Human Centered

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 | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Nathan Matias, an Assistant Professor at Cornell University, leads the Citizen and Technology Lab focusing on technology's societal impacts. In this conversation, he addresses the often-overlooked public interest concerns surrounding algorithms and AI. Matias emphasizes the need for transparency and collaboration between tech firms and civil society. He discusses the implications of adaptive algorithms on accountability, drawing from significant legal cases, and highlights the importance of independent research to foster better governance and public involvement in technology.

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 | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

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 | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

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.

Renowned sociologist Michèle Lamont discusses her new book, Seeing Others, with Woody Powell. They explore topics such as societal dynamics during the Trump era, challenges faced by marginalized groups, the importance of recognition for a more egalitarian society, and the need for empathy and understanding towards different social classes. They also discuss the role of media and philanthropies in fighting inequality and the challenges of dignity and recognition in different cultural settings.

Angela Aristidou, a CASBS fellow, and Phil Howard, a renowned scholar of tech innovation, discuss the challenges of understanding and regulating our information ecosystems, interdisciplinary collaboration, the impact of the information environment, AI language models, and more.

Elizabeth Loftus, a distinguished professor renowned for her groundbreaking research on memory malleability, joins Dan Simon for a fascinating discussion. They dive into the disturbing implications of how eyewitness testimony can be influenced by false memories, shedding light on high-profile legal cases. Loftus elaborates on the 'memory wars' and the delicate balance between memory errors and wrongful convictions. They explore the intersection of scientific understanding and societal pressures, ultimately advocating for improved legal practices in light of memory research.

While you're listening to this episode, 2016-17 CASBS fellow Jonathan Jansen likely will write another few thousand words. As a scholar of education & leader of education institutions, Jansen is South Africa's most towering figure. To call him prolific is a gross understatement. He writes a steady stream of books & more books. As a public intellectual he writes a separate steady stream of columns & essays. And he's written a family memoir too. We bring 2022-23 CASBS fellow Zimitri Erasmus, a social anthropologist who is working on a book on writing praxis, in conversation with Jansen to unlock some secrets & insights into his most powerful & liberating weapon for engaging the world – writing.JONATHAN JANSENon Google ScholarJansen websiteMentioned in the episodeCorrupted: A Study of Chronic Dysfunction in South African Universities (2023)Song for Sarah: Lessons from my Mother (2017)Jansen and CASBS"Loving and Blacking" (symposium, 2017)"Higher Ed at the Crossroads" (webcast, 2020) ZIMITRI ERASMUSCASBS pageon Google Scholarat University of WitswatersrandCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences(CASBS) at Stanford UniversityCASBS: website|Twitter|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Follow the CASBS webcast series, Social Science for a World in Crisis  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 | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

What are the most effective collective actions that social protest movements can or should undertake in the context of deep societal conflict and polarization? CASBS fellows Eran Halperin (2022-23) & Robb Willer (2012-13, 2020-21) compare their cross-national research findings and explore Halperin's real-time applied work with the dramatic, ongoing protests in Israel.ERAN HALPERIN links:Psychology of Intergroup Conflict and Reconciliation Lab (PCIL)Halperin on Google ScholaraChord: Social Psychology for Social ChangeROBB WILLER links:Willer's Stanford faculty pageWiller's personal web pagePolarization and Social Change LabWiller on Google ScholarArticle in JPSP, "The Activist's Dilemma" (2020)Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford UniversityCASBS:website|Twitter|YouTube|LinkedIn|podcast|latest newsletter|signup|outreach​Follow the CASBS webcast series,Social Science for a World in Crisis  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 | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |