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Technology
Technology May 31, 2023

The Equality Machine

Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future

Orly Lobel

Hosted by Gregory LaBlanc
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The fear of algorithmic decision-making and surveillance capitalism dominate today's tech policy discussions. But instead of simply criticizing big data and automation, we can harness technology to correct discrimination, historical …

Technology

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

Economic and Business History May 28, 2023

Better Money

Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin?

Lawrence H. White

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
The recent rise of dollar, pound, and euro inflation rates has rekindled the debate over potential alternative monies, particularly gold and Bitcoin. Though Bitcoin has been much discussed in recent …
General History May 26, 2023

On Time

A History of Western Timekeeping

Kenneth Mondschein

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping (Johns Hopkins UP …
Science, Technology, and Society May 24, 2023

Stroller

Amanda Parrish Morgan

Hosted by Frances Sacks
Among the many things expectant parents are told to buy, none is a more visible symbol of status and parenting philosophy than a stroller. Although its association with wealth …
Science, Technology, and Society May 21, 2023

We Have Always Been Cyborgs

Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

Hosted by Frances Sacks
The concept of transhumanism emerged in the middle of the 20th century, and has influenced discussions around AI, brain–computer interfaces, genetic technologies and life extension. Despite its enduring influence in …
African American Studies May 18, 2023

More than a Glitch

Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech

Meredith Broussard

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
The word "glitch" implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in mostly functional …
MIT Press Podcast May 15, 2023

George Zarkadakis on Digital Liberalism

America & Democracy Ep. 4

Hosted by MIT Press
Around the world, liberal democracies are in crisis. Citizens have lost faith in their government; right-wing nationalist movements frame the political debate. At the same time, economic inequality is increasing …
Library Science May 13, 2023

Prison Media

Incarceration and the Infrastructures of Work and Technology

Anne Kaun and Fredrik Stiernstedt

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Prisons are not typically known for cutting-edge media technologies. Yet from photography in the nineteenth century to AI-enhanced tracking cameras today, there is a long history of prisons being used …
Game Studies May 11, 2023

We the Gamers

How Games Teach Ethics and Civics

Karen Schrier

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements like #PlayApartTogether, games have become increasingly …
Technology May 8, 2023

Extinct

A Compendium of Obsolete Objects

Barbara Penner, Adrian Forty, Olivia Horsfall Turner, and Miranda Critchley

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused—superseded, unfashionable, or simply forgotten. Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects …
Game Studies May 7, 2023

The World of Final Fantasy VII

Essays on the Game and Its Legacy

Jason C. Cash and Craig T. Olsen

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
Final Fantasy VII altered the course of video game history when it was released in 1997 on Sony's PlayStation system. It converted the Japanese role-playing game into an international gaming …
Critical Theory May 6, 2023

Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy

Amazon and the Power of Organization

Sarrah Kassem

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How have platforms transforming the world of work? In Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organisation (Bristol UP, 2023), Sarrah Kassem, a Lecturer and Research …
Economic and Business History May 5, 2023

Power and Progress

Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson

Hosted by Javier Mejia
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (PublicAffairs, 2023) is a groundbreaking work by bestselling authors Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, in which they challenge conventional wisdom about …
Military History May 2, 2023

Flying Camelot

The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia

Michael W. Hankins

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia (Cornell UP, 2021) brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two …
MIT Press Podcast April 30, 2023

Collaborative Society

Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska

Hosted by MIT Press
An interview with Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska about Collaborative Society (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) and how networked technology enables the emergence of a new collaborative society. Humans …
MIT Press Podcast April 29, 2023

Spatial Computing

Shashi Shekhar and Pamela Vold

Hosted by MIT Press
Shashi Shekhar and Pamela Vold, authors of Spatial Computing, from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, discuss the reach, risks and importance of spatial computing in confronting COVID-19.  An accessible guide …
Japanese Studies April 28, 2023

The New Real

Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji

Jonathan E. Abel

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Jonathan Abel’s The New Real: Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji (U of Minnesota Press, 2023) is a history of our relationships to new media. The …
High Theory April 27, 2023

Computer Graphics

A Discussion with Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
In this episode of High Theory, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan talks with us about computer graphics. Emerging from tools for sailing and warmaking, like sea charts and radar, modern computer graphics …
MIT Press Podcast April 25, 2023

Technologies of the Human Corpse

John Troyer

Hosted by MIT Press
In this episode we hear from John Troyer, author of Technologies of the Human Corpse and the Director of The Center for Death and Society at The University of Bath …
Animal Studies April 21, 2023

Edibility and in Vitro Meat

Ethical Considerations

Rachel Robison-Greene

Hosted by Kyle Johannsen
Consumers and policy makers have unprecedented choices to make in the years to come about how and what we eat. If we continue down our current path of food production …