Michael Regan recently served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previously he was Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he secured the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in U.S. history. And he led negotiations on the cleanup of the Cape Fear River from PFAS contamination. Now he has taken a role at POLIS: Center for Politics at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

Every technology in music history leaves artists behind. What if one left them all behind? AI-generated music is severely undermining artists' ability to make a viable living. Is it a canary in the coal mine for music and for how AI will affect the future of work more broadly? Grammy-nominated musician Tift Merritt and Professor David Hoffman of the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy discuss the research they are conducting with students to address these issues. Host: Anna Gassman-Pines.

This episode is part of a month-long series of stories related to tech policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Data centers hold computers and equipment that are the backbone of the digital age. They make possible the computational power and data storage needed to train AI models, store content, and operate the cloud-based services that many of us rely on. Some say that data centers and the innovations that come from them are key to solving huge issues facing the world right now, while others note major environmental concerns related to how they operate. However, a new report says data centers run by huge companies like Google called hyperscalers could actually be good for the environment in a key way - they could become mobilizers of clean energy and updated grids.

Read the report.

Guests: Merritt Cahoon and Ian Hitchcock from the Deep Tech at Duke Initiative. This episode is part of a month-long series of stories related to tech policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.