The podcast, now available on all major audio platforms, is part of the Digital Rights Observatory.
The first episode, “Ready Player One: Are we ready for a world like this?”, reflects on the boundaries between the virtual and the real.
March 19, 2025
The defense of digital rights is more relevant than ever in a hyperconnected world. To bring this conversation to the general public, “The Algorithm That Knew Too Much”, a new monthly podcast that explores the challenges and opportunities that the digital environment poses to citizens through cinema and culture, has been created.
This project is an initiative of the Digital Rights Observatory, promoted by the Hermes Foundation in collaboration with Red.es, an entity affiliated to the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration. It also has the backing of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and NextGenerationEU European funds.
Luisa Alli, general director of the Hermes Foundation, emphasizes that “knowledge is our best defense in the digital age. With this podcast, we want to use cinema and culture as a bridge to understand how technology affects us and what we can do to defend our digital rights.”
Jesús Herrero, general director of Red.es, explains that “we are working to ensure that citizens are aware of and assert their digital rights. We want tools such as this podcast to make the Digital Rights program and its Observatory a model in the public debate on the protection of our digital rights.”
A podcast to understand the present and the digital future
In each episode, experts in technology, ethics, and law will analyze the impact that digitization has on our lives, using iconic examples from cinema and popular culture as references. From artificial intelligence to privacy on social media, “The algorithm that knew too much” seeks to make a key debate accessible to the public: the defense of our rights in the digital age.
The first episode, titled “Ready Player One: Are we ready for a world like this?”, is now available and reflects on the boundaries between the virtual and the real, using Steven Spielberg’s film as a reference point. This episode features Jesús Herrero, general director of Red.es, Elena Herrero-Beaumont, co-founder of Ethosfera, and Jaime García Cantero, director of Retina at El País.
In the following episodes, Enrique Goñi, founder and president of the Hermes Foundation, and lawyer Paloma Llaneza will discuss the importance of defending our rights in the face of artificial intelligence, with the film Her as a backdrop. Other topics covered by the podcast include disinformation, privacy, accessibility, and equality in the digital environment.
“The algorithm that knew too much” is available on major audio platforms, such as Onda Cero Podcast (available on the Onda Cero website and app), Spotify, iVoox, and Apple Podcasts starting March 19. The show is directed and presented by Txema Valenzuela and produced by the team at La Propagadora.
This podcast invites citizens to join an essential conversation about the digital future and the protection of our rights in the age of algorithms.
About the Digital Rights Observatory
The Digital Rights Observatory is part of the Digital Rights program, an initiative created to promote the monitoring, discussion, and dissemination of digital rights among citizens and various public and private organizations
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About the Hermes Foundation
The Hermes Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting and defending digital rights. Since its creation in 2016, through studies, research and discussion forums, it has promoted technological democratisation and the protection of fundamental rights in the digital environment, fostering a model of digital sustainability that guarantees a balance between progress, equity and citizens’ rights.
Communications Department
prensa@derechosdigitales.gob.es
Web
“This action has been carried out under the agreement signed between Red.es of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration and the Hermes Foundation to promote the implementation of the Charter of Digital Rights in the creation of the Digital Rights Observation Space. The actions are financed by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan through NextGenerationEU funds.”.