New Books in Technology

Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, "The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life" (U California Press, 2023)

18 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life (U of California Press, 2023), Benjamín Schultz‑Figueroa examines rarely seen b...

Brett Brehm, "Kaleidophonic Modernity: Transatlantic Sound, Technology, and Literature" (Fordham UP, 2023)

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What stories remain hidden behind one of the most significant inventions of the nineteenth century? Kaleidophonic Modernity: Transatlantic Sound, Tec...

Doctor Ex Machina: AI in Medicine and its Pitfalls

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Could an artificial intelligence diagnosis what ails you? Medical futurists offer a techno-utopian vision of perfect personalized risk assessments, di...

Payal Arora et al., "Feminist Futures of Work: Reimagining Labour in the Digital Economy" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The future of work is at the centre of debates related to the emerging digital society. Concerns range from the inclusion, equity, and dignity of thos...

Red Team Blues and the Social Dimensions of Technology

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ho...

Zhouxiang Lu, "A History of Competitive Gaming" (Routledge, 2022)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Competitive gaming, or esports - referring to competitive tournaments of video games among both casual gamers and professional players - began in the ...

Brendan Keogh, "The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think Beyond Commercial Game Production" (MIT Press, 2023)

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The videogame industry, we're invariably told, is a multibillion-dollar, high-tech business conducted by large corporations in certain North American,...

Drone: Remote Control Warfare

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drone Warfare is the first comprehensive analysis of one of the fastest growing--and most secretive--fronts in global conflict: the rise of robot war...

Amy Brady, "Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks--a Cool History of a Hot Commodity" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2023)

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ice is everywhere: in gas stations, in restaurants, in hospitals, in our homes. Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice cubes into tall glasses ...

Jen Ross, "Digital Futures for Learning: Speculative Methods and Pedagogies" (Routledge, 2022)

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the future of education? In Digital Futures for Learning: Speculative Methods and Pedagogies (Routledge, 2022), Jen Ross, a senior lecturer...

Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell, "The Smartness Mandate" (MIT Press, 2023)

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last half century, "smartness"—the drive for ubiquitous computing—has become a mandate: a new mode of managing and governing politics, ec...

Elizabeth Reddy, "¡Alerta!: Engineering on Shaky Ground" (MIT Press, 2023)

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano is the world’s oldest public earthquake early warning system. Given the unpredictability of earthquakes, the...

Orly Lobel, "The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future" (PublicAffairs, 2022)

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The fear of algorithmic decision-making and surveillance capitalism dominate today's tech policy discussions. But instead of simply criticizing big da...

Lawrence H. White, "Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin?" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The recent rise of dollar, pound, and euro inflation rates has rekindled the debate over potential alternative monies, particularly gold and Bitcoin. ...

Kenneth Mondschein, "On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020)

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time: A History o...

Amanda Parrish Morgan, "Stroller" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Among the many things expectant parents are told to buy, none is a more visible symbol of status and parenting philosophy than a stroller. Although it...

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, "We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism" (Bristol UP, 2023)

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of transhumanism emerged in the middle of the 20th century, and has influenced discussions around AI, brain–computer interfaces, genetic...

Meredith Broussard, "More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech" (MIT Press, 2023)

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The word "glitch" implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in m...

America & Democracy Ep. 4: George Zarkadakis on Digital Liberalism

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, liberal democracies are in crisis. Citizens have lost faith in their government; right-wing nationalist movements frame the politica...

Anne Kaun and Fredrik Stiernstedt, "Prison Media: Incarceration and the Infrastructures of Work and Technology" (MIT Press, 2023)

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prisons are not typically known for cutting-edge media technologies. Yet from photography in the nineteenth century to AI-enhanced tracking cameras to...

Karen Schrier, "We the Gamers: How Games Teach Ethics and Civics" (Oxford UP, 2021)

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements li...

Barbara Penner et al., "Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects" (Reaktion Books, 2021)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused—superseded, unfashionable, or simpl...

Jason C. Cash and Craig T. Olsen, "The World of Final Fantasy VII: Essays on the Game and Its Legacy" (McFarland, 2023)

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Final Fantasy VII altered the course of video game history when it was released in 1997 on Sony's PlayStation system. It converted the Japanese role-p...

Sarrah Kassem, "Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organization" (Bristol UP, 2023)

06 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How have platforms transforming the world of work? In Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organisation (Bristol UP,...

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity" (PublicAffairs, 2023)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (PublicAffairs, 2023) is a groundbreaking work by bestselling authors ...

Collaborative Society

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An interview with Dariusz Jemielniak and Aleksandra Przegalinska about Collaborative Society (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) and how netw...

Michael W. Hankins, "Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia" (Cornell UP, 2021)

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia (Cornell UP, 2021) brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when...

Spatial Computing

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shashi Shekhar and Pamela Vold, authors of Spatial Computing, from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, discuss the reach, risks and importan...

Jonathan E. Abel, "The New Real: Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji" (U of Minnesota Press, 2023)

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Abel’s The New Real: Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji (U of Minnesota Press, 2023) is a history of our relationships...

Computer Graphics

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan talks with us about computer graphics. Emerging from tools for sailing and warmaking, like...

Technologies of the Human Corpse

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we hear from John Troyer, author of Technologies of the Human Corpse and the Director of The Center for Death and Society at The U...

Adi Kuntsman and Liu Xin, "Digital Politics, Digital Histories, Digital Futures: New Approaches for Historicising, Politicising and Imagining the Digital" (Emerald, 2023)

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is digital politics? What new creative and experimental tools can we use to study digital politics historically and analyse and create future ima...

Rachel Robison-Greene, "Edibility and in Vitro Meat: Ethical Considerations" (Lexington Books, 2022)

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Consumers and policy makers have unprecedented choices to make in the years to come about how and what we eat. If we continue down our current path of...

Tiger C. Roholt, "Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Social scientists have long studied the ways in which smartphone use can distract us from the proper performance of means-ends tasks, such as driving ...

Johnny Walker, "Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-92" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry cas...

Antero Garcia, "All through the Town: The School Bus as Educational Technology" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone knows the yellow school bus. It’s been invisible and also omnipresent for a century. Dr. Antero Garcia shows how the U.S. school bus, its f...

Ben Shneiderman, "Human-Centered AI" (Oxford UP, 2022)

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The remarkable progress in algorithms for machine and deep learning have opened the doors to new opportunities, and some dark possibilities. However, ...

Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, Emerita and Professor of Managerial Communication and Work and Organization Studies at MIT’...

Rhea Myers, "Proof of Work: Blockchain Provocations 2011-2021" (MIT Press, 2023)

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

NFT, BTC, DAO, ETH, WAGMI, HODL. It would have been hard to avoid these acronyms only a year ago. The hype around cryptocurrencies and blockchain art ...

Karen Frost-Arnold, "Who Should We Be Online?: A Social Epistemology for the Internet" (Oxford UP, 2023)

01 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Internet plays a central role in how we communicate, share information, disseminate ideas, maintain social connections, and conduct business. The ...

Elizabeth M. Renieris, "Beyond Data: Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse" (MIT Press, 2023)

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why laws focused on data cannot effectively protect people—and how an approach centered on human rights offers the best hope for preserving human di...

Woodrow Hartzog, "Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies" (Harvard UP, 2018)

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. Social media apps, surveillance technologies, and the Intern...

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass, "The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games" (U California Press, 2023)

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games (University of California Press, 2023) creatively examines the parallels be...

Wake Smith, "Pandora's Toolbox: The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reaching net zero emissions will not be the end of the climate struggle, but only the end of the beginning. For centuries thereafter, temperatures wil...

Winning & Losing in the Emerging EV Wars/The Aftershocks of the EV Transition Could Be Ugly

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Charette, engineer, consultant, and contributing editor at IEEE Spectrum magazine, talks about his twelve-part series, “The Electric Vehicl...

Felix Zimmermann, "Virtual Realities: Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games (Büchner-Verlag, 2023)

26 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Felix Zimmermann about his book Virtual Realities: Atmospheric Experience of the Past in Digital Games (Virtuelle Wirklichkeiten: ...

Left to Our Own Devices: A Conversation with Julia Ticona

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 a...

The Challenge of AI to Publishing: A Discussion with Sally Wilson

18 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sally Wilson, VP of Publishing at Emerald opens up about the challenges publishers are facing in contending with the onset of the mass adoption of AI ...

