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PODCAST

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

New Books Network

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox:

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All Episodes

41:31

Sandra Matz, "Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/08

A fascinating exploration of how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology—from the pioneering expert on psychological targeting.There are more pieces of digital data than there are stars in the universe. This data helps us monitor our planet, decipher our genetic code, and take a deep dive into our psychology. As algorithms become increasingly adept at accessing the human mind, they also become more and more powerful at controlling it, enticing us to buy a certain product

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22:48

Brain Rot: What Our Screens Are Doing to Our Minds (7)

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/07

Drs. Messina and Gill discussed the concept of technoference, which refers to the interference of technology with human connection and its impact on personal interactions and relationships. They emphasized the importance of being present in the moment and not letting devices like smartphones and laptops distract us from connecting with others, highlighting the negative impact of constant distractions on relationships.Dr. Messina provided an example that focused on a family gathered around their

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73:44

Peter Krapp, "Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/06

We're pleased to welcome Dr. Peter Krapp, the author of Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of Simulation (MIT Press, 2024), to the New Books Network. In Computing Legacies, Peter Krapp explores a media history of simulation to excavate three salient aspects of digital culture. Firstly, he profiles simulation as cultural technique, enabling symbolic work and foregrounding hypothetical literacy. Secondly, he positions simulation as crucial for the preservation of cultural memory, where modeling,

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69:56

Jessica Smith on Engineering and Public...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/05

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks to Jessica Smith, Professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society Department and Dean’s Fellow for Earth and Society Programs of the Colorado School of Mines, about her work on engineering and public accountability in energy and mining industries. The pair discuss Smith’s long-held interests in mining and extractive industries, including her roots in coal country; her book, Extracting Accountability: Engineers and Corporate Social Responsibility (MIT Press,

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64:29

Amanda D. Lotz, "After Mass Media: Storytelling for...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/02

With significant evolutions in digital technologies and media distribution in the past two decades, the business of storytelling through screens has shifted dramatically. In the past, blockbuster movies and TV shows like Friends aimed first for domestic mass audiences, although the biggest hits circulated globally. Now, transnational distribution plays a primary role and imagined audiences are global. At the same time, the once-mass audience has significantly fragmented to enable an expansion in the

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60:55

Institutional Corruption in News Media: A...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/05/01

Why has trust in the news media declined? How can we combat biased reporting and the spread of misinformation? And how do these challenges compare to the media landscape during America’s founding era?Join us as we explore these pressing questions with William English, a political economist and Associate Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Professor English will discuss his long-standing research on the intersection

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56:34

Matthew Daniel Eddy, "Media and the Mind: Art,...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/30

We often think of reason as a fixed entity, as a definitive body of facts that do not change over time. But during the Enlightenment, reason also was seen as a process, as a set of skills enacted on a daily basis. How, why, and where were these skills learned? Concentrating on Scottish students living during the long eighteenth century, Media and the Mind: Art, Science, and Notebooks as Paper Machines, 1700-1830 (University of Chicago Press, 2023) by Dr. Matthew Daniel Eddy argues that notebooks

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70:31

Radiophilia

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/28

Today’s guest is Carolyn Birdsall, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. If you’re a scholar of sound or radio, you likely know her work, particularly her monograph Nazi Soundscapes (AUP, 2012) which was the recipient of the ASCA Book Award in 2013. Her new book, Radiophilia (Bloomsbury, 2023), examines the love of radio through history. It will be a great value to anyone–from novice to expert–who wants to understand radio studies and think about where it should go in the

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57:00

Melissa Villa-Nicholas, "Data Borders: How Silicon...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/27

Uncle Sam is watching, whether you like it or not. And the surveillance program the United States is building has as its foundation immigrants who have crossed the nation's southern border. In Data Borders: How Silicon Valley is Builidng an Industry Around Immigrants (University of California Press, 2023), UCLA information studies professor Melissa Villa-Nicholas deftly explains how private corporations such as Amazon and Palantir, government agencies including ICE and the CBP, and even public

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74:53

Lauren E. Bridges on Fantasies and Realities of...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/26

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Lauren Bridges, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, about her work on the political, economic, and environmental politics of big data infrastructures. They focus on some of Bridges’ work on the disconnect between the promises made to localities around digital transformation and the realities of data center power demands and other material factors. They also discuss Bridges’ other projects, including “Geographies of Digital

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52:05

Peter B. Kaufman, "The Moving Image: A User's Manual"...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/25

Video (television, film, the moving image generally) is today’s most popular information medium. Two-thirds of the world’s internet traffic is video. Americans get their news and information more often from screens and speakers than through any other means. The Moving Image: A User's Manual (MIT Press, 2025) is the first authoritative account of how we have arrived here, together with the first definitive manual to help writers, educators, and publishers use video more effectively. Drawing on

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33:16

Daniel J. Solove, "On Privacy and Technology" (Oxford...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/24

Data and privacy have emerged as critical issues in our digitally interconnected era, profoundly influencing individual rights, societal norms, and democratic processes. In his book, On Privacy and Technology (Oxford UP, 2025), Daniel Solove provides a compelling exploration of the intersection between evolving technologies and privacy rights. Drawing on insights from law, philosophy, sociology, and communication studies, Solove unpacks the complex ways in which digital innovations challenge

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39:02

Brain Rot: What Screens Are Doing to Our Minds (6)

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/22

Drs. Messina and Gill talked about cognitive offloading in our digital age—how smartphones, AI, and other technologies are reshaping our mental habits, our memory, our capacity for attention, and ultimately, our emotional lives. Cognitive offloading refers to the process of using tools and technologies to take over mental functions we used to perform ourselves. Whether it's using GPS to navigate, storing phone numbers in our contacts, or asking ChatGPT for help organizing thoughts, we’re

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61:16

Will AI Transform What it Means to be Human in the...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/21

It’s the UConn Popcast, and what impact will AI have on being human in the next decade? Elon University’s Center for Imagining the Digital Future just released a big report on this question, based on a survey of nearly 300 global tech experts.These insiders predict major changes in the very near future to the way we think about work, life, and ourselves. We talked with Lee Rainie, the director of the center and co-author of the report. We also discuss another center report, on the impact of AI on

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59:01

Jonathan D. Cohen, "Losing Big: America's Dangerous...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/20

In 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the floodgates for states to legalize betting on sports. Eager for revenue, almost forty states have done so. The result is the explosive growth of an industry dominated by companies like FanDuel and DraftKings. One out of every five American adults gambled on sports in 2023, amounting to $121 billion, more than they spent on movies and video games combined. The rise of online sports gambling—the immediacy of betting with your phone, the ability of the

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64:57

Jennifer Clapp, "Titans of Industrial Agriculture:...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/19

Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of farm machinery, fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides are sold to farmers around the world. Although agricultural inputs are a huge sector of the global economy, the lion's share of that market is controlled by a relatively small number of very large transnational corporations. The high degree of concentration among these agribusiness titans is striking, considering that just a few hundred years ago agricultural inputs were not even marketed goods

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71:14

Ian Boyd, "Science and Politics" (Polity, 2024)

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/18

The recent coronavirus pandemic proved that the time-old notion seems now truer than ever: that science and politics represent a clash of cultures. But why should scientists simply “stick to the facts” and leave politics to the politicians when the world seems to be falling down around us? Drawing on his experience as both a research scientist and an expert advisor at the centre of government, Ian Boyd takes an empirical approach to examining the current state of the relationship between science

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68:53

María de Los Ángeles Picone, "Landscaping Patagonia:...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/17

In late nineteenth-century Latin America, governments used new scientific, technological, and geographical knowledge not only to consolidate power and protect borders but also to define the physical contours of their respective nations. Chilean and Argentine authorities in particular attempted to transform northern Patagonia, a space they perceived as "desert," through a myriad of nationalizing policies, from military campaigns to hotels. But beyond the urban governing halls of Chile and Argentina,

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61:55

Yellowlees Douglas, "Writing for the Reader's Brain:...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/16

What makes one sentence easy to read and another a slog that demands re-reading? Where do you put information you want readers to recall? Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, psychology and psycholinguistics, Writing for the Reader’s Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2025) provides a practical, how-to guide on how to write for your reader. It introduces the five 'Cs' of writing - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence - and demonstrates how to use these to bring your writing to

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46:06

Anita Say Chan, "Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech...

New Books in Science, Technology, and Society ·

2025/04/15

It’s a common refrain: AI is neither good nor bad because that depends on how its used. Professor Anita Say Chan begs to differ. Chan is the author of Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future (U California Press, 2025). Chan is Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences and Department of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as the author of a prior book Networking Peripheries on tech movements among

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2,293 results

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