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How do you like it so far? episodes
- What is a Human with James Paul Gee
This week we host James Paul Gee, recently retired Arizona State University professor and researcher in a plethora of topics including psycholinguistics and discourse analysis. As we talk about his latest book, What Is a Human? Language, Mind, and Culture, Gee casually uplifts our fundamental understanding of what it means to be, well, human and how we’ve severely underestimated animal intelligence and overestimated our own. We discuss the significance of identity signals throughout anthropological history, how ideas of basing safety on certain identifiers has evolved into what we know today as cultures, religions, and nations and how they have been polarized to both unify and divide. Gee attributes the mass spread of misinformation in recent years to the human need for comfort in something regardless of veracity, though he posits an optimistic goal: to make the truth comforting and to speak the facts that engage with people’s hearts. Whether we use these methods to reform our systems or to redefine how we view our kind, they will no doubt be instrumental in getting us and our world to flourish.
Check back soon for a full transcript of this conversation.
Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Henry’s blog series with James Paul Gee, 2011
2011 Pullias Lecture: Games, Learning, and the Looming Crisis in Higher Education
James Paul Gee’s What Is a Human?
Julian Jaynes’ Bicameral Mind
About Hampshire College, where Gee first taught
James Paul Gee’s poetry
Amanda Gorman performing her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration
My Octopus Teacher
Alpha Go
For another take on Moby Dick, listen to our earlier episode The Great Eastern with Howard A. Rodman
Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at [email protected].
Music:
“Swinging on a Star” by Bing Crosby“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––1 hr 12 min - What's Making You Sappy Episode 15: Talia Stroud and Eli PariserThis week, a pleasantly unexpected list of media recommendations comes from guests of our latest episode, Talia Stroud and Eli Pariser of Civic Signals, an organization dedicated to reimagine digital environments to be better public spaces, much like how humanity has strived to build healthy, flourishing civic spaces in the real world for millennia! ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].4 min
- Hope for New Online Public Spaces with Talia Stroud and Eli Pariser
This week we’re joined by Talia Stroud, Director of the Center for Media Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin, and Eli Pariser, formerly of Upworthy and MoveOn and author of The Filter Bubble, to talk about their latest project, Civic Signals/New Public. After several rounds of conversation on “what’s wrong with social media and how can we fix it?” Talia and Eli started Civic Signals to try to fill the gap between necessary critiques of our current online spaces and creating digital environments that we want to inhabit. By looking across disciplines and off-line equivalents to our online spaces, they are working to create a community to collectively build an evolving design framework for online public spaces. Eli and Talia take us through their approach, methods, and findings so far – and how they’ve doubled down on this work in the pandemic. Finally, we go on a deep dive of the first of the four essential “building blocks” they’ve found that make digital spaces work for people across multiple lived experiences: Welcome.
A full transcript of this episode will be available on the episode page soon.
Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Wile. E. Coyote (Looney Tunes)
Contrasting figures in Urban Planning:
Robert Moses
Jane JacobsCivic Signals’ evolving New Public Framework
Some examples of clearly-articulated online community norms/terms of service:
Wikipedia
Archive of Our OwnEarly thinking on establishing norms in online spaces: Julian Dibbell - A Rape in Cyberspace
A Pattern Language (1977 - “the intimacy gradient”)
A hyper-local online community: Front Porch Forum (Vermont)
Habermas – The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
More on Civic Signals:
New Public Festival, Jan 12-14, 2021
Learn more about the New Public community, subscribe to newsletterMaslow’s hierarchy of needs
The Social Dilemma (documentary)
Antitrust law and the “Ma Bell” breakup
Re-imagining Public Broadcasting - Newton Minow
Boy Scouts Radio community
Earlier online community - The Well
Check out these previous episodes we mentioned:
Episode 75: Play as a Precursor to Participation, with Reanne Estrada and Benjamin Stokes
Episode 45: “Radicalized” with Cory Doctorow
Episode 56: Exploring Virtual Communities with Howard Rheingold and Patricia G. LangeShare your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at [email protected].
Music:
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––1 hr 5 min - What's Making You Sappy Episode 14: Parmesh ShahaniDid y'all enjoy our first episode of this season? Parmesh Shahani certainly inspired us about imagining more diverse and accepting societies by focusing on compelling narratives that shatter prejudices. And with that, this week's media recommendations are exactly those that make Parmesh hopeful about the future! ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].3 min
- Exploring Queeristan with Parmesh Shahani
This week we welcome Parmesh Shahani, founder of the Godrej India Culture Lab and author of Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India and Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace. While Parmesh was eating his blueberry cake and drinking coffee to start his day, the sun was setting in Los Angeles. Across this conversation, we explore his journey to the United States and how his time at MIT changed his world view; the legal and political struggles over LGBTQ rights in India over the past decade or so; the work he has done with the India Culture Lab and through work within corporations; the tolerance of diverse gender and sexual identities in classical Indian mythology; the role of popular Indian media as a catalyst for change; his status as a fashion icon; and his excitement over the changes that are taking place across his country as small town India embraces queer sexuality. All of these and many other themes are addressed in his recent book as he seeks to “queer” what business books look like and the kinds of arguments they advance. His closing speech about the queer future of India is not to be missed!
A full transcript of this episode will be available SOON on the episode page.
Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Indian student protests early 2020
Coronavirus lockdown: The Indian migrants dying to get home
Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India
Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian WorkplaceMentioned in Queeristan:
Pierre Bourdieu
Michel Foucault
Jacques Derrida
Shah Rukh KhanToblerone chocolate
MIT Comparative Media Studies Program (CMS)
Program Administrator Chris Pomiecko
Parmesh’s Between the Lines film series
MIT Rainbow Lounge
Convergence Culture ConsortiumSwades (Shah Rukh Khan film that inspired Parmesh to return to India)
India’s LGBTQ+ Legal History
2009 Delhi High Court
2013 Supreme Court Verdict
2014 Verdict for transgender rights
2017 Right to Privacy
2018 Special Bench - LGBTQ decriminalization
2019 Transgender ActGodrej India Culture Lab
Henry Jenkins Master Class at the Culture LabParmesh’s Godrej recruitment – Godrej Live Out Ur Dream (LOUD)
Harvey Milk inspirationHistory of sexuality in India
Devdutt Pattanaik – Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don't Tell You.
Same Sex Love in IndiaThomas Babington Macaulay
Narendra Modi – Hindu NationalismPopular media narratives of Indian parents accepting their queer children:
Gazal Dhaliwal; her story on Aamir Khan’s TV show Satyamev Jayate
More about the story of Kusuma that Parmesh spoke about can be found in his book, Queeristan, on pp 122-123.Films:
Dostana
Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdham
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (starring Sonam Kapoor and Anil Kapoor)Lee Badget – World Bank Report – cost to business of homophobia
Michel Foucault – Panoptikon
GQ – Parmesh as Fashion Icon – Neon Green
2018
2019
It’s not the cover, but… story in Vogue IndiaCurrent Scholarship – Queer stories through the lens of joy:
Brian Horton (Brandeis, forthcoming book, Shimmers of the Fabulous)
Anjali Arondekar (UC Santa Cruz)What’s exciting Parmesh in India right now…
Small town youth-run events:
Raipur Pride
Awadh Queer Literature Festival - Lucknow
XUKIA Collective - Assam
Ya_All - Manipur
Queer LitFest - ChennaiProjects:
Grace Banu - cooperative dairy for trans people
Dalit Queer Project
Queer Muslim ProjectBooks:
A Life in Trans Activism by A. Revathi
Mohanaswamy by Vasudhendra
Maya Sharma - Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged IndiaGovernment:
Hiring trans people to run metro stationsShare your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at [email protected].
Music:
"Love is Love" by Petter Wallenberg & Rainbow Riots, featuring Sushant Divgikar“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––1 hr 23 min - What's Making You Sappy Episode 13: Dexter ThomasNews-flash! We'll be releasing our first regular episode for this season of How Do You Like It So Far this Thursday. But before you tune into Henry and Colin's riveting discussions, we have our weekly media recommendations! This week we have Dexter Thomas, a correspondent for Vice News and a scholar of Japanese Hip Hop. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].5 min
- What's Making You Sappy Episode 12: Zoë Corwin and Neftalie WilliamsThis week's media recommendations are from two USC scholars who found out the impact of skateboarding culture on youth: Zoë Corwin, director of Digital Equity in Education project for the Pullias Center of Higher Education, and Neftalie Williams, whose research with the 2019-2020 USC x Tony Hawk Foundation project is the first national effort to study the impact skateboarding has on young people and their educational and career trajectories. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].5 min
- What's Making You Sappy Episode 11: Reanne Estrada and Benjamin StokesWith a new Spring Semester starting for many of us, we should remind ourselves of the importance of "play" in both civic and academic endeavors! This week's media recommendations come from Reanne Estrada, Creative Director of Public Matters, a Los Angeles-based creative studio for civic engagement, and Benjamin Stokes, Assistant Professor at American University and Director of The Playful City Lab. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].4 min
- What's Making You Sappy Episode 10: Mike Monello and Qiana WhittedWhat do scary people watch when they need to escape from this scary world? This week's media recommendations come from the experts of horror: Video Palace co-creator Mike Monello (also a creator of the Blair Witch Project) and Qiana Whitted, author of EC Comics: Race, Shock and Social Protest, which won the 2020 Eisner Award for best academic/scholarly work. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].6 min
- What's Making You Sappy Episode 9: Crystal Echo HawkThis week's media recommendations come from Crystal Echo Hawk, founder and CEO of IllumiNative, a research-driven initiative created and led by Natives that is challenging negative narratives and supporting accurate and authentic portrayals of Native communities in pop culture. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your via email at [email protected].2 min
About How do you like it so far?
From the publisher's feed
Academics Henry Jenkins and Colin Maclay use their combined knowledge to dig deeper and ask more ambitious questions than most pop culture podcasts out there – not doing recaps or just remaining on…
the level of entertainment coverage. For them, popular culture offers resources for asking questions about who we are and where we are going, questions that can be political, legal, technological, economic, or social, but often cut across all of the above.