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Science, Technology, and Society March 31, 2023

Beyond Data

Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse

Elizabeth M. Renieris

Hosted by Jake Chanenson
Why laws focused on data cannot effectively protect people—and how an approach centered on human rights offers the best hope for preserving human dignity and autonomy in a cyberphysical world …

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

Anthropology March 28, 2023

The Avatar Faculty

Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games (University of California Press, 2023) creatively examines the parallels between spiritual and digital activities to explore the roles that symbolic second selves—avatars—can …
Science, Technology, and Society March 28, 2023

Privacy's Blueprint

The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies

Woodrow Hartzog

Hosted by Jake Chanenson
Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. Social media apps, surveillance technologies, and the Internet of Things are all built in ways that make it …
MIT Press Podcast March 28, 2023

The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution

Perils to Theory and Statecraft

Lucas Kello

Hosted by MIT Press
As Lucas Kello reveals, it is far easier to attack than to defend when it comes to cyber war. Listen as Kello and Sean Lynn-Jones discuss the dangers of cyber …
Game Studies March 26, 2023

Virtual Realities

Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games

Felix Zimmermann

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
Today I talked to Felix Zimmermann about his book Virtual Realities: Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games (Virtuelle Wirklichkeiten: Atmosphärisches Vergangenheitserleben im Digitalen Spiel (Büchner-Verlag, 2023) Atmospheres are everywhere …
Peoples & Things March 20, 2023

Left to Our Own Devices

A Conversation with Julia Ticona

Julia Ticona

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Over the past three decades, digital technologies like smartphones and laptops have transformed the way we work in the US. At the same time, workers at both ends of the …
Scholarly Communication March 18, 2023

The Challenge of AI to Publishing

A Discussion with Sally Wilson of Emerald Publishing

Sally Wilson

Hosted by Avi Staiman
Sally Wilson, VP of Publishing at Emerald opens up about the challenges publishers are facing in contending with the onset of the mass adoption of AI tools including ChatGPT, and …
National Security March 17, 2023

Original Sin

Power, Technology and War in Outer Space

Bleddyn E. Bowen

Hosted by Samuel Canter
Space technology was developed to enhance the killing power of the state. The Moon landings and the launch of the Space Shuttle were mere sideshows, drawing public attention away from …
MIT Press Podcast March 15, 2023

Computer Music and Human Computer Interaction

A Discussion with Michael Gurevich

Michael Gurevich

Hosted by MIT Press
Michael Gurevich, lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at the Queen’s University, Belfast School of Music and Sonic Arts, serves as guest editor of the Winter 2010 issue of …
Ministry of Ideas March 14, 2023

Divine Technology--or, Religion, Technology, and Magic

Illuminations Episode 3

Tulasi Srinivas

Hosted by Zachary Davis
It’s common to feel that technology removes the magic of the world, but Hindu worshippers in Bangalore have shown that it's all in the approach. Guest: Tulasi Srinivas, associate professor of …
Scholarly Communication March 12, 2023

The Gentrification of the Internet

How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom

Jessa Lingel

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could have predicted the …
Economic and Business History March 12, 2023

Birth of Modern Facts

How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments and Businesses

James W. Cortada

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
For over twenty years, James W. Cortada has pioneered research into how information shapes society. In Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments and Businesses …
SSEAC Stories March 9, 2023

Social Media Influencers and Digital Media Regulation in Vietnam

A Discussion with Jonathon Hutchinson

Jonathon Hutchinson

Hosted by Natali Pearson
In 2021, a famous Vietnamese businesswoman hosted a three-hour long Facebook livestream, in which she named and shamed celebrities for their controversial public behaviours. This formed part of a regular …
Technology March 8, 2023

Playing Software

Homo Ludens in Computational Culture

Miguel Sicart

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whether we interact with video games …
MIT Press Podcast March 4, 2023

The Chinese Typewriter

A History

Thomas S. Mullaney

Hosted by MIT Press
In this episode Chris Gondek speaks with author Tom Mullaney on the invention of the Chinese typewriter, and how the characters originally utilized are still the ones available on modern …
Economic and Business History March 3, 2023

The Slave Ship

A Human History

Marcus Rediker

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the British and American slave ships of the eighteenth …
South Asian Studies March 2, 2023

Radio for the Millions

Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders

Isabel Huacuja Alonso

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
From news about World War II to the broadcasting of music from popular movies, radio played a crucial role in an increasingly divided South Asia for more than half a …
Recall This Book March 2, 2023

Nuclear Ghosts

A Discussion with Ryo Morimoto

Ryo Morimoto

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
John and Elizabeth, in this special Centennial episode of Recall this Book, explore spectral radiation with Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His new book Nuclear Ghost …
MIT Press Podcast March 2, 2023

What Algorithms Want

Imagination in the Age of Computing

Ed Finn

Hosted by MIT Press
In this episode Chris Gondek interviews Ed Finn, author of the new book What Algorithms Want. Tune in for an interesting discussion on algorithm disconnect revolving around things humans regularly …
Sociology March 1, 2023

The Dating Divide

Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance

Celeste Vaughan Curington, Jennifer Hickes Lundquist, and Ken-Hou Lin

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance (U California Press, 2021) is the first comprehensive look at "digital-sexual racism," a distinct form of racism that …