Science, Technology, and Society

Science, Technology, and Society

episodes

Interviews with scholars of science, technology and society about their new books.

Carl Zimmer, "Life's Edge: The Search For What it Means to be Alive" (Dutton, 2022)

May 10, 2024

Life's Edge

Carl Zimmer
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the appl…

Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Trere, "Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power" (MIT Press, 2024)

May 10, 2024

Algorithms of Resistance

Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Trere
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

What are the tactics needed for a world of platforms and algorithms? In Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power (MIT Press…

The Scientific Attitude

May 7, 2024

The Scientific Attitude

Lee McIntyre
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to this interview of Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science (Boston University) and Senior Advisor f…

Matteo Pangallo and Emily B. Todd, "Teaching the History of the Book" (U Massachusetts Press, 2023)

May 7, 2024

Teaching the History of the Book

Matteo Pangallo and Emily B. Todd
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Edited by Matteo Pangallo and Emily Todd, Teaching the History of the Book (University of Massachusetts Press 2023) is the first collection of its kin…

MC Forelle on Cars, Chipification, and Repair

May 6, 2024

MC Forelle on Cars, Chipification, and Repair

MC Forelle
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with MC Forelle, Assistant Professor of Engineering & Society at the School of Engineering and Applied Scien…

Dead Air

May 6, 2024

Dead Air

John Biguenet and Rodrigo Toscano
Hosted by Mack Hagood

On our first episode of Phantom Power, we ponder those moments when the air remains unmoved. Whether fostered by design or meteorological conditions o…

Tanisha M. Fazal, "Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 5, 2024

Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War

Tanisha M. Fazal
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

Decisions to go to war are often framed in cost-benefit terms, and typically such assessments do not factor in longer term costs. However, recent dram…

John Powers, "Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture" (Oxford UP, 2023)

May 4, 2024

Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture

John Powers
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Bolex camera, 16mm reversal film stocks, commercial film laboratories, and low-budget optical printers were the small-gauge media technologies tha…

The Contagion of Covid Policy: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on Freedom of Speech

May 3, 2024

The Contagion of Covid Policy

Jay Bhattacharya
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

After a storied career as a health policy expert, Stanford Medicine's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya's work became a political focal point during the COVID-19 p…

John L. Sullivan, "Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Podcasting in a Platform Age

John L. Sullivan
Hosted by Shu Wan

Podcasting in a Platform Age: From an Amateur to a Professional Medium (Bloomsbury, 2024) explores the transition underway in podcasting by considerin…

Natalia Grincheva and Elizabeth Stainforth, "Geopolitics of Digital Heritage" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

April 27, 2024

Geopolitics of Digital Heritage

Natalia Grincheva and Elizabeth Stainforth
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How are digital platforms transforming heritage? In Geopolitics of Digital Heritage (Cambridge UP, 2023), Dr Natalia Grincheva, Program Leader of the …

Leigh Gilmore, "The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women" (Columbia UP, 2023)

April 27, 2024

The #MeToo Effect

Leigh Gilmore
Hosted by Jane Scimeca

The #MeToo movement inspired millions to testify to the widespread experience of sexual violence. More broadly, it shifted the deeply ingrained respo…

Social media’s business model is changing democracy, and not for the better

April 24, 2024

Social media’s business model is changing democracy, and not for the better

Charlotte Galpin and Verena K. Brändle
Hosted by Licia Cianetti

Democracies in Europe and the world over are grappling with the challenges posed by social media. In this episode, Charlotte Galpin and Verena Brändle…

Anu Bradford, "Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 24, 2024

Digital Empires

Anu Bradford
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

The global battle among the three dominant digital powers―the United States, China, and the European Union―is intensifying. All three regimes are raci…

Asif Siddiqi on Rockets, Prisons, Pop Songs, and So Much More

April 22, 2024

Asif Siddiqi on Rockets, Prisons, Pop Songs, and So Much More

Asif Siddiqi
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Asif Siddiqi, Professor of History at Fordham University, about the arc of his career and his wide-rangi…

Héctor Beltrán, "Code Work: Hacking Across the US/México Techno-Borderlands" (Princeton UP, 2023)

April 21, 2024

Code Work

Héctor Beltrán
Hosted by Liliana Gil

In Code Work: Hacking Across the US/México Techno-Borderlands (Princeton UP, 2023), Héctor Beltrán examines Mexican and Latinx coders’ personal strate…

Heather Parry, "Electric Dreams: Sex Robots and Failed Promises of Capitalism" (404 Ink, 2024)

April 20, 2024

Electric Dreams

Heather Parry
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the future, we’ll all be having sex with robots… won’t we? Roboticists say they’re a distracting science fiction, yet endless books, films and art…

Coreen McGuire, "Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal: Setting the Standards for Disability in the Interwar Period" (Manchester UP, 2020)

April 20, 2024

Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal

Coreen McGuire
Hosted by Shu Wan

Measurements, and their manipulation, have been underestimated as crucial historical forces motivating and guiding the way we think about disability. …

Stephen Morillo, "War and Conflict in the Middle Ages" (Polity Press, 2022)

April 20, 2024

War and Conflict in the Middle Ages

Stephen Morillo
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In War and Conflict in the Middle Ages (Polity, 2022), Dr. Stephen Morillo offers the first global history of armed conflict between 540 and 1500 or a…

Miriam Piilonen, "Theorizing Music Evolution: Darwin, Spencer, and the Limits of the Human" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 15, 2024

Theorizing Music Evolution

Miriam Piilonen
Hosted by Nathan Smith

What did historical evolutionists such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer have to say about music? What role did music play in their evolutionary t…