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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:
March 30, 2026
Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor of Digital Sociology at University of St. Gallen, talk to Ben C…
February 25, 2026
Countercultures, Cybercultures, and Californian and Texan Ideologies
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor of Digital Sociology at University of St. Gallen, talk to Fred T…
December 8, 2025
The History of “AI” as a Brand
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Thomas Haigh, Professor and Chair of History and affiliate of the Department of Computer Science at Univ…
November 24, 2025
Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow’s Model as an Artifact
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, chats with Verena Halsmeyer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna, about her recent, award-winning boo…
November 17, 2025
Cory Doctorow on Enshittification
In this special livestream edition of Peoples & Things, host Lee Vinsel and very special guest host, danah boyd, formerly of Microsoft Research, prese…
November 10, 2025
How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Colleen Dunlavy, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison, about her recent book…
October 27, 2025
How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National-Security State
In this episode I sit down with Kate Epstein, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University-Camden, as she details her research on the inter…
October 13, 2025
Whitney Laemmli on Making Movement Modern
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Whitney Laemmli, Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at the Pra…
September 29, 2025
Ashleigh Wade on How Black Girls Use Social Media
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Ashleigh Greene Wade, Associate Professor of Digital Studies with a joint appointment in Media Studies a…
September 15, 2025
Julien Mailland on The Game That Never Ends: How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Julien Mailland, Associate Professor of Media Management, Law, and Policy at The Media School of Indiana…
September 1, 2025
Tiia Sahrakorpi on a Use-Based History of Electricity in Finland
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Tiia Sahrakorpi, Visiting Professor at Weber State University, about her interesting book project, Our L…
August 18, 2025
US Bankers Abroad and the Making of a Global Superpower
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Mary Bridges, Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Belfer Center for Science and International…
July 14, 2025
An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with space anthropologist, writer, and Virginia Tech doctoral candidate, Savannah Mandel, about her book, Gro…
June 30, 2025
The History of the Idea and Culture of “Innovation” in the United States
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Matt Wisnioski, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech, about his new book, Ever…
June 16, 2025
Spy Plane
In this 100th episode (!!!) of Peoples & Things, host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Benjamin H. Snyder, Associate Professor of Sociology at Williams College…
June 2, 2025
Beth Linker on Slouch
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with historian Beth Linker, Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the…
May 19, 2025
Disorder and the Analysis of Contemporary Geopolitics
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University and co-host of the great podcast,…
May 5, 2025
Engineering and Public Accountability in Energy Industries
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks to Jessica Smith, Professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society Department and Dean’s Fellow for Earth an…
April 22, 2025
Fantasies and Realities of Digital Transformation and the Data Center Industry
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Lauren Bridges, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, about her work on th…
April 7, 2025
Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Jeremy Braddock, Associate Professor of Literatures in English and Coordinator of the Media Studies Init…
March 24, 2025
Jeffrey Lee Funk on Unicorns, Hype, and Bubbles
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with retired professor, consultant, Discovery Institute fellow, and a winner of the NTT DoCoMo Mobile Science…
March 10, 2025
Design, Repairability, and Cultures of Repair
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Eleni Kalantidou, Assistant Professor at the Queensland College of Art and Design, about the volume of e…
February 24, 2025
Aure Schrock on Politics Recoded
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Aure Schrock, an interdisciplinary technology scholar and writing coach and editor at Indelible Voice, a…
February 10, 2025
Gabriella Coleman on Hackers Cultures (Plural!)
Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gal…