Bleddyn E. Bowen, "Original Sin: Power, Technology and War in Outer Space" (Oxford UP, 2022)

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Space technology was developed to enhance the killing power of the state. The Moon landings and the launch of the Space Shuttle were mere sideshows, d...

Computer Music and Human Computer Interaction

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Gurevich, lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at the Queen’s University, Belfast School of Music and Sonic Arts, serves as guest edit...

Illuminations Episode 3: Divine Technology

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s common to feel that technology removes the magic of the world, but Hindu worshippers in Bangalore have shown that it's all in the approach.  G...

James W. Cortada, "Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments and Businesses" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For over twenty years, James W. Cortada has pioneered research into how information shapes society. In Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Rev...

Jessa Lingel, "The Gentrification of the Internet: How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom" (U California Press, 2023)

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could h...

Miguel Sicart, "Playing Software: Homo Ludens in Computational Culture" (MIT Press, 2023)

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The play element at the heart of our interactions with computers—and how it drives the best and the worst manifestations of the information age. Whe...

The Chinese Typewriter: A History

04 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Chris Gondek speaks with author Tom Mullaney on the invention of the Chinese typewriter, and how the characters originally utilized ar...

Marcus Rediker, "The Slave Ship: A Human History" (Penguin, 2008)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the British...

What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Chris Gondek interviews Ed Finn, author of the new book What Algorithms Want. Tune in for an interesting discussion on algorithm dis...

Nuclear Ghosts: Ryo Morimoto (EF, JP)

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John and Elizabeth, in this special Centennial episode of Recall this Book, explore spectral radiation with Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Ant...

Isabel Huacuja Alonso, "Radio for the Millions: Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders" (Columbia UP, 2022)

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From news about World War II to the broadcasting of music from popular movies, radio played a crucial role in an increasingly divided South Asia for m...

Celeste Vaughan Curington et al., "The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance" (U California Press, 2021)

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Dating Divide: Race and Desire in the Era of Online Romance (U California Press, 2021) is the first comprehensive look at "digital-sexual racism,...

Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt: A Conversation with Andrew Simon

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Simon, a historian of media, popular culture, and the Middle East at Dartmouth College, discusses his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette C...

Seeing Truth in Photographs

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Artist Penelope Umbrico talks about her work, images as currency, and how technology and various platforms herd images. And is photography tyrannical?...

Social Media Influencers and Digital Media Regulation in Vietnam

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, a famous Vietnamese businesswoman hosted a three-hour long Facebook livestream, in which she named and shamed celebrities for their controver...

Jacob Birken, "Video Games: Digital Image Cultures" (Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 2022)

19 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Let's plays are among the most popular genres on YouTube. The visual worlds of video games shape the worldviews of millions. Gaming is a hobby and a m...

Fabio Duarte and Ricardo Alvarez, "Urban Play: Make-Believe, Technology, and Space" (MIT Press, 2021)

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why technology is most transformative when it is playful, and innovative spatial design happens only when designers are both tinkerers and dreamers. I...

Alan Meades, "Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade" (MIT Press, 2022)

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the British amusement arcade from the 1800s to the present.  Amusement arcades are an important part of British culture, yet discussions...

Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, "Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy" (Henry Holt, 2023)

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy (Henry Holt, 2023) is the inside story of a worldwide investi...

The Politics of Bicycling

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zack Furness, an associate professor of communications at Penn State Greater Allegheny, talks about his 2010 book, One Less Car: Bicycling and the Po...

99* Gael McGill Visualizes Intracellular Data (JP, GT)

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What’s actually going on in a cell–or on the spiky outside of an invading virus? Gael McGill, Director of Molecular Visualization at the Center ...

Emily Hund, "The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media" (Princeton UP, 2023)

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Before there were Instagram likes, Twitter hashtags, or TikTok trends, there were bloggers who seemed to have the passion and authenticity that tradit...

American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Hintz, a historian and fellowship coordinator with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’...

Gun-Detecting AI, Infrastructure, and Bureaucracy

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Gordon, Senior Writer at Motherboard, Vice’s science and technology website, talks about his co-authored article, “‘The Least Safe Day’:...

James Raven, "The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book" (Oxford UP, 2022)

11 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 14 original essays, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book (Oxford UP, 2022) reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from th...

The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Communication researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt talks about her book, The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication, as well as some of her recent and forthco...

The Geopolitics of Microchips: China, the EU, and the US

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What would happen if microchips suddenly disappeared from our world? From phones to cars, medical equipment to heating units, they are crucial for the...

How a California Electricity Utility Caused Deadly Wildfires

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Katherine Blunt, who writes about renewable energy and utilities for the Wall Street Journal, talks about her new book, California Burning:...

Jeremiah McCall, "Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History" (Routledge, 2022)

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Routledge, 2022) is a complete handbook to help pre-service teachers, current teachers...

Christiaan De Beukelaer, "Trade Winds: A Sailing Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping" (Manchester UP, 2023)

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can we build greener infrastructure in the face of the global climate emergency? In Trade Winds: A Sailing Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shi...

The Promises and Perils of Hype in Science and Technology

05 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and STS graduate student Gemma Milne talks about her book, Smoke and Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It, with Peo...

The Internet, Inequality, and the “Digital Divide”

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Information scholar Daniel Greene, an assistant professor at University of Maryland, talks about his book, The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequali...

The Future of Nuclear Fusion: A Discussion with Sharon Ann Holgate

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How useful will nuclear fusion be? In a major breakthrough last year at the National Ignition Facility in California, 192 lasers achieved fusion – a...

Amy S. Bruckman, "Should You Believe Wikipedia?: Online Communities and the Construction of Knowledge" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As we interact online we are creating new kinds of knowledge and community. How are these communities formed? How do we know whether to trust them as ...

Computers, Information, and Decision-Making

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Samantha Kleinberg, an associate professor of computer science at Stevens Institute of Technology, talks about a book she’s been writing on how we c...

Nick Seaver, "Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The people who make music recommender systems have lofty goals: they want to broaden listeners’ horizons and help obscure musicians find audiences, ...

Inventing American Telecommunications

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Richard John, professor of journalism at Columbia University, talks about his book, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications, w...

Public Thinking: Social Media and the New 'Public Intellectual'

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speak...

Angela Vanhaelen, "The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths" (Penn State UP, 2022)

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Angela Vanhaelen's The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Automata, Waxworks, Fountains, Labyrinths (Penn State University Press, 202...

Collaborations between Cold War Scientists and Artists

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick McCray, Professor of History at University of California, Santa Barbara, talks about his book, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Art...

The Future of Computer Chips: A Discussion with Julian Kamasa

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Microchips are both important and in short supply. So how important? And what can be done to make them more plentiful? Also, what are the geopolitical...

The History of Electricity in Mexico

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her detailed cultural history of technological change, Electrifying Mexico, Diana Montaño argues that ordinary Mexicans became electrifying age...

Virtually Violent: Are Online Attacks "Violence?"

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable communities have been hit especially hard by disruptive online attacks. But calling these attacks "vi...

The Archaeology of Innovation

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Catherine Frieman, an associate professor of European Archaeology at the School of Archaeology, talks about her recent book, An Archaeology of Innovat...

Ajay Agrawal et al., "Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence" (HBR Press, 2022)

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines describe what you can do to prepare....

Deafness “Cures” in History

22 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jaipreet Virdi talks about her book Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History with Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel. The book details the long hist...

The Thought of Ivan Illich

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Author L. M. Sacasas talks about the life, thought, and legacy of the Catholic priest, philosopher, and social critic Ivan Illich with Peoples & Thing...

Jennifer Forestal, "Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments" (Oxford UP, 2021)

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Political Theorist Jennifer Forestal’s new book is a fascinating exploration of contemporary democracy and how it operates in different spaces. Fore...

BONUS EPISODE: New Books Network and Future Plans

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 & Thi...

Automating Finance

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sociologist Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, a professor at University of California San Diego, talks about his book Automating Finance: Infrastructures, Engi...

Spiritual Machines: Transhumanism and Religion

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since early scientists began experimenting with immortality elixirs in the middle ages, religion has been influencing transhumanism. Now, we’re...

Shoddy: Recycled Textiles in History

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Hanna Rose Shell, a professor at University of Colorado, Boulder, talks about her book Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rag...