Podcasts about Tracy Chou

How can we reimagine social media to make it safer for everyone? Tracy Chou is on a mission to do just that. Join Block Party founder, Tracy Chou, as she sits down with Roo to share her thoughts on privacy in an always online world and what led her to create Privacy Party: A tool that's reshaping the way we use social media and giving power back to the user.

In this week's online speech, content moderation and internet regulation round-up, Mike and Ben cover: Supreme Court Seems Skeptical Of The Claims That The Federal Government Coerced Social Media To Moderate (Techdirt) Reddit's I.P.O. Is a Content Moderation Success Story (New York Times) Elon Musk's X Is Suspending Accounts That Reveal a Neo-Nazi Cartoonist's Alleged Identity (Wired) The Risks of Internet Regulation (Foreign Affairs) EU to impose election safeguards on Big Tech (Financial Times) Canada's Online Harms Act is revealing itself to be staggeringly reckless (Globe and Mail)The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Block Party, which builds privacy and anti-harassment tools to increase user control, protection, and safety. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Block Party founder and CEO Tracy Chou discusses the impact of harassment on self-censorship and explains how she is making navigating privacy and safety settings on major platforms easier for users through her tool, Privacy Party.  Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

This Day in Legal History: The Court of International Justice at The Hague is EstablishedOn December 13, 1920, a sea change milestone in international law was marked as the League of Nations Assembly, convening in Geneva, ratified the statute establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. This historical event symbolized a global endeavor towards the pursuit of international justice and legal order.The creation of the Permanent Court of International Justice was a response to the world's urgent need for a systematic approach to resolving international disputes. In the wake of the devastating First World War, there was a heightened desire among nations to prevent future conflicts through legal means rather than through military force. The League of Nations, an intergovernmental organization formed to maintain world peace, took the initiative to set up this court.The statute of the court outlined its composition and competencies. It was designed to handle cases between states and provide advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by the League of Nations. The court comprised judges from various member countries, ensuring a diverse representation of legal traditions and systems.This groundbreaking development in international law was not just a diplomatic achievement but also a legal one. It laid the foundation for the development of international law as we know it today. The court's decisions and advisory opinions played a pivotal role in shaping key principles of international law, influencing subsequent international legal frameworks.The Permanent Court of International Justice operated until 1946, when it was replaced by the International Court of Justice after the establishment of the United Nations. The legacy of the court, however, remains profound. It demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of a permanent judicial body in resolving international disputes and interpreting international law.The establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice marked the beginning of a new era in international relations, where law and legal mechanisms began to take precedence over power politics in resolving disputes. This shift had a lasting impact on how nations interact and resolve conflicts, paving the way for a more orderly and legally driven international system.December 13, 1920, thus stands as a landmark date in legal history, commemorating the collective aspiration of nations towards peace, justice, and the rule of law at an international level. The establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice not only addressed the immediate need for a post-war legal order but also sowed the seeds for the contemporary international legal regime that continues to evolve and address global challenges.On December 13, 2023, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on formalizing an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. This move, expected as early as Wednesday, is driven by allegations that Biden and his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden, improperly benefited from his actions while serving as vice president from 2009 to 2017. The inquiry closely scrutinizes Hunter Biden's business activities.The White House has refuted these allegations, labeling the investigation as politically motivated, especially in the context of the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump, who has been impeached twice and acquitted both times, is seen as Biden's main rival in the election.The House plans to proceed with the vote before their three-week holiday break, despite other pending legislative matters like border security, foreign aid, and government funding.The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Hunter Biden, 53, for a private testimony on November 8. Hunter Biden proposed a public testimony instead, but House Republicans insisted on a closed-door session first, threatening him with contempt of Congress if he did not comply.Hunter Biden's legal troubles extend beyond this inquiry. He was charged in September for illegal drug use while purchasing a firearm, and recently, he was indicted by a grand jury for tax offenses.His deposition is scheduled one day after the House Rules Committee's hearing on the resolution to authorize the inquiry. During this hearing, Democrats heavily criticized the inquiry, questioning its credibility and integrity. They argued that the inquiry was a distraction from the Republicans' failure to pass significant legislation.US House Republicans ready vote to formalize Biden impeachment inquiry | ReutersOn December 12, a U.S. district court rejected Elon Musk's bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Twitter investors. These investors accused Musk of negatively impacting Twitter's stock price in the months preceding his acquisition of the company in October 2022. The lawsuit revolves around Musk's public statements during the acquisition process, particularly his tweet stating that the deal was "temporarily on hold."The court, situated in the Northern District of California, decided to allow certain claims made by the investors to proceed. However, it did dismiss some portions of their claims. The specific details of the allowed claims and the dismissed ones were not detailed in the report.Elon Musk, who led the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and subsequently rebranded it as 'X', has not yet responded to this court decision through his legal representatives, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.This legal development marks a significant moment in the ongoing saga surrounding Musk's high-profile acquisition of Twitter, highlighting the complex legal challenges associated with such large-scale corporate transactions. The refusal to dismiss the case suggests that the court finds merit in some of the investors' allegations regarding Musk's conduct during the acquisition process.US court denies Musk's request to dismiss investor suit on Twitter buyout | ReutersNew York legislators are set to consider a bill next year that would mandate social media platforms to provide free data to third-party apps designed to block hate speech. This legislation, if passed, would be the first in the U.S. to require social media companies to offer such data at no cost. The move follows the state's previous initiative to allow third-party access to digital information for repairing smart devices.The proposal comes in response to the rise in online hate speech, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Proponents argue that third-party apps are more effective at filtering out harmful content than social media platforms themselves, allowing users more control over their online experience.The bill was introduced in response to platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) and Reddit starting to charge for access to their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which are essential for third-party apps to function. These charges have led to the shutdown of apps like Block Party and Apollo for Reddit, which were instrumental in combating online harassment and trolling.Tracy Chou, founder of Block Party, emphasizes the need for third-party involvement in moderating content, as platforms themselves lack the incentive to fully address the issue. The bill, sponsored by state Senate Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal, aims to empower users to filter the content they see without infringing on others' freedom of speech.Exemptions in the bill would apply to smaller social media companies with less than $100,000 in annual gross revenue and allow platforms to deny access in cases posing a security risk. The bill would take effect 180 days after being signed into law and is part of a broader legislative effort in New York focusing on online privacy and digital rights.New York to Target Social Media Firms That Charge for InterfaceTesla Inc. has announced a recall of over 2 million vehicles due to issues with its Autopilot driver-assistance system, following findings by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA's investigation, which remains ongoing, concluded that Autopilot's measures to ensure driver engagement were insufficient. This recall is part of Tesla's efforts to address safety concerns and prevent misuse of the Autopilot system.The company plans to deploy a software update to introduce additional controls and alerts, aiming to enhance safety measures. This recall has impacted Tesla's stock, with shares dropping by up to 1.6%.This action represents the second recall this year related to Tesla's automated-driving technology, amidst increasing scrutiny after numerous crashes involving the system, some of which were fatal. Despite claims of nearing full autonomy by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta still require active driver supervision.The FSD Beta suite, which offers higher-level functionality, was previously recalled in February after NHTSA concerns about its operation, including speed limit violations and failure to stop completely. NHTSA's involvement with Tesla's Autopilot dates back to a 2016 investigation following a fatal crash, though the system was initially cleared the following year. Currently, over 50 special crash investigations involving Tesla's Autopilot are underway, with increased activity under the Biden administration.Additionally, Tesla faces scrutiny from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its self-driving technology and related claims.Tesla Recalls 2 Million Cars to Fix Autopilot Safety Flaws (1) Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

We've long believed in the power of online platform interoperability and the power it gives to users to curate their own experiences. One of the prime examples of this is Block Party, created by Tracy Chou, which has had to suspend its operations following ExTwitter's API changes. Tracy joined us on the podcast once before to discuss Block Party, and now she's back to talk about her new service, Privacy Party, as well as the broader topic of platform interoperability and whether it could be mandated with regulations.

When we had Tracy Chou on the show in 2021, she was rolling out software to give users a revolutionary toolset to block harassment on Twitter, and she was doing it with the Twitter corporation’s help. Fast forward to today, when she’s one of Time Magazine’s 2022 Women of the Year and her work has… Continue reading 82. Twitter Blocked Tracy Chou’s Anti-Harassment App. Now She Wants to Fix Your Browser.

Block Party CEO & Founder, Tracy Chou, joins Niki remotely to talk about what her team is doing to make the internet a safer place and why she's passionate about their mission. Her app puts control back in the hands of social media users using block lists, lock-out filters, and other tips and tricks to combat trolls. The conversation covers why the social media giants aren't incentivized to do this work themselves, what action is needed for third-party app innovation to thrive, and what, as users (and people) our options are - and should be.○ Follow Tracy on LinkedIn○ Learn more about Block Party○ Follow Block Party on Twitter○ Follow Niki on Twitter

Tracy Chou talks to Bradley about Block Party, her innovative remedy for online abuse, and why tools for customizing your own experience are the salvation of social media.

We spend so much time on social media nowadays, and none of us are strangers to online harassment. But research shows that online abuse is getting worse. What can we do to protect ourselves? Software engineer Tracy Chou built an app called Block Party to help victims of online harassment take back control. She tells us about her journey creating a tech company that protects the voices of women and minorities, and she also shares helpful tips for securing your privacy online. In Mailbag, we tackle a question about managing finances with a rental property. And in Thrive, what to delete from your resume.

This week, Alexis gets non-technical with Tracy Chou, the Founder and CEO of Block Party. They talk about time zone trauma, iconic AOL screen names, an extreme email diary REVEAL (!), and why Tracy is probably on your company's revenue slide. You can find Tracy on Twitter at twitter.com/triketora and Alexis at twitter.com/yayalexisgay or instagram.com/yayalexisgay and twitter.com/NonTechnicalPod.This episode is sponsored by Betts Recruiting. If you're a high-performing professional looking for your next opportunity, it's time to become a Betts Connect Community member. Apply to join Betts' exclusive network, and if you're accepted, those tech startups will reach out to YOU. Apply now for your exclusive lifetime membership at bettsrecruiting.com/nontechnical

We talk a lot on this show about the responsibility of major tech platforms when it comes to content moderation. But what about problems the platforms can't—or won't—fix? Tracy Chou's solution involves going around platforms entirely and creating tools that give power back to users to control their own experience. She's the engineer behind Block Party, an app that allows Twitter users to protect themselves against online harassment and abuse. It's a fine-tuned solution to a problem that a lot of Twitter users struggle with, especially women and particularly women of color. This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Tracy about her work developing Block Party and how the persistent lack of diversity in Silicon Valley contributes to an environment where users have little protection against harassment. They also talked about what it's like working with the platforms that Block Party and other apps like it are seeking to improve. And they discussed what content moderation problems these kinds of user-driven tools might help solve–and which they won't. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk a lot on this show about the responsibility of major tech platforms when it comes to content moderation. But what about problems the platforms can't—or won't—fix? Tracy Chou's solution involves going around platforms entirely and creating tools that give power back to users to control their own experience. She's the engineer behind Block Party, an app that allows Twitter users to protect themselves against online harassment and abuse. It's a fine-tuned solution to a problem that a lot of Twitter users struggle with, especially women and particularly women of color. This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Tracy about her work developing Block Party and how the persistent lack of diversity in Silicon Valley contributes to an environment where users have little protection against harassment. They also talked about what it's like working with the platforms that Block Party and other apps like it are seeking to improve. And they discussed what content moderation problems these kinds of user-driven tools might help solve–and which they won't. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk a lot on this show about the responsibility of major tech platforms when it comes to content moderation. But what about problems the platforms can't—or won't—fix? Tracy Chou's solution involves going around platforms entirely and creating tools that give power back to users to control their own experience. She's the engineer behind Block Party, an app that allows Twitter users to protect themselves against online harassment and abuse. It's a fine-tuned solution to a problem that a lot of Twitter users struggle with, especially women and particularly women of color. This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Tracy about her work developing Block Party and how the persistent lack of diversity in Silicon Valley contributes to an environment where users have little protection against harassment. They also talked about what it's like working with the platforms that Block Party and other apps like it are seeking to improve. And they discussed what content moderation problems these kinds of user-driven tools might help solve–and which they won't.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We celebrate our 50th episode with a holiday special, where Ethan is visited by the Reimagining the Internet producers of past, present, and future to remember some of our favorite interviews from 2021. Tune in for highlights with Omar Wasow, Fred Turner, Heather Ford, Michael Wood Lewis, Lola Hunt and Eliza Sorensen, Damon Krukowski, Elizabeth Hansen-Shapiro, and Tracy Chou.

While some big social media companies are working to use AI to combat harassment, Tracy Chou has a simpler solution — put users in control of what and who they see on their feeds. In this week's episode, Tracy tells us about he app Block Party, a clever and radical set of tools to protect users from trolling and abuse.

It's another crossposted episode this week! Mike recently joined the Tech Policy Press podcast alongside Block Party founder Tracy Chou for a conversation about using middleware and interoperability to craft a new, less centralized online ecosystem. You can listen to the whole conversation on this week's episode.

On October 7th, Tech Policy Press hosted a mini-conference called Reconciling Social Media and Democracy. While various solutions to problems at the intersection of social media and democracy are under consideration, from regulation to antitrust action, some experts are enthusiastic about the opportunity to create a new social media ecosystem that relies less on centrally managed platforms like Facebook and more on decentralized, interoperable services and components.  The fourth segment of the event focused on the opportunities and challenges to building middleware solutions that may thrive in a more decentralized social media ecosystem. The two panelists for this session were Tracy Chou, founder and CEO of Block Party, a company that builds anti-harassment tools against online abuse, and Michael Masnick, the editor of Techdirt and the author of Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech, a paper we discussed during the event.

Zach meets with software engineer Tracy Chou, who recently founded Bock Party, an app that helps you block and filter online harassment. Join them as they tackle big topics like how we can regulate harassment on the internet, why online platforms like Twitter give free speech new context, and more. Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZAz5qvEuxso Follow Tracy Chou: https://twitter.com/triketora | https://www.instagram.com/exhaustedfemalefounder Follow Zach Graumann: https://twitter.com/Zach_Graumann | https://instagram.com/zachgraumann Follow Andrew Yang: https://twitter.com/AndrewYang Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Épisode 570 : C'est les vacances, on passe en hebdo et on vous propose une jolie petite veille social media ! Au menu aujourd'hui : Twitch fait x 2, Leaksdin, Twitter Block Party, Clubhouse rémunère les créateurs et battle d'Emojis.Twitch fait x2 en 1 anD’après une étude menée par Streamlabs et Stream Hatchet qui sont des organismes de data en provenance des sites de streaming, l’audience de Twitch a fait X 2 en 1 an(entre les premiers Trimestres 2020 et 2021).Après un an de stagnation en 2019, le début du confinement a fait passer la barre des 3 millions d’heures de visionnage mensuelles à la plateforme et depuis la croissance n’a pas cessé. Au second trimestre 2021, en plein confinement on passait d’un coup de 3 à 5 millions d’heures de visionnage mensuelles.On a passé le cap de la curiosité.Cette étude nous montre aussi que non seulement le nombre d’heures visionnées a explosé mais aussi le nombre d’heures streamées. En 1 an, le nombre d’heures diffusées est passé de 121 millions à 265 millions, c’est-à-dire une augmentation de 119 %.Idem sur le nombre de créateurs,le nombre de chaînes a lui aussi fait x2 en passant de 6,1 millions au T1 2020 à 12,5 millions au T1 2021Peu de changement sur le classement des catégories reinesLa catégorie la plus diffusée, mais aussi la plus regardée est le « Just Chatting » qui représente 12 % du contenu regardé sur Twitch en général, avec 754 millions d’heures visionnées au dernier trimestre.On parle là de streamers qui discutent avec leur communauté, sans pour autant jouer en direct à un jeu vidéo.Cette catégorie prend de plus en plus d’ampleur ces dernières années, et certains streamers en font leur spécialité (comme Samuel Etienne, et ses «La matinée est tienne » ou encore le Super Daily). sourceGagner des sous en papotant en ligne avec Clubhouse ?Après avoir lancé son programme Creator Accelerator le mois dernier, Clubhouse a annoncé le lancement d’une fonctionnalité de rémunération pour les créateurs. Une fonction qui permettra aux utilisateurs de faire des dons à leurs hôtes préférés.La fonctionnalité permettra aux utilisateurs de transférer des sous aux créateurs en accédant simplement à leur profil et en appuyant sur le bouton « Envoyer de l'argent » en bas de l'écran. Pour l’instant le déploiement est en cours. Il est réservé à un certain nombre de créateurs tests mais devrait rapidement s’étendre à tous. La screen capture proposé par ClubHouse permet par exemple d avoir un compte avec 2043 followers bénéficier de la fonction.C'est une autre étape importante pour Clubhouse pour garder ses principaux créateurs de contenu. La concurrence est sauvage sur le secteur des plateformes social 100% audio et ClubHouse commence petit à petit à perdre de son aura avec l’arrivée de Spaces chez Twitter et les annonces récentes de Linkedin et Facebook.LeaksDinIl y a 1 semaine on apprenait que les données personnelles de 533 millions de comptes Facebook avaient été hachés et mis en vente. Soit au passage 106 pays concernés et 20 millions de comptes Français (incluant les numéros de téléphone)Et bien Vendredi c’était au Tour de Linkedin de se faire taxer les données de 500 millions d’utilisateurs.Linkedin se défend en disant qu’aucune attaque n’a été détectée et que cela ressemble fortement a un scraping sur des données publiques Linkedin complétées par des données trouvées ailleurs sur le net mais qu’en aucun cas elles ne peuvent être complètes.Comme les Hackers en général ne font pas les choses à moitié, pour prouver leur bonne fois, ils ont mis à dispo un échantillon de 2 millions d’utilisateurs pour la modique somme de 2€.Selon le rapport de Cybernews, le panel en question comprendrait les Identifiants LinkedIn, les noms complets, les adresses email, les numéros de téléphone, des Informations sur le lieu de travail, le titre du poste et autres données professionnelles ainsi que les différents liens contenus sur le profil, bref les profils complets (partie publique et partie privée)Depuis son compte sur un forum de hacker le responsable demandait a qui voudrait les acheter de faire une proposition à 4 chiffres minimum.Depuis, un nouveau hacker affirme disposer de la même base et de 327 Millions de profils supplémentaires, le tout a dispo pour 7000$Cybernews a mis en place un outil pour savoir si vous faites partie des récentes listes de Leaks (incluant Facebook et Linkedin)https://cybernews.com/personal-data-leak-check/sourceTwitter Block Party, le péage Anti TrollTracy Chou, ingénieure de la Silicon Valley a mis en place une application, Block Party pour Twitter qui permet aux utilisateurs de se prémunir des mentions intempestives, inutiles, inappropriées ou inintéressantes dans le but de faire de Twitter un endroit moins toxique.Pour la modique somme de 8$, l’application permet donc de filtrer son compte Twitter.Comment ça marche ?1- tu t’inscris sur www.blockpartyapp.com2- tu autorises l’accès à l’application tierce3- Tu sélectionnes l’un des 2 modes de « jeu » Je suis assez ouvert Là tu peux choisir de bloquer les mentions de comptes sans photos, de moins de 100 followers ou des nouveaux profilsI need a breakLà tu peux choisir de conserver seulement les mentions de comptes suivies par ceux que tu suis, des comptes vérifiés ou des gens a qui tu as récemment répondu4- naviguer normalement5- quand tu navigues tu peux aussi passer en mute des comptes au cas par casAutre fonctionnalité marrante, il est possible de donner accès à un ami helper/ modérateur pour qu’il contrôle les mentions indésirables à votre place.Et puis on range les Trolls à part dans un fichier sécuriséL’outil s’adresse aux personnes dont les tweets deviennent fréquemment virauxqui peuvent donc attirer les inconnus, aux journalistes qui utilisent très régulièrement Twitter, mais aussi aux individus régulièrement harcelés qui souhaitent réunir les preuves de ce harcèlement sans avoir à le subir chaque jour.Tracy Chou, qui est suivie par plus de 100 000 personnes sur Twitterl a elle même été victime de cyberharcèlement dans ses années lycée et la situation s’est aggravée quand elle a commencé à travailler dans le secteur de la tech. Elle a donc pensé son outil avec le point de vue d’une victime,son interview dans Fast CompanysourceEt si les Emojis en disaient beaucoup sur l’ére du temps. ET si on pouvait lire notre Etat d’esprit collectif grâce aux emojis. L’émoji larmes de tristesse et désormais plus populaire que l’émoji larmes de joie sur Twitter.L’emoji

In this episode, we talk about online abuse and anti-harassment tools with Tracy Chou, CEO of Block Party, a company building tools to manage online safety and harassment, and Chloe Condon, senior cloud advocate at Microsoft. Show Notes DevNews (sponsor) CodeNewbie (sponsor) DataStax (sponsor) New Relic (sponsor) Educative (sponsor) Ambassador Labs (sponsor) Block Party

(William Krause / Unsplash)I.Blocking is having a moment. Last month, Tracy Chou announced that she had raised a little under $1.5 million to launch B... announced that she had raised a little under $1.5 millionBlock PartyBlock the New York Timesraised questionsContext collapseits approach to blockingElon Musk’s Jan. 31 appearance on the apphas blocked most of the press corps on Twittertweeted Jessica Lessinhas interviewed Andreessen beforeas Eric Newcomer recently reportedgo “direct”Twitter stood firm against demands from the Indian government to remove accounts that have been critical of a recent crackdown on dissentTikTok will begin labeling videos that could trigger seizures in photosensitive users, such as those who have epilepsyA bill introduced in the California legislature on Monday would prevent employers from using non-disclosure agreements to prevent workers from discussing all forms of discrimination and harassmentThe Justice Department dropped a challenge to California’s net neutrality lawThe first member of Congress has died from COVID-19A West Virginia newspaper chain sued Google and Facebook alleging that they had built illegal monopolies in digital advertisingAnother COVID-19 conspiracy video series is generating millions of views on Facebook and YouTubeHere’s a list of times that tech companies went crazy taking down content when they lost the legal immunity that Section 230 currently provides themTwitter beat sales estimates, but warned of slowing user growth, in its latest quarterly earnings reportletterThe next version of iOS will finally allow you to control Spotify and other music services with SiriA historic Amazon union vote has begun at an Alabama warehouseproductivity metricsReddit raised $250 million from investors, with its valuation doubling over last year to $6 billionMark Cuban co-founded a podcast app where hosts can talk to fans live and monetize their conversationsApple hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio has taken a new role overseeing the company’s forthcoming augmented reality and virtual reality headsetsTikTok struck a deal with Universal Music Group for access to its full catalog of artistsInstagram said it would no longer promote Reels that were originally posted to TikTokSnapchat introduced a new feature encouraging users to prune their friend listsZoom added face filters to help you look extremely weird during meetingscasey@platformer.news

The most important point we've repeatedly made about content moderation is that it's not simple, and there are always trade-offs — but this doesn't mean "do nothing" is a viable option. There are no perfect solutions, and that's why experimentation and innovation is important, especially when it comes to pressing moderation questions like those around abuse and harassment. This week we're joined by Tracy Chou, who is doing just this kind of innovation with her app Block Party, to talk about building new tools for fighting abuse and harassment online.

The latest episode of our investor education podcast Off the Sidelines explores this fundamental question with Pam Kostka and Tracy Chou.

The latest episode of our investor education podcast Off the Sidelines explores this fundamental question with Pam Kostka and Tracy Chou.

Tom talks to Kate Clark about the state of funding for female-led startups, which has sunk even lower during the pandemic. We also interview Tracy Chou, founder of Blockparty and Sara Mauskopf, cofounder of Winnie, who discussed their experiences raising money for their startups. And Cory talked to Nick Bastone and Humu's Liz Fosslien to talk about why some workers feel they've become less efficient as they work from home.

Peloton 2020 is underway.A less expensive Tred is getting nearer.John Foley revisits How I Built This.The fitness industry is struggling with the supply chain.Dr. Jenn Mann discussesA new connected fitness boxing competitor has entered the fray.Win a FightCamp Gym!Well And Good has yoga for brain fog.Robin Arzon has started her own YouTube channel.Jess Simms was on the "Ali On The Run" podcast.Robin is featured in Haley Shapley's new book "Strong Like Her."New Peloton Artist Series features Britney Spears.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peloton 2020 is underway. A less expensive Tred is getting nearer. John Foley revisits How I Built This. The fitness industry is struggling with the supply chain. Dr. Jenn Mann discusses A new connected fitness boxing competitor has entered the fray. Win a FightCamp Gym! Well And Good has yoga for brain fog. Robin Arzon has started her own YouTube channel. Jess Simms was on the "Ali On The Run" podcast. Robin is featured in Haley Shapley's new book "Strong Like Her." New Peloton Artist Series features Britney Spears.

This week they discuss artwork you can experience while self-isolating including works by Cassie McQuater, Claire L. Evans & Tracy Chou, James Bridle, and Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani. The Wisdom of Groundhog Day - http://tiny.cc/topkmz Firewatch - www.firewatchgame.com Cassie McQuater - http://hgjfkdhskjdgturrgehdsbjkfhdsjkahturaytklfdjjfjfff.net/blackroom.html Claire L. Evans & Tracy Chou - https://bot.theater/ James Bridle - www.jamesbridle.com/works/autonomous-trap-001 Article where he writes about traffic light story - http://tiny.cc/qzpkmz Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani- www.instagram.com/meriembennani 12ø 30works30days - www.thirty.works Getty Museum Artwork Recreation Challenge - http://tiny.cc/cspkmz People climbing height of mountains on their stairs - http://tiny.cc/u4pkmz Vik Muniz - http://tiny.cc/rppkmz

This is a special episode because it’s International Women’s Day! We’ve recorded a special episode on this day over the past few years. You can check them out on our website if that sounds like fun for you. Although, they’re probably not relevant any more because everything is totally fine and ok in the world now. It’s 2020. We’ve fixed all the issues plaguing the human race. There is no more inequality. Everything is fine. Everyone is happy. Honest. Warning: Because this topic is around gender and tech, we may be discussing subjects that might be distressing for some people, so take care when listening.  Joining host Bex are some excellent TFGL Women, Hera Hussain and Sacha Wynne. Bex was thinking about gender and tech before it was cool. Now it’s cool, there are UN hackathons and AI roundtables a-plenty. Don’t get her started on that, she’s got lots to stay and she will save it for another day! Hera lives and breathes gender and tech so it’s going to be hard to rein her in, but I suppose it is International Women’s Day. She can go wild with her commentary. But only today - like corporate feminism - everything goes back to sweatshops and unequal pay tomorrow.  Sacha, like the many men who come out of the woodwork to put #HeforShe in their twitter bio once a year, her presence is a rarity! Discussed on the show: Stat of the week  #Stalkerware infections grew by 40% in 2019, says @kaspersky . 67,500 unique users had stalkerware apps installed on their phones in 2019 #GIoT Charity news of the week The campaign sees Solace Women’s Aid use Twitter’s hidden replies function to highlight the plight of those trapped in ‘hidden’ abusive relationships.  Parents beg Pornhub to remove explicit sex photos of underage teenagers more quickly Bristol Post becomes one of the first newspapers to share abuse and threats made to Greta Thunberg by people from Bristol. Tech news of the week  Republican mega-donor buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey – report Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management has taken a ‘sizable stake’ and intends to ‘push for changes’, reports Bloomberg News A Rant or Nice of the week? (or both…) The Vatican has joined forces with tech giants Microsoft and IBM to promote the ethical development of artificial intelligence (AI) and call for regulation of intrusive technologies such as facial recognition. Tracy Chou's app for blocking online harassment is in beta The engineer and tech diversity advocate is working on an app called Block Party. And finally…  eBay bans sellers from using coronavirus to 'profit from tragedies and disasters'. --------------------------- Listeners, what did you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Get in touch on twitter @techforgoodlive or Email at hello@techforgood.live  We’d love it if you gave us a nice iTunes review and told your mates about this podcast! If you want to get more involved in our community, you can join our Slack channel or sign up to our newsletter. Just visit TechforGood.Live to find out how. Thanks to the wonderful podcast.co for hosting us in a beautiful mirrored studio. Which you can’t see. But it is pretty. If you want to create a podcast, you can find everything you need on their website. We’d also like to thank Happy Porch for their sponsorship which will allow us to have our episodes transcribed, helping us be more inclusive and accessible. Happy Porch provide strategy, technology and development for purpose driven organisations. You can find out more about them at happyporch.com.

Lucia shares a personal story at the start of this episode because this one is all about women in the workplace. We speak with Tracy Chou, one of the leading engineers in Silicon Valley, who has worked at companies like Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and Quora. She gives advice about how to stay true to yourself in a broken system, and tells us about her advocacy work pushing for diversity and women in tech. ——————————————- Follow Tracy at @triketora Tracy’s Medium Post: Where Are The Numbers? ——————————————- Follow Rock the Boat on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @rocktheboatnyc. You can reach us at hello@gorocktheboat.com. If you’re a fan of the podcast, please subscribe, share, and leave us a 5-star rating on iTunes! We really appreciate your help in spreading the word. Thanks to our writer Chia-Yi Hou who helped write this episode. Additional thanks to Kessyl Lim our Assistant Producer and Debbie Wong & Kim Hernandez, our Social Media Coordinators and Rachel Chou who edited this episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rocktheboat/message

This episode kicks off a limited series of discussions with Warren Sack centered around his book The Software Arts, MIT Press, forward by John Rajchman The Software Arts offers an alternative history of software that places the liberal arts at the very center of software’s evolution.Join us in this discussion...Warren’s book is available from MIT Press – grab a copy and enjoy a multi-episode virtual book club with me and the author. We plan to release an episode for each chapter: Introduction (this episode) Translation Language Algorithm Logic Rhetoric Grammar Conclusion Reading along is not necessary to enjoy this series or episodes. And feel free to give us feedback and ask questions. Please contact us via Twitter: @WarrenSack, @Lyle.Where are the numbers? - Tracy ChouEric A. HavelockMarshall McLuhan

WHO is Joe Leonardo? What makes him tick? In this somewhat-special episode of Funny as Tech, David puts co-host Joe Leonardo in the host seat to ask about what his innermost feelings towards life, death, and technology. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Can tech REDUCE stress? David & Joe chat with Breathing.ai's Hannes Bend about adaptive screens, calm technology, and his personal journey that led him to founding the company. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic HOSTS www.TechEthicist.com www.JoeLeonardo.com Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

PART II: David & Joe chat with Mo Johnson (from Project Love and Data for Democracy) about strategies for tech change, bringing new voices into the conversation, and building a multidisciplinary community. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

David & Joe chat with Mo Johnson (from Project Love and Data for Democracy) about strategies for tech change, bringing new voices into the conversation, and building a multidisciplinary community. We also get into the differences between NYC and San Francisco. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Let's talk about sextech! This is a live show podcast recording from April 9th at the Peoples Improv Theater. Special guests for this memorable night included Bryony Cole (CEO of Future of Sex), Polly Rodriguez (CEO of Unbound), and Mal Harrison (Center for Erotic Intelligence). FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e “While shifts in technology now affect all of us, they’re usually discussed in the ivory tower or at industry conferences. Like any subject involving niche expertise, future speculation and no clear-cut answers, it’s hard to make entertaining. A show like Funny As Tech presents an alternative: an expert who quotes studies from PricewaterhouseCoopers with a comedian who can make it digestible on the fly.” -Engadget (Chris Ip) === BRYONY COLE Bryony Cole is the world’s leading authority on sextech. Since launching the top-rated podcast, Future of Sex, Bryony has been on stages across the world, defining the direction of sextech for governments, technology and entertainment companies. Her wide body of research and annual Future of Sex report are considered the lead in industry insights. Bryony is an international speaker, published writer and producer, who has been featured on shows like Viceland and Technopia, and articles in Wired, TechCrunch, The New York Times, Playboy, Mashable, Motherboard, ABC, Financial Review, Brides, Glamour and many other global media. POLLY RODRIGUEZ Polly Rodriguez is the CEO and Co-Founder of Unbound, a rebellious sexual wellness company for women. Polly went through a cancer diagnosis at 21 that resulted in early onset menopause and found herself shopping for a vibrator at a seedy shop next to the highway in St. Louis, Missouri. Ten years later, she started Unbound with the goal of taking vibrators, lubricants and sexual accessories mainstream through elevated design, body-safe materials, and accessible pricing. Today, the company has been hailed by the New York Times as the “ideological center of the tech-savvy, female-led women’s sexuality movement” with over 75 products created by a team of 10 women in New York City. MAL HARRISON Mal Harrison is a clinical sexologist, eroticism philosopher, author, TED speaker, and found of the Center for Erotic Intelligence. As a frequent global lecturer on desire, consumerism, power dynamics, and the future of human relationships, she explores how the erotic mind can empower our everyday lives, offering fresh insights on cultivating erotic intelligence amid ever-evolving technology. In addition to consulting on numerous start-ups in the sextech sector, she is a member of the International Society of Sexual Medicine. Mal has been featured in publications such as WIRED, Mashable, The Guardian, Independent, Glamour, NYTimes, Vice, and more.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Join Tony DUrso as he interviews Julia Lam & Varga Moshtagh: Facebooker & Podmosphere Julia Lam is an early Facebooker, a serial entrepreneur & now Founder & CEO of Tara & Co. They're re-imagining products for women on-the-go. The Tracy 2-in-1 bag is a stylish & convertible bag named after diversity advocate Tracy Chou. They launched officially in November 2017 with $110k in pre-sales & featured in Brit + Co, Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, & LA Fashion Magazine & more. Varga Moshtagh is a Swedish entrepreneur trying to revolutionize the podcast industry. A former journalist & editor, he runs the podcast advertising company Podmosphere as its CEO. Listen to The Tony DUrso Show on VoiceAmerica Influencers Platform every Friday at 2pm Pacific or on our mobile app at tonydurso.com/mobile.

Is Facebook really moving away from its ad-based model?! If so, how will they make money moving forward? Will they get into dating, selling more VR, or using a FB stablecoin and monetizing transactions? Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) debate and explore the where Facebook is headed. If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

We talk to Reid Blackman, founder of Virtue (an ethical tech consultancy), about the ethical issues facing Big Tech. We discuss how Silicon Valley has a difficult time foreseeing pitfalls, how teaching ethics to developers is a major task, explainable AI, and how we develop products to mitigate ethical risks! If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow Reid Blackman: Reid was gripped by ethical problems the first semester of his first year in college over 20 years ago. Countless hours later, after reading, arguing, and teaching about ethics, he’s still hungry for more. While his early research concerned issues largely contained within the ivory tower, his research has become increasingly action-orientated, particularly as it concerns the ethics of institutions like governments and corporations, and also the ethics of emerging technologies. He has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Texas in Austin, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Colgate University. He currently sits on the committee for “Methods to Guide Ethical Research and Design” for the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems and is a member of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Alliance. When he isn’t doing ethics you can find him with his wife and children, unless there’s rock climbing to be done. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

We talk to Lisa Mayer, founder of My Social Canvas, about supporting women in tech. My Social Canvas is a social-impact fashion brand. We talk about entrepreneurial inspiration, the changing NYC tech scene, the dangers of hypergrowth, and the infamous Fyre Festival. If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscrib…2e9ef88e

How did Funny as Tech come about? The combination of tech, comedy, and ethics has some people giving us a thumbs up and others scratching their heads (no middle fingers, yet). So how did it come about? Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) wax nostalgic and tell their origin story and how Funny as Tech was created. If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

What is the meaning of machines making art?! We talk with playwright & technologist Kat Mustatea about bots as a wholly new medium for art, its similarity to puppetry, the idea of agency, and the social implications of algorithmic systems used for mass control! Fun, fun. And hey, If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow Kat Mustatea is a playwright and technologist. Her recent TED talk examines the meaning of machines making art, looking at what new art forms arise as society shifts radically toward autonomous, algorithmic behavior. Her writing about the intersection of art, technology and society has appeared in Forbes, The Week, and Hyperallergic. A high school math prodigy, she studied philosophy at Columbia University and sculpture at Pratt Institute. She founded a theater company in Berlin and has spent the last decade developing cross-disciplinary works for the stage that combine music, dance, and highly emotional theater. Her plays have been performed in New York, Chicago, Berlin, and Oslo. As a technologist, she has worked as a software engineer and product manager, and is now a freelance consultant. She regularly speaks about art, technology, and culture, and is working on a book about art in the age of machine intelligence. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

The future of social media...what will it look like? Will social media still be a thing?! Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) debate and explore the future of social media. If you are in the NYC area, come to our live show on Tues, April 9th "Let's Talk about Sextech." bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, Dennis Crowley, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

