The Ethical Life podcast: How big of problem is misinformation on social media?

Episode 37: Richard Kyte and Scott Rada talk about recent calls by former President Barack Obama for technology companies to better protect the public from polarizing falsehoods online and whether billionaire Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter are helpful. Next, they discuss whether it’s ethical to cancel all things Russian in the wake of that country’s brutal attack on Ukraine. And in the third segment, they look at a recent study that shows why a company’s culture is critical to keep its best employees.

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Links to stories discussed during the podcast:

Obama says tech companies have made democracy more vulnerable, by Elizabeth Dwoskin and  Eugene Scott of The Washington Post

Obama’s plans to fight disinformation are better than most, Casey Newton, Platformer

‘2020 changed everything’: How misinformation of 2020 is shaping 2022 elections, by Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press

The profound irony of canceling everything Russian, by Kevin M.F. Platt, The New York Times

La Crosse City Council issues support for Ukraine, removes Russian flags from city facilities, by Olivia Herken, La Crosse Tribune

Here’s why the best workers leave companies, while the worst ones stay, by Jason Feifer

Office frustrations more likely to cause proactive employees to leave; less proactive employees will take it, by Tom Snee, the University of Iowa

About the hosts: Scott Rada is social media manager with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis.