At first the social media ‘Like’ button was just an easy way to get users to interact. Now people click a Like button some seven billion times a day, creating a colossal dataset that companies can use to sell to us, mislead us and predict what we want. And liking itself gets user addicted to a dopamine loop of gratification.

Where did the Like button come from and what is it doing to us? Silicon Valley veteran Bob Goodson, co-author of Like: The Button That Changed The World, tells Andrew Harrison about the cloudy history and the destiny of the ubiquitous thumbs-up.

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Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Charlie Duffiled & Tom Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Maïa Pal, "Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires, and Capital" (Cambridge UP, 2020)