NYC Sextech and the Future of Sex with Bryony Cole, a leading authority on sextech. Bryony talks to co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) about sextech industry myths, making things for invisible populations, and women in sextech. **Bryony Cole will be a special guest for our live show in NYC on Tues, April 9th at 6pm! "Let's Talk about Sextech" at the Peoples Improv Theater. bit.ly/FunnyAsTechLiveShow Bryony Cole Since launching the top-rated podcast, Future of Sex, Bryony has been on stages across the world, defining the direction of sextech for governments, technology and entertainment companies. Her wide body of research and annual Future of Sex report are considered the lead in industry insights. Bryony is an international speaker, published writer and producer, who has been featured on shows like Viceland and Technopia, and articles in Wired, TechCrunch, The New York Times, Playboy, Mashable, Motherboard, ABC, Financial Review, Brides, Glamour and many other global media. www.futureofsex.org @bryonycole and @futureofsex FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg *Find Funny as Tech on Spotify & RadioPublic Signup to our monthly mailing list: funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscrib…2e9ef88e

Why is tech so lousy with women?! Recorded live show featuring guests Clara de Soto (serial entrepreneur), Jumana Abu-Ghazaleh (founder & CEO of Betwixt.us) and Kimberly Gray (founder & CEO of Uvii). Recorded LIVE at The Peoples Improv Theater in NYC on Feb 13, 2019. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech--inside a comedy theater. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Is LinkedIn the best social media site?! Really?? Funny as Tech co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian)discuss their unusual affection for the typically overlooked professional social media site. Comparing LinkedIn to Twitter and Facebook, David & Joe bat around the plusses and minuses to each social network. NEXT LIVE SHOW: Wed, Feb 13th at the Peoples Improv Theater (NYC). Topic: Why Is Tech So Lousy with Women?! https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Teens, tech, and digital for good! We chat with #ICANHELP's co-founder Matt Soeth about our messy relationship with tech and what #ICANHELP is doing to empower teens. NEXT LIVE SHOW: Wed, Feb 13th at the Peoples Improv Theater (NYC). Topic: Why Is Tech So Lousy with Women?! https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg **We are on Spotify! Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

In this episode, David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) invite renowned media theorist Douglas Rushkoff to discuss his new book Team Human, what we can do to inject humanity back into our tech & lives, and what the world might look like five years from now! NEXT LIVE SHOW: Wed, Feb 13th at the Peoples Improv Theater (NYC). Topic: Why Is Tech So Lousy with Women?! https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ A tech ethicist & comedian tackle the human side of tech. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Dennis Crowley, Kate O'Neill, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/funny-as-tech-a-tech-ethicist-co-WDp0Jo **We are on Spotify! Signup to our monthly mailing list: funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscrib…2e9ef88e

Is our technology separating us from one another? Is Wikipedia the original internet? Is John Barlow's Cyberspace manifesto part of the problem? In this episode, David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) invite renowned media theorist Douglas Rushkoff to discuss his new book Team Human, what we can do to inject humanity back into our tech & lives, unsustainable growth of tech companies, and whether tech on our faces will ever be a hit. NEXT LIVE SHOW: Wed, Feb 13th at the Peoples Improv Theater (NYC). Topic: Why Is Tech So Lousy with Women?! https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Dennis Crowley, Kate O'Neill, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/funny-as-tech-a-tech-ethicist-co-WDp0Jo **We are on Spotify! Signup to our monthly mailing list: funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscrib…2e9ef88e

Deep fakes, virtual human influencers, botified speech! Funny as Tech co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) discuss the emerging tech that is creeping us out in 2019. Our conversation was inspired by the Fast Company article, "Nine innovations creeping us out in 2019." You can find that article at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90285664/technology-creeping-us-out-in-2019 NEXT LIVE SHOW: Wed, Feb 13th at the Peoples Improv Theater (NYC). Topic: Why Is Tech So Lousy with Women?! Info at: https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg We are on Spotify! Sign up to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

In this episode of Nevertheless Tracy Chou, Jyoti Chopra, and Anjali Ramachandran discuss frameworks, metrics and intersectionality, and ask the hard questions about diversity and inclusion. The podcast was recorded at a live event held in London in November 2018, and was a collaboration between Ada's List and Nevertheless.  The event was hosted by Anjali Ramachandran, co-founder of Ada's List, a global community of those who identify as women in tech.  Anjali is joined by Tracy Chou and Jyoti Chopra. Tracy is a Software Engineer who has worked at Quora and Pinterest and is well known for her work pushing for diversity in tech. Tracy is now a founding member of Project Include, and is focused on driving solutions in the space.   Jyoti is Senior Vice President and Global Leader of Diversity & Inclusion at Pearson. She is a member of the Board of Advisors at Toyota Motor Company, and previously held prominent positions at Deloitte, Merrill Lynch and BNY Mellon. ---

A tech ethicist & comedian tackle the human side of tech. In this episode, David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) discuss the thorny emerging tech issue of digital phenotyping! Digital phenotyping is analyzing HOW you use your digital device (speech patterns, volume of texts, pattern changes, how your scroll) to make correlations to depression, suicidality, and more. Is digital phenotyping a canary in the smartphone?! Or is it prone to dangerous false positives?! What about our expectation of privacy? How will this be used with teens?! Does this impact our freedom of mind?! Does this known surveillance alter the underlying behavior?! FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Outside of podcast recordings, Funny as Tech holds regular live performance in NYC (at the Peoples Improv Theater. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

A tech ethicist & comedian tackle the human side of tech. In this episode, David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) discuss the thorny issue of personal branding! The 21st century is seemingly not about what you create, but how you position yourself as a creator. David & Joe dig into our love/hate relationship with personal branding, how it can be humiliating sometimes, and dealing with our Googlegangers. Joe also waxes about the finer points of branding as a comedian. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech--inside a comedy theater. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Special guests: Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Melissa Jun Rawley (social impact entrepreneur, BBC News tech contributor) and Allison Medina (Tech Ladies) Will Silicon Valley be disrupted?! While SV is noted for its unique “secret sauce” environmental conditioned that promote innovation, the current techlash has also exposed its vulnerabilities. Recorded LIVE at The Peoples Improv Theater in NYC on Nov 14, 2018, right on the heels of Amazon's announcement for their new headquarters in Queens. FUNNY AS TECH Our Relationship With Technology is Messy...Let's Discuss! Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech--inside a comedy theater. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Joe interviews David live at All Tech Is Human: A Summit on Ethical, an initiative he founded to better align the interests of tech with the interest of users & society. FUNNY AS TECH Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators include CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com Next LIVE show: Wed, Nov 14th at the Peoples Improv Theater at 6pm w/ special guests Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Melissa Jun Rawley (social impact entrepreneur), and Allison Esposito (Tech Ladies). https://thepit-nyc.com/events/funny-as-tech/ FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

FUNNY AS TECH Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests and collaborators include CNN's Laurie Segall, Randi Zuckerberg, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH https://www.funnyastech.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 Signup to our monthly mailing list: https://funnyastech.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=43f37d897394e33ea3668b208&id=0d2e9ef88e

Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (UCB comedian) stop by the NYC Media Lab to find out what the brightest minds are working on, play with some emerging tech demos, and hear a range of keynotes and panel discussion on computer-brain interface, digital equity, and the synthetic media debate. Stay in touch with the NYC Media Lab at: https://nycmedialab.org/ FUNNY AS TECH Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz

Will synthetic media be a net positive or net negative for society?! An important thorny ethical debate! Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar and Joe Leonardo recently attended the NYC Media Lab Summit where this debate happened on stage. Right after the debate, David and Joe recorded their reflections on the debate. Here is the description of the debate, written by the NYC Media Lab: NYCML'18: The Great Synthetic Media Debate The debate covers whether synthetic media will do more good than harm. What is synthetic media you ask? Manoush Zomorodi, founder at Stable Genius Productions, defines it as everything from "holographic popstars, to new tools that automate workflows, from deep learning techniques used for producing news articles, to highly engaging AI characters". But we've all seen how these tools can be put to nefarious uses by now. As the debate escalates, niceties are thrust aside and potshots taken. Many great points emerge from each of the brilliant speakers: Ken Perlin (Director, NYU Future Reality Lab): all art is synthetic media, from Shakespeare's works to Thanos's AI-enabled face, and even as insidious versions surface, we have the right people and community leaders to help us get together as a society and establish truth and rationality. Eli Pariser (Omidyar Fellow, New America Foundation): all media is synthetic (ex. edited news clips), so we can't divorce the content from those who made it - synthetic media will lead us to question the veracity of things and look at the author for answers. Matthew Hartman (Partner, Betaworks Ventures): there are few good instances of synthetic media out there, a lot of "nice to have" ideas, but the examples we see out in the world today have definitely done more harm than good. Karen Kornbluh (Senior Fellow for Digital Policy, Council on Foreign Relations): major entities have always tried to trick us (ex. oil companies "hacking" climate scientists, Russia's disinformation campaigns), but while we can mitigate all this, we've lost the will to work as a society and make tech work for us. FUNNY AS TECH Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

We’ve all heard companies talk big about how they value diversity. But many still aren’t willing to quantify how they’re doing: who works there? Who’s getting hired and promoted? Are people being paid equitably? On today’s show, we talk about diversity, data, and how one engineer’s call for hard numbers shook things up. That engineer was Tracy Chou—a leading voice in tech industry diversity and inclusion conversations. She’s a wildly talented software engineer who believes in the importance of increasing transparency among tech companies, the need for tech to value a humanities education, and the pleasures of spending way too much time on Twitter. > As an engineer, I’m so used to having to have data for everything. But the lack of data on the workforce side just felt so hypocritical to me. It seemed like it wasn’t really a problem that we wanted to solve if we weren’t even looking at the data. > —**Tracy Chou,  Project Include founding advisor ** We talked with Tracy about: What the real picture of diversity in tech companies looks like and where the numbers are. Why it’s important for tech companies to get comfortable releasing data about their workforce, and why it’s critical to consider the intersectionality of diversity efforts. A nonprofit Tracy helped to found called Project Include, which shares best practices around implementing diversity and inclusion solutions. Plus, we talk about ch-ch-ch-changes and asking for help: Specifically, change at work—how we deal with it and how it can affect us emotionally and physically. And yup, we constantly have to remind ourselves that it’s ok to ask for help. The good news is, we’re helping each other do it more. Jenn even got to take a vacation complete with funnel cake, because she asked for help with childcare. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit shopify.com/careers for more. Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Try it free, then use code NOYOUGO to get 50% off your first paid month. Transcript [Ad spot] SWB Harvest makes awesome software for tracking time, planning projects, sending invoices, and generally helping me keep it all together at work. Or at least look like I have it all together—even if I’m actually still wearing sweatpants. I love how easy it is to use, whether I’m working solo or scaling up a larger team for a big project. You’ll love Harvest, too. Go to getharvest.com to try it free, and if you’re ready for a paid account, use code noyougo to get 50% off your first month. That’s getharvest.com, code noyougo. [intro music plays for 12 seconds] Jenn Lukas Hey friends, welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. Katel LeDû I’m Katel LeDû. SWB And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. And today we are talking to Tracy Chou, who is an entrepreneur and an engineer whose push for tech companies to start revealing employee diversity data back in 2013 kickstarted a lot of huge changes in Silicon Valley, and put her on the cover of The Atlantic and Wired and a whole bunch of other stuff. It also led her to become a founding member of Project Include, which is a non-profit that is on a mission to accelerate diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. So we chat with Tracy about how she became a diversity advocate, how that’s changed her career and what she’s learned along the way. But before we do that, I just want to kind of check in with everyone. So, how’s life? JL Life’s been a little wild this week. We kicked off some really big team changes at work. You know, some small changes, some big changes, but some people’s day to days got pretty changed up. And of course, seating changes. KL Oh gosh, that can be a big doozy. How’s it going? JL [sighs] Well, I can say this. People really just don’t care for change. [All three laugh] SWB [still laughing] No! Not at all. JL You know, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about like why do people hate change so much? SWB Because we all have habits and comforts and then you take them away and it’s very hard because inside we’re all just delicate little flowers. [Katel laughs] SWB Seriously! We are! KL Yeah! SWB We are! It’s hard! KL You get used to something and you’re like ‘wait, now everything’s changing and how am I going to adapt and how am I going to deal with this.’ And I think yeah, it just, it feels like it— it can feel overwhelming and especially when it has to do with sort of changing folks that you’re working with or places you’re sitting. Like I think physical changes can impact you a lot. SWB And maybe also the thing with physical change like where you’re sitting is that nobody really realizes that it’s impacting them so much, right? People will underestimate how much of an impact that can have and so it’s the kind of change that can really affect your day to day, but that nobody’s kind of taking stock of and and it’s sort of assumed that that will just be fine. And I think that those changes are hard, right? The ones that we don’t invest enough time in planning for and understanding that there is an emotional component to it. The other thing I think about when it comes to change is that oftentimes people will know that the company needs to change and they’ll complain about the way it’s organized and it’s so hard to get anything done and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And yet when you try to enact changes, it’s really difficult to get people on board. And I think part of that is also like change that people are choosing for themselves versus change that is being done to them. And the reality is, nobody likes to feel like there is something being done to them and so that’s one of the biggest things I always think about is how do you make this something that people feel a little bit included in or consulted on? Or at least how can you put it into terms that will help them see it as something that is going to help them in their day to day or take away some of the pain that they were experiencing in terms of workflow or whatever. And of course, that’s not always invested in and it’s also not always true! Like for some people it’s it’s not actually solving the personal problems they had even if it’s solving company problems. And then it’s like okay, how do you get people on board and sort of get them through that hard part of of shifting gears? JL One of the things we do with team changes that I think is really good is re-establish team norms. So sit down with everyone and everyone sort of discusses just like, what are the routines and what are the beliefs and the things that are important to people as a team. And I think that can really be helpful with new teammates to be like ‘here are things that are important to me, what are things that are important to you, and what’s it going to be like to live together at work?’ KL Yeah. SWB Do you have any sort of particular structure for doing something like that? JL We have the scrum masters run that and sort of they have a questionnaire list that brings stuff up. So, people eating lunch at their desks or how you use the shared space or the tables. So we—like I said, we switched the teams so we had to discuss ‘hey, can we still use this table to watch Jeopardy at lunch?’ [All three laugh] KL Very important! JL [laughing] Yeah! SWB Yeah, bullet point number one: Jeopardy! JL Right? But I mean also things like how you point stories. So pointing stories is basically a level of effort of how much an effort will take to get some sort of feature work done or something at work. We do daily stand ups at work where people tell you what your status are at meetings. You know, what time is that? Or are you doing them over Slack or like virtual stand ups? I think it can also be things like ‘here’s how I receive feedback best’ or ‘here’s how I think we should handle reviews of other people’s work.’ [5:18] SWB Yeah, I mean there’re so many questions that come up when there’s any kind of change like that. Since I don’t work in a company—but the kind of consulting I do with companies is always about change because invariably they are coming to me because they realize that their content or their user experience isn’t working as they want it to and the reason that it’s not working is always rooted in their not being able to make it work as a company. The way that they’re organized, the way they do things, who’s in charge of what. So, I have to talk to people about how their jobs are going to change and how things are going to be different. And I’m a big fan of having people practice some of those skills. So if it’s like okay, we are going to do a different kind of writing process where instead of—you know—you produce this content over here in this department and then you ship it out the door to this other department, there’s going to be a collaborative process. Well then, okay, we should practice that. And so we’ll do that in a workshop setting where we’ll pair people up and we’ll actually practice—how do we work on these things together, how do we share drafts and get feedback from each other? And I think that those kinds of low stakes practice sessions—because you’re not doing your real job, you’re just kind of practicing the new thing in a short period of time—I think that that can help people feel more comfortable with talking to people they aren’t used to talking with. JL Yeah and I mean I also think that it lets you feel more in control, and sometimes if you embrace that, if you know change is coming, you can do more exercises like that. And sort of prepare and be ready for this. So if you are expecting change or just knowing it can happen or knowing specifics, you can just be better ready I think to deal with it. KL I love thinking about kind of how a different perspective or sort of embracing a different kind of approach to the change can kind of help you through it. It makes me think of when I was at National Geographic, we would go through organization changes from time to time, but at a certain point, we actually went through a really big physical change where we went from everyone was in cubicles and not just cubes that were like low sort of where you can see everyone. It was like six feet tall and offices and everyone went to cubes that were like four feet high. So, everybody could see everybody—including managers, it was all sorts of like all different levels, and people were really freaked out. And one thing that we realized immediately was going from sort of a perceived sense of privacy to not having any, meant that we kind of had to think about the workplace etiquette a little differently and just no one had thought about that. Like no one. It wasn’t—you know—a matter of management doing something wrong or folks not thinking about it, it just was like ‘oh, wait we have to work together a little bit differently.’ And something I’ve actually seen work really well is at a co-working space I go to here in Philly. [Laughs] Someone made these little coasters that were like red light, green light. So basically you put your little green circle up if you were ready to chat to people or didn’t mind having people coming up to your desk, or you put the red one up if you were like ‘I’m going to be heads down and working on something.’ So—I just think this idea of kind of looking at things a little differently too can help. JL It’s like Fogo de Chão, [Katel laughs] the Brazilian steakhouse where green means bring me more meat and red means no I’ve had enough. KL [Laughing] Exactly. JL Yeah I mean I really like that because we used to say the universal sign was headphones, but I think we all know that doesn’t work. I was reading a bit on Harvard Business Review about this. They had some interesting things about finding humor in the situation, talk about problems more than feelings, don’t stress out about stressing out, focus on your values more than your fears—this idea that remembering that you’re you no matter what the change is can really help you. The change doesn’t have to define who you are. But something else I really liked was this like ‘don’t expect stability,’ where they talk about this 70’s research that was done where they studied two groups of managers and one group thrived and the other didn’t. And they said—you know—the adaptive leaders chose to view all changes as an expected part of the human experience, rather than as a tragic anomaly that victimizes unlucky people. KL Yeah! JL And then the struggling leaders were ones who were consumed by thoughts of quote on quote the good, old days. And they spent their energy trying to figure out why their luck had suddenly turned sour—because they kept looking back to something that wasn’t there anymore. SWB That’s so interesting too because that just reminds me so much of politics, right? You have so many people who are talking about the good, old days. And you’re like ‘wait, when were the good, old days and for whom exactly?’ And I think it’s true at work too where it’s like when people get obsessed with the good, old days, those are probably also mythical. Right? KL Yeah.. SWB They may have been good for some people in the organization but it’s undoubtedly that they weren’t working for other people. JL And the other thing that you might like if you dig in, you might be like ‘okay, well this part was good, but this part wasn’t’ and you can think about how to get that good part back. So if what you missed was that you sat with someone or you worked with someone really closely that you didn’t—you know—make sure you’re setting up time for lunch with them or maybe you set up pairing sessions where you still work together. But you know, trying to figure out what it is that you did like and then what are things you can apply moving on? What are the things that you’re excited about now? And what are the things maybe that you didn’t really like then? And maybe you didn’t get a chance to work on these exciting things or work with this person and now you do get to work with this new person or you do get to work on this new project. Or maybe this new seat allowed you to clear off the desk that you’ve been meaning to do. [Laughs] It’s funny, I was actually like—in the seating change I ended up not moving seats and I’m like ‘ugh, but I’ve got all these boxes I’ve got to bring down.’ [All laugh] KL [Laughing] You’re like ‘no, I need a move to help me reorganize.’ JL *[laughs] *Yeah, so just—like you’re saying. Trying to figure out really what are the positives moving forward? If there are things you will miss from those days, how do you keep them up and try to make the best going forward, as much as you can. I mean, It’s always hard and I don’t want to make it ever sound like that’s easy, but I think we can all do it. [11:26] [Music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] Time Trivia SWB So we’ve been talking a lot about change and our interviewee today definitely talks a lot about change in the tech industry as well so I’d like to get to that interview, but before we do, we have one last little segment. It is brand new, it is called Time Trivia. Because we talk about time on this show all the time! We need more time, we try to balance the time we have, we rant about how we are sometimes feeling a little bit unbalanced. And so our friends at Harvest wanted to see if we could stump each other when it comes to time. So let’s see. Katel, you’re up today and our theme is women authors. Are you ready? KL Oh gosh, let’s do it. JL Okay, Katel. Here is your first question. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter manuscript was rejected twelve times before it sold for an advance of only £1,500. Now she’s sold more than four hundred million copies. How long did it take her to write that manuscript? A) 5,000 hours, B) 15,000 hours, or C) 50,000 hours. KL Oh my gosh, this is already a lot of numbers. I’m going to say C) 50,000 hours. JL Katel— that is correct! KL [Gasps] Yayy! JL It took her six years to write Harry Potter. KL That’s a lot of hours! SWB We even tried to stump you with the twelve times £1,500, 400 million copies—you were unstumpable. Question two. More math, sorry. [Katel laughs] Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights under the pseudonym Ellis Bell in 1847. If she’d been paid a freelance rate of $50 an hour – pretty good in 1847—how much would she have earned for her wild, passionate tale of Katherine and Heathcliff’s love? KL Ugh, I love this book. SWB Is it A) $740,000, B) $60,000, or C) $330,000? KL Ohhh my gosh, I’m going to go with B) $60,000 even though I feel like it should be more. SWB It is way more. It is actually $330,000 because it took her nine months to write that book, which is still a real short time considering how great that book is, ugh. KL Yeah, it is! I’m glad it was more than $60k. JL Okay, Katel, last question. Stephanie Myer’s classic tale of vampire love and lust—yes, Twilight—[laughs] has become a five-film series. If Stephanie had been billing her time to clients instead, how many 15 minute increments would she have billed? A) 870, B) 8,700, or C) 87,000? KL Ooh. 8,700? JL Katel, you know your 15 minute increments. That is correct! B) 8,700. SWB Two out of three, not bad. I think that’s a winning score! So, thank you so much to Harvest for sponsoring our time trivia today and for supporting women authors, which they do, and women podcasters. So check them out at getharvest.com. [Music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] [14:34] Interview: Tracy Chou SWB Tracy Chou is a wildly talented software engineer, who has also become a leading voice in tech industry diversity and inclusion conversations. She has been an engineer at Quora and Pinterest, an advisor to the US Digital Service and is one of the cofounders of an organization I am personally super fond of and that’s Project Include. She was named on Forbes’ 30 under 30 tech list in 2014 and she has been profiled in everything from Vogue to Mother Jones. So I am extremely excited to welcome Tracy to the show today. Tracy, thank you so much for being here. So, you went to Stanford, you interned at Facebook, you were one of the first engineers at Quora and one of the first engineers at Pinterest. That is kind of like a perfect Silicon Valley pedigree to a lot of people. Except, you’ve also written about feeling out of place during a lot of that time and not necessarily feeling like the industry was designed for you. And I’m wondering if we can start there—what was it like in the beginning of your career? And what was exciting about it and maybe what was not so great about it? Tracy Chou Yeah, so I grew up in the Bay Area surrounded by tech and I think that made it very easy for me to naturally fall into the tech industry. When I started working in tech I think I just accepted things for the way they were, including the lack of gender diversity, racial diversity. I honestly didn’t notice or think that things should be different. But there definitely were experiences I had when I started working that felt off, but I didn’t know how to articulate or pinpoint them. I tended to blame myself or think that there was something wrong with me when I had a lot of coworkers hitting on me all the time, for example when I was interning. And—you know—when I started working and felt like I might be treated differently, I assumed that it was because I wasn’t as qualified or there was something about the the way that I was approaching my work that was inferior and therefore caused people to treat me differently. So it took a while for me to put all the pieces together, and so I was just talking to a lot of other people in industry, other female engineers. One of my early conversations that really started to make me aware of these sorts of issues systemically, was with Tristan Walker who is an African American founder. And he had reached out to say that he had seen some of my writing about being female in engineering and wanted to share that he had similar experiences even though he wasn’t technical and he wasn’t a woman. Being the only black person in the room oftentimes felt as alienating and he could really identify with a lot of the things that I was saying. And that helped me to see how pervasive the sort of experience of marginalization is. Even though the tech industry is one that tries to pride itself on being so innovative and designing the future, being this engine of progress, there are so many ways in which it is still very backwards. SWB What year was that? That was like 2010,11,12 in there that you were really kind of getting going in your career and having those experiences? TC Yeah, the first sort of Silicon Valley tech internship I had was in 2007, but I started working full time in 2010. SWB So in 2013, you wrote this post on Medium that got kind of a lot of attention, where you were calling out the lack of data about women who are working in tech—and maybe specifically working in engineering, and the lack of success metrics attached to company’s diversity efforts. So if companies maybe had diversity efforts, they didn’t necessarily have any sense of whether they were working or not. And so that post kind of blew up and a lot of companies started sharing their numbers in a GitHub repo. And for listeners who aren’t familiar with GitHub repos, it’s just a site where you can work collaboratively usually on software projects, but you can also do things like collaboratively share data. And I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about how that happened. First up, what made you sit down and write that blog post and did it feel risky when you did it? TC I had been working in the industry for a few years at that point and had gotten to know a number of the female engineers at other companies. And it started to be this thing that I would keep track of in the back of my head like which startups, which companies had which female engineers. Whenever I went into rooms I would automatically start counting, so it was just something that I was keeping tabs on personally. At the same time, I was looking at diversity at Pinterest and I wanted to make recommendations to the team about what we should do to be more diverse and inclusive. Facebook and Google were getting a lot of really good press around their parental leave policies, for example, and lots of companies were talking about how they were sending lots of people to the Grace Hopper conference, which is this big annual conference of women in computing. But I found it very hard to justify recommending any of those things to Pinterest because there were no success metrics. So these kind of thoughts were swirling around in my head when I went to Grace Hopper that year—this was October 2013—and I was at a breakfast where Sheryl Sandberg was speaking in front of the room and she made a comment about how the numbers of women in tech were dropping precipitously. Which, I didn’t disagree with the sentiment of, but it made me wonder what numbers she was talking about, because to my knowledge there were no numbers really out there. And so when I got home with all these thoughts rolling around my head, I ended up writing this post around diversity data. I was also reflecting on how the way we treated workforce issues was so different from the way we treated product development. As an engineer, I’m so used to having to have data for everything. We’re pretty religious about tracking all this data on our users [laughs] and understanding their behavior and that’s the way that we approach problem solving in product development. But the lack of data on the workforce side just felt so hypocritical to me. It seemed like it wasn’t really a problem that we wanted to solve if we weren’t even looking at the data. And of course I understood all the reasons why companies were skittish about even tracking the data because it would also mean that they would start to acknowledge the problem and have to solve it. But when I wrote the post, I wasn’t expecting much of a response. I didn’t think that it would be something that many people would even read, much less act on. I would also add though that in hindsight it seems like this post became big immediately and started this whole movement, but it did take some time as well. It was more of a slow, snowball effect. And so there were smaller companies that contributed their data first and the bigger companies took a little bit more time to process and work through what they wanted to do before they all started releasing their reports as well. [21:05] SWB When I look back on it, it kind of reminds me of in some ways like the moment that happened last year when Susan Fowler published her Uber blog post where there was this moment—the table had already been set for this conversation and it was just it pushed it over the edge or something. And I’m not sure if it’s exactly the same by any means, but it did really feel like a moment was happening and I’m curious, why do you think it ended up really snowballing? What was it about that moment that you think caught on? TC I think there was general appetite to do something about diversity and inclusion. More people were acknowledging that it was a problem. And I think the way that I framed it, which was, “let’s just start sharing some data,” made the problem seem a little bit more tractable. At least there was a first step that people could take. There was one thing that an individual contributor, for example, could do. So if you’re working at a small startup, you can look around the room and see how many engineers and how many female engineers and count that up and submit that data into the repository. And it felt easy, actionable, and also clear that this would contribute to a broader cause. I think I had a little bit more credibility as an engineer working at a company that a lot of people knew. And I think that piece is still important, I could speak from the perspective of being on the inside. And I think also I just got lucky. In a lot of ways I think of this project as a startup where startups have the markets that they’re going after, the products they’re trying to build. Sometimes they’re too early and the market isn’t ready for them, sometimes the product isn’t just quite right yet for people to want to engage with it. A lot of things have to come together all at once and luck, timing, all of that plays in. And somehow this Medium post in a row and the GitHub repository that I set up just happened to be just right at that time to capitalize on this increasing intent from people in the community to do something. And I think I was the right person at the right time to be pushing on that message. SWB If you’re an engineer or anybody who uses GitHub already, it’s also like, it feels sort of a natural place or a more comfortable place. TC Yeah, I think the GitHub angle was also interesting because it spoke more to engineers and people who write code, as opposed to HR. So it was getting engineers submitting their data through pull requests, and those people were less encumbered by thinking through, what are the legal ramifications and what are the HR risks here. They’re just thinking, like, this is the team that I work on, I want to report the data on the team. KL This is so fascinating to me too because in that post in 2013 you also focused really narrowly on defining the technical roles. You wanted companies to talk about actual engineers—not every other role, not business development or whatever. Sort of as a way of saying companies shouldn’t pad their numbers about the women they hire if women aren’t in those roles. And I see that point. I’m also curious if that perspective has shifted over the past few years or changed at all? TC  One of the reasons why I wanted to be really specific about just tracking women in engineering is that for something that was crowdsourced, it had to be as simple as possible to contribute that data. The more you ask from people, the more drop off you get in that flow. So I wanted to make it super simple. But the other point about just looking at engineering versus the rest of it was that I did want to get away from that sort of padding of the numbers. And in the tech industry engineers are very much valued because they are the ones—we are the ones—building the products that are being sold, very close to the core value of the companies. So there’s this idea of looking at where the prestige is and how much inclusion you have there. Now that there’s more data coming out, we can see that even if you have a reasonable amount of representation across the companies, usually they’re lower ranked, few of those people are in decision-making roles. One interesting data point that I would love to see that is very hard to get is diversity on the cap table, and so that’s looking at ownership of the company—like who owns the shares. And I would suspect that ownership in these different tech companies skews very heavily white and male, because founders will have a lot of stock, early employees will have much more because the stock grants are risk-adjusted so people who are joining early will get much more stock, investors get stock, executives get a lot of stock. So even if your company has a lot of women, but they’re all in the lower-ranked, non-technical roles, the value that they get out of the company doing well is much less. So I really wanted to dig in on engineering within tech because that is so close to the core of Silicon Valley. [26:05] SWB One thing I’d love to ask about—we talked with Nicole Sanchez of Vaya Consulting back in June and her company focuses on diversity and inclusion in tech and consults with a lot of tech companies. And one of the things she said to us was that she flat out does not love the way that the numbers are being reported by tech companies right now, that there’s still a lot of gaming of the system because so much of the numbers is just about percentage of people in full and percentage of new hires, right? And that there’s not a lot of information about things like retention of those employees and seniority of those employees and, as you mentioned, who is actually getting a cut of these companies, right? Like who’s really taking home money? And so it sounds like—and I’m curious about your thoughts on this—but it sounds like the way that you were initially looking at some of these metrics was sort of really, really important at the time, but maybe isn’t quite enough to answer the questions that we have about how that industry is doing and to answer the questions that we have about whether things are getting better. TC Absolutely. I think we need much more comprehensive metrics and there is certainly gamification of the current metrics that get released. I think getting people even into the flow of releasing any data was a pretty big step. And I think it’s good to keep pushing on companies to release better data. So one obvious thing is intersectionality—instead of just putting gender on one side, race on one side, looking at those intersectional cuts and just see is it just white men and white women getting promoted? How does it look for women of color? Those sorts of questions can’t be answered if all the data is being split out. I’ve been relatively heartened by how much companies have been willing to release—enough that we can look at their data and see that in the last few years even if we’ve made some progress on gender diversity, we’ve had backsliding on racial diversity, which is not a good statement on the industry, but at least we have that data that we can even point that out and see that some of these diversity efforts aren’t uniformly benefitting different people and, in fact, are causing some harm to different groups. SWB  So another thing I was really hoping to dig into that I think you kind of touched on a little bit when you were kind of talking about technical versus non-technical roles, is I’m also curious how you feel about who’s considered technical in Silicon Valley and sort of the valuing of engineers when you are also kind of thinking about sort of the appreciation for what it takes to build tech products? I was reading an article you wrote—I think last year—about realizing that it’s not really just about engineering, and realizing the value of learning things like understanding people and human behavior and communication skills and—you know—liberal arts and humanities. And the stuff that you hadn’t necessarily taken that seriously when you were in college as something that was important for ensuring that the things we’re making aren’t laced with bias or harmful to people, and being able to think through sort of the impact of our work. And so I’m curious how you think about those things together. Like okay—we value technical roles a lot and so it’s important to look at who are in the roles that we value the most. But are there also issues around the kinds of roles that are valued or the kinds of roles that even exist? And how do we sort of make sense of that? [30:25] TC Yeah, absolutely. I think our whole way of approaching technology building right now is pretty flawed. I think for a long time we’ve unquestioningly assumed that technology is always progress. So whatever we do in the software realm will be positive. And we’re seeing very clearly now that that’s not the case. It’s very easy for the software products that we’re building to be used for harm or used in ways that we didn’t anticipate. And for the people who are building these products, whether it’s the engineers running the code or everyone else involved, we do need to think more holistically and broadly and contextualize our work in society and understand what the impacts of technology are before we can assume that we’re doing good. Some people have drawn analogies after the election cycles in the last couple of years to the sorts of ethics considerations that other domains have had—so, chemical engineering or in physics. When the people in those fields realized that their work could be used to create weapons, they had to think pretty hard about doing science or doing this kind of research and I think the people in the tech industry and in software right now really need to have that same sort of introspection and deep questioning. For a long time in the tech industry, we’ve really downplayed the value of a humanities education and and I think that is problematic. You see that reflected in compensation. For example, who gets these big payouts, who gets really big salaries. It’s tricky because also the sorts of value of someone who can bring in terms of the ethical reasoning and product guidance, that work is not as easy to value, put a dollar amount on. It’s a little bit easier to look at what an engineer is producing or what a designer is producing and say this is the value of their work and it ties very directly to the final output and I think if the whole system is fundamentally shifted around, we can start to see the value that non-technical folks are bringing, then hopefully that is reflected in the compensation and payouts as well. At the same time, you have this very classic supply and demand type issues around sorts of talent that you need, so the engineering salaries will be high for a while because engineering is very obviously needed and there aren’t enough engineers to fill all the roles. Even if we were to recognize the value of the non technical work that needs to be done, if there is such a mismatch in supply and demand on the technical side, the salaries will still be higher there. So there’s a lot of things to address systemically, but I think one starting point even just within the companies that we’re looking at is trying to shift the culture to acknowledge the different viewpoints that different people from different educational backgrounds and different training can bring. SWB I think one of the things that’s also interesting and maybe compounds all of this, is the way that a lot of the kinds of roles that are more based in humanities or social sciences or that would benefit from that kind of background, they are tending to have a lot more representation of women in them, and so then you kind of have this interesting cross section of the skills are in less demand. Also we’re used to paying women less, or we’re used to putting women into sort of more caring roles versus rational roles, and so it’s hard to tease out all of those different issues that intertwine and result in gendering of who’s in what kinds of roles, and devaluing of some roles, and then also to have the conversation about well, “why is it that so many women are in these kinds of roles and not in these other kinds of roles?” And to be able to talk about all those things at the same time I think is really hard for a lot of people. It takes a lot of investment in the discussion to be able to pick apart things with that level of nuance, and I think a lot of the time organizations aren’t there yet. TC Yeah, I completely agree. [Laughs] There has been some research into when professions become more lucrative and prestigious how they—how the men tend to crowd the women out. So, there used to be more women in software engineering and they were kind of pushed out. So the 37% of CS degrees in 1984 went to women and it’s been declining, the percentage has been declining since then. But in other industries as well, one that I found kind of interesting was beer making used to be mostly women and then men found out that beer making was cool and it became all male brewmasters. 
Even in things like cooking, when men reach the top and become these top chefs, it’s very prestigious. Even though women still do most of the cooking around the world, it’s just not viewed as as prestigious or lucrative for them. So as you were saying, there’s all these interesting dynamics at play and it’s really hard to tease out specific effects. SWB Yeah totally—I think about some of the conversations I’ve had with folks when startups starting hiring people to do quote growth hacking and you’re like ‘wait a second—isn’t that—wait, aren’t they—isn’t that marketing? I think they’re doing marketing!’ [Laughter] But marketing was always more women in the field and growth hacking was this very hardcore bro kind of role. If anybody out there is a quote growth hacker as their title, I’m sorry if I’m making fun of your profession. But it is, it’s one of these made up titles that’s almost—I think—masculinized a lot of skill sets that were traditionally perceived as being more feminine. And then low and behold, those people are being paid a lot more money. TC I think you also see this reflected in the maker movement—where it’s been rebranded as this very male type of thing where you’re making things. But if you actually look at what is being done—creating things from the raw materials—that’s stuff that a lot of women have been doing in different domains, but it had to get rebranded for men to be super into it and for it to become prestigious. SWB Totally, like what’s not being a maker about being a knitter? TC Yeah! SWB You’re literally making things out of thread, right? [Laughs] TC Yep. SWB I’m amazed that we have not gotten to this yet because it’s so important, I want to talk about it. Okay, we have not talked about Project Include. So, you started doing all of this work to share this data that you were gathering and to talk about this issue. Can you tell us a little bit about how that grew into founding Project Include? TC Project Include was eight of us women in tech getting together a couple of years ago. So, there was a lot of discussion in the broader sphere about the problems and everything that was going wrong, but not nearly enough about solutions. And for the people that wanted to do the right thing, they still didn’t know what to do. So, we thought that the highest leverage thing we could do was write down our recommendations and resource—what we knew to be best practice around implementing diversity and inclusion. Our initial launch was just a website with a lot of recommendations—everything from defining culture, to implementing culture, to doing training, hiring, resolving conflicts, measuring progress, and also a framework to think about all those things, so it’s not just like pick and choose some of these tactics and apply them to your org and then you’ll be fine, but thinking through more holistically how to approach diversity and inclusion truly inclusively so it’s not just gender or just race or just one facet of diversity and then being very intentional about measuring progress. So, there was a bunch of these recommendations we wrote down. The feedback we got from the community was really positive and people wanted us to do more with it, which is how we ended up incorporating as a non profit and adding Startup Include as a program where we actually work with cohorts of companies on implementing these recommendations. But our hope is really to drive these solutions forward and we’re focused on startups for now. We think that the highest leverage opportunity is with startups before they become too big and are hard to steer—try to get those good practices and processes in early and hopefully some of the startups that are thinking about D&I early will end up becoming the big companies of tomorrow and they’ll already have baked in these best practices. We also acknowledge that what we think to be best practice now may change and so we really do want to build more of a community around these issues and solutions and kind of in the same way that open source software works where you put stuff out there, everyone can benefit from it. As they’re using it, they may think of ways to extend it or improve on it and they’re contributing that back to the community—we want that sort of a community around diversity and inclusion. SWB Yeah, that’s really interesting and I think it’s one thing to identify problems, it’s one thing to try to address them, but we clearly don’t really know how to fix this yet. So, I’m curious is there anything that you’ve found as you’ve been advising Project Include and sort of seeing it grow and adapt—is there anything that you’ve seen out there that you’ve really feel like you’ve been able to learn from and that’s helped to shape where you’re making recommendations now? [39:54] TC The biggest takeaways still are that you need metrics to understand where the opportunities are and also where things are going well. So we recommend that all companies do look at their data. It’s cool to see so many people trying out different things. I think it will take some amount of time before we learn which things really work in a long term sustainable way, but definitely excited to see lots of people experimenting with D&I now. SWB So Project Include, that was founded in 2016, right? You’ve got a couple of years of kind of starting to shape the organization and provide more than just your manifesto, but also the actual community and practices and working with these companies. So I’m excited to see what else comes out of that. TC Yeah, one thing we’ve been thinking a lot more about is how to achieve leverage impact across the industry and some of that is going to be working with other organizations. Earlier this year, a couple of us launched this project called Moving Forward to get venture capital firms to first of all, have anti-harassment policies and then publish them, make them available to founders and then also have points of contact as accountability. And so this came out of some of the #metoo harassment stuff that came out last year, where what we saw was that in that relationship between founders who were trying to raise money and venture capitalists that control this money, there is this gray zone of interaction where they’re not necessarily in a professional relationship yet. As in cases where there is a power imbalance, sometimes there are abuses of that power. So our idea was to push venture capital firms to be very explicit about what’s acceptable behavior between people that work at the firm and potential founders that they might want to be investing in or other people in the community. And so we launched Moving Forward, now have over one hundred firms that have their anti-harassment policies out there and the points of contact. This is something where I worked on that separate to Project Include, but we ended up realizing that there was a good opportunity for collaboration between Project Include and Moving Forward so I could serve as a little bit of that bridge. SWB That’s so cool, it’s sounds like you just have your hands into so many different parts of this problem and like trying to sort of untie the knot from lots of different angles, which I really love. TC Yeah, I mean there’s a lot to be done here—so lots of opportunity. KL That is so true. I feel like we’ve been talking a lot about your work as a diversity advocate and I just want to go back to you for a minute, because I saw you write a while ago that you don’t want to just work on diversity issues because you love to code and you like your life a lot more with that in it. How do you balance those things and stay excited about both? TC I still identify as a software engineer and someone that likes to build products and build things. Sometimes that means building teams and companies, but the diversity and inclusion piece will, I think, always be a part of my life and that conversation is still just so prominent in the industry, it’s hard to not take part of it. So that always be a part of what I do, but in my more full time capacity, I do like to be thinking just about technology, how powerful it is and how it can be used to hopefully impact the world for better. KL I’m also curious—you know—if the move from San Francisco to New York has had any impact? TC When so many things change all at once, it’s hard to say. I do think being in New York has helped to broaden my perspectives quite a bit. I’m not surrounded by tech people all the time and I like being around people who don’t think about the same things I do all the time and just to be surrounded by this greater diversity of people. SWB We talk a lot about place on the show because I feel like so many conversations in design or tech or publishing or whatever can be so limited to such narrow places, so I’m always interested in—you know—kinds of perspectives that people can bring in. So we are just about out of time and before we go, I wanted to say: Tracy, I have been personally inspired by your work for a long time and I know I’m not the only one. So I want to thank you for being on the show and ask you, is there anywhere that our listeners can better keep up with everything that you’re up to? TC The best place to keep up with me is Twitter, so I’m @triketora on Twitter. It’s t-r-i-k-e-t-o-r-a. I tweet a lot, so I also will not be offended if you follow and then unfollow because there’s too much going on, but that’s the best place to keep up with me. SWB  Well I know that a lot of our listeners will definitely want to hear everything you have to say, even if you tweet all day. Thank you so much for being on the show. TC Ahh, thank you for having me! [music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out] Career CHAT KL Hey y’all, time to talk careers with our friends at Shopify. This week we’ve got a tip on what to look for in a company from Shannon Gallagher, a product manager on the merchant analytics team. SG: Being a lifelong learner is super important to me. I need to constantly grow and push my boundaries. The nice thing is, that’s one of Shopify’s core values, too. When you make a positive impact here, you can move into new roles, new disciplines, and new spaces. That’s had a huge impact on my career. Two years ago, I was on the recruiting team. Now, I’m in product management… And I’m still expanding my knowledge and reaching for new goals every day. This kind of environment means I’ll never get bored—or feel like I’m stuck in one place. The point is, you’ll love work so much more if you’re with a company where the goal is growth! KL  Thanks, Shannon! If you want to join a team where you can keep learning and make unexpected and wonderful moves—if you want—then you should check out Shopify. They’re growing globally, and they might just have the perfect role for you. See what’s new this week at shopify.com/careers. FYOTW JL Okay, so I’ve got a fuck yeah this week, ladies. KL Let’s hear it. JL Sutter and I are taking a vacation this week. SWB Fuck yeah! [Laughs] JL [Laughs] I know, I mean we could just stop there, mic drop. [All three laugh] JL But this vacation is to Wildwood, New Jersey—and for those unaware of the magic that is Wildwood—it’s a wonderful place at the Jersey Shore with boardwalk, food and funnel cake, and soft serve ice cream. And perhaps most importantly—it’s only a bit over an hour from Philadelphia. And here’s what we knew. We wanted some time to get away to ourselves, but we’re not really in the place where we wanted to plan something big or get on a flight. We just wanted some time with each other. That’s not because we don’t love our son, but two years ago we took a babymoon, which we gave ourselves a long weekend before a major change in our family. And we’re going to have that again soon, so we wanted to do something like that. But how do you get that time to yourselves when you have a toddler? So we were really thrown off and honestly I just—was like ‘that’s fine, we don’t really have to do it,’ like—not a big deal. But then this wild idea came to us. Why don’t we ask his parents if they’re available to watch Cooper for two nights? [45:48] KL What did they say? JL [Laughing] They said yes! KL Yaaay! JL And so it’s amazing what happens when you ask for help! KL That’s awesome. And also grandparents love to help in that way. JL It’s like—I don’t know why, but asking for what you need can be such a hard hurdle to overcome, but it can totally pay off awesomely, so I am saying fuck yeah to asking for help! KL That’s awesome. This actually resonates with me, too, because when I take time off at A Book Apart, I have to make a point of putting it on the calendar and asking folks to cover some stuff while I’m out so that I don’t have to worry about it or think about it. Because otherwise I would never actually really get time off. Like I have to actually set up that—you know—those boundaries and ask for help and I didn’t realize that until late in the game and I was like ‘oh, I actually need to raise my hand and do this so I can properly take some time off.’ So I love this. SWB I love this too because it’s actually a really good reminder for me. Because I think as both of you know—because you’ve called me on it before—I do not like to ask for help and I sort of take it almost as a point of pride to do it all myself. And that’s been good for me in some ways, but everybody needs help, myself included. And it’s one thing to ask for help, but it’s also another thing to actually accept the help and let go, right? Because part of what you’re saying, Katel, is that when you set that boundary where you’re like ‘okay, I’m taking a real vacation, can you please handle this for me’—you’re also saying ‘and I’m not going to check in so I need to be confident that it’s handled.’ KL [Laughing] Yeah. SWB Right? And I think that’s something that’s hard for me—just to fully let go and to just say ‘nope, this is handled and I’m not going to get all anxious about this, I’m just going to accept that it’s handled.’ And I realize it’s not a lack of trust—it’s like I trust them—but it’s almost like my brain doesn’t trust me enough to fully let go, you know? [Laughter] KL Yeah. SWB I have to remind myself like no no no no no, you asked for help, now your job is to take the help and then walk away. JL Yeah and it’s—it is hard to do things like that, but I think it gets better with practice. I mean, I read a bunch last year—some manager books and they talk a lot about just delegating things, delegating tasks and how important that is. But what’s really important is when you delegate the tasks, to trust that they’re going to get done and then be okay with the fact that whoever does them will probably veer from the way you were going to do it. So, we left an agenda or notes of what Coop’s normal day is for the grandparents and not to be like ‘you have to do it this way,’ but just so they have a guide-ish like ‘here’s what we would do.’ But I understand if you’re not going to do it exactly the same way and you know what, that’s okay. I’m okay with that, thank you for the help. I’m going to be able to now focus on other things that are more important than making sure that you did this exactly the way I would have done it. KL Yeah, I think that is so true. I’m thinking about this and I feel like we need to come up with an acronym for all the parts so… accept help, let go, enjoy—ALE! [Laughter] SWB That’s also what I would like to have on my next vacation. KL Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Well, fuck yeah to asking for help and to getting it, and we hope you enjoy. SWB Eat some funnel cake for me. JL Okay. [Laughing] You got it! SWB Well, that is it for this week’s episode of No, You Go—the show about being ambitious and sticking together. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia and is produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music is by The Diaphone. Thank you so much to Tracy Chou for being on the show today. If you like what you’ve been hearing, thank you so much, you’re the best. And you could be even more the best if you would take a moment to leave us a rating or review on your podcast listening app of choice and let your friends know about No, You Go because we’d love to have them here too. We’ll be back again next week! [music fades in, plays alone for 32 seconds, fades out to end]

Media literacy as a social justice necessity and component of civic engagement! Hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) take a deep dive with media literacy expert D.C. Vito. We chat about his work at The LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project), how media literacy is essential for democracy, and how fake news is leading to family friction. D.C. Vito co-founded The LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project) in 2007. Since that time, The LAMP has brought media literacy training to over 10,000 youth, parents and educators, transporting equipment and facilitators directly to communities in need of its services. Mr. Vito worked as a community organizer for many years prior to The LAMP, having served in the Peace Corps in Mali, managing campaigns for City Council, State Senate and Presidential candidates. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Media Literacy Educators (NAMLE). He was a keynote speaker at the first Wikipedia USA conference in 2014, co-taught “Media Literacy and Activism” at Queens College in 2015, and has spoken at a number of other conferences and events. Mr. Vito currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, German Shepherd puppy and lap-loving cat. DC Vito Twitter: https://twitter.com/DCVito/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelamp.nyc/ https://www.thelamp.org Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Digital Wellbeing! Hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) take a deep dive with Jess Davis, the founder of Folk Rebellion--which is on a mission to create a plugged-in world. We discuss carving out space for tech balance, our own personal struggles with tech, and how the rise of digital has coincided (or influenced) a rise of analog pursuits! Jess Davis is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Folk Rebellion -- a lofi media brand on a mission, leading a plugged-in world towards digital wellbeing. Twitter: https://twitter.com/folkrebellion Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/folkrebellion https://www.folkrebellion.com/ https://www.jessjessdavisdavis.com/ Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Video games & empathy! Hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) take a deep dive with Dr. Karen Schier, an expert on empathy & video games. We discuss the ideal game design for exploring other identities, how games are well suited for exploring boundaries, whether there are disturbing games that shouldn't be made, and if VR-headset wearing people in the future will visit grandma! Dr. Karen Schrier, Associate Professor, is the founding director of the Games & Emerging Media program at Marist College. From 2018-2019, she is also serving as a Belfer Fellow for the ADL's Center for Technology & Society, where she will be making anti-bias games and researching using games for perspective-taking, compassion, and bias reduction. Prior to Marist, she spent over a decade producing websites, apps, and games at organizations such as Scholastic, Nickelodeon, BrainPOP, and PBS/Channel 13. She is the editor of the book series, Learning, Education & Games, published by ETC Press (Carnegie Mellon), and co-editor of two books on games and ethics. She has written over 40 publications, including single-authored articles published in journals such as Educational Technology Research & Development and the Journal of Moral Education. With Matthew Farber, she co-authored the UNESCO MGIEP working paper, The Limits and Strengths of Using Digital Games as "Empathy Machines." Her latest book, Knowledge Games: How Playing Games Can Help Solve Problems, Create Insight, and Make Change, was published in 2016 by Johns Hopkins University Press. She is also working on a book for Oxford University Press on using games for civics and ethics education. Dr. Schrier holds a doctorate from Columbia University/Teachers College, master's degree from MIT, and a bachelor's degree from Amherst College. Twitter: https://twitter.com/drgamermom/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drgamermom/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenschrier https://www.karenschrier.com/ Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Women in STEM! We chat with Jenn Halweil, producer of the Go Beyond series about "the women scientists and engineers who are redefining our understanding of the universe." Do we have to wait for a woman to be dead or dying until she is honored for her achievements?! Co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) dive headfirst into a freewheeling conversation with Jenn Halweil about women not getting credit for their innovations, implicit bias, Elon Musk and our expectations to have geniuses "white, pale & male," and ways to champion women's stories in science & tech. Jenn Halweil's fascination with technology and storytelling may be a genetic predisposition -- her grandfather was part of the team that built the first major computer (ENIAC) led by Grace Hopper. Her father was a social worker who loved bringing home stories of his travels. From a young age, Jenn was instilled with a love of storytelling and problem solving. A nocturnal insomniac, her bed became a late night sanctuary stocked with a flashlight, an expansive Nancy Drew collection, and re-enactments of her favorite strong female protagonists. After devouring her elementary school's library, Jenn moved onto films and a pretty extensive Scientific American collection. In college, Jenn combined these interests, studying media communication and electrical engineering. http://jennhalweil.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennandbeyond https://twitter.com/gobeyondstem Instagram: https://instagram.com/jennandbeyond https://instagram.com/gobeyondstem Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Passwords! Password protection, management, social hacking, and protecting digital assets. Funny as Tech co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) talk with Emmanuel Schalit, CEO of the password management company Dashlane. We chat about what happens to your password-protected digital assets when you die, taking the human out of the loop, breaking passwords through brute force, and dumb security questions. Emmanuel is the CEO of Dashlane, which creates a safe, simple way to store and fill passwords and personal information. He has over 20 years of management experience across the technology and media sectors. https://www.dashlane.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eschalit Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 Signup to our monthly mailing list: eepurl.com/dgokyz twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

