Episode Details

What happens when a former Soviet state experiments with Silicon Valley-style capitalism - when the worlds of open source hardware collide with proprietary corporate control? What happens when American landlords use the latest and greatest in surveillance tech to terrorize renters? McElroy also shares the origin story of SF BARF which Sonja Trauss led, which later became the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement. Entertain these questions and more in a chat between Talk of the Bay host Meilin Obinata and guest Dr. Erin McElroy, a professor of Geography at the University of Washington who co-founded the AntiEviction Mapping Project which includes maps of the "worst evictors" in the Bay Area and Landlord Tech Watch "dedicated to producing collective knowledge about landlord-driven surveillance techniques." If you like hearing about data practices, you also might enjoy this Moment of Truth episode featuring Dr. Anita Say Chan, author of "Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech" from March 2025.