Special Episode: The Power to Decide: Reclaiming Sovereignty in a Digital Era
Devex Podcasts

Special Episode: The Power to Decide: Reclaiming Sovereignty in a Digital Era

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 30, 202628 min

In this special edition episode of This Week in Global Development, sponsored by Public Digital, Devex's Alan Robbins sits down with Public Digital's Lauren Kahn and Mike Bracken CBE. Recorded at Devex Impact House during UNGA, they unpack the urgent need for emerging economies to transition from passive "tech-takers" to active "tech-makers" by reclaiming digital sovereignty. The conversation explores how developing nations can avoid the developmental risks of vendor lock-in, shape local digital ecosystems, and build resilient digital public infrastructure (DPI). Kahn and Bracken highlight practical steps for governments to move from traditional aid to strategic agency, leveraging open standards...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 11 of 12 · 0:39

But you know, our guests here today focus very much on this issue.

not being talked about as much in the conversations I've been in.

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • C10:39
  • B24:28
  • B28:54
  • C111:24
  • B217:55
  • C120:15
  • C223:08
  • C125:33

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 23%A2 35%B1 21%B2 16%C1 6%
  • 78% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 159 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 153 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Alan Robbins, co-founder and executive vice president of DevEx, and welcome to this special edition of This Week in Global Development, which we're putting together here in partnership with our friends over at Public Digital. We're here at DevEx Impact House, which is on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly

0:16

meetings, and every conversation I go into has some reference to AI as either, well, more than a reference, but a major theme included in it. But a lot of the story is about, you know, there's some of the good, there's certainly some of the bad, and there's even some of the ugly in sort of the conversations that

0:33

go around this. But you know, our guests here today focus very much on this issue. And their focus is focusing on the issue of digital sovereignty and something that is not being talked about as much in the conversations I've been in.

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (28 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy