The Received Wisdom

The Politics of Air Pollution, Ozempic, and Luddism ft. Brian Merchant

CRISPR therapies, Boeing, and Reconnecting with Alondra Nelson

Climate Change Realpolitik, Following the Sams, and Evaluating Research ft. Sarah de Rijcke

Electric Cars, the Problems with Tech Biographies, and Against Technoableism ft. Ashley Shew

The Long, Hot AI Summer, India's Space Mission, and Addressing Inequality through Innovation ft. Richard Jones

The Importance of the Humanities, Tech Politics, and Equity in Science ft. Cassidy Sugimoto

Abortion Politics, a Moratorium on Generative AI, and the Meaning of Emergency ft. Elizabeth Ellcessor

The Politics of Expertise and Retelling the Story of Racism in the Pulse Oximeter ft. Amy Moran-Thomas

Science and Society at the White House, ChatGPT, and the Paradox of Data-Driven Agriculture

The Future of Academic Culture, Cryptocurrency, and Abortion ft. Aziza Ahmed

British Politics, the CHIPS and Science Act, and Rethinking the Green Revolution ft. Glenn Stone

The Politics of Open Access, Alzheimer's Research, and Ghost Work ft. Mary Gray

The TRIPS Patent Waiver and Communicating Science Differently ft. Sabrina McCormick

The TRIPS Patent Waiver and Communicating Science Differently ft. Sabrina McCormick

The Myths of Genius, IP, and Surveillance ft. Chris Gilliard

Theranos, Medical Devices, and Indigenous Knowledge on Climate Change ft. Kyle Powys Whyte

Considering an AI Bill of Rights, Facebook, and the Technological Surveillance of Truckers ft. Karen Levy

Episode 39: The Politics of Air Pollution, Ozempic, and Luddism ft. Brian MerchantIn this episode, Shobita and Jack tackle the EPA's recent efforts to increase monitoring of air pollutants, Jack's new documentary on existential risks, and the Ozempic craze. And Jack chats with Brian Merchant, a freelance journalist who focuses on tech who recently wrote Blood in the machine: The origins of rebellion against big tech about the history of Luddism.Links:- Merchant, Brian. (2023) Blood in the machine: The origins of rebellion against big tech. Hatchette Book Group. New York.- Brian Merchant's Substack- For UK listeners, an audio adaptation of Blood in the Machine on BBC Radio.- Stilgoe, Jack (2024). How Real is the Existential Risk from AI? Analysis 4. BBC Radio.Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

In the first episode of 2024, Shobita and Jack reflect on the first CRISPR therapy approved by drug regulators around the world, for sickle cell disease. We also talk about the safety issues plaguing Boeing, and the Post Office scandal roiling the UK and why it matters for regulating AI. And, we reconnect with Alondra Nelson, one of The Received Wisdom's first guests! Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and previously as deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy(OSTP). References:- Elish, M. (2019, March 23). Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. - Lazar, S and A. Nelson (2023, July 13). "AI safety on whose terms?" Science. 381 (6654): 138- Zook, M, S. Barocas, d. boyd, K. Crawford, E. Keller, S. P. Gangadharan, A. Goodman, R. Hollander, B.A. Koenig, J. Metcalf, A. Narayanan, A. Nelson, and F. Pasquale (2017, March 30). "Ten simple rules for responsible big data research." PLOS Computational Biology. - Nelson, A. (2016). The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome. Beacon Press.- Nelson, A, C. Marcum, J. Isler (2022, Fall). "Public Access to Advance Equity." Issues in Science and Technology. - White House (2022, Oct 4). Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.

TRANSCRIPTThis month, Shobita and Jack reflect on the recent COP meeting in the United Arab Emirates, recent AI news including the Biden Administration's Executive Order, the UK summit, and the fates of the two Sams: Altman and Bankman-Fried. And they chat with Sarah de Rijcke, Professor in Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies and Scientific Director at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.References:- D'Ignazio, C. and L. F. Klein.Data Feminism. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020. - Andreessen, M. (2023, October 16).The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Andreessen Horowitz. - de Rijcke, S. (2023). Does science need heroes? Leiden Madtrics blog, CWTS, Leiden University.- Pölönen, J., Rushforth, A.D., de Rijcke, S., Niemi, L., Larsen, B. & Di Donato, F. (2023). Implementing research assessment reforms: Tales from the frontline.- Rushforth, A.D. & de Rijcke, S. (2023). Practicing Responsible Research Assessment: Qualitative study of Faculty Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure Assessments in the United States. Preprint. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/2d7ax- Scholten, W., Franssen, T.P., Drooge, L. van, de Rijcke, S. & Hessels, L.K. (2021). Funding for few, anticipation among all: Effects of excellence funding on academic research groups. Science and Public Policy, 48(2), 265-275. DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scab018 https://academic.oup.com/spp/article/48/2/265/6184850- Penders, B., de Rijcke, S. & Holbrook, J.B. (2020). Science's moral economy of repair: Replication and the circulation of reference. Accountability in Research, first published online January 27, 2020. DOI: 10.1080/08989621.2020.1720659.- Müller, R. & De Rijcke, S. (2017). Thinking with indicators. Exploring the Epistemic Impacts of Academic Performance Indicators in the Life Sciences. Research Evaluation. DOI: 10.1093/reseval/rvx023. Study Questions:1. What is techno-optimism, and how does it apply in the case of AI?2. How might we think about the strengths and weaknesses of current efforts to address AI governance by the U.S. government?3. What are some negative consequences of simplistic performance metrics for research assessment, and why do such metrics remain in use?4. How do large companies like Elsevier now extend their domain beyond publishing? How might this shape the trajectory of research assessment methods?5. What hopes exist for better performance metrics for research assessments?More at thereceivedwisdom.org

