2025 Festival: October 20–26
Tickets on sale in September!

39. Cory Doctorow: Enshittification

39. Cory Doctorow: Enshittification

Auto-generated Epiphan closed captions will be available at this event.

At last, a word has been coined that encapsulates our modern era, that eloquently sums up the pressing issues of our times: Enshittification. The term—which creator Cory Doctorow describes as a diagnosis about the state of exploitative online services, and the disheartening digital world as a whole—resonated so strongly that the American Dialect Society named it the 2023 Word of the Year, and it was cited as an inspiration for the 2025 season of Black Mirror. With incisive urgency as well as humour, Doctorow will speak with author and political commentator David Moscrop about how we reached this point, and what we can collectively do to move beyond hopelessness about our enshittified fate, and back toward the optimism promised by the earliest days of the internet.

Presented in partnership with Raincoast Books.


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Event Participants:

Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

CORY DOCTOROW is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

David Moscrop

David Moscrop

DAVID MOSCROP has a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, Jacobin, and more. David offers political commentary and analysis for radio, television, and print.