Technology

Technology

episodes

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

Once More--What Does It Even Mean for a Machine to be Generative?

March 16, 2024

Once More--What Does It Even Mean for a Machine to be Generative?

Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, and James Gee
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to Episode No.9 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. The…

Lisa Messeri, "In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles" (Duke UP, 2024)

March 16, 2024

In the Land of the Unreal

Lisa Messeri
Hosted by Noopur Raval

In the mid-2010s, a passionate community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, media artists, and tech innovators formed around virtual reality (VR), bel…

Nick Jones, "Gooey Media: Screen Entertainment and the Graphic User Interface" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Gooey Media

Nick Jones
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Graphic User Interface, or GUI, is the adhesive centre of today’s screen entertainment web. From films and television to apps and videogames, it h…

Peter D. McDonald, "Run and Jump: The Meaning of the 2D Platformer" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 15, 2024

Run and Jump

Peter D. McDonald

How abstract design decisions in 2D platform games create rich worlds of meaning for players.Since the 1980s, 2D platform games have captivated their …

Zachary Loeb on the History of the End of the World

March 11, 2024

Zachary Loeb on the History of the End of the World

Zachary Loeb
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Are you into the end of the world? Well, have we got the guest for you. In this episode, Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel interviews Zachary Loeb, ass…

Brian Merchant, "Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech" (LIttle, Brown, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Blood in the Machine

Brian Merchant
Hosted by Michael Vann

"Luddite" has become an insult and Brian Merchant wants to change that. Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech (Little, B…

Hsuan L. Hsu, "Air Conditioning" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 8, 2024

Air Conditioning

Hsuan L. Hsu
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Air conditioning aspires to be unnoticed. Yet, by manipulating the air around us, it quietly conditions the baseline conditions of our physical, menta…

Robert Charette on Researching the Material World

March 4, 2024

Robert Charette on Researching the Material World

Robert Charette
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

In this episode, Peoples & Thing host Lee Vinsel interviews engineer, businessman, consultant, author, contributing editor at IEEE Magazine, and forme…

Verity Harding, "AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own" (Princeton UP, 2024)

March 1, 2024

AI Needs You

Verity Harding
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Artificial intelligence may be the most transformative technology of our time. As AI's power grows, so does the need to figure out what--and who--this…

Carol Beggy, "Pencil" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

February 28, 2024

Pencil

Carol Beggy
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A cylinder of baked graphite and clay in a wood case, the pencil creates as it is being destroyed. To love a pencil is to use it, to sharpen it, and t…

Yanis Varoufakis, "Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism" (Melville House, 2023)

February 26, 2024

Technofeudalism

Yanis Varoufakis
Hosted by Louisa Hann

In Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism (Melville House, 2023), Yanis Varoufakis argues that capitalism is dead and a new economic era has begun. …

What Does It Even Mean for a Machine to Generate?

February 24, 2024

What Does It Even Mean for a Machine to Generate?

Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, and Duane Searsmith
Hosted by Daniel Shea

Listen to Episode No.8 of All We Mean, a Special Focus of this podcast. All We Mean is an ongoing discussion and debate about how we mean and why. The…

Paul Scharre, "Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" (Norton, 2023)

February 24, 2024

Four Battlegrounds

Paul Scharre
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

An award-winning defense expert tells the story of today’s great power rivalry―the struggle to control artificial intelligence. A new industrial re…

Jacob Ward, "Visions of a Digital Nation: Market and Monopoly in British Telecommunications" (MIT Press, 2024)

February 23, 2024

Visions of a Digital Nation

Jacob Ward

In Visions of a Digital Nation: Market and Monopoly in British Telecommunications (MIT Press, 2024), Jacob Ward explains why the privatization of Brit…

Neil Lee, "Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy" (U California Press, 2024)

February 21, 2024

Innovation for the Masses

Neil Lee
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can we build a more equal economy? In Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy (U California Press, 2024), Ne…

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15" (FSG, 2023)

February 20, 2024

American Gun

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson
Hosted by Chris Holmes

In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner so…

Nate Klemp, "Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World" (Sounds True, 2024)

February 19, 2024

Open

Nate Klemp
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing down our minds and hearts seems to be the only way to survive. We close down to our inner …

Jenna Ng, "The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie" (Amsterdam UP, 2021)

February 14, 2024

The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections

Jenna Ng
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Screens are ubiquitous today. Yet contemporary screen media eliminate the presence of the screen and diminish the visibility of its boundaries. As the…

Markus Krajewski, "The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque" (Yale UP, 2018)

February 11, 2024

The Server

Markus Krajewski

The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque (Yale UP, 2018) is a cutting–edge media history on a perennially fascinating topic that at…

Chen-Pang Yeang, "Transforming Noise. A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900-1955" (Oxford UP, 2023)

January 30, 2024

Transforming Noise

Chen-Pang Yeang
Hosted by Pamela Fuentes

Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant distur…