Looks Like New

On this episode, we host Dr. Henry Jenkins, an esteemed scholar of fan studies, participatory culture, and transmedia.

As the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the author of influential works such as "Textual Poachers," Dr. Jenkins explored how audiences actively engage in shaping and reshaping media content.

He was the principal investigator for "The Civic Imagination Project," a venture funded by the MacArthur Foundation. This project seeks to inspire creative collaborations within communities, emphasizing shared values and visions for the future.

Dr. Jenkins has been at the forefront of transformative projects like "Project New Media Literacies" and "The Education Arcade," advocating for the educational use of computer technology and video games. As a public advocate, he has testified before the U.S. Senate, contributed to the legal struggles over fan-made films, and consistently championed the importance of media literacy.

Today, we have the unique opportunity to delve into Dr. Jenkins' insights on emerging technology, such as AI, its impact on participatory culture, and on our evolving relationship with media and technology.

This month we welcome Benjamin Edwards, AI and Machine Learning Reporter for Ars Technica. He specializes in computer and video game history, has been covering the world of AI technology for over 16 years for publications such as The Atlantic, Wired, PC World, Macworld, Ars Techinca, 1UP, and Game Developer Magazine. Benj also runs Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to computer and video game history.

In this episode, Tara Coughlin interviews Benj on how to develop a new language to try and describe the new things happening in AI.

With the rise of NFTs, blockchain and cryptocurrency took the art world by storm. But often, this meant doubling down on art’s status as a financial asset. However, this technology could have a place in the art world beyond the speculative churn of NFT markets. 

How can blockchain help build an ecosystem where artists and galleries support each other – one where creators have sovereignty over their data, and see it preserved for generations to come? In this episode, we hear from Kelani Nichole, the founder of TRANSFER Gallery, which exhibits digital art both online and IRL. She explains the challenges of preserving and maintaining media art, why “artist data sovereignty” is so important, and where blockchain fits into her vision of digital art’s sustainability. 

As AI systems become more widespread, it is becoming all the more important to know we can trust them. This month, Rohit Taware interviews Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of CalypsoAI, Victor Ardulov. Victor created the technical roadmap, and managed a team of applied scientists, to build a unique software that is being used to check the health and well-roundedness of generative and Deep Neural Network artificial intelligence. We used to ask, "Who watches the watchers?" Today we ask, "Who watches the AI?"

With the rise of open social media platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky, nonprofits have new opportunities to develop close conversations with the communities they seek to support.

Many of these open social media platforms are also better aligned with nonprofits’ values than major tech companies have been. What are the best ways for non-profits to get involved?

How do nonprofits navigate this emerging space in an already dense social media landscape? In this episode, we will hear from nonprofit leaders and technologists on how the emerging social networks relate to their organizations’ goals.

In the aftermath of a chaotic Twitter takeover, many people have moved away from centralized social media platforms to a new set of social platforms that are open-source, decentralized, and user-centered—like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Nostr. But civic-minded social platforms are nothing new.

This episode presents some of Open Social Media’s origin stories from three speakers who have been involved in the development, culture, and communities of their platforms: Christine Lemmer-Webber (co-editor, ActivityPub), Evan Henshaw-Plath (founder, Nos), and Golda Velez (early participant, Bluesky). We will explore how queer experiences and activist movements, for instance, have played a vital role in shaping the design and direction of emerging platforms.

At a time when many people are focused on recent advances in artificial intelligence, another transformative technology is quietly emerging to reshape our future: quantum computing. The people working toward this radical shift imagine a world where quantum computing revolutionizes drug discovery, financial strategies, and various global challenges. This episode explores the mind-bending possibilities of quantum computing with Rowen Wu, a product manager at Q-CTRL, a leading company accelerating the path to practical quantum computing.