The Contrafabulists Podcast: Recent Episodes
Contrafabulists
Welcome to the Contrafabulists podcast, Kin Lane and Audrey Watters weekly dissection of the latest technology myth-making.
In this episode, we discuss Jack Dorsey of Twitter's recent tweet about having regrets about helping centralize control over the Internet into the hands of corporations--with Audrey and Kin exploring why we find ourselves disillusioned with Internet technology today.
In this episode, we talk about one of our least favorite fabulisms, that 'software is eating the world'.
In this episode, we talk about 'infrastructural violence' and tech companies' inability to address what's happening on their platforms.
In this episode, we talk about tech journalism's failures to warn the public about tech's failures.
In this episode, we talk about fake news and natural disasters, Facebook and political advertising, and the Equifax data breach.
In this episode, we talk about how Google (and other tech companies) are reshaping public policy and the narratives about public education.
In this episode, we talk about the tech industry's response to Charlottesville and the future of 'free speech' online.
In this episode, we discuss the hype around Hyperloop and an anti-diversity manifesto written by a Google engineer.
In this episode, we discuss the state of IT (and, more generally, expertise) in the federal government.
In this episode, we discuss our new policy of deleting old social media status updates and the new White House Communication's decision to do the same.
In this episode, we discuss Facebook censorship, fake news, harassment on Twitter, and harassment by tech investors.
In this episode, we discuss how tech companies use patents for storytelling and for lawsuits.
In this episode, we talk about terrorist attacks in Portland and Manchester, Facebook, Fox, and 'fake news.'
In this episode, we talk about WannaCry, information security and planned obsolescence, and democracy's (technological) vulnerabilities.
In this episode, we talk about net neutrality, content moderation, and phishing attacks.
In this episode, we talk about Audrey's decision to block annotations from her websites.
In this episode, we talk about brain implants, expeditions to Mars, Planned Parenthood as startup, and other technological, ideological nightmares.
In this episode, we talk about data security, advertising as a hack, psychological manipulation, and information literacy.
In this episode, we talk about Trump's budget proposal, federal technology initiatives, microwave opens as spyware, and other lies about technology's capabilities.
In this episode, we talk about machine learning and machine intelligence and the future of human knowledge.
In this episode, we talk about venture capital, data collection, and the narratives Silicon Valley tells to justify its existence.
In this episode, we talk about Russian hacking, Twitter harassment, and Facebook versus the public sphere.
In this episode, we talk about nuclear weapons, military technology, home automation, and the return of the worst of the Eighties.
In this episode, we talk about libertarian futurist fantasies, regulatory mechanisms, and the schadenfreude of watching tech CEOs squirm and grovel in Trump Tower.
In this episode, we talk about misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, the Russians, and digital polarization.
In this episode, we talk about the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Ghost Ship fire, and Cambridge Analytica.
In this episode, we talk about Betsy DeVos, Trump's choice for Secretary of Education and continue our discussion of fake news and Facebook.
In this episode, we talk about Trump, totalitarianism, swamps, and how we are going to build anti-fascist technologies and communities moving forward.
In this episode, we talk about email, predictions about the future of technology, Presidents, and literacy.
In this episode, we talk about Facebook, algorithms, and politics, as well as about certification and the legitimization of new technologies.
In this episode, we talk about the Internet outage on Friday, Wikileaks and free speech, and Facebook and misinformation.
In this episode, we talk about Peter Thiel's politics, technology and surveillance, and the failure of Silicon Valley to actually pull of their dystopian vision.
In this episode, we talk about constructive technology criticism and the complexities of Javascript.
In this episode, we talk about The Cyber, metaphors of cybersecurity, and fantasies about colonizing Mars.
In this episode, we talk about Palmer Luckey, pigeons, and the dystopic landscape of Facebook and VR.
In this episode, we talk about a domain of one's own, identity, integrity, and air gaps.
In this episode, we talk about Wikileaks, ethics, transparency, and Twitter verification.
In this episode, we talk about Isaac Asimov's 'First Law of Robotics,' the FAA's new rules on drones, the militarization of technology, and killer robots.
In this episode, we talk about the history of technology (and the history of marketing technology), technology and an obsession with 'real time' data, and Hillary Clinton's 'innovation agenda.'
In this episode, we talk about platforms, social media data, blockchains, code, and silly techno-utopian fantasies about 'smart' things.
In this episode, we talk about violence and toxic masculinity, the ethics of drones, and the joys of being out of range of the Internet and cellphone signals.
In this episode, we discuss technology and attention and the lie of 'what technology wants'.
In this episode, we discuss what was a huge week for API-related news: the Google v Oracle case, the Twilio IPO, and the sale of API Evangelist (which is now, thanks to the API community, unnecessary). We also talk about billionaires and lawsuits, billionaires and ed-tech investment, Trump, and Sea Monkeys.
In this episode, we discuss the role that technology plays in our lives, our reliance on data and devices, and predictions about AI's spring.
In this episode, we discuss Oracle v Google and the (unfortunate) copyrightability of APIs.
In this episode, we discuss Uber and Lyft's defeat at the ballot box in Austin, the failures of the technology press, the horrors of the Techcrunch homepage, and the Further Future Festival for tech's 1%.
In this episode, we continue our Prince-inspired discussion from last week about the importance of controlling your own intellectual property.
Welcome to the second episode of the Tech Gypsies podcast, Kin Lane and Audrey Watters' weekly discussion of the latest technology news. In this episode, we talk about Prince, music, technology, and the importance of controlling your own intellectual property.
Welcome to the first episode of the Tech Gypsies podcast, Kin Lane and Audrey Watters' (hopefully) weekly discussion of the latest technology news. In this episode, we discuss bots (past, present, and future), investment patterns, Facebook's plans for the future, what happens when we can't afford the loans for our Internet-connected devices, and UC Davis' attempts to delete its pepper-spray incident from the Web.