# Ep. 38: Why Marshall scholar Ben Fischer didn't sign the open letter on age assurance Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didn-t-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didn-t-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance.md Podcast: [The Biometric Update Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272) Published: 2026-03-27T13:55:17+00:00 Episode link: https://biometricupdatepodcast.podbean.com/e/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didnt-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance/ Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/cdtkurxa9i5nubu7/BUPC38-Ben_Fischer_-_2026-03-27_943_AMarkq6.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272/episodes/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didn-t-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance Duration seconds: 1213 ## Resource Ben Fischer is a Marshall scholar who graduated from Stanford University, and is now at the University of Edinburgh studying the technical and social implications of privacy preserving age assurance. He had a chance to sign an open letter from a group of scientists, calling for a moratorium on age assurance laws globally. He chose not to sign it. In this episode, he explains why. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272/episodes/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didn-t-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-biometric-update-podcast-7302272/ep-38-why-marshall-scholar-ben-fischer-didn-t-sign-the-open-letter-on-age-assurance.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.