In this episode, I talk to Dr. Sharla Alegria about inequality in the tech workforce. We discuss tech workplace culture, the relationship between ethics and equality, and Sharla explains why robots aren't really taking your job--but growing culture of inequality might.

In this episode of "Technically Human," I talk to Dr. Rashawn Ray and Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, both Fellows at the Brookings Institution, about race, tech, policing, and the digital divide. We talk about the role of video technology and social media in police accountability, the dangers of surveillance technologies developed in Silicon Valley when deployed in policing, and the long history--and the consequences--of the digital divide in the context of social equity.

In this episode, I talk to Jeff Ryan, author of Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. We discuss gaming culture, the gender dynamics of the gaming community, and Jeff defines the key to gaming, in what he calls "the ludology of play."

In this episode, I sit down with ecocritic Dr. Timothy Morton to talk about the relationship between tech and ecocriticism. We talk about the human relationship to the non-human world, we discuss the ethics of technological production in the age of the Anthropocene, and we analyze how the stories we tell ourselves about tech production as "progress" may bear devastating consequences in the form of environmental destruction. 

In this episode, I sit down with Rob Rastovich, CTO of ThingLogix to talk about the Internet of Things. We discuss the problem of privacy in an age where all of our things talk to one another--and where tech companies are listening in to our conversations with our devices. Rob addresses some of the ethical critiques that have emerged about IoT, and I ask him about how he understands the relationship between his work as a technologist, anchored in the digital world of tech, and his work as a rancher, anchored in the very physical world of non-human animals, plants, and land.

In this series, we talk about adaptive technologies and physical disability. In this episode of the series, Paralympian Ezra Frech joins us to discuss the disability community at the intersection of technology. We discuss disability in the space of intersectionality, the significance of sports for the disability community, and why designing for a diversity of bodies, with equity and empathy, makes a difference.

When Haley Pavone proposed a convertible high heel to flat shoe, industry experts told her it was impossible. When she successfully engineered a shoe that could convert from a flat to a heel, venture capitalists often couldn't see the value--or even the problem. Fashion footwear for women is an industry developed by and run by men. In the episode, Haley talks about equity and inclusion in fashion, and explains how she engineered the first convertible flat to heel shoe. We talk about empathic and humane design, feminism and entrepreneurship, and why ethical technology requires us to think about how we'd walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

Haley Pavone is the Founder & CEO at Pashion Footwear. She is a Cal Poly graduate in Business and Entrepreneurship, and an alumnus of the University's Center or Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She has appeared been profiled by Forbes, Businesswire, and she recently appeared on the critically acclaimed and multi-Emmy® Award-winning entrepreneurial-themed ABC reality show “Shark Tank.” She’s passionate about empathic and humane design, and building collectively and collaboratively, with insight, inclusion, and compassion.

In this episode, I give my mic over to Ana Marsh and Matt Perry, two producers on the show, for an interview with John Maeda.

Dr. John Maeda is an American technologist and product experience leader who is known around the world for building bridges between business, engineering, and design—and his dedication to working inclusively. He serves on the board of Directors at Sonos and the Smithsonian Design Museum, he is the former President/CEO of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and he is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins venture capital in Silicon Valley.

To quote WIRED Magazine, “Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance.”

Ana and Matt talk about what it means to blend tech and art, how we can think about the future of humane design, and how we can make tech great again.

In this episode of "Technically Human," I sit down with Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, one of the world's leading experts in climate science. 

We talk about the technologies that can prevent environmental destruction, and how tech innovation can drive a clean energy vision for the future. Mark explains why we already have the science and tech to build this future, and how--with the political and social will--we can create a world powered by renewable energy--not in a distant future, but NOW. 

In this episode of the “Technically Human” podcast, I sit down with Jaron Lanier, the creator of virtual reality. Jaron and I discuss the meaning, and the future, of reality in an increasingly virtual world, and we talk about what virtual reality was in its early stages. Jaron outlines his concerns and critique of technological culture, and he explains why the kind of behavior modification and manipulation engineered by social media platforms has become, in his mind, a “Behaviours of Users Modified, and Made into an Empire for Rent," or a BUMMER.

We are back with our third and final episode in the “Changing Minds” series!

Across the 3 episodes, we focus on civil discourse, and we ask what it means to engage in dialogue with people with whom we disagree, sometimes deeply.  In the first two episodes, I spoke with Daryl Davis about racism, and how he envisions the possibility of changing the minds of those who believe, and participate in, white supremacist and separatist movements.

Bill Ottman is the founder of Minds.com, a new community-owned, “open source” social media network that prizes privacy, transparency, and open exchange. We explore the advantages, and the challenges, of unfettered free speech, we talk about relationship between tech and civil discourse, and Bill talks about his vision of a social media ecosystem that can help pave the way toward creating a healthier and more vibrant national conversation—not in spite of our differences and distances, but because of them.