Technology

Technology

episodes

Interviews with technologists and scholars of technology about their new books.

James W. Cortada, "Beyond the Facts: Tacit Knowledge and the Hidden Infrastructure of Our Informed Times" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

August 3, 2026

Beyond the Facts

James W. Cortada
Hosted by Michael LaMagna

Beyond the Facts: Tacit Knowledge and the Hidden Infrastructure of Our Informed Times (Bloomsbury, 2025) describes tacit knowledge, what it is, how …

The Resurgence of War and the Collapse of Arms Control

July 31, 2026

The Resurgence of War and the Collapse of Arms Control

How the nuclear guardrails were dismantled. What arms control actually did (risk management, predictability, geography), how it unravelled from the 20…

The Long Reach of the Strong Arm: Evolving Forms of Transnational Authoritarianism in Asia and Beyond

July 30, 2026

The Long Reach of the Strong Arm

Mubashar Hasan and Arild Engelsen Ruud eds.

How do authoritarian regimes silence critics across borders? And what are the repressive tools and strategies that authoritarian regimes use transnati…

Re-Evaluating CX in the AI Era

July 30, 2026

Re-Evaluating CX in the AI Era

Michael Brandt, Dr. Vincent Covello, Deanna Leonard

Michael Brand is a CX strategist and trainer, based in Switzerland, who has been named a Thinkers 360 Top 50 Global Thought Leader on Customer Loyalty…

Paul Langley and Andrew Leyshon, "Fintech Capital: The Digital Transformation of Everyday Money and Finance" (Princeton UP, 2026)

July 28, 2026

Fintech Capital

Paul Langley and Andrew Leyshon
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How is finance changing in the contemporary world? In FinTech Capital: The Digital Transformation of Everyday Money and Finance (Princeton University …

Building A Freedom Infrastructure in the Age of Networked Control

July 23, 2026

Building A Freedom Infrastructure in the Age of Networked Control

Leopoldo López
Hosted by Licia Cianetti

Host Licia Cianetti talks to Venezuelan democracy activist and co-founder of the World Liberty Congress Leopoldo López. As part of PPP’s ongoing colla…

David I. Waddington, "The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2026)

July 22, 2026

The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games

David I. Waddington

Despite decades of inflammatory rhetoric, the real risk of video games lies not in their violent imagery but in the ethical and political sensibilitie…

Daniel L. Gardner, "Thresholds of Digital Gameplay" (MIT Press, 2025)

July 21, 2026

Thresholds of Digital Gameplay

Daniel L. Gardner

Contemporary digital gameplay is only accessible by navigating an ecosystem of interfaces that support its computational nature. Account logins, contr…

Stefan Höltgen et al., "Commodore 64: Past, Present, and Future of a Home Computer" (Projekt Verlag, 2026)

July 20, 2026

Commodore 64

Stefan Höltgen, Torsten Roeder, and Jens Schröter

The Commodore 64 is the most significant computer of its era. From 1982 to 1994, a total of 27 million units were sold—more than any other computer fro…

Fenwick McKelvey, "SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Computers" (MIT Press, 2026)

July 17, 2026

SimPolitics

Fenwick McKelvey
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

This book is available open access. For more than six decades, the public has been promised that computers will revolutionize politics, both nati…

Soraya Murray, "Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination" (MIT Press, 2026)

July 14, 2026

Technothriller

Soraya Murray
Hosted by Ailin Zhou

Technothriller: Film and the American Imagination (MIT Press, 2026) is the first dedicated examination of popular movies classified as “thrillers” tha…

The Emerging Anocracy: AI, Tech Oligarchs, and the Future of Democracy with Alexis Cruz

July 12, 2026

The Emerging Anocracy

Alexis Cruz
Hosted by Eli Karetny

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI Acting Director Eli Karetny sits down with Alexis Cruz, founder of Enough Consulting and former strateg…

Ali Fard, "Grounding the Cloud: Urbanism in the Shadow of Data" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

July 10, 2026

Grounding the Cloud

Ali Fard
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Since the 1990s, technologists have promoted a vision of the “cloud” as a shapeless and intangible entity. Grounding the Cloud: Urbanism in the Shadow…

Campaigning, Parties and the Digital in Contemporary Politics

July 8, 2026

Campaigning, Parties and the Digital in Contemporary Politics

Kate Dommett
Hosted by Tim Haughton

Politics, parties and campaigning are all changing. AI, digital tools and the rapid spread of messages all mean that the conduct and content of politi…

The Tin Man Model of Running a Company Is Rusty

July 2, 2026

The Tin Man Model of Running a Company Is Rusty

Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner

Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner are enterprise strategists at Amazon Web Services, based in London. Phil was previously a corporate VP and international …

Chinese EVs: From Nordic Streets to Central Asian Hubs

July 2, 2026

Chinese EVs

Matthew Gray

Can Europe afford to stand back as China rewrites the global electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem? In this episode, Julie Yu-Wen Chen at the University of …

Christian Martinez, "NYC Open Data Student Gallery" (Brooklyn College CUNY, 2026)

July 2, 2026

NYC Open Data Student Gallery

Christian Martinez
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

About NYC Open Data During the Fall 2025 semester, students in the M.S. program in Psychological Research at Brooklyn College completed the inaugural…

Thomas S. Mullaney, "How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

June 28, 2026

How We Disappear

Thomas S. Mullaney
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

This is the third time I have the great fortune of interviewing Tom Mullaney. I can hardly think of a more worthy ambassador for the history disciplin…

Jonathon W. Penney, "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

June 23, 2026

Chilling Effects

Jonathon W. Penney
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

In Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age (Cambridge UP, 2025), Jonathon W. Penney explores the increasing weaponizati…

Emily Doucet, "Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts" (Duke UP, 2026)

June 16, 2026

Inventing Nadar

Emily Doucet
Hosted by Sadie Couture

Félix Nadar took the first aerial photograph in 1858, so the story goes. The evidence, Emily Doucet notes, is mixed. In Inventing Nadar: A History of …