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Wild Wild Tech — Technology
Wild Wild Tech

Great stories of how tech shapes our culture in wild ways.Would you be surprised to find out scientists are using World of Warcraft to learn how to fight COVID-19? What if I told you that I could spoil almost any movie based on who uses an iPhone? Or how about the fact that Disney is afraid of butts? Well, that’s Wild Wild Tech, the podcast that brings you the wildest, most bizarre, most interesting stories about how tech is shaping our culture.
Hosted by Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera, every week on Wild Wild Tech we’ll uncover infamous stories at the intersection of pop culture and tech, learn from the experts, and talk to the people who lived through some truly strange tales. These are the tech stories that are seldom told – but once you hear them, you won’t be able to forget them.
These are the stories that are seldom told, but once you hear them, you’ll never forget.
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Latest Episodes:

How Did a Website Identify a Serial Killer? Dec 02, 2020

Show notes

The FBI estimates that as many as 40% of homicides go unsolved, with no national database to keep track. But what if an algorithm could help identify trends and even potentially bring the number of unsolved murders down? This week, Joshua and Jordan delve into the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to mapping unsolved homicides in the United States. They speak with one of the founders of the M.A.P., Thomas Hargrove, who was able to create an algorithm that mapped clusters of murders in various areas around the U.S. His work was even able to identify a previously-unknown serial killer in Gary, Indiana, and could help solve more unsolved cases in the future. Thomas's work has revealed startling issues in how police across the country fail to keep track of unsolved murders when this data is crucial in understanding crime, and even helping prevent it, as well as how murders that remain unsolved disproportionately affects women and people of color.

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Love Wild Wild Tech, but hate the ads? Subscribe to the ad-free version here!: https://wildwildtech.supercast.tech/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildwildtechpod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wildwildtechpod/

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Yes, You Can Buy Human Bones on Instagram Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

Amidst the influencers, cute animals, memes and other videos on Instagram lives a bizarre, dark and strangely legal underworld where people buy and sell human skulls, bones and body parts. Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera dig deep into this macabre marketplace where they meet with Henry Scragg, proprietor of curiositiesfromthe5thcorner, and actual buyer and seller of human skulls and other death-related oddities. They also learn that the trading of human bones is nothing new and actually dates back to about the 1800s. Writer Oscar Schwartz's article outlines the history of the troublesome practice as it was used in phrenology and other outdated sciences, and attributes it to cultural appropriation. And although Instagram is now the go-to to buying marketplace, it began on eBay and other sites in the early days of the internet, and is showing no signs of slowing. Oscar explains how this trading in body parts is a remnant of colonialists who exploited and even killed indigenous people, but Henry defends his business as embracing death as part of life, detailing how one can be a responsible and discerning skull-trader. So is the trading of human remains just another legitimate-albeit-unusual business, or is it perpetuating an outdated practice that exploits disenfranchised people and their culture?

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2020 Election: Conspiracy Theories vs. the Latinx Community Nov 02, 2020

Show notes

On this special pre-election episode, Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera explore the cloud of misinformation that is affecting the country, more specifically, how it's targeting the state of Florida and the Latinx community that resides therein. They speak with Sabrina Rodríguez, Florida native and politics writer for Politico, who wrote an article detailing how wild conspiracy theories are directly warping the political attitudes of the varied Latin demographics in Florida, and how conspiracy theories have begun to appear in local media publications in the Sunshine State. Joshua also speaks with his uncle Ezequiel Rivera, a resident of Florida, who is directly affected by the misinformation campaign flooding local media and even WhatsApp. Though this contentious election is affecting everyone around the country, Jordan and Joshua offer helpful ideas to fight against misinformation and bring peace back to our democratic process. Now, go out and vote!

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Deepfakes: Harmless Fun or Danger to Our Privacy? Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

This week, Jordan and Joshua explore the light and dark sides of the deepfakes phenomena, synthesizing audio and video to replace the likeness of one person with another. Jordan and Joshua speak with Paul Shales AKA The Fakening about how he's built a career on swapping voices and faces of celebrities, and how the burgeoning technology is only getting better and harder to detect. On the other side, Dr. Hany Farid of UC Berkely and Mary Anne Franks, professor and founder of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative discuss how this deep learning technology could have dire consequences in the wrong hands. Writer Samantha Cole of VICE recounts her discussions with proprietors of deep fake pornography and how revenge porn is exploiting women without their consent or knowledge. Plus, target of revenge porn and former congresswoman Katie Hill discusses her fight to make the creators of this content more accountable and how we need to get a handle on this technology before it's too late. So are deepfakes harmless fun and expressions of our free speech or will they be the end of legitimacy on the internet as we know it?

