"Eat your guests for dinner:" Tim Wu on platforms and The Age of Extraction

Does it feel like every business – whether it’s telecom providers, airlines, grocery chains and more – are simply trying to get more and more of your money these days without providing better products and services in return?It’s not your imagination, according to Columbia University professor and Biden administration competition advisor Tim Wu. In his new book, The Age of Extraction, Wu argues that platforms – both online and off – have morphed from being enablers of other businesses to money-extraction machines that are killing competition and draining consumers’ wallets.This “main-character syndrome” needs countering, with an economic rebalancing necessary to prevent the world from sliding into disaster.He joins Do Not Pass Go to discuss how we’ve arrived at this age of extraction, how it’s leading to the rise of authoritarianism, and what can be done to stop the ensuing societal collapse.Amid all the doom and gloom, we also discuss the 2025 World Series. Wu is Canadian, after all, and a huge fan of the Toronto Blue Jays. Get full access to Do Not Pass Go at www.donotpassgo.ca/subscribe