Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share How corporations got all your data
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
How corporations got all your data
Sean Illing speaks with Matthew Jones, historian of science and technology, and co-author (with data scientist Chris Wiggins) of the new book How Data Happened. They discuss the surprisingly long history of data from the 18th century to today, in service of explaining how we wound up in a world where our personal information is mined by giant corporations for profit. They talk about how the allure of measurement and precision spread from astronomy to the social sciences, why advertising became so bound to the operation of the internet, and how we can imagine a more democratic future for us and our data, given the unprecedented power of today's tech companies.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Matthew L. Jones (@nescioquid), author; James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University
References:
How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms by Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones (W.W. Norton; 2023)
"How Alan Turing Cracked The Enigma Code" (Imperial War Museum)
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)
"The manipulation of the American mind: Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations" by Richard Gunderman (The Conversation; July 9, 2015)
On Herbert Simon (The Economist; Mar. 20, 2009)
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (Profile; 2019)
Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
This episode was made by:
Producer: Erikk Geannikis
Engineers: Patrick Boyd & Brandon McFarland
Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
View all episodes
By Vox
4.5
1050510,505 ratings
Sean Illing speaks with Matthew Jones, historian of science and technology, and co-author (with data scientist Chris Wiggins) of the new book How Data Happened. They discuss the surprisingly long history of data from the 18th century to today, in service of explaining how we wound up in a world where our personal information is mined by giant corporations for profit. They talk about how the allure of measurement and precision spread from astronomy to the social sciences, why advertising became so bound to the operation of the internet, and how we can imagine a more democratic future for us and our data, given the unprecedented power of today's tech companies.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Matthew L. Jones (@nescioquid), author; James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University
References:
How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms by Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones (W.W. Norton; 2023)
"How Alan Turing Cracked The Enigma Code" (Imperial War Museum)
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)
"The manipulation of the American mind: Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations" by Richard Gunderman (The Conversation; July 9, 2015)
On Herbert Simon (The Economist; Mar. 20, 2009)
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (Profile; 2019)
Enjoyed this episode? Rate The Gray Area ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of The Gray Area. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Support The Gray Area by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
This episode was made by:
Producer: Erikk Geannikis
Engineers: Patrick Boyd & Brandon McFarland
Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More shows like The Gray Area with Sean Illing
View all
On the Media
9,131 Listeners
Fresh Air
38,189 Listeners
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
3,945 Listeners
Gastropod
3,611 Listeners
Switched on Pop
2,628 Listeners
Decoder with Nilay Patel
3,144 Listeners
Explain It to Me
7,837 Listeners
The New Yorker Radio Hour
6,669 Listeners
Pivot
9,188 Listeners
Channels with Peter Kafka
552 Listeners
The Daily
111,827 Listeners
Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
1,457 Listeners
Radio Atlantic
2,314 Listeners
Today, Explained
10,141 Listeners
The Cut
1,585 Listeners
Interesting Times with Ross Douthat
6,751 Listeners
Future Perfect
584 Listeners
Throughline
16,020 Listeners
Land of the Giants
2,154 Listeners
Unlocking Us with Brené Brown
23,603 Listeners
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
5,312 Listeners
A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe
661 Listeners
Hard Fork
5,443 Listeners
Celebrity Memoir Book Club
6,306 Listeners
The Ezra Klein Show
15,237 Listeners
Unexplainable
2,205 Listeners
Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast
5,926 Listeners
The Interview
1,463 Listeners
Not Just Football with Cam Heyward
140 Listeners
Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF
1,708 Listeners
Served with Andy Roddick
995 Listeners
Prof G Markets
1,127 Listeners
The Opinions
449 Listeners