Elon Law’s David S. Levine welcomed Antonio Mugica, who leads a company at the center of President Donald Trump’s “stolen election” allegations, as the first guest of 2021 in his reconstituted “Hearsay Culture” podcast and program at KZSU-FM at Stanford University.
An Elon Law scholar in the fields of intellectual property and trade secrecy spoke with the CEO of Smartmatic, one of the world’s leading providers of secure election technology and support services, for the first episode of a relaunched radio program and podcast.
Professor David S. Levine welcomed Antonio Mugica to “Hearsay Culture” on January 8, 2021, in a broadcast from KZSU-FM at Stanford University in Silicon Valley. The interview is also available for download as a podcast.
Smartmatic has been one of the companies at the center of President Donald Trump’s debunked allegations of election fraud, and in the program, Mugica shares how the company has retained a leading defamation attorney to defend its reputation in possible lawsuits against news outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax.
Levine asks Mugica about his views on public confidence and transparency in voting, the misinformation campaigns that have dominated the past several months, and his current lawsuit against the government of Venezuela. Along the way, Mugica recommends books for further understanding and offers advice to younger people who may be experiencing an election for the first time.
“I’m excited to have had Antonio on the show because he is a voting technology innovator and his company has been dragged into a conflict that threatens the peaceful transfer of power,” Levine said. “However, the facts indicate that his company has little to no involvement in the 2020 elections and Hearsay Culture is about reporting the facts.”
The affiliate scholar at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society Affiliate Scholar said he enjoys producing “Hearsay Culture” because there are always benefits to his students.
“Every interview that I do, everything that I read in preparation for my interviews, is information that I use as part of my teaching, either because it informs my knowledge of the law and policy, and because it helps me think through how best to teach and deliver information to my students,” he said. “I founded the show because I thought it would improve my teaching, which it has, and I thought it was part of my broader responsibility as one privileged to teach law to educate beyond my classroom.”
Since 2006, Levine has hosted the show on Stanford University’s KZSU-FM with more than 260 interviews featuring recognized experts on immediate challenges that span from technology, to law, to the arts.
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