The Received Wisdom

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

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

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

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

Jack and Shobita compare the US and UK responses to the coronavirus outbreak, and consider the legacy of the US approach to research funding policy 75 years after publication of the famous report by Vannevar Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier. And we speak with Ben Pauli (@benjaminjpauli), professor at Kettering University, about his recent book on the politics of the Flint Water Crisis.- Benjamin Pauli (2019). Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.- BBC Radio 4 (2019)."Water: Laurie Taylor explores the cultural life of a natural substance." Thinking Allowed.- Ben Pauli (2019). "Flint Fights Back: In Conversation With Benjamin Pauli." MIT Press Blog.- Interview with Ben Pauli: “Flint Fights Back' Looks at State of Democracy, Environmental Justice After Water Crisis.” Detroit Today. August 15, 2019.- Ben Pauli (2017). "In Gov. Snyder’s Flint oversight board’s decision on a tax lien moratorium, more than just finances are at stake." Eclecta Blog.On Coronavirus- Joanne Kenen (2020). "How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S." Politico. March 6.- Matthew Perone and Mike Stobbe (2020). “US labs await virus-testing kits promised by administration." AP News. March 6.- Jon Cohen (2020). "The United States badly bungled coronavirus testing—but things may soon improve." Science. February 28.- On Science: The Endless FrontierVannevar Bush (1945).- Science: The Endless Frontier."Science, the Endless Frontier at 75." Issues in Science and Technology. Winter 2020.The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2020).- "A Symposium on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Vannevar Bush’s Science – The Endless Frontier."- G. Pascal Zachary (2018). "Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century." New York: Free Press.(Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org)

Episode 4: Race, Identity, Reparations, and the Role of Ancestral DNA TestingIn this episode, Shobita and Jack answer listener questions, discuss Jack's trip to the weird world of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and talk to Professor Alondra Nelson about the social life of ancestral DNA testing. Professor Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Chair in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and President of the Social Science Research Council.Links related to our interview with Alondra Nelson:Alondra Nelson (2016). The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome. Boston: Beacon Press. (this page also provides links to supporting information, e.g., articles, reviews, about the book.)"Who should receive Reparations for Slavery and Discrimination?" The New Yorker Radio Hour. May 24, 2019.Ann Morning, Hannah Brückner, and Alondra Nelson (2019). "Socially Desirable Reporting and the Expression of Biological Concepts of Race." Dubois Review: Social Science Research on Race. (This article was discussed in a recent article in The New York Times: Amy Harmon (2019). "Can Biology Class Reduce Racism?" The New York Times. December 7.Alondra Nelson (2019). "The return of eugenics" in "Books for our time: seven classics that speak to us now", Nature. December 13.Alondra Nelson (2019). Lecture on "Genetics and Ethics in the Obama Administration". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. March 28. Video.Links to additional books and articles discussed in the episode:Steven Epstein (1996). Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.Brian Wynne (1992). "Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science." Public Understanding of Science.1: 281-304.Grove-White, Robin & Macnaghten, Phil & Mayer, Sue & Wynne, Brian. (1997). Uncertain World: Genetically Modified Organisms, Food and Public Opinion in Britain. A report by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change in association with Unilever, and with help from the Green Alliance and a variety of other environmental and consumer non-governmental organisations (NGOs)Full transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

Shobita and Jack discuss what responsibilities scientists and scientific institutions bear when research results—like DNA phenotyping or human germline gene editing—are used to morally dubious ends. And they consider whether the problem with Big Tech is actually just one of Big Business. Jack interviews tech journalist Nicholas Carr, author of numerous books including Utopia is Creepy and Other Provocations (2017).Links discussed in the episode:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/business/china-dna-uighurs-xinjiang.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepagehttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602099/dont-be-evil-by-rana-foroohar/https://thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticismhttp://www.nicholascarr.com/ and his blog here http://www.roughtype.com/https://andthentheresphysics.wordpress.com/2019/11/20/science-and-technology-studies-podcast/Transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org

Shobita and Jack talk about the price of technological optimism, and speak with Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor of African American Studies and founder of the JUST DATA lab at Princeton University. She is the author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, published by Polity Books earlier this year.Ruha Benjamin (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Books.Ruha Benjamin, editor (2019). Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life. Duke University Press.Ruha Benjamin (2019). "White Supremacy and Artificial Intelligence." Yes! Magazine. August 28.Ruha Benjamin (2018). "Black Afterlives Matter." Boston Review. July 16.Ruha Benjamin (2016). "Catching Our Breath: Critical Race STS and the Carceral Imagination." eSTS: Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. Vol. 2: 145-156.Additional topics discussed on the podcast:Begley, Sharon (2019). "NIH and Gates Foundation launch effort to bring genetic cures for HIV, sickle cell disease to world's poor." STATNews. October 23.Fussell, Sidney (2019). "How an Attempt at Correcting Bias in Tech Goes Wrong." The Atlantic. October 9.John Morgan (2019). "Dominic Cummings' science obsession: based on fact or fiction?" Times Higher Education. October 16.(TRANSCRIPT)

Shobita and Jack talk about climate and tech activism, and interview Dan Sarewitz, Co-Director, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and Professor of Science and Society, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Issues in Science and Technology and is a frequent contributor to Nature. If you are interested in reading some of Dan's work, here are some recommendations:Daniel Sarewitz, "Everything is Self-Correcting." Talk given at the Science in Public conference, University of Sheffield, July 12, 2017.Daniel Sarewitz, "Saving Science." The New Atlantis. Spring/Summer 2016.Daniel Sarewitz, "Of Cold Mice and Isotopes or Should We Do Less Science?" Talk delivered at Science and Politics: Exploring Relations between Academic Research, Higher Education, and Science Policy Summer School in Higher Education Research and Science Studies, Universität Bonn, Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, September 10, 2018Daniel Sarewitz, "How science makes environmental controversies worse." Environmental Science and Policy. Vol. 7, 2004: 385-403.Daniel Sarewitz, Frontiers of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Additional articles discussed on the podcast:Birger Schmitz et al., "An extraterrestrial trigger for the mid-Ordovician ice age: Dust from the breakup of the L-chondrite parent body." Science. Vol. 5, No. 9, eaax4184.Henry McDonald, "Ex-Google worker fears 'killer robots' could cause mass atrocities." The Guardian, September 15 2019.

The first episode of ‘The Received Wisdom’ is coming this September!Shobita and Jack discuss their plans for the show, which will feature interviews with thinkers, doers, and activists, who are challenging the received wisdom around science, technology, and policy, as well as a discussion of current science/technology/policy news and events.