second-screen reality of modern viewing. And then there's AI—the elephant in every media conversation now. Charlotte dedicates a chapter to it because she had to. We're on the verge of being able to create Netflix-quality content with minimal human involvement. The 2023 strikes were partly about this, negotiating protections around AI use of actors' likenesses and voices. But here's where Charlotte and I found common ground: we both believe AI might actually increase the value of human-made work. When everything can be generated, the authentically human becomes precious. The imperfect becomes valuable. The emotional becomes irreplaceable. I'm seeing signs of this already. Bookstores packed with kids excited about physical books. Vinyl sales continuing to rise. People craving the tangible, the real, the human. Maybe we'll look back at this moment and recognize it as the turning point—not where AI replaced human creativity, but where we collectively decided what we value most. Charlotte's book captures this inflection point perfectly. In our Hybrid Analog Digital Society, we're navigating between worlds—the physical and virtual, the owned and subscribed, the patient and immediate, the human and artificial. Understanding where we are now helps us choose where we go next. As we wrapped our conversation, Charlotte and I bonded over our shared love of analog media—the CDs behind her, the vinyl behind those, my own collections scattered between Los Angeles and Florence. Two media nerds on opposite sides of an ocean, connected by technology that would have seemed like science fiction to our younger selves, discussing how that very technology is changing everything. The streaming wars aren't over. They're just beginning. Charlotte Henry's book gives us the map to understand the battlefield. Subscribe to continue these conversations about media, technology, and society. Because in a world of infinite content, thoughtful analysis of what it all means becomes the rarest commodity of all. ____________About the book Streaming Wars: How Getting Everything We Wanted Changed Entertainment Forever Streaming didn't just change what we watch. It changed who holds the power in entertainment. Streaming Wars reveals how platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Spotify and Amazon Prime have transformed more than just entertainment. They've rewritten the rules of streaming services, media economics, power and visibility. Journalist Charlotte Henry explores what's really going on behind your screen, from Hollywood's 2023 strikes to the rise of ad-supported tiers, the global race for live sports and the slow fade of traditional TV.  With a sharp, accessible lens, Henry breaks down how AI, rebundling and fierce platform competition are driving a new era of streaming and why this shift matters now. Perfect for anyone who wants to understand how streaming is reshaping culture, business and what we watch. Find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Streaming-Wars-Getting-Everything-Entertainment/dp/1398622559 ____________Enjoy. Reflect. Share with your fellow humans. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to Musing On Society & Technology on LinkedIn — new transmissions are always incoming. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/musing-on-society-technology-7079849705156870144 You’re listening to this through the Redefining Society & Technology Podcast, so while you’re here, make sure to follow the show — and join me as I continue exploring life in this Hybrid Analog Digital Society.   ____________End of transmission Listen to more Redefining Society & Technology stories and subscribe to the podcast: 👉 https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com Watch the webcast vers

    34 min

  6. 10/21/2025

    New Book: SPIES, LIES, AND CYBER CRIME | Former FBI Spy Hunter Eric O'Neill Explains How Cybercriminals Use Espionage techniques to Attack Us | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli

    ____________Podcast  Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com    ____________Host  Marco Ciappelli Co-Founder & CMO @ITSPmagazine | Master Degree in Political Science - Sociology of Communication l Branding & Marketing Advisor | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | #Technology #Cybersecurity #Society 🌎 LAX 🛸 FLR 🌍 WebSite: https://marcociappelli.com On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ciappelli/ ____________This Episode’s Sponsors BlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity protection to corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals to protect against hacking, reputational loss, financial loss, and the impacts of a corporate data breach. BlackCloak:  https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb ____________Title New Book: SPIES, LIES, AND CYBER CRIME | Former FBI Spy Hunter Eric O'Neill Explains How Cybercriminals Use Espionage techniques to Attack Us | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli ____________Guests: Eric O'Neill Keynote Speaker, Cybersecurity Expert, Spy Hunter, Bestselling Author. Attorney On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-m-oneill/ Find the book on Eric Website: https://ericoneill.net Sean Martin, CISSP GTM Advisor | Journalist, Analyst, Technologist | Cybersecurity, Risk, Operations | Brand & Content Marketing | Musician, Photographer, Professor, Moderator | Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine & Studio C60Sean Martin, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60  Website: https://www.seanmartin.com   ____________Short Introduction  Former FBI counterintelligence specialist Eric O'Neill, who caught the most damaging spy in US history, reveals how cyber criminals use traditional espionage techniques to attack us. In his new book "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime," he exposes the $14 trillion cybercrime industry and teaches us to recognize attacks in our Hybrid Analog Digital Society.   ____________Article  Trust has become the rarest commodity on Earth. We can't trust what we see, what we hear, or what we read anymore. And the people exploiting that crisis? They learned their craft from spies. Eric O'Neill knows this better than most. He's the former FBI counterintelligence specialist who went undercover—as himself—to catch Robert Hanssen, Russia's top spy embedded in the FBI for 22 years. That story became his first book "Gray Day" and the movie "Breach." But five years later, Eric's back with a very different kind of warning. His new book "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime" isn't another spy memoir. It's a field manual for surviving in a world where criminal syndicates have weaponized traditional espionage techniques against every single one of us. And business is booming—to the tune of $14 trillion annually, making cybercrime the third largest economy on Earth, bigger than Japan and Germany combined. "They're not attacking our computers," Eric told me during our conversation. "They're attacking you and me personally. They're fooling us into just handing everything over." The pandemic accelerated everything. We were thrown into a completely virtual environment before security was ready, and that moment marks the biggest single rise of cybercrime in history. While most of us were stuck at home adjusting to Zoom calls, cyber criminals were innovating faster than anyone else, studying how we communicate, work, and associate in digital spaces. Here's what makes Eric's perspective invaluable: he understands both sides of this war. He spent his FBI career using traditional counterintelligence techniques—deception, impersonation, infiltration, confidence schemes, exploitation, and destruction—to catch spies. Now he watches cyber criminals deploy those exact same tactics against us through our screens. The top cybercrime gangs have actually hired active intelligence officers from countries like Russia, China, and Iran. These spies moonlight as cyber criminals, bringing state-level tradecraft to street-level scams. It's sophisticated, organized, and shockingly effective. Consider the romance scam Eric describes in the book: a widowed grandfather receives a simple text saying "Hey." Being polite, he responds "Sorry, wrong number." That single response marks him as a target. Over weeks, a "friendship" develops. His new best friend chats with him daily, learns his hopes and dreams, then introduces him to an "investment opportunity." Within months, the grandfather has invested his entire pension—hundreds of thousands of dollars—into what looks like a legitimate cryptocurrency platform with secure logins and rising account values. When he tries to withdraw money for a family vacation, his friend vanishes. The company doesn't exist. The website was a dummy. Everything is gone. That's not a quick phishing scam—that's a confidence scheme straight from the spy playbook, adapted for our Hybrid Analog Digital Society where we live in little boxes on screens, increasingly disconnected from physical reality. The sophistication extends to ransomware operations. These aren't kids in hoodies—they're organized businesses with affiliate programs, marketing departments, tech support teams, and customer service. They're polite as they negotiate your ransom. They help you decrypt your data after you pay. Some even donate to charities. And yes, many victims get hit again a month later by the same group. What struck me most about our conversation was Eric's emphasis on preparation over panic. He's developed a methodology called PAID: Prepare (ahead of the attack), Assess (constantly look for threats), Investigate (when you identify something suspicious), and Decide (take action). "You don't want to be in a dark alley before you think about physical security," he explained. "Same with cyber. Don't wait until you're in the middle of a ransomware attack to build your defenses. That's ten times more expensive." The scale of this threat hasn't fully registered with most people. Cybercrime is projected to hit $18 trillion next year, yet individuals and companies alike operate as if attacks are rare events that happen to other people. The reality? It's not if you'll be attacked, it's when. Eric wrote "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime" as if you're taking a training course at the FBI Academy for Cyber Criminals. The first part teaches you to think like a bad guy—to recognize deception, impersonation, and confidence schemes. The second part gives you the tools to defend yourself, whether you're protecting your family's data or running enterprise security. One detail Eric insists on: every parent must read chapters 10 and 11 with their teenagers. The book addresses cyberbullying, exploitation, and social media dangers that have led to teen suicide. Some conversations are that critical. As we closed our conversation, Eric demonstrated how vulnerable we've become. "How do you even know you're talking to me?" he asked. "I could be sitting here in my pajamas, typing what I want my avatar to say." He's right—deepfakes are that sophisticated now. His advice? Ask everyone in a video meeting to pick up a pen or wave their hands. Avatars can't do that yet. The word "yet" hangs heavy in that sentence. We're moving into a world where trust is the most valuable thing on Earth, and cyber criminals are actively destroying it for profit. Eric O'Neill spent his career catching spies who betrayed their country. Now he's teaching us to catch criminals who are betraying all of us, one click at a time. Subscribe to continue these essential conversations about security, technology, and society. In our increasingly digital world, understanding how cyber criminals think isn't optional anymore—it's survival.   ____________About the book Spies, Lies and Cybercrime Spies, Lies and Cybercrime will appeal to every person curious or frightened by the prospect of a cyberattack, from students and retirees to the C-Suite and boardroom. Readers will take up arms in the current cyber war instead of fleeing while the village burns. They will become email archeologists and threat hunters, questioning every movement online and spotting the attackers hiding in every shadow. They will learn how to embed cybersecurity intrinsically into the culture and technology of their businesses and lives. Only then can we begin to move the needle toward a world safe from cyber-attacks.  Find it on: https://ericoneill.net ____________Enjoy. Reflect. Share with your fellow humans. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to Musing On Society & Technology on LinkedIn — new transmissions are always incoming. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/musing-on-society-technology-7079849705156870144 You’re listening to this through the Redefining Society & Technology Podcast, so while you’re here, make sure to follow the show — and join me as I continue exploring life in this Hybrid Analog Digital Society.   ____________End of transmission Listen to more Redefining Society & Technology stories and subscribe to the podcast: 👉 https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com Watch the webcast version on-demand on YouTube: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTUoWMGGQHlGVZA575VtGr9 Are you interested Promotional Brand Stories for your Company? 👉 https://www.studioc60.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    48 min
  7. Everyone Is Protecting My Password, But Who Is Protecting My Toilet Paper? - Interview with Amberley Brady | AISA CyberCon Melbourne 2025 Coverage | On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli

    10/13/2025

    Everyone Is Protecting My Password, But Who Is Protecting My Toilet Paper? - Interview with Amberley Brady | AISA CyberCon Melbourne 2025 Coverage | On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli

    Everyone Is Protecting My Password, But Who Is Protecting My Toilet Paper? - Interview with Amberley Brady | AISA CyberCon Melbourne 2025 Coverage | On Location with Sean Martin and Marco CiappelliAISA CyberCon Melbourne | October 15-17, 2025 Empty shelves trigger something primal in us now. We've lived through the panic, the uncertainty, the realization that our food supply isn't as secure as we thought. Amberley Brady hasn't forgotten that feeling, and she's turned it into action. Speaking with her from Florence to Sydney ahead of AISA CyberCon in Melbourne, I discovered someone who came to cybersecurity through an unexpected path—studying law, working in policy, but driven by a singular passion for food security. When COVID-19 hit Australia in 2019 and grocery store shelves emptied, Amberley couldn't shake the question: what happens if this keeps happening? Her answer was to build realfoodprice.com.au, a platform tracking food pricing transparency across Australia's supply chain. It's based on the Hungarian model, which within three months saved consumers 50 million euros simply by making prices visible from farmer to wholesaler to consumer. The markup disappeared almost overnight when transparency arrived. "Once you demonstrate transparency along the supply chain, you see where the markup is," Amberley explained. She gave me an example that hit home: watermelon farmers were getting paid 40 cents per kilo while their production costs ran between $1.00 to $1.50. Meanwhile, consumers paid $2.50 to $2.99 year-round. Someone in the middle was profiting while farmers lost money on every harvest. But this isn't just about fair pricing—it's about critical infrastructure that nobody's protecting. Australia produces food for 70 million people, far more than its own population needs. That food moves through systems, across borders, through supply chains that depend entirely on technology most farmers never think about in cybersecurity terms. The new autonomous tractors collecting soil data? That information goes somewhere. The sensors monitoring crop conditions? Those connect to systems someone else controls. China recognized this vulnerability years ago—with 20% of the world's population but only 7% of arable land, they understood that food security is national security. At CyberCon, Amberley is presenting two sessions that challenge the cybersecurity community to expand their thinking. "Don't Outsource Your Thinking" tackles what she calls "complacency creep"—our growing trust in AI that makes us stop questioning, stop analyzing with our gut instinct. She argues for an Essential Nine in Australia's cybersecurity framework, adding the human firewall to the technical Essential Eight. Her second talk, cheekily titled "Everyone is Protecting My Password, But No One's Protecting My Toilet Paper," addresses food security directly. It's provocative, but that's the point. We saw what happened in Japan recently with the rice crisis—the same panic buying, the same distrust, the same empty shelves that COVID taught us to fear. "We will run to the store," Amberley said. "That's going to be human behavior because we've lived through that time." And here's the cybersecurity angle: those panics can be manufactured. A fake image of empty shelves, an AI-generated video, strategic disinformation—all it takes is triggering that collective memory. Amberley describes herself as an early disruptor in the agritech cybersecurity space, and she's right. Most cybersecurity professionals think about hospitals, utilities, financial systems. They don't think about the autonomous vehicles in fields, the sensor networks in soil, the supply chain software moving food across continents. But she's starting the conversation, and CyberCon's audience—increasingly diverse, including people from HR, risk management, and policy—is ready for it. Because at the end of the day, everyone has to eat. And if we don't start thinking about the cyber vulnerabilities in how we grow, move, and price food, we're leaving our most basic need unprotected. AISA CyberCon Melbourne runs October 15-17, 2025 Virtual coverage provided by ITSPmagazine GUEST: Amberley Brady, Food Security & Cybersecurity Advocate, Founder of realfoodprice.com.au | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberley-b-a62022353/ HOSTS: Sean Martin, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com Catch all of our event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-and-cybersecurity-conference-coverage Want to share an Event Briefing as part of our event coverage? Learn More 👉 https://itspm.ag/evtcovbrf Want Sean and Marco to be part of your event or conference? Let Us Know 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/contact-us Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    28 min
  8. Beyond Blame: Navigating the Digital World with Our Kids - Interview with Jacqueline (JJ) Jayne | AISA CyberCon Melbourne 2025 Coverage | On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli

    10/11/2025

    Beyond Blame: Navigating the Digital World with Our Kids - Interview with Jacqueline (JJ) Jayne | AISA CyberCon Melbourne 2025 Coverage | On Location with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli

    Beyond Blame: Navigating the Digital World with Our KidsAISA CyberCon Melbourne | October 15-17, 2025 There's something fundamentally broken in how we approach online safety for young people. We're quick to point fingers—at tech companies, at schools, at kids themselves—but Jacqueline Jayne (JJ) wants to change that conversation entirely. Speaking with her from Florence while she prepared for her session at AISA CyberCon Melbourne this week, it became clear that JJ understands what many in the cybersecurity world miss: this isn't a technical problem that needs a technical solution. It's a human problem that requires us to look in the mirror. "The online world reflects what we've built for them," JJ told me, referring to our generation. "Now we need to step up and help fix it." Her session, "Beyond Blame: Keeping Our Kids Safe Online," tackles something most cybersecurity professionals avoid—the uncomfortable truth that being an IT expert doesn't automatically make you equipped to protect the young people in your life. Last year's presentation at Cyber Con drew a full house, with nearly every hand raised when she asked who came because of a kid in their world. That's the fascinating contradiction JJ exposes: rooms full of cybersecurity professionals who secure networks and defend against sophisticated attacks, yet find themselves lost when their own children navigate TikTok, Roblox, or encrypted messaging apps. The timing couldn't be more relevant. With Australia implementing a social media ban for anyone under 16 starting December 10, 2025, and similar restrictions appearing globally, parents and carers face unprecedented challenges. But as JJ points out, banning isn't understanding, and restriction isn't education. One revelation from our conversation particularly struck me—the hidden language of emojis. What seems innocent to adults carries entirely different meanings across demographics, from teenage subcultures to, disturbingly, predatory networks online. An explosion emoji doesn't just mean "boom" anymore. Context matters, and most adults are speaking a different digital dialect than their kids. JJ, who successfully guided her now 19-year-old son through the gaming and social media years, isn't offering simple solutions because there aren't any. What she provides instead are conversation starters, resources tailored to different age groups, and even AI prompts that parents can customize for their specific situations. The session reflects a broader shift happening at events like Cyber Con. It's no longer just IT professionals in the room. HR representatives, risk managers, educators, and parents are showing up because they've realized that digital safety doesn't respect departmental boundaries or professional expertise. "We were analog brains in a digital world," JJ said, capturing our generational position perfectly. But today's kids? They're born into this interconnectedness, and COVID accelerated everything to a point where taking it away isn't an option. The real question isn't who to blame. It's what role each of us plays in creating a safer digital environment. And that's a conversation worth having—whether you're at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Melbourne this week or joining virtually from anywhere else. AISA CyberCon Melbourne runs October 15-17, 2025 Virtual coverage provided by ITSPmagazine ___________ GUEST: Jacqueline (JJ) Jayne, Reducing human error in cyber and teaching 1 million people online safety.  On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinejayne/ HOSTS: Sean Martin, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com Catch all of our event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-and-cybersecurity-conference-coverage Want to share an Event Briefing as part of our event coverage? Learn More 👉 https://itspm.ag/evtcovbrf Want Sean and Marco to be part of your event or conference? Let Us Know 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/contact-us Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    25 min
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Musing On Society, Technology, and Cybersecurity | Hosted by Marco Ciappelli Let’s face it: the future is now. We live in a hybrid analog-digital society, and it’s time to stop ignoring the profound impact technology has on our lives. The line between the physical and virtual worlds? It’s no longer real — just a figment of our imagination. We’re constantly juggling convenience, privacy, freedom, security, and even the future of humanity in a precarious balancing act. There’s no better place than here, and no better time than now, to reflect on our relationship with technology — and redefine what society means in this new age.

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