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The host dives into the political implications of philanthropy, using Bill Gates as a case study, and explores whether it is advantageous for the world to entrust Gates with philanthropic endeavors, particularly using taxpayer money. Investigative journalist Tim Schwab joins the discussion to challenge the perception of Gates as a 'good billionaire' and emphasize the importance of scrutinizing and questioning his actions, as well as examining how Gates has influenced other tech billionaires to use philanthropy as a tool for image repair.

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss why the story we hear about Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation doesn’t reflect their real impact on education and health around the world.

Tim Schwab is an investigative journalist and the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Bill Gates was pied in Belgium in 1999 and made fun of on The Simpsons.
You can watch highlights from Gates’ deposition in the antitrust trial on YouTube.
Gates had a reputation about questionable and inappropriate conduct toward women below him in the workplace.
Aaron Gordon wrote there’s an adage that “everyone thinks Musk is a genius until you hear him talk about a subject you know something about.”
In 2008, the head of the World Heath Organization’s malaria program criticized the growing dominance of the Gates Foundation in the research area.

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