The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan
Episodes
Mundane, with Wendy H. Wong
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Wendy H. Wong explains the human rights implications of datafication. We talk about how data become valuable, sticky data, big tech’...
Hollowed, with Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij and Andrea Reyes Elizondo
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij and Andrea Reyes Elizondo discuss why it’s important to the overall purpose and significance of the un...
Opposition, with Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus & Gilberto Manzanarez
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus, Gilberto Manzanarez and I discuss on-the-ground opposition to two data centers being built against...
Enough, with Adam Becker
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Adam Becker and I talk about our AI overlords and their “philosophical” influences — mostly eugenics-based pseudoscience and ba...
Containment, with Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingrid Richardson
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Great theorists make you see the world differently forever after. This is the case with my guests for this episode, Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingr...
Friendship, with Am Johal and Matt Hern
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of 2026, I speak with Am Johal and Matt Stern, authors of the "O My Friends, There Is No Friend: The Politics of Friendship at t...
Predictable, with José Marichal
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
José Marichal is exceptionally good at making the case for why we should all become algorithmic problems and also much more reflective of our engagem...
Advocates, with Meg Rintoul and Kathryn Barnwell
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak with friends-neighbours-advocates Meg Rintoul and Kathryn Barnwell about current plans in place to build an AI data center in ...
Tracking, with Stefanie Felsberger
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I got to walk through a recent report called “the high stakes of tracking menstruation” with its author, Stefanie Felsberger, a s...
Surveillance, with Justin Hendrix
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I speak with Justin Hendrix, the CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit media venture concerned with the intersection of te...
Sovereign, with Paris Marx
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host of Tech Won't Save Us and acclaimed tech critic, author, and international speaker, Paris Marx joins me for this episode where we discuss AI futu...
Witnessing, with Michael Richardson
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I get to chat with the brilliant Michael Richardson on the concept of "Nonhuman Witnessing" especially in how this relates to algorit...
Dopaminergic, with Rohit Revi
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rohit Revi walks us through paranoia, care, conspiracy, capitalism, and catastrophe, in relation to technology and culture, to draw us into a deeper c...
Con, with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Emily M.Bender and Alex Hanna have been leading the charge against "AI", helping us understand it for the con that it is, and how AI companies are tur...
Control, with Paul Schütze
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Paul Schütze and I pick apart the inherent contradictions of “sustainable AI”, marketing language that aims to convince the publ...
Water, with Rebecca Kilberg, Mary-Clare Bosco and Jonathan Gilmour
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak with Rebecca Kilberg, Mary-Clare Bosco and Jonathan Gilmour who together use policy approaches to solve problems related to da...
Solidarity, with Shannon Wait
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Shannon Wait — Alphabet Workers Union-CWA organizer — speaks with me about the labour conditions for data center and AI workers. ...
Remade, with Allison Carruth
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Allison Carruth and I talk about her new book which gets at some of the material infrastructure and social systems that have made the US a settler sta...
Hype, with Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne walk me through "hype" -- what it means in various technological contexts, how it works, what it is defi...
Damage, with Dustin Edwards
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dustin Edwards and I discuss the damage caused by digital infrastructure and its extractive requirements. We talk about data centers and copper mines,...
Consent, with Jasmine McNealy
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I ask Jasmine McNealy about the role of consent online, from social media exchanges to the circulation of deep fakes. Who gets to def...
Together, with Collin Bjork
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Collin Bjork and I discuss the double (triple?) meaning of "extractive AI". Collin explains Otter.ai -- an AI powered voice-to-text transcription soft...
Deskill, with Hagen Blix
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Hagen Blix and I talk about how the fear of AI, from the non-billionaire CEO class, comes from the threat of deskilling workers. Recor...
Unlearning, with Kane Murdoch
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak with Kane Murdoch about the perils of contract cheating. As an integrity officer, he frames what's happening with "cheating" a...
Indexicality, with Roland Meyer and Gillian Rose
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
AI images are circulating more and more online and sometimes we can't tell the 'real' from AI-generated. But as I discuss with the inimitable Gillian ...
Asymmetries, with Jathan Sadowski
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Jathan Sadowski discusses the 'risk industry' as imagined by FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) and the asymmetries they create...
Lessons, with Charles Logan
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Logan is the go-to person to talk to about how AI is infiltrating the many layers of education, from K-12 to universities. In this conversatio...
Storying, with Dillon Mahmoudi and Anthony Levenda
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak with Dillon Mahmoudi and Anthony Levenda about the relationship (feedback loop) between data and urban planning. We focus on t...
Defining, with Ali Alkhatib
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I got to speak with the brilliant Ali Alkhatib about his blog post "defining AI" -- an object, subject, metaphor, and discursive formation used a...
Colonialism, with Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I start the new year with an episode on "data colonialism". I had the great pleasure of speaking with Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry about our cont...
Investigative, with Déborah López and Hadin Charbel
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Such a delight speaking with Déborah López and Hadin Charbel, incredible artists-architects-scholars as investigators of future possibilities in lig...
Collaborative, with Chris Gilliard
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I spoke with Chris Gilliard (@hypervisible) about AI’s encroachment on universities and what this means for collaboration — ...
Regulated, with Jennifer Holt
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It was a real honour and joy to speak with someone whose work has so significantly shaped my own (and many of us writing about data centers): Jennifer...
Frequencies, with Trent Wintermeier
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to the data center's hum with your feet first... on this episode, Trent Wintermeier and I discuss what it means to absorb sound through the bod...
Safety, with Remmelt Ellen
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I have a conversation with Remmelt Ellen from AI Safety Camp. We discuss AI safety and his 44-page book Artifical Bodies outlining AI...
Deep, with Lisa Yin Han
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone should read Lisa Yin Han's Deepwater Alchemy! It's a stunningly well written book about how we come to value the ocean through various extrac...
Dancing, with Joana Chicau
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joana Chicau is a designer, researcher and coder, with a background in choreography and performance. We had a truly delightful chat about how dance ca...
Geologica, with Siobhan Angus
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It was such an honour to be in conversation with Siobhan Angus about what can only be describe as a masterpiece: her book Camera Geologica. Recorded A...
Reform, with Leslie R. Shade
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I speak with my dear friend and colleague, Leslie R. Shade about the importance of media reform from an intersectional feminist polit...
Territorial, with Alina Utrata
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alina Utrata and I have a conversation about billionaires conquering space for personal pleasure, in the pursuit of energy sources or minerals, or, to...
Futures, with Lee Vinsel
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I invited Lee Vinsel to discuss with me a post he wrote from a workshop on "Politics of Controlling Powerful Technologies". In this episode we discuss...
Objective, with Lisa Messeri and M. J. Crockett
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Lisa Messeri and M. J. Crockett discuss how scientists are in danger of overlooking AI tools’ limitations, and how science is made ...
Thirsty, with Shaolei Ren
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Shaolei Ren and I discuss the relationship between water and generative AI. We delve into what happens to water in the (very thirsty)...
Diversity, with Catherine Stinson and Sophie Vlaad
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With Catherine Stinson and Sophie Vlaad, we discuss what diversity means in the context of AI -- its applications, conceptualizations, teams, institut...
Unsustainable, with Matthew Archer
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to my conversation with Matthew Archer, author of Unsustainable: Measurement, Reporting, and the Limits of Corporate Sustainability. In his bea...
Change, with Sireesh Gururaja, Amanda Bertsch and Clara Na
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Together, Sireesh Gururaja, Amanda Bertsch and Clara Na explain the paradigm shifts in Natural Language Processing that they've noticed themselves, ob...
Adversarial, with Steph Maj Swanson
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Steph Maj Swanson, aka Supercomposite and I discuss the spooky Loab phenomenon, generative adversarial network, negative prompts and the demons (maybe...
Mirrored, with Kyriaki Goni
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kyriaki Goni - an artist with a background in social and cultural anthropology - and I start our conversation reflecting back on the lockdowns of...
Efficient, with Anne Pasek
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us researching data centers have come to rely on various figures and stats telling us how environmentally impactful the internet has become: h...
Conflicted, with Tobias Williams
25 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Teaching in times of generative AI is weird, and sometimes wonderful. Tobias Williams and I discuss what it means to make art and teach art at this ju...
Impacts, with Irene Niet
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Irene Niet and I have a conversation about how researchers might consider the environmental impacts of AI in relation to their social consequences, an...
Chipified, with MC Forelle
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wonder about the microchips in your car? MC Forelle and I talk about the “chipification” process of cars, since the 70s and 80s, and how thes...
Empathy, with Steven Gonzalez Monserrate
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this absolutely delightful hour, Steven Gonzalez, an anthropologist of data centers, walks us through various sites of ethnographic research — fr...
Open, with David Gray Widder
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While efforts to make “AI” more “open” have gained momentum lately, it seems like both concepts are worth scrutinizing and historicizing so th...
Chemical, with Josh Lepawsky
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you think you know anything about e-waste from what’s normally reported in the news, please have a listen to this episode with the brilliant Josh...
Intimacy, with Mirabelle Jones
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A truly delightful conversation with creative technologist and artist, Mirabelle Jones. Their work uses generative AI – early iterations of it – t...
Alien, with Gregory Betts
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is a fun conversation with scholar-poet Gregory Betts about communicating with aliens! How are humans on earth communicating with aliens? What te...
Cycles, with Ana Valdivia
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ana Valdivia walks me through her research on the connections between data centers, AI, and mining. We discuss what it means to be a researcher lookin...
Contradictions, with Melissa Gregg
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Melissa Gregg and I discuss what it means to think ecologically, in, through, and with technology, at a time of perpetually new things compelling us i...
Nuance, with Tega Brain
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With Tega Brain — who, after many recommendations – I finally got to meet over Zoom, we discuss using bots to distort clicks related to climate an...
Resurrected, with Tonia Sutherland
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Resurrecting” means bringing back to life, raising from the dead, restoring to vibrancy, bringing into public view, reanimating… Tonia Sutherla...
Neural, with Théo Lepage-Richer and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
n this episode, I have a truly delightful conversation about neural networks with Théo Lepage-Richer and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal. We go through the ma...
Refusal, with Blair Attard-Frost
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Blair Attard-Frost and I discuss AI value & supply chains, AI policies and strategies in Canada and how queer and trans theories c...
Imaginaries, with Fenwick McKelvey
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A recent open letter by Future of Life Institute calling for a six-month ban on AI development has received widespread attention online. Fenwick McKel...
Chatter, with David M. Berry, Peggy Weil, Arthur Schwarz, Mark Marino and Jeff Shrager
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I speak with some members of the ELIZANGEN project: David M. Berry, Peggy Weil, Arthur Schwarz, Mark Marino and Jeff Shrager. ELIZA is...
Risk, with Émile P. Torres
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wonder what longtermism is and how it’s come to be such a big influence over the tech world? I speak with Émile P. Torres about all things con...
Nostalgia, with Grafton Tanner
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is nostalgia? A memory? A feeling? A weapon?? Tune in to my conversation with Grafton Tanner about the relationship between tech, nostalgia, retr...
Flesh, with Maya Indira Ganesh
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maya and I talk about [digital] flesh, [digital] intimacies, and how writing in and out of academic contexts helps us feel through our best ideas. We ...
Unsafe, with Gina Neff
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gina and I talk about her recent article(s) on Wired.com that track violence against women and girls on the internet. We discuss how the internet shou...
Stale, with Zane Griffin Talley Cooper
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zane and I delve deep into the materialities of the virtual world, and try to imagine who the Metaverse (in all its possible iterations) is for — wi...
Greener, with Sasha Luccioni
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sasha Luccioni explains LLM to be their parameters and why these matter when thinking about the social and environmental ramifications of AI. Recorded...
Handled, with Hank Gerba
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hank Gerba was once one of Sophia The Robot’s handlers, and in this episode he reveals the magic (deception) behind social robots that promise to be...
Promised, with Jake Pitre
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jake Pitre and I discuss the concept of the Metaverse and the future it wants. Recorded Jan 18, 2023. Released March 1, 2023. Who Wants the Metaverse?...
Fake, with Gabriele de Seta
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gabriele de Seta and I have a great conversation about deepfakes in a Chinese context. One of the big insights of this episode is that we may have to ...
Soulless, with Eryk Salvaggio
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eryk Salvaggio and I discuss what GANs, stable diffusion and neural networks are, and we take listeners through the process of “reading” an AI ima...
Death, with Tamara Kneese
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tamara Kneese and I have a truly delightful conversation about death and the personal data that complicates estate planning and digital doubles. The m...
Terror, with Olivia Snow
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Olivia Snow and I chat about the social implications of Lensa, technically a picture editor for selfies and photo retouching, or “an all-in-one imag...
Allure, with Luke Munn
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Luke Munn and I discuss the allure of ChatGPT technology. ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to hav...
Grievance, with Sarah T. Roberts
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of The Data Fix, I speak with Dr. Sarah T. Roberts, an expert in commercial content moderation and THE cultural critic we need r...