Team Human with Douglas Rushkoff

Latest Episodes:

Jeremy Lent "The Patterning Instinct" Apr 11, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today is Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct. Lent’s expansive research looks at the variety of ways cultures throughout history have patterned meaning into the cosmos. In excavating these patterns, Lent shares how humans might retrieve those metaphors that amplify altruism and shared intentionality. Together, Rushkoff and Lent explore the question of what makes humans unique and how we might leverage our patterning instinct to foster a future characterized by deeper connection rather than alienation.

Douglas begins today’s show with a monologue on cultural immunity. He questions the impulse to solve the problems of democracy by simply building better tech. How might we build resilience in people rather than just in our gadgets and algorithms?

This show features intro and outro music thanks to Fugazi and Dischord Records. Mid-way you heard our friend R.U. Sirius featured in episode 31 https://teamhuman.fm/episodes/ep-31-r-u-Sirius/

You can sustain this show via Patreon. And please leave us a review on iTunes.

Thanks to teammate and listener Bobby Campbell for his amazing Team Human trading cards. Follow Team Human on Twitter where we will be posting more trading cards, going back to the earliest episodes.

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Kenric McDowell "The Right Kind of AI" Apr 04, 2018

Show notes

What can artists, musicians, magical thinkers and "weirdos" bring to machine learning and neural networks? What do we need to make the right kind of AI? Exploring these questions and more is Kenric McDowell, leader of Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence program. In this conversation with Douglas, Kenric explains how his unique role at Google enables him to bring the artistic spirit into the very heart of technology development. Moving beyond the hype of AI, Kenric shares strategies for leading technology with human imagination rather than the other way around.

Douglas opens today’s show addressing the myth of social media; the notion that you matter. Facebook doesn’t care about you, and it’s time to leave it behind. Every minute spent off Facebook is a minute you can spend with the others! Go find them.

Our intro and outro music is thanks to Dischord Records and Fugazi. A special thanks to Kenric for sharing his own original music featured at the mid-roll. Visit http://thebiggestphone.com to hear more. Kenric also provided us with the audio clip from a forthcoming documentary on the Word Car project. Read about it here!

Stay tuned for Team Human live events in New York and beyond. Become a subscriber at Patreon for special access and the latest news.

Suzanne Slomin "Feeding A Living Culture" Mar 28, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today is Suzanne Slomin, founder of Green Rabbit a small solar powered bakery located in the Mad River Valley of Vermont specializing in naturally leavened breads.

Suzanne will share with us what it’s like being a “Real Person Doing Real Things” – an actual baker, farmer, employer and global citizen trying to operate as sustainably and humanly as possible across all the dimensions of her work.

In this episode, we meet Suzanne having just “fed” her sourdough starter, a living culture of yeast and bacteria that is the essential element for her delicious and healthful breads. Instantly, the conversation is grounded to the hands-on daily work that makes Green Rabbit so special. Is it possible for the small farmer and local baker to maintain integrity and stewardship of the community in an increasingly extractive economy? Find out how Suzanne does it...

Plus, in stark contrast to "Real People Doing Real Things," Rushkoff opens the show with a monologue on the idealism of bitcoin. Are cryptocurrencies soon to be just another instrument of the financial services industry?

This show features music thanks to Fugazi and Dischord Records as well as a sample of Throbbing Gristle by TH 68 guest Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

You can sustain this show via Patreon. And please leave us a review on iTunes.

Thanks to teammate and listener Bobby Campbell for his amazing Team Human trading cards.

Images of Green Rabbit come courtesy of Suzanne Slomin.

Live at Gray Area Night Two Pt. 2: Erik Davis and Josette Melchor Mar 21, 2018

Show notes

Today on Team Human we conclude our series of live shows recorded at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts in the historic Mission district of San Francisco. Picking up where we left off last week and joining Douglas on stage are teammates Erik Davis and Josette Melchor. Erik Davis is the author of Techgnosis, Nomad Codes and host of The Expanding Mind podcast. Erik and Douglas start with the big question, “What the fuck is going on here?” What begins with a few laughs quickly digs into a mind-expanding conversation about those gray areas between religion, technology, and psychedelics. Erik and Douglas look for coherence and connection in these fractious times. Making this message concrete is Gray Area’s founder Josette Melchor. Josette resurrects our show segment “Real People Doing Real Things.” She offers both practical and profound lessons on building a safe space for community, creativity, and artistic exploration.

As we conclude this series, we’d like to thank our teammates at Gray Area; Josette Melchor, Seabrook Gubbins, Alric Burns, our guests for both nights Annalee Newitz, Howard Rheingold, Lauren McCarthy, Erik Davis, and (again!) Josette Melchor. Thank you to the San Francisco community who came out to support and participate in the show. And sincere gratitude to our Patreon members who’s sustaining subscriptions made travel and recording possible.

Sign up at Patreon. There you’ll find the complete, uncut San Francisco Live shows, plus other rewards and ways to Find the Others.

During this live performance we featured Intro music from Fugazi, plus excerpts from Throbbing Gristle (Listen to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge with Douglas on Episode 67). Mid-show you heard music by Mike Watt.

This week's playing cards (thanks to Bobby Campell)

Live at Gray Area Night Two Pt. 1: Lauren McCarthy Mar 14, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today is interactive artist Lauren McCarthy. Lauren’s thought provoking work brings a unique and creative perspective on social interaction and the intersection of humans and technology.

In this episode, Lauren’s app Crowdpilot becomes the first “advertisement” to be featured on Team Human. Crowdpilot is an app in which real time conversation advice is crowdsourced from online third-party monitors.

In another crowdsourcing experiment titled Social Turkers, McCarthy hired Amazon Mechanical Turks to participate with her on her own OkCupid dates. The Turks, connected via stream, give Lauren dating advice while she meets strangers in real life.

Lauren also discusses Follower, a service that puts humans into the role of real-time surveillance. Users sign up to be followed for a day, answering two questions: Why do you want to be followed? Why should someone follow you?

And finally, in her most recent project Lauren: A Human Smart Home Intelligence, Lauren attempts to become the human version of Amazon Alexa. What happens when our robot smart home devices are replaced with a real human?

In this conversation with Douglas, the third in our series of live Team Human events at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Lauren helps us reconsider our relationship to social technologies, convenience, privacy, intimacy, and autonomy.

Next week we’ll conclude our live series of shows from Gray Area with the part two of this show, featuring Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis, Nomad Codes and host of The Expanding Mind podcast. Gray Area founder Josette Melchor will also join the team to share her inspiring story on building a home for digital arts and supporting the local community.

Patrons of Team Human got into these events free. Sustain Team Human by subscribing via patreon.com/teamhuman.

If you are enjoying this live series, please consider giving us a review on iTunes.

Live From Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Pt.2: Howard Rheingold Mar 07, 2018

Show notes

This week we continue with part two of our special live recording of Team Human at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts in San Fransisco. Joining Douglas on stage is cyberculture pioneer, educator, artist, author, visionary, and shoe painter, Howard Rheingold.

“Mind amplifiers,” “psychedelic signifiers,” and “the instrumental vs. the sacred” are just the tip of the iceberg in a conversation that explores how we got to this moment in technology and society... and ultimately where we hope to go. Following Rushkoff and Rheingold’s conversation, Sci-Fi author and technology journalist Annalee Newitz (hear Newitz's conversation in part 1) rejoins the team for a roundtable discussion and audience Q & A.

If you are just discovering Team Human, check out last week’s Episode 75, featuring the first hour of this of this live show with guest Annalee Newitz. Patreon supporters have access to the complete uncut interview at patreon.com/teamhuman.

Music heard on today’s show; “Walkabout” by Throbbing Gristle (hear Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on Episode 67) Also heard on the show, music by Team Human Ep. 68 guest Stacco Troncoso plus intro and outro music from Fugazi.

If you enjoyed these live shows, Please share a review of Team Human on iTunes. Your recommendation helps Team Human to “find the others.”

Live From San Francisco at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Pt.1: Annalee Newitz Feb 28, 2018

Show notes

This week's Team Human comes to you recorded live at the historic Grand Theater in San Francisco's Mission District, home to Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. We'll be sharing four installments of this live event, kicking it off with a conversation with Annalee Newitz, author of the mind blowing sci-fi novel Autonomous, as well as prior work Scatter Adapt and Remember: How Humans will Survive a Mass Extinction, founder of I09, and journalist for outlets such as Ars Technica among many others.

Annalee joins Douglas on stage to talk about artificial intelligence, autonomy, tech ethics, robot sex, saving the planet and more. It's a lively discussion, energized by the presence of a wonderful and welcoming audience.

Rushkoff kicks off this live series with an excerpt from his Team Human Manifesto, an excellent primer on the motivation driving this podcast and the connections being forged through its members.

Next week we'll pick up with part two of this live show, featuring cyberculture pioneer, educator, and artist Howard Rheingold.

During this live performance we featured Intro music from Fugazi, plus excerpts from Throbbing Gristle (Listen to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge with Douglas on Episode 67)

You can sustain Team Human by subscribing via Patreon. Patreon members received free access to these San Francisco Events. Visit patreon.com/teamhuman to join.

Damien Williams "We Built It From Us" Feb 21, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today is interdisciplinary thinker and technology philosopher Damien Williams. In this episode, Williams and Rushkoff look at the embedded biases of technology and the values programed into our mediated lives. How has a conception of technology as “objective” blurred our vision to the biases normalized within these systems? What ethical interrogation might we apply to such technology? And finally, how might alternative modes of thinking, such as magick, the occult, and the spiritual help us to bracket off these systems for pause and critical reflection? This conversation serves as a call to vigilance against runaway systems and the prejudices they amplify.

Learn more about Damien’s work at http://www.afutureworththinkingabout.com/

Rushkoff begins today’s show with a story from home. A well-meaning school administrator begins using social media to promote his school, posting pictures of students and classroom activities. As parents become upset, the question arises: Why is it so easy to lose sight of the design and purpose behind these platforms?"

This show features our usual intro and outro music thanks to Fugazi and Discord Records. Mid show you heard Throbbing Gristle (Listen to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Douglas on Episode 67)

A very special thanks to our new patrons who support the show via Patreon. Go to patreon.com/teamhuman to subscribe and receive patron exclusives.

Eleanor Saitta "Is It Safe?" Feb 14, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today, cyber security expert Eleanor Saitta. Eleanor shares her deep knowledge on building secure and robust digital ecosystems. As Eleanor and Douglas converse on issues of privacy, encryption, and surveillance, a set of thought-provoking insights about online identity and human to human connection emerges. Does empathy scale across our cyber connections? Or is it confusion and distrust that are most apt to scale?

Conversing over a shaky and intermittent VoIP connection, the question at hand seems to materialize within the interview. Luckily Saitta and Rushkoff overcome technical hurdles and find rapport and connection in a unique conversation that ultimately asks;

What is real? How do I know I am me? Is it safe?

Opening today’s episode, Douglas looks back on the life of friend, cyber culture pioneer, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow. Rushkoff remembers Barlow and their shared optimism for cyberspace back in that hopeful moment before the commercialization and corporatization of the internet.

Team Human features intro an outro music clips thanks to Fugazi and Dischord Records. Mid-show you heard music by Episode 68 guest Stacco Troncoso

Join the team at Patreon to sustain this show in get access to live events, rewards, and access to the Team Human Slack Channel.

David Pescovitz "Music for Aliens" Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

Playing for Team Human today is journalist, Boing Boing editor, Institute for the Future research director and recent Grammy Award Winning record producer David Pescovitz. Douglas spoke to David just days before he won the Grammy, with collaborators Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad, for best boxed or special limited-edition package for The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition. The Voyager vinyl is an incredible artifact to hold and hear. The original Voyager Golden Records were launched on board the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in 1977. Today these phonograph records are floating in interstellar space on Voyager 1 and at the edge of our solar system on Voyager 2. The records contain greetings, messages of peace, recordings of the “Sounds of Earth,” as well as an arresting collection of music from across the globe. The Voyager project continues to resonate as both a time capsule and a beacon of hope. Pescovitz, Daly, and Azerrad's meticulously sourced and documented 40th Anniversary vinyl release pays homage to the wonder and hopeful spirit that animates this space project. On today’s show, Pescovitz and Rushkoff talk about the creation of these incredible artifacts.

Find the Voyager Golden Record 40th Anniversary Edition at Pescovitz’s Ozmarecords. You can also learn more about the Voyager project here.

Check out these amazing photos of the making of this 40th Anniversary Edition:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ozmarecords/voyager-golden-record-40th-anniversary-edition/posts/1755549

Team Human is entirely listener supported. Thanks to our new January supporters who have subscribed to this show via Patreon.

And don’t forget that you can find us on the road this month in San Francisco! Douglas will be hosting the first Team Human live event on February 16 and 17 at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. Patreon subscribers get free access to the shows. Come find the others!

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