The Technically Human Podcast

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Principled Dissent: Joe Toscano explains why he left the tech industry and what real change looks like Oct 15, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, I speak with Joe Toscano about why he left Google in 2017, and how he became one of tech's leading critics. We talk about what he saw, in 2017, in the culture of tech that led him to leave, and what led him to found the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network (BEACON). We discuss the relationship between ethics, law, and policy, and best practices for building a space for change in the public and in the industry.

Joe Toscano is an award-winning designer, published author, and international keynote speaker. Joe previously consulted for Google in Mountain View, CA. Joe left because he believes the industry misuses data and felt the issues needed to be addressed through innovation rather than strict regulation.

Since leaving, Joe has traveled the world speaking to audiences ranging from 10 people at local events to 15,000 person corporate events, he has written a book, called Automating Humanity, and he has started the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network (BEACON), all focused on increasing technology literacy, discovering opportunities for intentional and thoughtful innovative practices, and moving communities forward through purpose-driven innovation.

Outside of BEACON Joe also writes for Forbes, is a member of the World Economic Forum's Steering Committee for Data Protection, and is featured in The Social Dilemma. His work is in the process of being translated into law, putting him in the room with legislators across the United States, including NY State Senate and dozens of Attorney's General, to whom he submitted evidence in the antitrust case against Google.

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Memory Drive: The ethics of Holocaust memory in the age of virtual reality Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of "Technically Human," I sit down with Dr. Steven Smith, the director USC's Dimensions in Holocaust Testimony.

We talk about the ethics of memory, testimony, and witness, and how these fundamental concepts are being radically changed by developing technologies. Steven explains the ethics of Holocaust witness in the digital age and how a new interactive program that enlists virtual technologies may allow Holocaust testimony to remain vivified for generations to come. How should we think about the reality of virtual survivors? How is our basic concept of "witness" transformed by new technologies? And what does "memory" mean in our current digital age?

Dr. Stephen D. Smith is the Finci -Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, and holds the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education.

Smith founded the UK Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, England and cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Smith has served as a producer on a number of film and new media projects, including Dimensions in Testimony, and the VR project The Last Goodbye. He also co-hosts the MemoryGeneration podcast, alongside documentary storyteller Rachael Cerrotti, a show that explores dimensions of testimony from survivors of genocide.

In recognition of his work, Smith has become a member of the Order of the British Empire and received the Interfaith Gold Medallion. He also holds two honorary doctorates, and lectures widely on issues relating to the history and collective response to the Holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Dimensions in Testimony is a collection of interactive video testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation, enabling people to engage with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide, by asking questions and conversing. It is the subject of the Academy-Award nominated documentary film, 116 Cameras.

This episode was produced by Mereck Palazzo & Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

This episode is dedicated to Izzy Arbeiter.

Public Service: Yaël Eisenstat Tackles the Intersection of Ethics, Tech, and Democracy Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

In this special edition of "Technically Human," we feature a live public conversation about the future of democracy, technology, and public policy. In 2017, Yaël Eisenstat came onboard Facebook to change it, joining the company as its Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations. What she discovered while working there alarmed her. She started speaking out, becoming a leading critic of tech’s threat to democracy.In this conversation, I sit down with Yaël in front of a live audience to ask:

How can American Democracy persevere in the age of social media?
Why does tech need regulation?
Who can reign in Big Tech?
What can we do to help?

Yaël Eisenstat works at the intersection of tech, democracy, and policy, with a focus on what the public square and open, democratic debate look like in the digital world. She works as a Future of Democracy Fellow at Berggruen Institute and a policy advisor to start-ups, governments, and investors looking to align technology to better serve the public.

She has spent 20 years working around the globe on democracy and security issues as a CIA officer, a White House advisor, the Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations for political advertising at Facebook, a diplomat, and the head of a global risk firm. She was a Researcher-in-Residence at Betalab in 2020-21 and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech's Digital Life Initiative in 2019-2020, where she focused on technology's effects on discourse and democracy and taught a multi-university course on Tech, Media and Democracy.

Yaël Eisenstat has become a key voice and public advocate for transparency and accountability in tech, particularly where real-world-consequences affect democracy and societies around the world. Her recent TED talk addresses these issues and proposes ideas for how government and society should hold the companies accountable.

In 2017, she was named in Forbes' list of “40 Women to Watch Over 40”. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Center for Global Affairs, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she provides context and analysis on social media, elections integrity, political and foreign affairs in the media. She has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Brookings Techstream, TIME, WIRED, Quartz and The Huffington Post, has appeared on CNN, BBC World News, CBS Sunday Morning, Bloomberg News, CBS News, PBS and C-SPAN, in policy forums, and on a number of podcasts. She earned an M.A. in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Funny Business: ”Silicon Valley” writer and co-producer Dan Lyons explains what‘s funny about tech culture Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, I sit down with a personal hero, the iconic literary giant Dan Lyons. We discuss Dan's experience writing about tech culture for the hit HBO show "Silicon Valley," and Dan's own experience working in tech. We talk about what makes Silicon Valley funny--and how that humor gets at some of the deeply sobering realities of Silicon Valley culture.

Dan Lyons is one of the best-known science and technology journalists in the United States. He was the technology editor at Newsweek, a staff writer at Forbes, and a columnist for Fortune magazine, while also contributing op-ed columns to the New York Times about the economics and culture of Silicon Valley.

Dan is the author of two of the most important recent books about Silicon Valley: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble, an international best-seller, and Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us, which was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best business books of 2018. He is also the mastermind of the epic parody blog “The Fake Steve Jobs Blog.”

Dan has been a consistent and vocal critic of racial, gender, and age bias in the technology industry, penning articles about "bro culture," worker exploitation, and the "hustle" mentality that leads to employee burnout. He has become a leading advocate for greater diversity in the technology industry and an early critic of the gig economy for its abuse of workers. His work helped draw attention to the brutal working conditions in Amazon warehouses. He has earned a reputation as a fearless critic of powerful interests in Silicon Valley, with a voice that sets him apart from the often fawning journalism that comes out of the technology space.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

The TransHuman Code: Carlos Moreira imagines a human-centered technological future Aug 27, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Carlos Moreira, the CEO of WISeKey. We discuss the possibilities for building a human-centered technological future today—and the consequences if we do not. What does a human-centered model for technological production look like? How can we build human rights into our tech? And what needs to change to return human values to tech?

Carlos Moreira is the Founder Chairman CEO of the international cybersecurity firm WISeKey and the author (along with David Fergusson) of The Transhuman Code, a landmark book about ethics and technology. Before founding WISeKey, he served as the United Nations Expert on CyberSecurity and Trust Models. During his 17 years as UN Expert, he became recognized worldwide as an Internet Pioneer and a distinctive authority, thought leader, and entrepreneurial force in today’s digital world where the acquisition and trusted protection of Identity, Trust and Security has become an essential step for citizens and entities across the globe.

Guided by a belief that the Internet needs to be safe and universal and a tool for prosperity, he began developing technologies to protect the Internet and founded WISeKey. He is the founder of SG International Organization for Secure Electronic Transactions IOSET OISTE.org, a founding member of the “Comité de Pilotage Project E-Voting” of the Geneva Government, a Member of the UN Global Compact, and a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council—among many other leadership roles. He has previously served as an Adjunct Professor of the Graduate School of Engineering RMIT Australia, and as Head of the Trade Efficiency Lab at the Graduate School of Engineering at RMIT.

In The TransHuman Code, he and his co-author David Fergusson ask, ''Are we building a better future for humanity with the help of magnificent technology, or are we instead building a better future of better technology at the expense of humanity? The book imagines what it would look like to center humanity in the emerging tension between a human-controlled or a machine-controlled world.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Cover art by Desi Aleman.

Explaining AI: Kordel France's quest to create Ethical AI Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, I speak to Kordel France, the CEO of Seekar Technology. We discuss the challenges of building an ethical tech company, the importance of creating unbiased data sets, and Kordel discusses the importance of making AI explainable.

Seekar technologies builds Artificial Intelligence across industries, with a specific focus on creating ethical AI for uses in ethical contexts. His technology has been involved in creating a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that allows doctors to more efficiently screen for the virus, and in environmental protection and conversation efforts. Kordel founded Seekar technologies to set new standards for how technologists create and deply AI, and seeks to make AI mobile, ethical, explainable, and dynamic. His vision for Seekar Technologies is committed to developing a tech culture in which the use of AI will remain ethical and equitable.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.

