Institute for Local Self-Reliance
500 episodes listed below
Technology policy with local consequences.
Unbuffered treats technology policy as a lived civic question, not a gadget beat. Its conversations connect municipal broadband, surveillance, AI, media power, and community organizing to the everyday problem of who controls the systems people depend on.
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Unbuffered is a civic technology interview show from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, built around the question of who gets agency in a networked society. It grows out of the long-running Community Broadband Bits feed and keeps that core interest in internet access, municipal networks, co-ops, and telecommunications policy. The new frame is broader. Episodes connect broadband to surveillance, AI, media power, public trust, local organizing, and the fear that technical progress can still leave people with less control over their lives. Christopher Mitchell usually begins by naming the terrain, then brings guests into detailed conversations that resist easy slogans. The show is comfortable with telecom acronyms, fiber costs, open-access models, and federal policy history. It is equally interested in what those details mean for homes, a city, a local provider, or a community under pressure. In the UTOPIA Fiber conversation, Roger Timmerman explains how an open-access network works through debt, political attacks, and market opposition while still supporting local providers. In the Blair Levin episode, the history of the Telecom Act of 96 and the National Broadband Plan becomes a way to think about AI harms, climate possibility, and the collapse of trust in tech leadership. Other episodes turn toward government power, surveillance, Signal, media empires, and organizing in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Richfield, and nearby suburbs. The show does not treat digital equity as a charity issue. It treats it as infrastructure, policy, and power. Its pacing is deliberate, sometimes recursive, and often strongest when a guest's claim is restated, tested, and made concrete. There is humor, but the center of gravity is analytical. The interviews assume that listeners can handle complexity if the steps are laid out clearly. That makes Unbuffered useful for people who care about broadband policy, public-interest technology, local democracy, and the unfinished fight over whether the internet remains open to ordinary people. It is not a trend show. It is a patient record of how networks, laws, platforms, and communities keep remaking one another.
Made for: For listeners who care about broadband, public-interest technology, local democracy, surveillance, AI, and the practical politics of internet access. It suits people who prefer patient explanation over quick takes.
What sets it apart: Unbuffered ties technical telecom detail to civic power without flattening either side. It can move from fiber deployment economics to neighborhood organizing and still keep the central question in view: who controls the systems people rely on.
Unbuffered explores Internet access, digital equity, and local technology solutions, but with a broader lens on how tech shapes our lives, our communities, and our sense of agency. We make technology and technology makes us.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Unbuffered turns broadband policy and network engineering into clear lessons about infrastructure, regulation, and the public consequences of technical decisions.
Christopher Mitchell treats telecommunications as a set of public choices that can be examined, challenged, and understood. His interviews move between network mechanics and the institutions shaping them, with guests pressed to explain how funding rules, market incentives, and…
Starlink promises meet capacity math here, so your broadband opinions must survive contact with a calculator.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tight Twin Cities episode about fear, overreach, and neighbors trying to protect each other.
Unbuffered follows the moment the federal government came to Minneapolis-St. Paul and the surrounding area, then stays with the local response that formed around that pressure. Christopher Mitchell keeps the focus on St.
A focused look at Utopia Fiber, the Ookla study, and the practical lessons municipal broadband can take from it.
Utopia Fiber comes across as a real municipal fiber network, and the piece is strongest when it focuses on how it works rather than leaning on broad praise.
A clear look at telecom policy, the FCC, and the trust gap now widening around AI.
Unbuffered uses Blair Levin's FCC history to open a useful window onto telecommunications, the internet, and the public good. The conversation moves from the Telecom Act of 1996 to the National Broadband Plan and then to AI, with a plain warning that policy mistakes can repeat…
A dense broadband policy discussion that stays tied to real-world access and accountability.
Christopher Mitchell keeps a dense broadband policy fight readable here, with Doug Adams and Carl Bode helping sort out what federal money could mean for service that is affordable, reliable, and less trapped in the usual provider compromises.
Satellite broadband looks less simple once capacity and interference are treated as real world constraints.
This episode makes a straightforward case that satellite broadband runs into hard limits once capacity and interference are treated as real engineering constraints.
Christopher Mitchell says this Unbuffered episode departs from the show’s usual technology focus to recount how Minnesota responded to a federal occupation, with St.
Christopher Mitchell speaks with Roger Timmerman, Executive Director of Utopia Fiber, about Ookla's report on municipal networks and why Utopia ranked number one in latency.
Chris Mitchell brings Blair Levin back to the FCC years that helped shape the Telecom Act of 1996.
This episode introduces the new podcast 'Unbuffered' and explores whether the internet remains a public good amid concerns about digital serfdom and loss of agency.
This episode introduces Unbuffered, a new weekly show from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance that focuses on achieving an open internet free from gatekeepers and billionaire control, while connecting local, national, and global issues.
The host discusses renaming the show and interviews Doug Dawson about the cost of connecting homes with fiber optics.
The episode discusses the transition of the show to a broader focus on technology's impact on communities, with a deep dive into municipal broadband and government power.
Chris Mitchell and Sasha Meinrath discuss telecommunications, surveillance, and the role of Signal in the context of community broadband and digital equity.
Interview with Jason Mittler about the progress of Fort Pierce's community broadband network.
A roundtable discussion on broadband news including mergers, community value studies, competition, Starlink, and BEAD funds.
Christopher Mitchell starts with Starlink, NTIA, and BEAD, then brings in Doug Adams and Carl Bode to make sense of the mess.
Christopher Mitchell and Doug Dawson discuss changes to their podcast lineup and the future of community broadband coverage.
This episode features an interview with Blair Levin discussing predictions and trends in broadband and telecom policy for 2026.
The Community Broadband Bits Podcast team gathers for a year-in-review episode to evaluate predictions about community broadband developments.
An interview discussing the history and technology of voice communications, including the impact of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the shift to mobile.
An interview with Mike Masnick about Section 230 and keeping the internet awesome.
Christopher Mitchell opens the conversation from St.
The hosts discuss the Universal Service Fund lawsuit and a story about customer service sludge.
This episode discusses congressional threats to Wi-Fi and CBRS spectrum through potential FCC auctions that could undermine public access to wireless technology.
An interview about Depot KC, a digital program office supporting broadband and digital inclusion in Kansas City amid changing federal funding.
Christopher Mitchell interviews Jade Piros de Carvalho about the impact of the Digital Equity Act pullback on state broadband programs and digital inclusion.
Discussion of the Digital Equity Act and its potential cancellation, featuring guests from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
Interview with former BEAD Director Evan Feynman discussing lessons learned from the broadband grant program and its future under a new administration.
An interview with a rural broadband provider discussing the challenges and solutions for deploying internet in low-density areas.
Interview with former BEAD Director Evan Feynman discussing the current state of the BEAD program and broadband policy.
Host Christopher Mitchell and guest Sasha Meinrath discuss broadband policy, digital equity, and federal telecommunications issues in an unedited conversation.
This episode discusses the Tribal Broadband Boot Camps and the nonprofit Waska WeWin, focusing on proactive solutions for tribal internet access.
This episode features an interview with Bob Frankston discussing the history and evolution of internet access, home networking, and communications, tracing back to the mid-90s and earlier concepts like AlohaNet.
This episode features an interview with Michael Keogh, CIO of Region 16 Education Service Center, discussing the critical need for improved internet infrastructure in Texas schools to prevent future educational disparities.
An interview discussing BEAD broadband funding, common misconceptions, and state-level progress in broadband deployment.
Christopher Mitchell interviews Gigi Sohm about the FCC's independence and the threat posed by President Trump's executive order on independent agencies.
Christopher Mitchell and Sean Gonsalves discuss snow, cognitive whiplash from politics, and California's broadband program.