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About Lee Vinsel

Lee Vinsel is an associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Virginia Tech. He studies human life with technology, with particular focus on the relationship between government, business, and technological change. His first book, Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in July 2019.

NBN Episodes hosted by Lee:

Peoples & Things September 18, 2023

Forty Years of Technology Studies

A Conversation with Steve Barley

Steve Barley

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Stephen Barley, professor emeritus at both Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, talks about the long arc of his forty-year career studying organizations and technologies with Peoples …
Peoples & Things September 11, 2023

Race and Electrical Infrastructure in the Jim Crow South

A Conversation with Conor Harrison

Conor Harrison

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Conor Harrison, Associate Professor of Geography and the School of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of South Carolina, talks about his research into the racist development of electrical …
Peoples & Things August 28, 2023

The Ideology of Entrepreneurship

A Conversation with Robert Eberhart

Robert N. Eberhart

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Robert Eberhart, Associate Professor of Management and Faculty Director of International Business at the University of San Diego, talks about his work on the ideology of entrepreneurship with Peoples & …
Peoples & Things August 21, 2023

Outside the Box

The History and Future of Globalization

Marc Levinson

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Economist, historian, and author Marc Levinson talks about his book, Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas (Princeton UP, 2020), with Peoples & Things host …
Peoples & Things August 14, 2023

How Uber Disrupted Washington, D.C.

A Conversation with Katie Wells and Kafui Attoh

Katie Wells and Kafui Attoh

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Katie Wells, a Postdoctoral Fritz Fellow with Georgetown University's Tech and Society Initiative, and Kafui Attoh, Associate Professor of Urban Studies in the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies …
Peoples & Things August 7, 2023

Driving While Black - African Americans and the Automobile

A Conversation with Gretchen Sorin

Gretchen Sorin

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Gretchen Sorin, Director and Distinguished Professor of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York - Oneonta, talks about her book, Driving While Black: African American Travel …
Peoples & Things July 31, 2023

Powering American Farms

A Conversation with Richard Hirsh

Richard F. Hirsh

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Richard Hirsh, Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about his book, Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022), with Peoples & Things host …
Peoples & Things July 24, 2023

US History in 15 Foods

A Conversation with Anna Zeide

Anna Zeide

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Anna Zeide, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about her book, US History in 15 Foods (Bloomsbury, 2023), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. US History in …
Peoples & Things July 17, 2023

African American Women on the American Railroad

A Conversation with Miriam Thaggert

Miriam Thaggert

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Miriam Thaggert, Professor of English at the University of Buffalo, talks about her book, Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad (University of Illinois Press, 2022), with …
Peoples & Things July 10, 2023

Palo Alto

A Conversation with Malcolm Harris

Malcolm Harris

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
This is the second Peoples & Things episode featuring a guest host. In this case, it is M. R. “Mols” Sauter, an assistant professor of information studies at the University …
Peoples & Things June 26, 2023

The Singer Sewing Machine in Spain and Mexico

Multinational Business, Gender, and Technologies

Paula A. De La Cruz-Fernández

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Historian Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez talks about her book, Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-1940 (Routledge, 2021), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel …
Peoples & Things June 19, 2023

The History of the American Shopping Mall and Its Cultures

A Conversation with Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
Writer and design critic Alexandra Lange talks about her book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Shopping Mall (Bloombury, 2023), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. Meet …
Peoples & Things June 12, 2023

Red Team Blues and the Social Dimensions of Technology

A Conversation with Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
This episode is a first for the Peoples & Things podcast: it features a guest host. It is something you will be seeing more of in the future. Guest host …
Peoples & Things June 5, 2023

The History of 19th Century Quarantine Politics

A Conversation with David S. Barnes

David S. Barnes

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Listen:
David S. Barnes, Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about his book, Lazaretto: How Philadelphia Used an Unpopular Quarantine Based on Disputed …
Peoples & Things April 3, 2023

Control Through Communication

The Rise of System in American Management

JoAnne Yates

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, Emerita and Professor of Managerial Communication and Work and Organization Studies at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, talks about her classic and award-winning …
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 …
Peoples & Things March 13, 2023

Traveling Black, A Story of Race and Resistance

A Conversation with Mia Bay

Mia Bay

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Mia Bay, the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about her book Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance …
Peoples & Things March 6, 2023

Radio Broadcasting Along Mexico's Northern Border, 1930-1950

A Conversation with Sonia Robles

Sonia Robles

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Sonia Robles, an assistant professor of history at the University of Delaware, talks about her book, Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting Along Mexico’s Northern Border, 1930-1950 (University of Arizona Press, 2019) …
Peoples & Things February 23, 2023

New Books Network and Future Plans for "Peoples and Things"

Lee Vinsel

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
A special bonus episode. Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks about the podcast’s recent move to the New Books Network and plans the Peoples & Things team have for …
Peoples & Things February 20, 2023

The History of the Black Urban Working-Class in the United States

A Conversation with Joe William Trotter, Jr.

Joe William Trotter, Jr.

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Joe William Trotter, Jr., Giant Eagle University Professor of History and Founder and Director of the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) at Carnegie Mellon University, talks …
Peoples & Things February 16, 2023

The Politics of Bicycling

A Conversation with Zack Furness

Zack Furness

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Zack Furness, an associate professor of communications at Penn State Greater Allegheny, talks about his 2010 book, One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility (Temple University Press), with Peoples …
Peoples & Things February 15, 2023

Historians Examine Thomas Piketty’s "Capital and Ideology"

A Conversation with Andrew Popp and Jonathan Coopersmith

Andrew Popp and Jonathan Coopersmith

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Andrew Popp, a professor of history at Copenhagen Business School, and Jonathan Coopersmith, a professor (retired) of history at Texas A&M, talk about a recent special issue they edited in …
Peoples & Things February 14, 2023

The History of Student Loans in the United States

A Discussion with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, an associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, talks about her book, Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in Debt, with Peoples & Things …
Peoples & Things February 13, 2023

American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D

A Discussion with Eric Hintz

Eric Hintz

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Eric Hintz, a historian and fellowship coordinator with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, talks about his …