Confluence

We’re in a race today to control one of the world’s most critical resources – microchips – with the United States and China increasingly in conflict. This race for control does not entail just the quantity of chips produced, but also includes efforts to stay steps ahead of the latest developments in design and computing power. In this week’s episode of Confluence, host Rana Sakar is joined by Chris Miller, author of Chip W...

In today’s episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar and guest Baroness Beeban Kidron discuss her work as a leading global advocate for the rights of children online. They discuss her journey from her time as a photographer and filmmaker to her current position as a policymaker. Baroness Kidron shares lessons from the UK Age Appropriate Design Code, a critical piece of legislation that she has led; discusses the status of si...

Climate change is one of the most critical challenges of our generation. On this week’s episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar discusses with guest Vijay Vaitheeswaran recent policy developments and the role of technology and innovation in supporting the global transition to net zero. Vaitheeswaran is the Global Energy and Climate Innovation Editor at The Economist, covering the energy and utility industries, the clean en...

How do we regulate the Internet when there are so many components and so many ways it can go wrong? That’s what host Rana Sarkar discusses with guest Taylor Owen on this week’s episode. Taylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, and founding director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. In t...

Welcome back for season two of Confluence! On this week’s episode, host Rana Sarkar sits down with James Crabtree, Executive Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies - Asia office to discuss the current geopolitical and geoeconomic moment. Prior to joining the IISS, James was a Singapore-based author and journalist, and an Associate Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His...

On this week’s episode of Confluence, we tackle the critical issue of diversity in company leadership. Host Rana Sarkar speaks with two experts on the topic: Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder and Chair of theBoardlist, and Jennifer Holmstrom, Head of Platform at GGV Capital. Both women have long histories of advocating for both inclusive talent acquisition and hiring practices, as well as diverse boards. In this episode, le...

On this week’s episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar sits down with Dr. Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, to discuss how organizations and leaders must adapt to our rapidly changing geopolitical moment. Dr. Stein shares observations and lessons from years of advising with leaders and organizations allocating scarce resources to respond to rapid scale crises...

With massive global shifts happening due to forces like the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, people have started to migrate further away from cities. To understand how people, ideas, and innovation are moving around the world, host Rana Sarkar talks to geo-strategist Parag Khanna: Founder and Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario-based strategic advisory firm. 

Khanna recently authored a new monograph MOVE...

How does immigration policy impact Canadian tech’s ability to thrive globally? How do flows of both Canadian and foreign talent into and out of the country work? How can the private sector work to actually make companies, and their leadership, more diverse? And what ‘secret sauce’ makes Canada such an amazing place to work?

To help us better answer those questions, you’ll hear from two key players working to make Canada’s t...

In order to understand what’s happening in Silicon Valley today, we look back at the history of the world’s most famous innovation hub. On this week’s episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar speaks with Margaret O’Mara, Professor in the Department of History at the University of Washington and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Her book traces the region’s lineage back to its humble beginnings ...

On this week’s episode of Confluence, we speak with President of Microsoft, Brad Smith. In 2019, Smith penned Tools & Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, a book which explains how Big Tech has a core responsibility to address the issues and potential harms of the technologies they create. This year, Smith updated the book with a second edition for 2021 that includes new chapters on cybersecurity and ...

On this week’s episode of Confluence, we continue our conversation with leading Canadians who are at the forefront of global tech. Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder of Cloudflare, is back to talk about whether or not there is a special Canadian sauce that puts Canadian entrepreneurs in a unique position to foster innovation. We also spoke to Atlee Clark, Director of Operations at Ottawa-based Shopify and former Executive Directo...

On this week’s episode of Confluence, we’re coming back home and talking about Canada’s role in defining the future of tech. There seems to be a special Canadian sauce that gives us an edge. To help us figure out where Canada belongs in this conversation, we’re talking to three powerhouses in the tech landscape (who also all happen to be Canadian!). First, you’ll hear from C100s Laura Buhler and Chris Albinson, two Canadia...

The need to create and shift towards pro-human tech is more important than it’s ever been. The question is, how do we get there? Do we leave it up to the governments, policy makers and diplomats to figure out or do we let Big Tech answer this for us? Does a world exist where they can all work together while our democracy is at stake? This week, Rana sits down with Zvika Krieger, Director of Responsible Innovation at Facebo...

On this episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar turns to the private and not-for-profit sectors to get the perspective of folks who really understand the human side of technology and the implications of technology policy on real people. To do this, Sarkar speaks with Aza Raskin—Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology and the Earth Species Project—as well as Yael Eisenstat—Future of Democracy Fellow at the Berggruen ...

In this episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar takes a closer look at what techplomacy is, how it works, and why it’s important. To better understand the global stakes at play, we hear  from two experts from Stanford University: Eileen Donahoe—Executive Director of the Global Digital Policy Incubator and former US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva—and Marietje Schaake—International Policy Director of the...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Confluence! Meet Consul General Rana Sarkar, Canada’s Tech Envoy in Silicon Valley. In this first episode, Sarkar introduces the concept of techplomacy, or technology diplomacy. Over the past five years, Sarkar and his team at the Consulate of Canada in San Francisco have been using diplomacy to help shape the future of technology regulation. To help illustrate this work, Sarkar speaks t...

In the Consulate of Canada’s first podcast, Rana Sarkar, Canada’s Tech Envoy in Silicon Valley, will delve into the issues shaping technology, diplomacy, and economic recovery through the lenses of Silicon Valley, Canada, and the world. In each episode, he will discuss pressing topics with subject matter experts to gain an unrestricted, deep dive into the tech policy issues shaping our times. Working at the intersections o...