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Recall This Book January 27, 2022

Teletherapy with Hannah Zeavin

"High Theory" Crossover

Hannah Zeavin

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Crossover Month at Recall this Book ends with a glance sideways at the doings of our pals Saronik and Kim, hosts of the delightfully lapidary podcast High Theory. Refresh your …

Technology

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

Political Science January 27, 2022

Decoding the Digital Church

Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump

Stephanie A. Martin

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Dr. Stephanie (Sam) A. Martin’s new book, Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump (U Alabama Press, 2021), is a fascinating exploration of the way …
Technology January 20, 2022

In AI We Trust

Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms

Helga Nowotny

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Today I talked to Helga Nowotny about her new book In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Polity, 2021).One of the most persistent concerns about the future is …
Digital Humanities December 22, 2021

Living Books

Experiments in the Posthumanities

Janneke Adema

Hosted by Sarah Kearns
In Living Books: Experiments in the Posthumanities (MIT Press, 2021), Janneke Adema proposes that we reimagine the scholarly book as a living and collaborative project -- not as linear, bound …
Science December 22, 2021

Joseph Reagle on H. G. Wells's "World Brain" (1937)

Joseph Reagle

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a World Brain, as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repository of scientifically established …
Literary Studies December 20, 2021

Infrastructures of Apocalypse

American Literature and the Nuclear Complex

Jessica Hurley

Hosted by Christian Long
Since 1945, America has spent more resources on nuclear technology than any other national project. Although it requires a massive infrastructure that touches society on myriad levels, nuclear technology has …
Digital Humanities December 14, 2021

Can We Be Wrong?

The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data

Andrew Piper

Hosted by Katherine McDonough
Can We Be Wrong? The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data (Cambridge UP, 2020) by Andrew Piper tackles the problem of generalization with respect to text-based evidence in the …
Architecture December 9, 2021

Strange Objects, New Solids and Massive Forms

Archi-Tectonics

Winka Dubbeldam

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The object as solid, having three dimensions, is not just a different formal trend, but a paradigm shift; a reconceiving of how the architectural object is produced and experienced, changing …
Art January 28, 2022

The Aesthetics of Virtual Reality

Grant Tavinor

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
When philosophers have approached virtual reality, they have almost always done so through the lens of metaphysics, asking questions about the reality of virtual items and worlds, about the value …
Anthropology January 25, 2022

Taxis Vs. Uber

Courts, Markets and Technology in Buenos Aires

Juan Manuel del Nido

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Uber's April 2016 launch in Buenos Aires plunged the Argentine capital into a frenzied hysteria that engulfed courts of law, taxi drivers, bureaucrats, the press, the general public, and Argentina's …
Mathematics January 17, 2022

Bits and Bugs

A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures in Computational Science

Thomas Huckle and Tobias Neckel

Hosted by Cory Brunson
A true understanding of the pervasive role of software in the world demands an awareness of the volume and variety of real-world software failures and their consequences. No more thorough …
History of Science December 10, 2021

Technology in World Civilization, Revised and Expanded Edition

A Thousand-Year History (Revised and Expanded Edition)

Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray

Hosted by Hussein Mohsen
Technology in World Civilization represents a milestone history of technology. First published in 1990 and now revised and expanded in light of recent research, the book broke new ground by taking a …
National Security November 22, 2021

Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons

Herbert Lin

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
What does America’s growing dependence on modern information technology systems mean for the management of its nuclear weapons? In his new book, Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons (Stanford University Press …
Environmental Studies November 22, 2021

Asphalt

A History

Kenneth O'Reilly

Hosted by Mohamed Gamal-Eldin
In Asphalt: A History (U Nebraska Press, 2021), Kenneth O’Reilly provides a history of this everyday substance. By tracing the history of asphalt—in both its natural and processed forms—from ancient times …
Nordic Asia Podcast November 19, 2021

Chinese Digital Vigilantism: The Mediated and Mediatised Justice-Seeking

A Conversation with Qian Huang

Joanne Kuai

Hosted by Joanne Kuai
What is digital vigilantism? How do Chinese citizens seek justice online? How does digital vigilantism reflect contemporary Chinese technological and socio-political development? In a conversation with Joanne Kuai, a visiting …
Recall This Book November 18, 2021

Writing and Reading from Gilgamesh to Amazon

A Conversation with Martin Puchner

Martin Puchner

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Book Industry Month continues with a memory-lane voyage back to a beloved early RtB episode. This conversation with Martin Puchner about the very origins of writing struck us as perfect …
Japanese Studies November 18, 2021

Invisibility by Design

Women and Labor in Japan's Digital Economy

Gabriella Lukács

Hosted by Jingyi Li
In the wake of labor market deregulation during the 2000s, online content sharing and social networking platforms were promoted in Japan as new sites of work that were accessible to …
Science November 15, 2021

Artificial Intimacy

Virtual Friends, Digital Lovers, and Algorithmic Matchmakers

Robert Brooks

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the ways people make friends, gossip …
Japanese Studies November 11, 2021

Japan's Nationalist Right in the Internet Age

Online Media and Grassroots Conservative Activism

Jeffrey J. Hall

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Japan's nationalist right have used the internet to organize offline activism in increasingly visible ways. Jeffrey J. Hall, investigates the role of internet-mediated activism in Japan's ongoing historical and territorial disputes …
Gender Studies November 10, 2021

Politics of Rightful Killing

Civil Society, Gender, and Sexuality in Weblogistan

Sima Shakhsari

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee
In the early 2000s, mainstream international news outlets celebrated the growth of Weblogistan—the online and real-life transnational network of Iranian bloggers—and depicted it as a liberatory site that gave voice …