Best Deb Donig Podcasts (2024)

1
Ethics Works: A day in the life of an ethics worker in tech 45:00

7h ago45:00

45:00

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 E…

1
Feel the Burn: A new novel explores the financial crisis in tech 1:03:54

7d ago1:03:54

1:03:54

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 Franci…

1
Dr. Strangelanguage: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Generative AI in Medicine 1:05:59

19d ago1:05:59

1:05:59

In this episode of the show, I sit down with Dr. Robert Pearl to talk about his new book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, a book he co-authored with...ChatGPT! We talk about the deep fractures and problems in American health care that Generative AI may be positioned to solve, the changing…

1
Taking the Temperature of AI: Measuring AI's Environmental Impact 1:05:45

3M ago1:05:45

1:05:45

In this episode of the show, I talk to Dr. Tamara Kneese about Data and Society's initiative to develop standards and ways to measure the environmental impact of AI. I talk to Dr. Kneese about her work at the Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab (AIMLab), we talk about the links and frictions between tech and climate change, and we consider how AI may be…

1
Brain Storm: The new technologies that are changing how we think about brain function 1:02:30

3M ago1:02:30

1:02:30

In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Peter Bonutti to talk about the ways in which technologies are revolutionizing our understanding of the brain, and how they may be used to treat crippling brain disorders such as stroke and seizures. Dr. Peter Bonutti, M.D. is a surgeon, inventor, author, professor, consultant, and entrepreneur. He is the fou…

1
The Singularity of Hope: The case for AI optimism 1:10:25

3M ago1:10:25

1:10:25

Today I am interviewing Dr. Sam Sammane about his forthcoming book, "The Singularity of Hope”, which aims to guide readers through the challenges and opportunities of the AI era, advocating for a harmonious fusion of human intelligence and machine capabilities. Dr. Sammane envisions a world where the rapid advancements in AI and technology are harn…

1
The Count: The politics of data science 1:14:13

4M ago1:14:13

1:14:13

Welcome back to a brand-new season of Technically Human! We’re thrilled to be back with new episodes of the show. We are kicking off the new season, and the new year, with an episode featuring one of my favorite thinkers, Dr. Deborah Stone, to talk about what it means to count—that is to say, what it means to measure, and what it means to matter. D…

1
Getting Public About Privacy: Understanding data privacy in the digital age 1:17:37

5M ago1:17:37

1:17:37

In this episode of the show, I talk with Jared Maslin about what it means to have privacy on the internet. We talk about the difference between privacy and secrecy, the benefits and limitations of GDPR and the possibility of privacy regulation coming to the US, and we explore the biggest challenges facing data privacy today. His most recent work, i…

1
The Case for Cryptocurrency: The future of digital assets post Sam Bankman-Fried 52:10

6M ago52:10

52:10

In this week’s episode of the show I sit down with Dr. Tonya Evans to talk about the state of crypto in the wake of last week’s landmark criminal fraud conviction of the former CEO of FTX and the former prophet of crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried. Dr. Evans and I discuss what new crypto economy might emerge in the wake of his conviction. We discuss the pr…

1
The New Rules: challenging Big Tech’s reign over legal reform 1:26:30

6M ago1:26:30

1:26:30

In today’s episode, I talk about how to create new legal rules to guide tech toward reflecting human values with Brian Beckcom, one of the leading lawyers of his generation. Brian Beckcom is a Texas Super Lawyer, a designation that recognizes him as one of the top legal experts and practitioners in his arena. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he…

1
Soul Machines: Can AI have a body? 1:10:00

6M ago1:10:00

1:10:00

In this episode of the show, I sit down with Dr. Mark Sagar to talk about his vision of an embodied form of AI. Dr. Sagar is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Soul Machines, a company investigating how to use natural language processing with hyper-realistic visuals to create autonomously animated, emotionally dynamic Digital People. In ad…

1
Saving Israeli and Palestinian Lives: Technology For Life: Disaster relief and life-saving tech From the Archives 51:58

6M ago51:58

51:58

Hi Technically Human listeners. This is a show about ethics and tech, but it’s also a show about what it means to be human. There is no area of being human in this moment that technologies does not touch. I know that many members of this listening community have been deeply affected by the loss of life and the brutality that began with the Hamas at…

1
The Romance of AI: Discussing Love and Artificial Intelligence with Amy Kurzweil 1:11:29

7M ago1:11:29

1:11:29

In today’s conversation, I sit down with Amy Kurzweil, the author of the new graphic memoir, Artificial: A Love Story. Artificial: A Love Story tells the story of three generations of artists whose search for meaning and connection transcends the limits of life. The story begins with the LLM generated chatbot that Amy’s father, the futurist Ray Kur…

