Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchNicole C. Nelson, "Model Behavior: Animal Experiments, Complexity, and the Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders" (U Chicago Press, 2018)
Episode 388
Mice are used as model organisms across a wide range of fields in science today--but it is far from obvious how studying a mouse in a maze can help u…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Brain Rot: What Our Screens Are Doing to Our Minds (8)
Episode 247
In Episode 8, Dr. Messina and Dr. Gill, the host and co-host of this podcast, talked about the emotional toll that is associated with lost time---tim…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Jennifer Holt, "Cloud Policy: A History of Regulating Pipelines, Platforms, and Data" (MIT Press, 2024)
How the United States' regulation of broadband pipelines, digital platforms, and data—together understood as “the cloud”—has eroded civil liberties, …
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Beaty Rubens, "Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home" (Bodleian Library, 2025)
Episode 169
Radio, today, can feel like a faithful old companion, but its early history was sensational. Between 1922 and 1939, British life was transformed by w…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Darryl Campbell, "Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software" (W. W. Norton, 2025)
A tech insider explains how capitalism and software development make for such a dangerous mix.
Software was supposed to radically improve society. Ou…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Sandra Matz, "Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior" (HBRP, 2025)
Episode 142
A fascinating exploration of how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology—from the pioneering expert on psychological targeti…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Brain Rot: What Our Screens Are Doing to Our Minds (7)
Episode 246
Drs. Messina and Gill discussed the concept of technoference, which refers to the interference of technology with human connection and its impact on …
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Peter Krapp, "Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of Simulation" (MIT Press, 2024)
Episode 88
We're pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Krapp, the author of Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of Simulation (MIT Press, 2024), to the New Books Networ…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Jessica Smith on 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 a…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Amanda D. Lotz, "After Mass Media: Storytelling for Microaudiences in the Twenty-First Century" (NYU Press, 2025)
Episode 153
With significant evolutions in digital technologies and media distribution in the past two decades, the business of storytelling through screens has …
11 months, 4 weeks ago