Funny as Tech co-hosts David Ryan Polgar (tech ethicist) and Joe Leonardo (comedian) talk with Joey Camire, a Principal and Strategist at the brand and innovation consultancy Sylvain Labs. We chat about the impact of emojis on communication, the influence of sci-fi on tech creation, and the human pushback of every waking moment becoming an advertisement. We also dip into unintended consequences, business models, and a strange group of One Direction conspiracy theorists. As part of the founding team of Sylvain Labs, Joey played a major role in both the development of the quality standard of or our work as well as the texture and nuance of our culture. On a day to day basis his responsibilities range from strategic direction of major lines of business to new business development. Joey has also taken a leading role in the development of outward facing thought leadership ranging from writing and editing white papers and blog posts to the development of a documentary called Instafame (over 200K+ views). Innovation and brand strategy projects have been completed for such major clients as General Motors, AB Inbev, Google, Chevrolet and Manchester United, Viacom, IAC, Target, Chobani and more. http://www.sylvainlabs.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeyCashmere Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JoeyCashmere/ Funny as Tech tackles the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Each week, tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite a guest to take a deep dive into a complex tech issue that is tripping up society. The show has dealt with AR, VR, AI, IoT, diversity in tech, tech addiction, media literacy, future of work, and much more. Previous guests have included CNN's Laurie Segall, Baratunde Thurston, Nir Eyal, Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Joe Lubin, Tracy Chou, Bridget Carey, and Chuck Nice. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-328735920 Signup to our monthly mailing list: http://eepurl.com/dgokyz https://twitter.com/TechEthicist https://twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo https://www.instagram.com/techethicist/ https://www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

How Human Should Our AI Assistants Be?! Tech ethicist David Ryan Polgar and comedian Joe Leonardo invite special guests Bridget Carey (CNET), Natt Garun (The Verge), and John Keefe (Quartz), to tackle this thorny topic! Why are all most of our voice assistants female?! Is it turning us into bossy jerks?! Does it matter that we are blurring the line between human and bot?! Recorded LIVE at Caveat (NYC) on July 11, 2018. BRIDGET CAREY Bridget Carey is writer and host of CNET Update, a daily tech news show. She's now in New York, but she started in Miami, covering tech trends, reviewing gadgets and authoring the nation's first social media etiquette column. Why journalism? She was born 150 years too early to join Starfleet. https://twitter.com/BridgetCarey NATT GARUN Senior Editor at The Verge A multifaceted Web journalist roaming about the media industry, Natt is lover of digital culture, creative media, technology, and general interest reporting. She writes the stuff you'll want to click on, either purposely or subconsciously. https://twitter.com/nattgarun JOHN KEEFE John is a developer in the Quartz Bot Studio and the product manager for Quartz’s apps.He’s working to figure out how conversational software fits into journalism. Keefe came to Quartz from public radio station WNYC, where he was the Senior Editor for Data News. https://twitter.com/jkeefe FUNNY AS TECH A tech ethicist (David Ryan Polgar) and UCB comedian (Joe Leonardo) tackle the thorniest issues in tech with the help of experts. Diving headfirst into the complicated feelings around our tech use, Funny as Tech aims to be an informative, entertaining, and accessible discussion around emerging tech and ethics. Our relationship with tech is messy...let's discuss! Funny as Tech is weekly podcast and bi-monthly live show in NYC. Previous guests have included Manoush Zomorodi, Douglas Rushkoff, Chuck Nice, Tracy Chou, Nir Eyal, Baratunde Thurston, Joe Lubin, and Laurie Segall. Funny as Tech also performs on the road with conferences and special events. Have a question? Info@FunnyAsTech.com FUNNY AS TECH FunnyAsTech.com Twitter: twitter.com/FunnyAsTech Instagram: www.instagram.com/FunnyAsTech/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FunnyAsTech/ Soundcloud: @user-328735920 iTunes: apple.co/2mAxIAV Google Play: bit.ly/2C7afyg Sign up for our monthly mailing list to take part in this evolving discussion around thorny tech issues!: eepurl.com/dgokyz YOUR HOSTS: David Ryan Polgar & Joe Leonardo: twitter.com/TechEthicist twitter.com/ImJoeLeonardo www.instagram.com/techethicist/ www.instagram.com/imjoeleonardo/ NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY

As tech companies come under fire for mishandling our data, with one blog post, a young software engineer forced these firms to share some of the most damning information they keep: the demographics of their workforce. Tracy Chou turned concepts familiar to her profession — like open sourcing, metrics reporting and benchmarking — to push for more diversity and inclusion throughout her industry. She discusses how the uphill battle continues through Project Include and why, in this case, a top-down approach from tech leaders is needed now.

As tech companies come under fire for mishandling our data, with one blog post, a young software engineer forced these firms to share some of the most damning information they keep: the demographics of their workforce. Tracy Chou turned concepts familiar to her profession - like open sourcing, metrics reporting and benchmarking - to push for more diversity and inclusion throughout her industry. She discusses how the uphill battle continues through Project Include and why, in this case, a top-down approach from tech leaders is needed now.

As tech companies come under fire for mishandling our data, with one blog post, a young software engineer forced these firms to share some of the most damning information they keep: the demographics of their workforce. Tracy Chou turned concepts familiar to her profession — like open sourcing, metrics reporting and benchmarking — to push for more diversity and inclusion throughout her industry. She discusses how the uphill battle continues through Project Include and why, in this case, a top-down approach from tech leaders is needed now.

The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg revisits a persistent problem in the tech industry: Why is it so difficult for people who aren't white and male? He talks with Tracy Chou, an engineer and long-time veteran of the start-up world whose current work focuses on that problem. She discusses her own experiences with harassment and discrimination, and why those experiences didn't drive her out of tech, as they did for many others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this fourth episode, host Claire O'Connell goes behind the scenes of Inspirefest 2017 for an exclusive backstage interview with software engineer and diversity advocate, Tracy Chou. From 2011 to 2016, Chou was an engineer and tech lead at Pinterest. Chou is most well known for her efforts to promote diversity in tech. In 2013, she helped to kick off the wave of diversity data disclosures at tech companies with a GitHub repository collecting numbers on women in engineering. Music by Drake Stafford. Produced by Bureau. Inspirefest: The Podcast is proudly supported by The Digital Hub.

Devon and Sarah reunite in Los Angeles and discuss the latest scoop in the Trump-Russia scandal (it came from Trump's own son) and the fucking train wreck that is the Senate healthcare bill. They also talk to engineer and activist Tracy Chou about tech, discrimination, and politics. They award the Maxine Waters Award in Badassery.

Diversity in tech has become a national conversation. In this episode of Stanford Innovation Lab, Tina Seelig speaks with software engineer and diversity advocate Tracy Chou. Tracy graduated from Stanford with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, and was an early employee at both Quora and Pinterest. In this episode, Tracy talks about her own experiences as a woman in software engineering, what she has learned as she has explored this topic in depth, and how data can inform the conversation around diversity in tech.

Tracy Chou is a software engineer and was most recently at Pinterest, where she worked on the home feed and recommendations team, ads and web teams, API, growth and much more! Before Pinterest, Tracy worked at Quora, also as one of the first engineering hires there. Tracy is well-known for her work pushing for diversity in tech. In 2013, she helped kick off the wave of tech companies that began to disclose their data about the diversity within their companies through a Github repository. Tracy is now a founding member of Project Include and is focused on driving solutions in the space. She was named Forbes Tech 30 under 30 in 2014 and has been profiled in Vogue and WIRED for her advocacy. Tracy is also an advisor to Homebrew VC and on reserve with the U.S. Digital Service. She joins us to share more about her story, how she got into tech and startups, some of the amazing things she’s been able to accomplish as part of Quora and Pinterest, how she’s been challenging the status quo and championing for diversity in tech, and much more!

Tracy Chou has been a super early employee at Pinterest and Quora and has become one of the most respected voices in the diversity in tech conversation, both in terms of gender and in terms of race, We talk about 1) her experiences being both a women in tech and asian in tech, 2) what’s it meant for Tracy to become a public figure, 3) how she evaluates who she spends her time with and why, 4) having a social impact beyond tech and more. Edited by @Alexkontis Praise to @triketora Criticism to @eriktorenberg

Tracy Chou from Pinterest, and Chris Granger and Jamie Brandon from Eve, discuss whether coding is a literacy (or as Granger puts it, a "superpower" ). But as software infuses every industry and much of our lives, do we all really need to start writing code? Or is a less hands-on approach -- educating ourselves about what software can (and can't) do, and the basic architecture behind its creation -- the most useful way to gain software literacy for most people? The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.