In this episode of the show, I speak with Tom Coughlin, the standing President and CEO of IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. We discuss the IEEE's vision of technological innovatinon, what it really means to "benefit humanity" through tech, and how the tech sector can, and should, move toward a values-driven approach to innovation. Tom Coughlin is an IEEE Life Fellow, past president of IEEE-USA, past director of IEEE Region 6, past chair of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE Section, past chair of the Consultants Network of Silicon Valley and is also active with the Storage Networking Industry Association and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Coughlin is also president of Coughlin Associates, a digital storage analyst and business and technology consultant. He has over 40 years in the data storage industry with engineering and senior management positions at several companies. Coughlin Associates consults, publishes books and market and technology reports (including The Media and Entertainment Storage Report and an Emerging Memory Report), and puts on digital storage-oriented events. He is a regular storage and memory contributor for Forbes.com and media and entertainment organization websites.

Today we are bringing you a conversation featuring one technologist who is rethinking and reshaping social media—to build platforms that spark empathy and joy, not division and hate. Vardon Hamdiu is the co-founder and head of Sparkable, a young nonprofit organization that builds a social media platform aimed at bridging divides. Growing up immersed in diverse cultures, Vardon has always been a bridge-builder who navigates between worlds. His family history has exposed him to the devastating consequences of communication breakdowns between ethnic communities and the outbreak of war. These experiences have profoundly shaped his understanding of the importance of empathy and social cohesion. Over the past decade, Vardon has worked on the communications team of a Swiss President, studied to become a teacher, spent an exchange semester in South Africa, and engaged with refugees facing often traumatic circumstances. These experiences made him acutely aware of the enormous disconnect between the information we consume online and the lived realities of many people around the globe. He became deeply passionate about exploring why today’s social media platforms are often dysfunctional and how these powerful systems, which govern our collective attention, could be constructed differently. Driven by this vision, he made the pivotal decision to quit his job, drop out of his studies, and launch Sparkable, aiming to foster a healthier online environment.

Todd Presner, Chair of UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, delves into the intersection of ethics and technology in Holocaust memory. He discusses how digital tools are reshaping historical interpretation and argues for a new ethical framework for remembrance. The conversation explores the role of algorithms in shaping collective memory, highlighting projects like Dimensions in Testimony. Presner emphasizes the importance of balancing personal narratives with digital archives to enhance engagement while maintaining authenticity.

In this week's episode of the show, I speak with Daniel Kelley about the culture of online gaming, and the unique set of challenges in the gaming space, related to hate, harassment, and extremism. We talk about the possibilities, and limitations, of regulating that space, and what the landscape of gaming might foretell about the future of increasingly online lives that we live, as more and more of our social interactions take place virtually. We talk about how to make those spaces safer and more inclusive, and whether moderation is the right tack to take in developing that more inclusive future, as well as what other strategies for cultivating such spaces might be possible.   Daniel Kelley is the Director of Strategy and Operations of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center for Technology and Society (CTS). CTS works through research and advocacy to fight for justice and fair treatment for all in digital social spaces from social media to online games and beyond. For the last five years, Daniel has been the lead author of the first nationally representative survey of hate, harassment, and positive social experiences in online games. He is also the co-author of the Disruption and Harms in Online Games Framework, a resource to define harms in online multiplayer games together with members of the game industry coalition the Fair Play Alliance. He also leads CTS’ tech accountability research efforts, such as its Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial Report Card, which looks at ways to create research-grounded advocacy products to inform the public about the nature of hate and harassment online and to hold tech companies accountable.

In this engaging discussion, Alva Noë, a philosopher of mind and a professor at UC Berkeley, explores his latest book, The Entanglement. He dives into the inseparable relationship between technology, art, and philosophy, arguing that understanding human nature requires more than just biology or cognitive science. Noë emphasizes how art can liberate us from social conventions and critiques the limits of AI in creativity. He also highlights technology's influence on perception, shaping our experiences and emotions in profound ways.

In this episode of the show, I speak with Dr. Thomas Mullaney about his new book, The Chinese Computer. In the book, Dr. Mullaney outlines the history and evolution of Chinese language computing technology, and explores how the technology of the QWERTY keyboard changed this history of computing. We talk about how the structure of language has shaped the history of digital technologies, and Dr. Mullaney explains how China and the non-Western world—because of the “hypographic” technologies they had to invent in order to join the personal computing revolution— helps us understand the relationship between the human mind and the technologies it creates. Thomas S. Mullaney is Professor of History and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, by courtesy, at Stanford University. He is also the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress, and a Guggenheim Fellow.  He is the author or lead editor of 7 books, including The Chinese Typewriter (winner of the Fairbank prize), Your Computer is on Fire, Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China, and The Chinese Computer—the first comprehensive history of Chinese-language computing.  His writings have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Technology & Culture, Aeon, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, and his work has been featured in the LA Times, The Atlantic, the BBC, and in invited lectures at Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and more. He holds a PhD from Columbia University.

Robert D. Atkinson, founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and David Moschella, a tech thought leader, shake up common beliefs about technology. They challenge the prevalent techno-pessimism, asserting that critiques often stem from myths. Discussions range from the need for transparent social media regulations to myths about AI and facial recognition technology. They argue for a balanced approach to innovation and regulation, promoting civil discourse and urging listeners to reconsider their perspectives on the digital landscape.

Today I’m speaking with Projjal Ghatak, CEO & Co-Founder At Onloop, about the ethics of teamwork, collaboration, and providing constructive feedback. Projjal founded OnLoop in 2020 to create a category called Collaborative Team Development (CTD) to fundamentally reinvent how hybrid teams are assessed and developed,  after over a decade of frustration with clunky, traditional enterprise performance management and learning processes and tools that were either hated or ignored by his teams at companies like Uber and Accenture where he spent many years. Prior to founding OnLoop, Projjal spent three and a half years at Uber in a variety of roles including leading Strategy & Operations for Business Development globally, leading Strategy & Planning for the APAC rides business, and GM of the Philippines rides business. Besides Uber, he also spent some time raising debt and equity from New York hedge funds for an industrial conglomerate (Essar), in strategy consulting in South East Asia (Accenture), and in early-stage companies in Latin America (BlueKite, El Market) prior to that. He holds an MBA from Stanford University.

In this episode of the show, I speak with Sarah Fairweather about what it is like to be an ethics worker. We talk about how ethical work can sync up with business practices, how to develop a culture of ethics in industry, and Sarah talks me through what it is like to practice ethics as a day job. Sarah Fairweather is the Senior Program Manager of Ethics at WellSaid Labs, shaping Responsible AI for synthetic voice technology and designing policies for WellSaid Labs’ ethical AI deployment. She leads the effort at WellSaid to ensure that every team in the organization is equipped with the tools and skills they need to make ethics-informed designs and decisions in support of responsible innovation. Before WellSaid Labs, she was the Director of Professional Learning at Code.org where she designed equity-focused K-12 professional development experiences and co-led the company’s first Equity Working Group.

In this episode of the show, I sit down with author Mike Trigg about his new novel, Burner. Mike Trigg is an author, a novelist, a tech executive, a tech founder, and an investor in dozens of technology start-up companies for over twenty-five years. His first novel, Bit Flip, was released in August 2022 to critical acclaim, lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “twisty, acerbic corporate thriller.” His work has been featured in Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, and Literary Hub. He has been a contributor to TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company, and frequently posts on his author site, www.miketrigg.com.   Burner is a mind-bending thriller that dives headfirst into our modern online zeitgeist of social media disinformation, toxic internet subcultures, and the human need for belonging, purpose, and love in an age of distorted electronic personas. The story confronts the loss of the American dream and the societal factors behind it, including wealth inequality, lack of opportunity, and cultural prejudices. At the same time, it is a tragic love story, asking the question of whether real human connection is inherently incompatible with our addiction to online esteem.