About John Balz

NBN Episodes hosted by John:

Emily Schmitt and Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, "Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency"

June 6, 2016

Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS)

Emily Schmitt and Lashawn Richburg-Hayes
Hosted by John Balz

The application of behavioral science inside government has gained steam over the past few years with the creation of so-called "Nudge units" popping …

Cass Sunstein, "The World According to Star Wars" (Harper Collins, 2016)

May 28, 2016

The World According to Star Wars

Cass Sunstein
Hosted by John Balz

Cass Sunstein's son, Declan, got dad hooked on Star Wars. And dad, a Harvard Law professor, ended up writing a book about it. "If you'd told me a year…

Bernard Harcourt, "Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age" (Harvard UP, 2015)

May 17, 2016

Exposed

Bernard Harcourt
Hosted by John Balz

The landscape described in Bernard Harcourt's new book is a dystopia saturated by pleasure. We do not live in a drab Orwellian world, he writes. We li…

Joshua Braun, "This Program is Brought to You By . . . Distributing Television Online" (Yale UP, 2015)

May 7, 2016

This Program is Brought to You By . . .

Joshua Braun
Hosted by John Balz

"One of the things that was most shocking to me getting into the media business, an MSNBC.com producer tells Josh Braun, was the realization that regu…

Jason Mittell, "Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television" (NYU Press 2015)

April 18, 2016

Complex TV

Jason Mittell
Hosted by John Balz

We are said to be in a golden age of TV. The best stories today are told on television screens in serialized forms. The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, The …

Benjamin Castleman, "The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging and Other Behavioral Strategies Can Improve Education" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015)

April 4, 2016

The 160-Character Solution

Benjamin Castleman
Hosted by John Balz

Teenagers live in their phones. As an educator you can try to pull them away or meet them where they are. The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messagi…

Jonathan Donner, "After Access: Inclusion, Development, and a More Mobile Internet" (MIT Press, 2015)

March 14, 2016

After Access

Jonathan Donner
Hosted by John Balz

Thanks to mobile phones, getting online is easier and cheaper than ever. In After Access: Inclusion, Development, and a More Mobile Internet (MIT Pres…

Finn Brunton, "Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet" (MIT Press, 2013)

February 16, 2016

Spam

Finn Brunton
Hosted by John Balz

Finn Brunton's Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet (MIT Press, 2013) is a cultural history of those communications that seek to capture our attenti…