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How Did a Fake Restaurant Become #1 on TripAdvisor? Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

How is it possible that a restaurant that doesn't exist could become the top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor? We get the answer from Oobah Butler, artist and prankster, who created "The Shed at Dulwich," a restaurant that served microwaved mac and cheese and boxed soup, but still managed to be the most-hyped restaurant in London. Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera explore how reliant we all are on reviews to make decisions for just about everything, even if reviews cannot always be trusted. They also talk to James Kay, Director of Communications for TripAdvisor, to hear their side of the story. And, Josh and Jordan speak with Davide Cerretini aka the One Star Chef, who after Yelp attempted to strongarm him in to pay for advertising, used Yelp's reviewing system against them to create the most popular one-star restaurants in the world.

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How Did TikTok Replace Tinder for Lesbians? Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

TikTok - a place of short, fun viral videos that's constantly on the edge of being banned. But for some of the LGBTQ community, TikTok is the new Tinder. Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera explore why lesbians are turning to this social media app as an ad hoc dating app. They speak with Megan Mitchell, a news anchor in Cincinnati, who met her girlfriend through TikTok, Lena Wilson, a journalist whose article in the New York Times explores this new phenomenon, and Elizabeth Lovett, a writer who's writing a book about the precursor to TikTok and dating apps for lesbians before the age of the internet. Plus, Wild Wild Tech runs it's own dating experiment for the podcast to see if our single-and-looking test subject can find love via TikTok.

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Twitch a Recruitment Tool for the U.S. Army? Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

You ever get so immersed in the world of a video game you start to believe you could live in that world? Well, the U.S. Army is betting on that. The United States Army has a long history of using video games as a tool for recruiting the next generation of soldiers. Activist Jordan Uhl alleges that recently the military is preying on vulnerable potential recruits by glamorizing war through their Twitch. Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera speak with Jordan Uhl about how he was banned from the Army's Twitch stream, how they use misleading links and prize offers to direct people to recruitment forms, and why he has taken his cause up through the U.S. courts to curb these practices. The U.S. Army refused to talk to us about this, but we'll keep digging as the story continues to develop.

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Can a Computer Algorithm End Music Copyright Law as We Know It? Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

We all agree music is art, but an algorithm is challenging that idea. Damien Riehl and Noah Rubin created the "All the Music" algorithm, and it's tirelessly making songs at the rate of over 200,000 melodies per second to prove music is merely math. If they succeed, it will be the end of music copyright law as we know it. Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera, talk to Damien to understand the murky world of music litigation, and why he's trying to destroy it. Kristelia Garcia, an associate law professor at the University of Colorado, argues that Damien and Noah are breaking laws themselves. And, Jordan lets Joshua play judge in the cases of Vanilla Ice vs. Queen, Ray Parker Jr. vs. Huey Lewis and the News, and Robin Thicke vs. Marvin Gaye.

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How Does Animal Crossing's Black Market Reflect the Real World Economy? Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has captured the world's heart due to its cutesy animal neighbors, soothing island vibes, and unbridled capitalism? Hidden beyond Nook's Craney there's a black market emerging on the internet that involves the trafficking of certain characters, and bringing out the worst greed in some players. Joshua Rivera takes a visit to Jordan Erica Webber's island to see what the fuss is about the hit Nintendo Switch game. And we hear from Zach Reino about his crazy pursuit of virtual riches in the Stalk Market and of course his famed turnip jail. And we talk to Eric Peckham whodives into this virtual utopia to try and find out why it has been corrupted by our real-world faults.

Wild Wild Tech is going bi-weekly so stay tuned on 8/26 for a brand-new episode!

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24 to Knives Out - Do Apple iPhones Spoil TV and Movies? Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

You can't own an iPhone and be a bad person, at least according to Apple. Director of "Knives Out" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Rian Johnson exposed Apple's strange product placement policy in a video online for Vanity Fair. But hosts Jordan Erica Webber and Joshua Rivera discover that this has been going on longer than most of us would expect. First we hear from Dean Browell, the creator of the The Macintosh Theory, who first noticed these spoilers in commercials and Fox's hit "24." Then Joshua Peterson, a production designer who has seen Apple rules firsthand, and throws a wrench into the spoiler theory. Is Apple's influence on story just aggressive marketing or will it actually ruin creativity in filmmaking?

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