In this episode, Shobita and Jack discuss the United Auto Worker strike, facial recognition technology in schools, and the recent biographies of Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried. And, they interview Ashley Shew, author of Against Technoableism and Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.Links- Ashley Shew (2023). Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement. W.W. Norton.- Virdi, J. (2022). Hearing happiness: Deafness cures in history. The University of Chicago Press.- Nario-Redmond, M. R. (2020). Ableism: The causes and consequences of disability prejudice. Wiley Blackwell.- Ashley Shew (2020). Let COVID-19 expand awareness of disability tech. Nature. May 5.- Weise, J. (n.d.). The Cyborg Jillian Weise. Wheelchair Sports Camp. (2015). Wheelchair Sports Camp. - New York State Education Department (2023). "State Education Department Statement on Release of the Use of Biometric Identifying Technology in Schools Report." August 7.Study Questions and full transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Jack and Shobita are back after a summer hiatus! We return talking about--of course--ChatGPT and other generative AI, the problem at Fukushima, and India's Chandrayaan Rover. Then we chat with Richard A.L. Jones, professor of material physics and innovation policy . He is also the Vice President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement at Manchester University.- Richard A.L. Jones (2022). "Science and innovation policy for hard times: an overview of the UK's Research and Development landscape."The Productivity Institute.- Tom Forth and Richard A.L. Jones (2020). "The Missing £4 Billion." Nesta.- Richard A.L. Jones (2019). "A Resurgence of the Regions: rebuilding innovation capacity across the whole UK."- Richard A.L. Jones and James WIlsdon (2018). "The Biomedical Bubble."Nesta.Richard A.L. Jones.Soft Machines. Blog.- Jack Stilgoe (2023). "We need a Weizenbaum test for AI." Science. August 11.- Gil Scott-Heron, (1970) "Whitey on the Moon."Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Jack and Shobita discuss the decline in humanities majors as the number of computer and data science majors rise, and why this is will have very bad consequences. Then they chat about emerging efforts to regulate both in vitro gametogenesis (creation of eggs and sperm using pluripotent stem cells) and generative AI. Finally, they talk to Cassidy Sugimoto, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton School Chair in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology, about her new book, Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advancement.- Nick Anderson (2023). "College is remade as tech majors surge and humanities dwindle." The Washington Post. May 20.- Center for Genetics and Society (2023). "Whether or How to Use Artificial Gametes." April 12.- Cassidy Sugimoto (2023). Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advancement. Harvard University Press.- Cassidy Sugimoto (2022). "Narrow hiring practices at US universities revealed." Nature. September 29.- Cassidy Sugimoto (2021). "Scientific success by numbers." Nature. May 3.- Cassidy Sugimoto (2019). "Rethinking impact factors: Better ways to judge a journal." Nature. May 28.- Hoppe, Travis A. et al. (2019). “Topic choice contributes to the lower rate of NIH awards to African-American/black scientists.” Science Advances. 5: eaaw7238.Transcript and discussion questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

What makes an emergency? This month, Jack and Shobita talk to Elizabeth Ellcessor, Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at University of Virginia, who studies how emergency alert systems shape our understanding of crisis, how this has changed with the rise of new consumer technologies, and the implications especially for communities who are marginalized. They also wrestle with the politics of science in US court decisions about abortion drugs, and recent calls for a moratorium on certain types of artificial intelligence.- Future of Life Institute (2023). Policymaking in the Pause: What can Policymakers Do Now to Combat Risks from Advanced AI Systems?- Future of Life Institute et al. (2023). Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter. - (2023). "In Support of FDA's Authority to Regulate Vaccines."- Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (April 7, 2023).- Elizabeth Ellcessor (2022). In Case of Emergency: How Technologies Mediate Crisis and Automate Inequality. NYU Press.- Elizabeth Ellcessor (2021). “COVID messages make emergency alerts just another text in the crowd on your home screen.” The Conversation. June 9.- Elizabeth Ellcessor (2018). "Academic Accessibility, a Flashback." April 16.- Matt Richtel (2023). "My Watch Thinks I'm Dead." The New York Times. February 3.Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

This month, Jack and Shobita talk about the challenges of ensuring that AI and gene editing reflect human values, and reflect on what the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio tells us about the politics of knowledge. And they chat with Amy Moran-Thomas, Associate Professor of Anthropology at MIT, about her clarion call to address the racial biases embedded in the pulse oximeter, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2020.- Amy Moran-Thomas (2020). "How a Popular Medical Device Encodes Racial Bias." Boston Review. August 5.- Amy Moran-Thomas (2021). "Oximeters used to be designed for equity. What happened?" WIRED. June 4.- Amy Moran-Thomas (2019). Traveling with Sugar: Chronicles of a Global Epidemic. University of California Press.- Kadija Ferryman (n.d.) "Framing Inequity in Health Technology: The Digital Divide, Data Bias, and Racialization." SSRC: JustTech.- Andrea Ballestero and Yesmar Oyarzun (2022). "Devices: A location for feminist analytics and praxis." Feminist Anthropology. 3(2): 227-233.- Yesmar Oyarzun, Juliann Bi, Eddie Jackson (n.d.) Undertones.Study questions and transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Happy New Year!! In this episode, Jack and Shobita discuss Alondra Nelson's departure from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the meaning for the position she created, Deputy Director for Science and Society. We also try to get beyond ChatGPT's hype to talk about some of the long-term implications. And we chat with Kelly Bronson, Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at the University of Ottawa, about her book The Immaculate Conception of Data: Agribusiness, Activists, and Their Shared Politics of the Future.- Kelly Bronson (2022). The Immaculate Conception of Data: Agribusiness, Activists, and Their Shared Politics of the Future. McGill-Queen's University Press.- Kelly Bronson (2022). "The dangers of big data extend to farming." The Conversation. June 27.- Kelly Bronson (2022). "Four reasons we should think twice about a data-driven approach to agricultural sustainability." September 26.- Kelly Bronson (2017). "Look twice at the digital agricultural revolution." September 7.- Billy Perrigo (2023). "Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic." Time. January 18.- Jill (2022). "ChatGPT is multilingual but monocultural, and it's learning your values." December 6.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

This month, Shobita and Jack talk about the recent concerns about academic culture in the science and technology studies community, how to understand FTX's recent implosion, and the bizarre logics of effective altruism. And we chat with Boston University law professor Aziza Ahmed about how the politics of knowledge are shaping abortion politics in the United States.- Darren Tseng, Stephen Diehl, Jan Akalin (2022). Popping the Crypto Bubble: Market Manias, Phony Populism, Techno-Solutionism. Consilience Publishing.- Concerned.Tech (2022). "Letter in Support of Responsible Fintech Policy." - Aziza Ahmed (2022). "These are the gray areas for women's privacy now in a post-Roe world." CNN Opinion. August 4.- Aziza Ahmed (2021). "The Future of Facts: The Politics of Public Health and Medicine in Abortion Law." University of Colorado Law Review. 92: 1151-1162.- Aziza Ahmed (2020). "Weaponizing Objectivity: The Politics of the CDC." Ms. Magazine. October 28. - Aziza Ahmed (2020). "Will the Supreme Court legitimate pretext?" SCOTUSblog. January 31.- Aziza Ahmed (2017). "Abortion in a Post-Truth Moment: A Response to Erwin Chemerinsky and Michele Goodwin." Texas Law Review. 95: 198-203.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Jack and Shobita chat about the disasters in British politics, the CHIPS and Science Act, and how to determine whether self-driving cars are safe. Plus we chat with anthropologist Glenn Davis Stone, Professor at Sweet Briar College and author of the recent book The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World. Stone argues that we've been learning the story of the Green Revolution all wrong, and this has huge implications for how we think about more recent agricultural technologies like fertilizer and genetically modified organisms.Links related to the episode:Dan Reed and Darío Gil (2022). "Insufficient NSF funding could doom the Chips and Science Act." The Hill. October 13.Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (2022). "Responsible Innovation in Self-Driving Vehicles."Glenn Davis Stone (2022). The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World. Routledge.Glenn Davis Stone (2022). "Surveillance Agriculture and Peasant Autonomy." Journal of Agrarian Change.Glenn Davis Stone (2020). "A Long-term Analysis of a Controversial GMO Crop." Nature Plants. March 13.Glenn Davis Stone (2020). "The Philippines has rated ‘Golden Rice' safe, but farmers might not plant it." The Conversation. February 7.Study Questions:How is the CHIPS and Science Act being framed in the United States?What are the problems with the conventional tale of the Green Revolution?Why has the myth of the Green Revolution been so persistent?What is the problem with GMOs, and specifically BT crops, in India?How have publics gotten more involved in the decisions of the agricultural system? What are the impacts?

It's a new season of The Received Wisdom!! After their partial summer hiatus, Shobita and Jack discuss the fraud allegations that are rocking the foundations of what we know about Alzheimer's Disease, and the Biden Administration's directive to make freely available all publications based on federally funded research. And, they chat with Macarthur Fellow Mary Gray about the "ghost workers" behind digital technologies and supposedly artificial intelligence. Gray is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Faculty Associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and faculty in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University.Relevant Links- Charles Piller (2022). "Blots on a Field?" Science. July 21.- The White House (2022). "Breakthroughs for All: Delivering Equitable Access to America's Research." OSTP Blog. August 25.- Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri (2019). Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a Global Underclass. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.- National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2022). Fostering Responsible Computing Research: Foundations and Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.- Mary L. Gray with Catherine Powell (2021). "The Emerging Technology Underclass." Council on Foreign Relations' Women and Foreign Policy Roundtable Series and Roundtable Series on Cybersecurity and Cyberconflict.- Margaret Bourdeaux, Mary L. Gray, and Barbara Grosz (2020). "How human-centered tech can beat COVID-19 through contact tracing." The Hill. April 20.Study questions and full transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

This episode is the second of Jack's investigations into self-driving cars. Last time, he was interested in Phoenix, Arizona. This time, he's back home in London, an old, complicated, messy city with an extensive public transport system. The episode was presented and written by Jack Stilgoe and edited by Gemma Milne, with research assistance from Nuzhah Miah.Relevant links- Joe Moran, (2006). Crossing the road in Britain, 1931–1976. The Historical Journal, 49 (2), 477-496.- Joe Moran (2010). On roads: a hidden history. Profile Books.- Lucy Suchman (1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge university press.- Peter Norton (2011). Fighting traffic: the dawn of the motor age in the American city. MIT Press.- Peter Norton (2021). Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-tech Driving. Island Press.- https://www.wayve.ai/ (and the company's published papers, e.g.: Hawke, J., Badrinarayanan, V., & Kendall, A. (2021). Reimagining an autonomous vehicle. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.05805). - Chris Tennant, & Jack Stilgoe, (2021). The attachments of ‘autonomous' vehicles. Social Studies of Science, 51(6), 846-870. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063127211038752- Tennant, C., Neels, C., Parkhurst, G., Jones, P., Mirza, S., & Stilgoe, J. (2021). Code, culture and concrete: Self-Driving Vehicles and the Rules of the Road. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 122.Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

This month is a bit different. This episode is the first part of an investigation, led by Jack, into self-driving cars, trying to locate the technology in particular places. The first part focuses on Phoenix, Arizona, a testbed for some of the technology's most ambitious developers and also the scene of the first self-driving car crash to kill a pedestrian. Jack talks to various experts - historians, crash investigators, journalists and tech company representatives - to ask what the technology might mean for different places. The second part moves to Jack's home town, London.The episode was presented and written by Jack Stilgoe and edited by Gemma Milne, with research assistance from Nuzhah Miah.- Jack Stilgoe, (2019) Who Killed Elaine Herzberg?, OneZero, 12 Dec 2019, https://onezero.medium.com/who-killed-elaine-herzberg-ea01fb14fc5e- Chris Tennant, & Jack Stilgoe, (2021). The attachments of ‘autonomous' vehicles. Social Studies of Science, 51(6), 846-870. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063127211038752- Lucy Suchman, (2019). Demystifying the intelligent machine. In Cyborg Futures (pp. 35-61). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21836-2_3- Madeleine C Elish, (2019). Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 5, 40-60.- Peter Norton, (2011). Fighting traffic: the dawn of the motor age in the American city. Mit Press.- Wetmore, J. (2003). Driving the dream. The history and motivations behind 60 years of automated highway systems in America. Automotive History Review, 7, 4-19.Full transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

This month, Shobita and Jack discuss how scientists are engaging in the boiling politics of abortion in the United States, the implications of large language models (a new type of artificial intelligence), and Elon Musk's possible takeover of Twitter. And we have a fascinating conversation with Morgan Ames about her award-winning book The Charisma Machine, which focuses on the global One Laptop Per Child project. Ames is Professor of Practice at the School of Information and Associate Director of Research for the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society at the University of California, Berkeley.- Morgan G. Ames (2019). The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop Per Child. MIT Press.- Morgan G. Ames (2021). "Laptops alone can't bridge the digital divide." MIT Technology Review. October 27.- Morgan G. Ames (2019). "Future Generations will Suffer if we Don't Solve Unequal Access to Tech." Pacific Standard. April 2.- Morgan G. Ames (2019). "The Smartest People in the Room? What Silicon Valley's Supposed Obsession with Tech-Free Private Schools Really Tells Us." LA Review of Books. October 18.- Roger A. Pielke Jr. (2007). The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics. Cambridge University Press.- Dan Sarewitz (2013). "Science must be seen to bridge the political divide." Nature. 493: 7.- Johanna Okerlund, Evan Klasky, Aditya Middha, Sujin Kim, Hannah Rosenfeld, Molly Kleinman, Shobita Parthasarathy (2022). What's in the Chatterbox? Large Language Models, Why They Matter, and What We Should Do About Them. Technology Assessment Project, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Project, University of Michigan.- Richard Van Noorden (2022). "How language-generation AIs could transform science." Nature. April 28.Study Questions:1) What are the problems with scientists taking such a prominent role in the abortion debate, especially in the US? 2) What was the hope behind the One Laptop Per Child project, and how did it fail?3) What biases lay underneath the One Laptop Per Child project, in the idea, the design, and the implementation?4) What role does hype play in shaping our understanding of emerging technologies? What are its positive and negative dimensions?5) Could a One Laptop Per Child-type project ever be successful? How?Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

In this episode, Shobita and Jack discuss this uncertain moment in the pandemic around the world, including the latest negotiations related to the TRIPS patent waiver related to COVID vaccines. They consider emerging efforts to develop a "pangenome" that emphasizes human genetic diversity. And they chat with Professor Sabrina McCormick, a scholar, policymaker, and filmmaker, about her efforts to advocate for climate change action in creative ways.Relevant links:- Roxane Khamsi (2022). "A more-inclusive genome project aims to capture all of human diversity." Nature. 16 March.- Sequestra film (2020).- The Years of Living Dangerously film (2014).- The Years of Living Dangerously, Bringing Climate to the Classroom (2016).- www.sabrinamccormick.com- www.resilienceentertainment.comFull transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org

This month, Jack and Shobita discuss the resignation of the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, African scientists' success in copying the Moderna vaccine and the potential long-term implications, and the politics of long COVID. And we speak with scholar and writer Chris Gilliard about the rise of surveillance technologies, their implications especially for marginalized communities, and what we can do about it.Related links:- Chris Gilliard (2022). "Crime Prediction Keeps Society Stuck in the Past." WIRED. January 2.- Chris Gilliard (2021). "A Black Woman Invented Home Security. Why Did It Go So Wrong?" WIRED. November 14.- Chris Gilliard and David Golumbia (2021). "Luxury Surveillance." Real Life. July 6.- Chris Gilliard (2020). "Caught in the Spotlight." Urban Omnibus. January 9.- Chris Gilliard (2018). "Friction-Free Racism." Real Life. October 15.- Will Oremus (2021). "A Detroit community college professor is fighting Silicon Valley's surveillance machine. People are listening." The Washington Post. September 17.- Alex Thompson (2022). "Biden's top science adviser bullied and demeaned subordinates, according to White House investigation." Politico. February 7.- Amy Maxmen (2022). "South African scientists copy Moderna's COVID vaccine." Nature. February 3.Study Questions:1. Can you think of additional examples of luxury and imposed surveillance? What are their similarities and differences?2. What are the limitations to the consent model for accessing digital technologies? What harms might it cause?3. Think of a common digital technology that clearly produces social harm (e.g., Facebook, facial recognition technology). How might you redesign it to maximize the social benefits while limiting the harms?4. How might governments regulate emerging digital technologies to maximize societal benefits?Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

In this episode, Shobita and Jack discuss the recent conviction of the now-notorious Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of Theranos, and what it means for tech hype. They talk about the UK government's recent decision to review the racial bias embedded in medical devices, and consider whether this will move equity objectives forward. And they speak with Kyle Powys Whyte, George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability, and Affiliate Professor of Native American Studies and Philosophy, at the University of Michigan, about how indigenous knowledge can inform the science and policy discussions related to climate change.Relevant Links:- "An Interview with Kyle Whyte." Sense & Sustainability. September 1, 2021.- Kyle Powys Whyte. "White Allies, Let's Be Honest About Decolonization." Yes! Magazine. April 3, 2018.- Kyle Powys Whyte. "Five reasons why the North Dakota pipeline fight will continue in 2017." The Conversation. January 5, 2017.- Kyle Powys Whyte. "Why the Native American pipeline resistance in North Dakota in about climate justice." The Conversation. September 16, 2016.- Kyle Powys Whyte. "Michigan's woeful track record for environmental justice." Detroit Free Press. February 4, 2016.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

This month, Shobita and Jack discuss efforts to engage publics in the development and regulation of AI, including the AI Bill of Rights proposed by the White house, and the most recent Facebook controversies. And they talk to sociologist and lawyer Karen Levy about her forthcoming book examining the rise of technology-based surveillance in the trucking industry and its social, political, and labor implications.- Eric Lander and Alondra Nelson (2021). "Americans Need a Bill of Rights for an AI-Powered World." WIRED. October 8.- Karen Levy (2021). "You Had Me at ‘Has Never Filed for Bankruptcy'." The New York Times. March 31.- Julie Weed (2020). "Wearable Tech that tells Drowsy Truckers it's Time to Pull Over." The New York Times. February 6.- Clara Berrige and Karen Levy (2019). "Webcams in Nursing Home Rooms May Deter Elder Abuse--But Are They Ethical?" The Conversation. July 24.- Christophe Haubersin (2017). "Automation is coming for truckers. But first, they're being watched." Vox. November 20.Study Questions:1. What are the benefits and drawbacks of bringing EDL and other surveillance technologies into trucking?2. To what extent do you think the trucking (and other forms of labor) shortage can be traced to resistance to and frustration with surveillance technologies?3. How do the new technologies transform the kinds of knowledge and expertise deemed relevant to trucking? What knowledge is now valued, and what is devalued? What are the consequences?4. What is a multi-sited ethnography, and why is it useful for studying technologies, their implications, and the development of appropriate policies to manage them?(Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.)

In this episode, Shobita and Jack compare how the US and UK governments are managing risk and uncertainty in both pandemic policymaking and in their evolving artificial intelligence strategies. And they chat with Jason Delborne, a professor at North Carolina State University who has done both research and public and policy engagement related to gene drives, a new form of biotechnology that could transform our ecosystems.National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2019). Forest Health and Biotechnology: Possibilities and Considerations. National Academies Press.National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2016). Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values. National Academies Press.America in One Room (2020). Executive Summary.Delborne, J. A. (2019, January 18). Can genetic engineering save disappearing forests? The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/can-genetic-engineering-save-disappearing-forests-109793Delborne, J. A., Binder, A. R., Rivers, L., Barnes, J. C., Barnhill-Dilling, K., George, D., Kokotovich, A., & Sudweeks, J. (2018). Biotechnology, the American Chestnut Tree, and Public Engagement (Workshop Report). Genetic Engineering and Society Center. http://go.ncsu.edu/ges-chestnut-report.Long, K. C., Alphey, L., Annas, G. J., Bloss, C. S., Campbell, K. J., Champer, J., Chen, C.-H., Choudhary, A., Church, G. M., Collins, J. P., Cooper, K. L., Delborne, J. A., Edwards, O. R., Emerson, C. I., Esvelt, K., Evans, S. W., Friedman, R. M., Gantz, V. M., Gould, F., … Akbari, O. S. (2020). Core commitments for field trials of gene drive organisms. Science, 370(6523), 1417–1419. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd1908

Episode 19: Climate Change, Vaccines, AI, and the Lure of Technochauvinism featuring Meredith BroussardThis month, Jack and Shobita discuss the recent IPCC report on climate change and the politics of vaccine "hesitancy", and puzzle over the lure of technological fixes to solve complex problems. And Jack speaks with Meredith Broussard, Associate Professor of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University and Research Director, NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology, who has developed a new approach to understanding this puzzle: technochauvinism.- Jack Stilgoe (2013). "Why has geoengineering been legitimised by the IPCC?" The Guardian. September 27.- Meredith Broussard (2018). Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press.- Meredith Broussard (2019). "When Binary Code Won't Accommodate Nonbinary People." Slate. October 23.- Meredith Broussard (2019). "Letting Go of Technochauvinism." Public Books. June 17.- Meredith Broussard (forthcoming, 2023). More Than a Glitch: What Everyone Needs to Know About Making Technology Anti-Racist, Accessible, and Otherwise Useful to All. MIT Press.Study questions:1. Why are policymakers and publics so attracted to seemingly simple technological fixes?2. What are the costs of framing vaccine "hesitancy" or climate change as individual, moral problems?3. What is technochauvinism, and what's wrong with it?4. How might we approach artificial intelligence in a more socially responsible way?5. Should facial recognition technology be banned? Why or why not?

