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Human Centered

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Jan 28, 2025 • 47min

Demystifying the Disinformation Marketplace

There never will be enough independent fact checking of online political advertising and their ecosystems. Can we develop methods and tools to demonetize or at least disincentivize the behaviors of disinformation producers as well as the ad firms and content providers in business with them? 2023-24 CASBS fellow Ceren Budak navigates the disinformation marketplace and illuminates pathways for better design of online communities and platforms in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning tech journalist and former CASBS fellow John Markoff. CEREN BUDAK: Faculty webpage | Personal website | Referenced in this episode:"Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation." Nature 630, 45–53 (2024)The Prosocial Ranking Challenge (Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence)"Intermedia agenda setting during the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections." Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 18(1), 254-275. Lawrence Lessig's Pathetic Dot Theory (Wikipedia)----Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand  (Penguin Random House, 2022)  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Oct 15, 2024 • 51min

The Humanity of Connective Labor

Are jobs requiring high levels of human interaction worth preserving in the age of automation? Can we design machines to achieve something profound – the mutual recognition that occurs when human beings truly "see" each other? CASBS faculty fellow Mitchell Stevens explores these questions with Allison Pugh, author of the 2024 book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. Pugh launched work on the book as a 2016-17 CASBS fellow.ALLISON PUGH website | Google Scholar page | Interview with Allison Pugh on building a society of connection (CASBS in partnership with Public Books) |Princeton University Press page for The Last Human Job MITCHELL STEVENSStanford GSE faculty page |  Stanford profile |  CASBS page | Google Scholar page |  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Aug 2, 2024 • 52min

Organized Civic Benevolence and Nationhood

Santi Furnari (CASBS fellow, 2023-24) engages renowned political sociologist & 2015-16 fellow Elisabeth Clemens on the role of private civic volunteer organizations in co-constructing national identity and state capacity as well as serving as tools of governance, solidarity, and inclusion for much of American history. In what form does civic benevolence and philanthropy operate in the contemporary landscape? This absorbing conversation draws inspiration from the multi-award-winning book "Civic Gifts," much of which Clemens wrote during her CASBS year.ELISABETH CLEMENS: Univ. of Chicago faculty page | Clemens wins 2023 Gordon J. Laing Award | on Wikipedia |The book is Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State (Univ. of Chicago Press), winner of the Barrington Moore Book Award, Comparative and Historical Sociology section, American Sociological Association;  the University of Chicago Press Gordon J. Laing Award; the Outstanding Published Book Award, ASA Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity; and the Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Prize, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).SANTI FURNARI: CASBS page |  City University of London, Bayes School of Business faculty page | on Google Scholar |   Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Jul 8, 2024 • 42min

Exposing Sources and Impacts of Election Disinformation Campaigns

Legendary tech journalist John Markoff (CASBS fellow, 2017-18) chats with 2023-24 CASBS fellow Young Mie Kim on her groundbreaking efforts to identify how shadowy groups use algorithms and targeted disinformation campaigns during presidential election cycles; measure their real-world distorting effects on voter mobilization or suppression; and illuminate our understanding of resulting political inequalities and their implications for American democracy.YOUNG MIE KIM: CASBS bio |  Univ. of Wisconsin faculty page |  "The Disinformation Detective" (On Wisconsin magazine) |Kim leads Project DATA (Digital Ad Tracking & Analysis) at UW. | Project DATA on X |Kim is lead author of the article "The Stealth Media? Groups and Targets Behind Divisive Issue Campaigns on Facebook," Political Communication, v35 n4 (2018). The article won the Kaid-Sanders Award for the Best Political Communication Article of the Year by the International Communication Association.Coverage of findings: The New York Times here and here | Wired |  Kim's testimony delivered to the Federal Election Commission | Kim is a founding member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. Coverage of IPIE in The New York Times |Kim among the authors of "The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment," Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, v121 n2 (2024) |Kim a coauthor of several articles appearing in a special issue of Science on Social Media and Elections (2023) |At the beginning of the episode, Kim discusses the influence of Phil Converse. Converse was a CASBS fellow in 1979-80 and later served as CASBS director (1989-94). Learn more about Converse's work.---------Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand  (Penguin Random House, 2022)  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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May 31, 2024 • 1h 13min

The Gold Standard of Economic Historians

Stefan Link, a 2023-24 CASBS fellow, chats with Barry Eichengreen, a 1996-97 CASBS fellow and world renowned for his expertise at the nexus of international economics and economic history. They discuss some of Eichengreen's most prominent works — including "The European Economy Since 1945," which emerged from his CASBS experience, and "Golden Fetters," his most cited book — interrogating their durability and applicability to contemporary industrial, financial, and monetary policy challenges and governance.BARRY EICHENGREEN: UC Berkeley faculty page | Homepage & CV | on Wikipedia | STEFAN LINK: CASBS bio | Dartmouth faculty page | Mentioned in the episode:Eichengreen's talk on "Steering Structural Change" (session 2) at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (16 April 2024)Eichengreen & Temin NBER paper on "The Gold Standard and the Great Depression" (June 1997)Select Eichengreen booksElusive Stability: Essays in the History of International Finance 1919-1939 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990)Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression 1919-1939 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1992)International Monetary Arrangements for the 21st Century (Brookings Institution, 1994)Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994)European Monetary Unification: Theory, Practice, and Analysis (MIT Press, 1997)Toward a New International Financial Architecture: A Practical Post-Asia Agenda (Peterson Institute for International Economics, 1999)Financial Crises and What to Do About Them (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002)Capital Flows and Crises (MIT Press, 2004)Global Imbalances and the Lessons of Bretton Woods (MIT Press, 2006)The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (Princeton Univ. Press, 2006)Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012)Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses — and Misuses — of History (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015) Stefan Link bookForging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order  (Princeton Univ. Press, 2020)Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, as well as the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Apr 30, 2024 • 51min

A Scholar's Commitment to Workers' Economic Justice

Labor historian & 2023-24 CASBS fellow Gabriel Winant in conversation with 2018-19 CASBS fellow Ruth Milkman, among the nation's most renowned sociologists of labor. In addition to interrogating divisions within and segmentation across labor markets in recent decades, Milkman also has remained attuned to the complexity of the overall working class experience, essential for illuminating ways in which workers can unite and organize.RUTH MILKMAN: CUNY faculty page | personal website | ASA bio |Milkman's book Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat (2020) | Polity Press Q&A |GABRIEL WINANT: CASBS bio | Univ. of Chicago faculty page |  faculty Q&A |Winant's book The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America (2022)  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Mar 25, 2024 • 42min

Bridging Adaptive Algorithms and the Public Good

Pulitzer Prize-winning tech journalist John Markoff chats with 2022-23 CASBS fellow Nathan Matias about often-overlooked public interest questions and concerns regarding the deployment of tech platform algorithms and AI models. Specifically, Matias is a player in filling the two-way knowledge gaps between civil society and tech firms with an eye on governance, safety, accountability, and advancing the science — including the social science — of human-algorithm behavior. Nathan Matias: Cornell University faculty page | CASBS bio | Personal website |Citizens & Technology LabCoalition for Independent Technology ResearchSelect Matias publications"Humans and Algorithms Work Together — So Study Them Together" Nature (2023)"Impact Assessment of Human-Algorithm Feedback Loops" Just Tech, SSRC (2022)"The Tragedy of the Digital Commons" The Atlantic (2015)"To Hold Tech Accountable, Look to Public Health" Wired (2023)Link to more Nathan Matias public writing | Matias on Medium | on LinkedIn |------Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand (Penguin Random House, 2022)  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Feb 26, 2024 • 1h 4min

A Social Science of Caregiving

Recorded before a live audience, Margaret Levi, Alison Gopnik, & Anne-Marie Slaughter discuss a CASBS project, "The Social Science of Caregiving," which is reimagining the philosophical, psychological, biological, political, & economic foundations of care and caregiving. The goal is a coherent empirical and theoretical account or synthesis of care that advances understandings and policy discussions. [The episode notes provide links for further exploration.]Article on CASBS's project on The Social Science of CaregivingWeb page for the project on The Social Science of CaregivingRelated: Human Centered episode #61, "Developing AI Like Raising Kids" (Alison Gopnik & Ted Chiang)Alison Gopnik: CASBS bio | UC Berkeley Bio | Gopnik article, "Caregiving in Philosophy, Biology & Political Economy" (Dædalus)Margaret Levi: CASBS bio | CASBS program on Creating a New Moral Political Economy | Anne-Marie Slaughter:  New America bio | Slaughter articles, "Care is a Relationship" (Dædalus) | "Why Women Still Can't Have it All" (The Atlantic)Slaughter book, Unfinished Business (Penguin Random House)   Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Jan 17, 2024 • 40min

The Shadow of Cybersecurity Expertise

Pulitzer Prize-winning tech journalist & 2017-18 CASBS fellow John Markoff chats with 2022-23 CASBS fellow Rebecca Slayton on how the field of computing expertise evolved, eventually giving rise to the niche of professionals who protect systems from cyber-attacks. Slayton's forthcoming book explores the governance & risk implications emerging from the fact that cybersecurity experts must establish their authority by paradoxically revealing vulnerabilities and insecurities of that which they seek to protect.REBECCA SLAYTONCornell University faculty page | |  CASBS page | Slayton's book Arguments that Count: Physics, Computing, and Missile Defense, 1949-2012 (MIT Press)Slayton's article "What is the Cyber Offense-Defense Balance?," International SecurityVideo: Talk on "Shadowing Cybersecurity: Expertise, Transnationalism, and the Politics of Uncertainty" at Stanford Univ.JOHN MARKOFFNew York Times pageMarkoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Steward Brand (Penguin Random House, 2022) Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University75 Alta Road | Stanford, CA 94305 | CASBS: website|Twitter|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​View the Fall 2023 CASBS Newsletter  Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityExplore CASBS: website|Bluesky|X|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Human CenteredProducer: Mike Gaetani | Engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 
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Dec 13, 2023 • 1h 6min

Challenging History Erasures to Expand Possible Futures

The podcast explores the impact of storytelling on collective memory, the dangers of manipulating historical accounts, the intersection of storytelling, infrastructure, and history, the connection between millenarian Marxism and neo-Christian vision in Silicon Valley, the collision of old myths and new technologies, unity and diversity in debating the past in democracy, and the importance of civil debate and diverse stories.

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