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MIT Press Podcast
Science September 8, 2023

Fascination of Science

60 Encounters with Pioneering Researchers of Our Time

Herlinde Koelbl

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
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An intimate collection of portraits of internationally renowned scientists and Nobel Prize winners, paired with interviews and personal stories. What makes a brilliant scientist? Who are the people behind the …

MIT Press Podcast

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The MIT Press Podcast features exclusive interviews and content that draw on the topics, themes, and trends explored in our books and journals. Subject areas that are covered include art and design, technology, science, information and data science, linguistics, neuroscience, business and management, architecture and urban design, ecology and sustainability, science fiction, and more. The podcast also regularly features high level discussions about open access publishing and knowledge.

Education September 6, 2023

The Alienation of Fact

Digital Educational Privatization, AI, and the False Promise of Bodies and Numbers

Kenneth J. Saltman

Hosted by Joao Souto-Maior
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Today, conspiracy theories run rampant, attacks on facts have become commonplace, and systemic inequities are on the rise as individual and collective agency unravels. The Alienation of Fact: Digital Educational …
Library Science August 30, 2023

Ownership of Knowledge

Beyond Intellectual Property

Dagmar Schafer, Annapurna Mamidipudi, and Marius Buning

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
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Ownership of Knowledge: Beyond Intellectual Property (MIT Press, 2023) provides a framework for knowledge ownership that challenges the mechanisms of inequality in modern society. Scholars of science, technology, medicine, and …
Science, Technology, and Society August 29, 2023

Fertility Technology

Donna J. Drucker

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
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A concise overview of fertility technology—its history, practical applications, and ethical and social implications around the world. In the late 1850s, a physician in New York City used a syringe …
Latin American Studies August 6, 2023

Sewer of Progress

Corporations, Institutionalized Corruption, and the Struggle for the Santiago River

Cindy McCulligh

Hosted by Brad Wright
For almost two decades, the citizens of Western Mexico have called for a cleanup of the Santiago River, a water source so polluted it emanates an overwhelming acidic stench. Toxic …
Public Policy August 4, 2023

Families on the Edge

Experiences of Homelessness and Care in Rural New England

Elizabeth Carpenter-Song

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
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An intimate account of rural New England families living on the edge of homelessness, as well as the practices and policies of care that fail them. Families on the Edge …
MIT Press Podcast July 27, 2023

The Digital Mind

How Science Is Redefining Humanity

Arlindo Oliveira

Hosted by MIT Press
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What do computers, cells, and brains have in common? Computers are electronic devices designed by humans; cells are biological entities crafted by evolution; brains are the containers and creators of …
MIT Press Podcast July 26, 2023

Codename Revolution

The Nintendo Wii Platform

Steven E. Jones and George K. Thiruvathukal

Hosted by MIT Press
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The Nintendo Wii, introduced in 2006, helped usher in a moment of retro-reinvention in video game play. This hugely popular console system, codenamed Revolution during development, signaled a turn away …
Library Science July 25, 2023

Picture Research

The Work of Intermediation from Pre-Photography to Post-Digitization

Nina Lager Vestberg

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
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Picture Research: The Work of Intermediation from Pre-Photography to Post-Digitization (MIT Press, 2023) focuses on how pictures were saved, stored, and searched for in a time before scanners, servers, and …
MIT Press Podcast July 25, 2023

In Praise of Reason

Why Rationality Matters for Democracy

Michael P. Lynch

Hosted by MIT Press
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Why does reason matter, if (as many people seem to think) in the end everything comes down to blind faith or gut instinct? Why not just go with what you …
MIT Press Podcast July 24, 2023

Consciousness

Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist

Christof Koch

Hosted by MIT Press
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What links conscious experience of pain, joy, color, and smell to bioelectrical activity in the brain? How can anything physical give rise to nonphysical, subjective, conscious states? Christof Koch has …
MIT Press Podcast July 23, 2023

Net Smart

How to Thrive Online

Howard Rheingold

Hosted by MIT Press
Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century …
MIT Press Podcast July 22, 2023

The Future Was Here

The Commodore Amiga

Jimmy Maher

Hosted by MIT Press
Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult …
MIT Press Podcast July 21, 2023

Networked

The New Social Operating System

Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman

Hosted by MIT Press
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Daily life is connected life, its rhythms driven by endless email pings and responses, the chimes and beeps of continually arriving text messages, tweets and retweets, Facebook updates, pictures and …
MIT Press Podcast July 20, 2023

Infectious Behavior

Brain-Immune Connections in Autism, Schizophrenia, and Depression

Paul H. Patterson

Hosted by MIT Press
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In Infectious Behavior, neurobiologist Paul Patterson examines the involvement of the immune system in autism, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder. Although genetic approaches to these diseases have garnered the lion's …
MIT Press Podcast July 19, 2023

Indra’s Net and the Midas Touch

Living Sustainably in a Connected World

Leslie Paul Thiele

Hosted by MIT Press
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We live today in a global web of interdependence, connected technologically, economically, politically, and socially. As a result of these expanding and deepening interdependencies, it has become impossible fully to …
MIT Press Podcast July 18, 2023

Hello Avatar

Rise of the Networked Generation

B. Coleman

Hosted by MIT Press
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Hello Avatar Or, {llSay(0, Hello, Avatar ); is a tiny piece of user-friendly code that allows us to program our virtual selves. In Hello Avatar, B. Coleman examines a crucial …
MIT Press Podcast July 17, 2023

Small, Gritty, and Green

The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World

Catherine Tumber

Hosted by MIT Press
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America's once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities--Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others--increasingly resemble urban wastelands. Gutted by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and middle-class flight, disproportionately devastated by metro freeway systems that laid waste to …
MIT Press Podcast July 16, 2023

The Silent Epidemic

Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health

Alan H. Lockwood

Hosted by MIT Press
We will not find “exposure to burning coal” listed as the cause of death on a single death certificate, but tens of thousands of deaths from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary …
MIT Press Podcast July 15, 2023

Working on Mars

Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers

William J. Clancey

Hosted by MIT Press
Geologists in the field climb hills and hang onto craggy outcrops; they put their fingers in sand and scratch, smell, and even taste rocks. Beginning in 2004, however, a team …