Jack and Shobita talk about her recent experiences giving Congressional testimony about equity in energy innovation, question the meaning of Freedom Day in the UK, puzzle over the FDA's recent approval of a new Alzheimer's drug, and interview Ben Tarnoff, co-founder of Logic Magazine, about tech worker organizing.- House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy, "Fostering Equity in Energy Innovation", July 16, 2021. Written testimony here.- Sheila Jasanoff, The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. Harvard University Press, 1998.- Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel, editors, Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What they Do and Why they Do It. FSG Originals, 2020.- Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel, "Silicon Valley Workers Have Had Enough," The New York Times, January 26, 2021.- Aaron Petcoff and Ben Tarnoff, "Tech Workers at Every Level Can Organize to Build Power." Jacobin Magazine. February 6, 2021.- Ben Tarnoff, "The Making of the Tech Worker Movement." Logic Magazine. May 4, 2020.

Shobita and Jack discuss the Innovation and Competition Act making its way through the US Congress as well as the most up-to-date geopolitics of COVID, including the TRIPS waiver and the "lab leak" theory. And we interview Kate Crawford, a leading scholar on the social and political implications of artificial intelligence.- Kate Crawford (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Yale University Press.Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler (2018). Anatomy of an AI System.- Alex Campolo and Kate Crawford (2020). "Enchanted Determinism: Power without Responsibility in Artificial Intelligence". Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. 6: 1-19.Transcript and study questions available at www.thereceivedwisdom.org.

In this episode, Jack and Shobita talk about the controversy over making COVID-19 vaccines globally available by waiving the patents, and the recent crash of one of Tesla's "self-driving" cars. And they chat with science journalist Angela Saini about her recent book Superior: The Return of Race Science. They discuss why assumptions about the biology of race seem so persistent even in the context of understanding COVID-19, and how George Floyd's murder may have changed global discussions about race and science.- Shobita Parthasarathy (2021). "Ensuring Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines." Notes for a New Administration.- Angela Saini (2020). "Stereotype Threat." The Lancet. May 23.- Angela Saini (2019). Superior: The Return of Race Science. Beacon Press.- Angela Saini (2019). The Disturbing Return of Scientific Racism. WIRED. December 6.- Angela Saini (2018). Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the New Research that's Rewriting the Story. Beacon Press.Study Questions:1) What is the problem with saying that race is biological?2) Why do scientists, and societies, struggle with rejecting the biological basis of race? What are the consequences of continuing to assume that race is biological?3) How should we understand racial disparities in health without resorting to biological explanations?4) How might discussions about race in science, and race and science, be changing in light of the 2020 protests over George Floyd's death?

Episode 15--Innovation Imaginaries and the Politics of Evidence-Based Policymaking ft. David GoldstonThis month, Jack and Shobita talk about the role of government in both funding and regulating innovation, as well as the politics of vaccine approval as European governments suspended distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine. And we speak with David Goldston, currently director of MIT's Washington office, who has extensive experience in science and technology policy including on Capitol Hill and at the National Resources Defense Council. He was also a former columnist at Nature.James Wilsdon (2021, March 16). "Aria is an oldie, but there’s no sign it will be a hit." ResearchProfessional News.- Karen Hao (2021, March 11). "How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation." Technology Review.- Shobita Parthasarathy (2021, March 17). "The AstraZeneca Vaccine Crisis in Europe Isn’t About Science at All." Slate.David Goldston (2009, November 4). "In which we say goodbye." Nature.- David Goldston (2009, August 5). "Improving the Use of Science in Regulatory Policy." Bipartisan Policy Center.Study questions:1. How does "evidence-based policymaking" work in practice?2. Is it possible for science and technology policymaking to be apolitical?3. Why is "evidence-based policymaking" insufficient?4. If scientists are still so trusted in our societies, why is there a perception that there isn't?Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

In this episode, Shobita and Jack talk about President Biden's plans for science and technology policy and his appointment of Alondra Nelson as Deputy Director for Science and Society in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States and United Kingdom. And they chat with Maya Goldenberg, philosophy professor at the University of Guelph, about vaccine hesitancy and how it can be addressed.- Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to Dr. Eric Lander, “In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt….” Letter. January 15, 2021.- Maya Goldenberg, Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021.- Maya Goldenberg, "The Coronavirus Vaccines are Here. Now What?" Impact Ethics. December 18, 2020.- Maya Goldenberg. “Vaccines, Values and Science.” Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2019 April 8;191: E397-8.Maya Goldenberg, "A lack of trust, not of science, behind vaccine resistance." Toronto Star. November 9, 2017.- Maya Goldenberg, "Public Misunderstanding of Science?" Reframing the Problem of Vaccine Hesitancy." Perspectives on Science. 24:5 (2016): 552-581.- Maya Goldenberg, "Scientific Illiteracy is not the Tragedy of our Times." Impact Ethics. September 3, 2015. Study Questions:1. How is President Biden trying to re-imagine the US science and technology policy strategy?2. Why might marginalized communities of color be hesitant to take a COVID-19 vaccine?3. Why are the "war on science" and ignorance framings insufficient for understanding vaccine hesitancy?4. What are the best ways to respond to vaccine hesitancy, according to Goldenberg?Transcript available at threreceivedwisdom.org

It's a New Year, and may soon be a new world! Shobita and Jack discuss the big changes brewing in the US and UK, from the new president to Brexit, and consider what it all means for science and technology policy. And we chat with Lina Dencik, Professor and Director of the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University.Lina Dencik (2019). "Social Justice in an Age of Datafication." Talk at the Alan Turing Institute. May 28.Lina Dencik,Arne Hintz, Joanna Redden & Emiliano Treré (2019). "Exploring Data Justice: Conceptions, Applications and Directions." Information, Communication, and Society. 22(7): 873-881.Javier Sánchez-Monedero and Lina Dencik (2020). "The politics of deceptive borders: ‘biomarkers of deceit’ and the case of iBorderCtrl." Information, Communication, and Society. 1-18.Javier Sánchez-Monedero, Lina Dencik, and Lilian Edwards (2020). "What does it mean to 'solve' the problem of discrimination in hiring?: social, technical and legal perspectives from the UK on automated hiring systems." FAT* '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. pp. 458–468.

Shobita and Jack reflect on the US election and the future of conservatism and exciting vaccine news, and speak with philosopher and STS forefather Langdon Winner about the politics of technology today. Winner recently released a new edition of his groundbreaking book, The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology.- Langdon Winner (2020). The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. University of Chicago Press.- Langdon Winner (2020). "The virus is a catalyst, society itself the disease."- Langdon Winner (2020). The Democratic Shaping of Technology: Its Rise, Fall, and Possible Rebirth.- Alfred Nordmann and Langdon Winner (2020). "Interview with Langdon Winner: Autonomous Technology: Then and Still Now."- Shoshana Zuboff (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Public Affairs.- Langdon Winner (2017) The Cult of Innovation: Its Colorful Myths and Rituals.- Langdon Winner (2010). "The Odyssey of Captain Beefheart: Rolling Stone’s 1970 Cover Story." Rolling Stone.- Tim Wu (2010). The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Oxford University Press.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

Episode 11--Patent Activism, Access to Medicines, and The Social Dilemma featuring Priti KrishtelIn this episode, Jack and Shobita discuss the growing politicization of COVID-19 science and at listeners' request, review the Netflix movie The Social DIlemma. And Shobita speaks with Priti Krishtel, co-executive director of the i-MAK, the Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge about how we can reform the patent system to make pharmaceuticals more affordable and accessible.Priti Krishtel (2020). Why are Drug Prices So High? Investigating the Outdated US Patent System. TED Talk.Interview with Angela Glover Blackwell (2020). "From Patients to Patents: A Focus on Health Equity." The Radical Imagination Podcast.- Priti Krishtel (2019). The Solution to America's Drug Pricing Crisis. NEXUS USA.- Priti Krishtel (2019). "Public Participation in the Patent System Will Lower Drug Costs." Morning Consult. January 4.- Priti Krishtel (2018). "How High-Priced Drugs Cripple Prison Health Care—and Reform." The Crime Report. December 18.- Priti Krishtel (2018). "Women Are Being Hurt the Most by the Drug Pricing Crisis." Ms. Magazine. October 30.- Priti Krishtel (2018). "A Supreme Court victory for lowering drug prices." The Hill. April 28.Transcript and more at thereceivedwisdom.org

In this episode, Shobita and Jack talk about how patents might shape access to a COVID-19 vaccine. And, in light of a recent report by the US and UK national scientific academies, we talk about heritable human genome editing (using CRISPR-Cas9) and the role that the world's citizens might play in deciding whether and how it might proceed, with Ben Hurlbut, Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.Links relevant to the episode:- J. Benjamin Hurlbut (2020). "Imperatives of Governance: Human Genome Editing and the Problem of Progress."Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 63(1): 177-194.- Krishanu Saha, J. Benjamin Hurlbut, Sheila Jasanoff (2020). "Should We Alter the Human Genome? Let Democracy Decide" Scientific American. January 15.- J. Benjamin Hurlbut (2019). "Human genome editing: ask whether, not how." Nature. 565: 135.- Sheila Jasanoff and J. Benjamin Hurlbut (2018). "A global observatory for gene editing." Nature. 555: 435-437.- J. Benjamin Hurlbut (2019). "Human Genome Editing: Great Power, Great Responsibility." MIT Technology Review. Video lecture.- National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2020). "Heritable Genome Editing Not Yet Ready to Be Tried Safely and Effectively in Humans; Initial Clinical Uses, If Permitted, Should Be Limited to Serious Single-Gene Diseases." Press Release.- Bhaven Sampat (2020). "Whose Drugs Are These?" Issues in Science and Technology. 36(4): 42-48.- Ken Shadlen (2020). "To Speed New COVID Drugs and Vaccines, Look to Patenting.” Issues in Science and Technology. August 11.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.com

In this episode, Shobita and Jack discuss the recent US congressional hearings with the Big Tech CEOs, and the curious role that behavioral scientists have played in the UK's COVID-19 response. They also chat with Jill Fisher, Professor of Social Medicine at University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill and recent author of Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals, about the "healthy volunteers" who participate in clinical trials--including for COVID-19--and their exploitation.- Jill Fisher (2020). Adverse Events: Race Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals. NYU Press.- Carl Elliott (2020). Review of Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals. The New York Review of Books.- Carl Elliott (2007). "Guinea-pigging." The New Yorker. December 31.- Laura Stark (2020). Review of Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals. The New Republic.- BBC Radio 4 Analysis (2020). "Behavioral Science and the Pandemic."- Sonia Sodha (2020). "Bias in ‘the science’ on coronavirus? Britain has been here before." The Guardian. July 23.- Monica Anderson (2020). "Most Americans say social media companies have too much power, influence in politics." Pew Research Center.Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

In this episode, Jack and Shobita discuss big tech's decisions to pull back from facial recognition technology, and how the Black Lives Matter movement is influencing science and technology overall. And they chat with Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (St. Martin's Press, 2018) and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY.- Kashmir Hill, "Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm." The New York Times. June 24, 2020.- Coalition for Critical Technology, "Abolish the #TechtoPrisonPipeline," June 23, 2020.- Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, St. Martin's Press, 2018.- Virginia Eubanks, “Zombie Debts are Hounding Struggling Americans. Will You Be Next?" The Guardian, October 15, 2019- Virginia Eubanks, “Algorithms Designed to Fight Poverty Can Actually Make It Worse” Scientific American, Volume 319, No 5 (pp 68-71). November 2018. (Part of a Special issue, “The Science of Inequality”)- Virginia Eubanks, “High-Tech Homelessness” American Scientist, July-August 2018- Virginia Eubanks, “The Digital Poorhouse,” Harper’s Magazine January 2018- Virginia Eubanks, “A Child Abuse Prediction Model Fails Poor Families,” WIRED Magazine, January 15, 2018- Virginia Eubanks, "Want to Cut Welfare? There’s an App for That," The Nation, March 27, 2015Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

Episode 7--The Politics of Geoengineering, Climate, and COVID-19 featuring Jane FlegalShobita and Jack discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its implications in the United States and Britain, and interview Jane Flegal, Program Officer overseeing US climate at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society at the University of Oxford, Adjunct Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.Links Related to the Podcast:- Ezra Klein (2019). "The geoengineering question." Vox. December 23.- Jane A. Flegal, Anna-Maria Hubert, David R. Morrow, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz (2019). "Solar Geoengineering: Social Science, Legal, Ethical, and Economic Frameworks." Annual Review of Environment and Resources. October.- David E. Winickoff, Jane A. Flegal, and Asfawossen Asrat (2015). "Engaging the Global South on climate engineering research." Nature Climate Change. June 24.- Jane A. Flegal and Aarti Gupta (2018). "Evoking equity as a rationale for solar geoengineering research? Scrutinizing emerging expert visions of equity." International Environmental Agreement: Politics, Law and Economics. 18: 45-61.- Jane A. Flegal and Andrew Maynard (2017). "'Geostorm' is a very silly movie that raises some very serious questions." Popular Science. October 22.- Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (2020). "Remembering Steve Rayner: the person who framed the geoengineering debate."- Morgan Ames (2019). The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child. MIT Press.- Virginia Eubanks (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin's Press.Full transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Jack and Shobita talk to five experts in science, technology, policy, and society about their perspectives and experiences with COVID-19 around the world. Interviews include Monamie Bhadra (Singapore), Silvio Funtowicz (Italy), Roger Pielke (US), Poonam Pandey (India), and Michael Veale (UK).Guests:- Monamie Bhadra Haines is Assistant Professor of Global Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her work focuses on understanding the political and cultural implications of energy transitions in the developing world, specifically contexts in Asia. You can find her on Twitter: @BhadraMonamie.- Silvio Funtowicz is Professor in the Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is a philosopher of science and tweets at @SFuntowicz.- Roger Pielke Jr. is Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He where he teaches and writes on a diverse range of policy and governance issues related to science, innovation, sports. He tweets at @RogerPielkeJr.- Poonam Pandey is Postdoctoral Fellow in the DST-Centre for Policy Research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her work at DST-CPR engages with Responsible Research and Innovation and policy aspects of second generation (2G) bioethanol in India and Brazil.- Michael Veale is Lecturer in Digital Rights and Regulation at University College London’s Faculty of Laws and Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. He specialises in technology law and policy, particularly around, privacy, data protection, and emerging technologies such as machine learning and encrypted data analysis. He tweets (likely too much) at @mikarv.For further reading:- Hallam Stevens and Monamie Bhadra Haines (2020). "TraceTogether: Pandemic Response, Democracy, and Technology." To appear in East Asian Science, Technology, and Society.- Silvio O. Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz (1995). "Science for the Post Normal Age." In: Laura Westra and John Lemons, eds. Perspectives on Ecological Integrity. Environmental Science and Technology Library, Vol 5. Dordrecht, NL: Springer.- Roger Pielke Jr. (2020). "Eight Weeks Behind: Clarifying the Early U.S. Coronavirus Testing Failure."- Roger Pielke Jr. (2020). "Why Isn’t the White House Using the Nation’s Pandemic Experts?" Slate. April 10.- Ritu Priya and V. Sujatha (2020). "Will Traditional Indian Medicine Be Allowed to Contribute to the Fight Against COVID-19?" The Wire. April 1.- Human Rights Watch (2020). "India: COVID-19 Lockdown Puts Poor at Risk." March 27.- Documents on the D3-PT app.(TRANSCRIPT)