1
Funny Business: ”Silicon Valley” writer and co-producer Dan Lyons explains what‘s funny about tech culture From the Archives 1:25:27

7M ago1:25:27

1:25:27

Hi Technically Human listeners! I’m on vacation this week, and our team has pulled one of our favorite interviews, and definitely hands down our funniest from our archives to share with you—an episode with Dan Lyons on hat makes Silicon Valley funny--and how that humor gets at some of the deeply sobering realities of Silicon Valley culture. If you …

1
The American Dream Goes Digital: The myths and technologies that bind us with Dr. Julie Albright From the Archives 1:15:05

7M ago1:15:05

1:15:05

In this episode of Technically Human, I sit down with Dr. Julie Albright to talk about her new book: Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream. We talk about the way that digital culture is changing the American Dream for the next generation, we discuss how the internet is changing political culture, and Julie …

1
Bad Input: Raising public awareness about AI bias 1:12:30

7M ago1:12:30

1:12:30

Earlier this year, Consumer Reports, in collaboration with the Kapor Center, debuted "Bad Input," three short films that set out to explore and to create public awareness about how biases in algorithms/data sets result in unfair practices for communities of color, often without their knowledge. In this episode of the show, I talk to Lily Gangas, Ch…

1
Instituting Greenlining: how policy can promote digital inclusion 1:03:10

8M ago1:03:10

1:03:10

In today’s episode, I sit down with Vinhcent Le, Senior Legal Counsel of Tech Equity at the Greenlining Institute, an organization that works towards a future where communities of color can build wealth, live in healthy places filled with economic opportunity, and are ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change. We talk about the possibili…

1
Designing Data Governance 50:30

8M ago50:30

50:30

In this episode of the show, I continue my deep dive into data, human values, and governance with an interview featuring Lauren Maffeo. We talk about the future of data governance, the possibilities of, and the catastrophe that Lauren thinks our society may need to experience in order to turn the corner on an data governance and ethics. Lauren Maff…

1
Behind the Data: data, human values, and society 1:13:45

8M ago1:13:45

1:13:45

We’re back, after a long and restful break, with a brand new season of Technically Human! In our first episode of the season, I am joined by a guest cohost, Dr. Morgan Ames, for a conversation with Janet Haven, Executive Director of Data and Society. We talk about the movement to root data and AI practices in human values, the future of automation,…

1
East Meets West: The place of Asia in the technological imagination 57:41

11M ago57:41

57:41

Welcome to the final episode of the "Technically Human" season! We’re ending the season with an episode of the 22 lessons on ethics and technology series, with a conversation featuring Dr. John Williams about the global imagination of tech. Dr. John Williams is a professor of English Literature at Yale University. His work is focused on internation…

1
From the Archives: Tech, democracy, human rights, and the urgent crisis in Sudan 59:46

11M ago59:46

59:46

These past few weeks, as violence and instability have escalated in Sudan, I’ve had one particular conversation on my mind, an episode of the show that I recorded a few years back with Mohamed Abubakr. In April of this year, clashes broke out in cities, with the fighting concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of …

1
Compliance and Governance in the Age of Tech 49:10

11M ago49:10

49:10

Today’s episode focuses on the growing field of compliance and regulation. Compliance is a field that is growing in importance at both national and international level. In the EU where emerging ethical principles governing tech have led governments to pass new laws, and harms caused by the tech industry have provoked increasingly sharp public react…

1
Returning the Power of AI to the People 53:33

12M ago53:33

53:33

Any long-time listeners of the show know that I’m passionate about accessibility and disability technology. Technologies that support the idea that we can have an equitable world, and that creating a more accessible world makes things better not just for the group specifically considered in that technology, but for all of us, is a key idea to me. T…

1
Indigeneity in the Digital Age 1:21:20

12M ago1:21:20

1:21:20

Welcome to another episode of the "22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology" series! In this episode, I sit down with Jason Edward Lewis to talk about how Indigenous peoples are imagining the futures while drawing upon their heritage. How can we broaden the discussions regarding technology and society to include Indigenous perspectives? How can we desig…

1
Technology and Genocide: What the Holocaust can tell us about perils of technological utopianism 1:04:44

12M ago1:04:44

1:04:44

Welcome back for another episode in the "22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology Series! In this episode of the series, I speak to Dr. Eric Katz, and we take on the common utopian mythology of technology as inherently progressive, focusing specifically on the frequent slide from utopianism into terror. We talk about the uses of technology during the Ho…

1
Instituting Integrity: The rise of the integrity worker collective 1:06:59

1y ago1:06:59

1:06:59

Today I’m sitting down with Talha Baig to talk about a new to me organization, the Integrity Institute. On the show, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about what I see as a new workforce emerging in the tech sector, of people working in jobs in the tech sector to try and understand, assess, and mitigate some of the harms caused by technologies. That…

1
How We Breathe: how technology is changing approaches to ventilation 57:01

1y ago57:01

57:01

Between 2020 and 2022, I spent a lot of time reading about ventilators. So did a lot of the country. News coverage of the pandemic talked about everything from the serious shortage in ventilators around the country to new technologies available that might help save lives by helping victims of the virus breathe. From the pandemic that started in Mar…

1
Technically Human Rights: How technologies are changing the state of human rights 1:09:47

1y ago1:09:47

1:09:47

Welcome back to another episode in the “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology for the 21st Century” series. In this episode of the series, we take a deep dive into the history of how technology intersects with human rights. My thinking on ethics and technology has human rights at its foundations, so I was particularly excited to sit down with Dr. Jay…

1
The Global Technological Imaginary: Sci-Fi, Tech, and the Ethics of Representation 1:07:01

1y ago1:07:01

1:07:01

Welcome back to a brand new season of “Technically Human!” Today’s episode features another conversation in the "22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology" series. I teach science fiction as a way of thinking about ethics and technology, because I fundamentally believe that before we can build anything, we first have to imagine it. Science fiction is at …

1
Zoom Fatigue: Distance Learning and Social Engagement in the Age of Social Distancing 1:02:07

1y ago1:02:07

1:02:07

Welcome back to another episode of the 22 lessons on ethics and technology series, in a conversation with Dr. Judith Kalb about the growth of online education and technologies of virtual meeting. How have our human interactions changed with the introduction, and normalization, of online meetings? How have virtual technologies transformed our relati…

1
Data Feminism 1:04:02

1y ago1:04:02

1:04:02

Welcome back, for another episode of the “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology” series. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Lauren Klein about the complicated relationship between data, race, and gender, and what she calls “data feminism.” What is the relationship between data visualizations, representation, and construction of categories—and differen…

1
The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI 1:06:00

1y ago1:06:00

1:06:00

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Nick Chatrath about the crucial role that leadership plays in the future of AI development. We talk about organizational culture, the very human leaders driving technological production, and why human independent thinking matters more than ever, in the age of artificial intelligence. Dr. Nick Chatrath is an expert …

1
The Ethics of the Blockchain 1:08:00

1y ago1:08:00

1:08:00

Today’s episode features a conversation with Medha Parlikar, about the ethics of the blockchain and cryptocurrency. We talk about the vision of what cryptocurrency could be, what dangers it might pose to our values, and what the future of cryptocurrency might look like in a web-3 world. Medha Parlikar is co-founder and chief technology officer of C…

1
Digital Democracy: How Tech Shapes Democratic Participation and Social Justice 1:05:02

1y ago1:05:02

1:05:02

In this week’s edition of the “22 lessons on ethics and technology series,” I speak with Dr. Nassim Parvin. We talk about the ethical and political dimensions of design and technology, especially as related to values of democratic participation and social justice. How have digital technologies impacted, and how do they continue to impact, the futur…

1
Computing Women: Gender Disparity in STEM Education 1:00:58

1y ago1:00:58

1:00:58

We’re back for another installment of the “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology” special series. In this week’s episode of the series, I am joined by Dr. Mar Hicks. This episode tells the story of labor and gender discrimination in the tech industry. Dr. Hicks explains the historical background of gendered technological production that has influence…

1
Human First AI 1:00:38

1+ y ago1:00:38

1:00:38

In this week's episode, I am joined by Dr. Christopher Nguyen. We talk about the emerging concept of "human first AI," and the changing terrain of both AI ethics, and AI development. We imagine what a human-first approach to AI might look like, and what gets in the way of developing an ethical approach to AI in the tech industry. Christopher Nguyen…

1
Science for the 21st Century: Understanding Systems Biology 42:40

1+ y ago42:40

42:40

This week, I turn my mic over to a guest host, for an interview with Dr. Jared Roach about the growing field of systems biology, an interdisciplinary field of study taking over the biological sciences, focused on complex interactions within biological systems. How can we update the study of biology for the 21st century? How can computational and ma…

1
The Diversity Challenge: Race, gender, and how the histories of medicine and technology got made 1:04:19

1+ y ago1:04:19

1:04:19

In this week's “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology" special series, I sit down with Dr. Evelynn Hammonds to talk about how race and gender have shaped the histories of science, medicine, and technological development. We explore the divisions between investigations of gender within scientific and technological inquiry, and race within these same f…

1
The Ethic of Life 56:48

1+ y ago56:48

56:48

This week, we continue our “22 Lessons on Ethics and Technology series” with a conversation with Dr. John Basl about how our relationship with tech is changing what he calls an “ethic of life, an ethical perspective on which all living things deserve some level of moral concern. Professor Basl is an associate professor of philosophy in the departme…

1
Socio Paths: Navigating the terrain of sociotechnical systems 1:01:00

1+ y ago1:01:00

1:01:00

In this episode of "Technically Human," I host Chris Leong and Maria Santacaterina for a conversation about the growing pervasiveness of sociotechnical systems. You may not know the term "sociotechnical system," but if you've booked a flight online, tried to reach an agent on the DMV's hotline, or tried to contact your congressperson, you almost ce…

1
Outside Voices: Transcisciplinary Approaches to Ethics and Technology 45:27

1+ y ago45:27

45:27

Welcome to another interview in the "22 Lessons in Ethics and Technology" series! In this episode, I speak with Dr. Pavel Cenkl, about the need for intellectual diversity and multidimensional approaches to technological solutions to the major problems of our time. Professor Cenkl discusses how the major problems we face require that we bring togeth…

1
The Age of Posthumanism 1:10:45

1+ y ago1:10:45

1:10:45

Welcome to our 3rd episode of the "22 Lessons on Ethical Technology" series! We will be releasing new episodes in the series every first and second Friday of the month through the duration of the series. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. N. Kate Hayles, one of the founding theorists of posthumanism, a key term to understanding the changing and d…

1
What it Means to Care: Ethical medicine in the age of tech 59:00

1+ y ago59:00

59:00

In this episode of "Technically Human," I give my mic over to two guest hosts, David Geitner and Roman Rosser, to interview Dr. Robert Pearl about the intersection between tech, medicine, and our health. Dr. Pearl answers questions about the way that technologies are radically reshaping health care; the hosts ask questions about bias in medicine; a…

1
The age of privacism 1:10:40

1+ y ago1:10:40

1:10:40

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Michael Huth to talk about the ethics of data collection, privacy, and the new age of “privacism.” We talk about his new platform, Xayn, we discuss what it looks like to build a company based on ethical principles like privacy and user autonomy, and Michael explains why we should care about our privacy online. P…

1
From Tech to Action: Are our technologies changing our ethics? 58:39

1+ y ago58:39

58:39

Welcome to our 2nd episode of the "22 Lessons on Ethical Technology" series! In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh, one of the world's leading experts on ethics and technology, in particular robotics and artificial intelligence. We talk about the way that technologies are changing our understanding of ethics and philosophical think…

1
Defining ethical technology: Urgent debates, global dilemmas, and key definitions 1:01:56

1+ y ago1:01:56

1:01:56

Welcome to our very first episode of the "22 Lessons on Ethical Technology" series! In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Herman Tavani to introduce some of the foundational principles of ethical technology, particularly in computing and digital contexts. We focus on how the current need for an ethics of technology developed, and the debates and key…

1
Gary Bengier’s Unfettered Journey 1:00:30

1+ y ago1:00:30

1:00:30

In this episode of “Technically Human,” I interview Gary Bengier, the author of the award-winning science fiction novel, Unfettered Journey. We talk about the relationship between his prior work as a technologist, and his current career as a writer of science fiction; we talk about the relationship between technology, philosophy, and science fictio…

1
Command Code: Ethics, technology, and the debate about free will 53:20

1+ y ago53:20

53:20

Welcome back to a new season of “Technically Human!” To kick off the year, I wanted to start out with a topic that has been coming up for me increasingly as I talk to people in Silicon Valley: free will. OK, so I know it might seem a bit odd for a show about ethics and technology to feature what might seem like a purely philosophical concept. But s…

1
NEW! ”22 Lessons on Ethical Technology for the 21st Century” Special Series Trailer 3:23

1+ y ago3:23

3:23

Hey Technically Human listeners! We’re very excited to introduce a special series of episodes that we’ll run throughout the year—“22 Lessons on Ethical Technology for the 21st Century.” The series features 22 of the most important thinkers at the intersection of tech, ethics, and human values, from around the world. In the series, I speak with Kate…

1
Millennial Action Technology: US Senate Candidate Steven Olikara talks tech and political activism for a new generation of leaders RE-RELEASE 1:15:19

2y ago1:15:19

1:15:19

**RE-RELEASE** Ok, ok ok. So I know I said that we weren’t releasing episodes until September. But this week, we learned that one of our previous guests, Steven Olikara, former Millennial Action Project CEO and current candidate for US Senate, just got one step closer to winning his bid to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2022 election…

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