Chris Wexler's Quest to Detoxify the Internet: AI and Krunam's Fight to Stop Human Trafficking Aug 13, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, I sit down with Chris Wexler, the CEO of Krunam, one of the world’s leading image and video classifiers of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM). We discuss the dark side of the world wide web, and Chris explains how exploitative economies of human trafficking proliferate online. We discuss how Krunam puts AI to use combatting this exploitation. We also look at the rise of social justice-oriented technologies and the rise of social impact investing, and Chris shares why he is hopeful that the future of tech investing will be social-impact based.

Krunam has created one of the most potent AI tools for successfully identifying and removing digital toxic waste from the internet. By using AI to identify CSAM and other incendiary and exploitative content to improve and speed content moderation, Krunam’s technology has helped private platforms and law enforcement halt some of the most exploitative child sex trafficking outfits operating today.

Before founding Krunam, Chris established several leading digital and analytics practices at four different major ad agencies while working with major brands. He now devotes his time to creating safer digital environments and developing social impact technology to better serve human values and social justice.

*A brief content warning note about today’s episode: my interview with Chris discusses using AI to classify images containing child sexual content. The work is important, but the discussion includes frank conversations about sexual material and is not suitable for all ears. Please consider your surroundings before listening, and you may want to avoid listening in a space that you share with children.

The Rise of the Ethical Hacker: The Wild, Wild West of Cybersecurity with Ted Harrington Aug 06, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, I sit down with Ted Harrington, the author of Hackable: How to Do Application Security Right, and the Executive Partner at Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), one of the most prominent global companies working in the growing industry of ethical hacking. We talk about cybersecurity, the growth of the "ethical hacker" profession, and how the next generation of humanists and technologists can keep the internet safe.

For his stewardship of security research that Wired Magazine says “wins the prize, hands down,” Ted has been named both Executive of the Year [by American Business Awards] and 40 Under 40 [by SD Metro]. He leads a team that started and organizes IoT Village, an event whose hacking contest is a three-time DEFCON Black Badge winner, and which represents the discovery of more than 300 zero-day vulnerabilities (and counting). Ted’s work has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including The New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today.

Captivating Technology: How surveillance technology is taking over our prisons and our bodies Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

We are back with a brand-new season of the Technically Human podcast! This week's episode features Dr. Anthony Hatch. We discuss the use of psychotropic drugs in prisons as a form of carceral technology, race, and the bioethics of food systems. Learn more about how technologies are mediating health data, how our understanding of our bodies changes in response to new monitoring and mediating technologies, and how Dr. Hatch is creating a space for the next generation of technologists, humanists, and social scientists to develop more equitable, ethical relationships to building tech products.

Anthony Ryan Hatch, Ph.D., is a sociologist and Associate Professor and Chair of the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University where he is also affiliated faculty in the Department of African American Studies, the College of the Environment, and the Department of Sociology. He is the author of Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America (Minnesota, 2019) and Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America (Minnesota, 2016). He recently appeared in the PBS documentary Blood Sugar Rising and lectures widely on health systems, medical technology, and social inequalities.

In Spring 2021, he started Black Box Labs, an undergraduate research and training laboratory that offers students training in qualitative research methods aligned with science and technology studies and the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on social research.

This episode was produced by Matt Perry

Art by Desi Aleman

Network Technology: Dr. Ethel Mickey explains how networks structure the tech workforce Jun 04, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of "Technically Human," I talk to Dr. Ethel Mickey about tech's "pipeline problem." We discuss STEM culture in universities, how inequality gets generated through a culture of networking, and Dr. Mickey walks me through the pipeline from campus culture to the tech workforce.

Dr. Ethel Mickey is a sociologist of gender, work, and organizations, with a focus on science & technology settings. She received her PhD from Northeastern University, and is currently a postdoc at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with the NSF-funded UMass ADVANCE program. Her research broadly explores the persistence of intersectional inequalities through relational dynamics including networks and collaborative teams, and she is currently working on a book manuscript on gendered and racialized networks in the tech sector. Her work has appeared in Gender & Society, and Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and Sociologists for Women in Society.

And this episode concludes season 5 of the Technically Human podcast. We’ll be on hiatus for the next few weeks. Please stay tuned, and join us for an exciting new season of the show when we return in the middle of July to bring you interviews with Silicon Valley writer Dan Lyons on satire, ethics, and tech culture, sociologist Dr. Anthony Hatch on biology, tech, and prisons, and many more exciting conversations. See you in July!

Podcast produced by Matt Perry and Ana Marsh.

Podcast art by Desi Aleman.

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