In this episode of The Good Robot, Eleanor Drage sits down with David Griffiths, founding director of the nonprofit Then Try This. Inspired by a childhood spent coding pixels next to his mother’s traditional floor loom, Dave unpacks the deep historical links between textiles and programming, arguing that technology is never neutral and that true innovation relies on grassroots, participatory design.

They explore brilliant local projects like Sonic Kayaks, which use underwater soundscapes to map marine data for visually impaired paddlers, and Nergal, an accessible game tracking public health trends using specialized audio cues. Finally, they reveal the hidden, feminist histories of computing, showing how modern microchips directly owe their legacy to the complex creativity of Navajo weavers. Tune in to discover why the future of tech belongs to frugal, community-led innovations rather than just the next iteration of GPT.

Reading List:

• Then Try This
• Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture
• Queer In AI: A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI 
• Sensing Bodies: Engaging Postcolonial Histories through More-than-Human Interactions

Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo