MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

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MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed episodes

  • Mobilize Your Data Democracy
    Nick van der Meulen reads MIT CISR's September 2025 research briefing, which he co-authored with Ida Someh, Barb Wixom, and Cynthia Beath. See the text version and related content at https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2025_0901_DataDemocracy_VanderMeulenSomehWixomBeath.
    Abstract: Many organizations fail to realize value from their data investments, with only an average of 28 percent of employees drawing on reusable data assets. This briefing positions as a solution establishing a data democracy: an organizational state where all employees have data access, skills, motivation, and guidance for strategic use. We present a framework showing how specific connecting structures, such as centers of excellence and cross-functional teams, can amplify democratization practices. By intentionally designing this organizational state, leaders can increase the use of their organization’s available data assets, achieve greater employee empowerment, and maximize financial returns on their data investments.
    0 min
  • The Homework Machine Ep 6 "Inviting AI to the Party"

    We keep saying that most ed tech is invited into schools, but generative AI crashed the party. But the truth in, some teachers have invited AI into schools. Some think it’s been great, and others see opportunities as well as challenges.

    We visit four classrooms where students and teachers are using AI in ways they say are innovative, fulfilling, and effective: a student in Oregon who worked with her teacher to expand the scope of her assignments with AI; a Southern California instructor using AI to bypass busywork and focus on the creative aspects of filmmaking; a teacher in Illinois deploying AI to provide targeted feedback; and, finally, a former engineer whose students use AI coding tools to make circuitboards…play Rick Astley?

    And we ask the question: What are the human teachers doing to create conditions in which AI can support learning?

    This episode was produced by Jesse Dukes. We had editing from Alexandra Salomon and Ruxandra Guidi. Reporting and research from Chris Bagg, and Andrew Parsons. Additional reporting from Andrew Meriwether, Holly McDede, Natasha Esteves, and Marnette Federis. Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson.

    Thanks to Jerry Shaw for digging up some of those Arduino Uno songs. The “Uptown Funk” was a simulation, created in our studios.

    Production help from Yebu Ji. Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Administrative support from Jessica Rondon. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon and Eric Klopfer.

    Original music for this series was created by Steven Jackson, Andrew Meriwether and Jesse Dukes, as part of the music project Cue Shop. Thanks to Will Grueb, Andy Wilds, and the MIT Music Department for letting us use the MIT Harpsichord.
    The research and reporting you heard in this episode was supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Kapor Foundation, the Jameel World Education Lab, the Social and Ethical Responsibility of Computing initiative at MIT, and the RAISE initiative, Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education also at MIT.

    We had support from Google’s Academic Research Awards program.

    42 min
  • Challenging the Average With Open-Source AI: Hugging Face’s Thomas Wolf
    Thomas Wolf is the cofounder and chief science officer of open-source AI platform Hugging Face, which provides access to thousands of pretrained AI models that can be downloaded and run locally. With over 10 million users, getting started on the site can be a daunting task. Thomas explains how the company aims to improve its accessibility through documentation on the company blog as well as community feedback, similar to social media likes and upvoting.
    Thomas and Sam discuss the benefits and trade-offs of both open-source and closed-source AI models, as well as the evolution of microchips and the future of hardware and software development — as well as the hopes Thomas has for the future of coding with AI, starting with his children’s generation. Read the episode transcript here.
    Guest bio:
    Thomas Wolf is cofounder and chief science officer of Hugging Face, a collaborative AI platform. Wolf likes creating open-source software (OSS) that makes complex research, models, and data sets widely accessible. He can also be found pushing for open science in research in AI and machine learning, to try lowering the gap between academia and industrial labs through projects like the BigScience Workshop. He also writes and produces education content on AI, machine language, and natural language processing, including the reference book Natural Language Processing with Transformers, The Ultra-Scale Playbook, his blog, and videos.
    Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.
    We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.
    0 min
  • Julien Mailland on "The Game That Never Ends: How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry"
    Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Julien Mailland, Associate Professor of Media Management, Law, and Policy at The Media School of Indiana University Bloomington, about his book, The Game That Never Ends: How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry. The book examines key moments, beginning in the 1970s, in which legal decisions influenced how the videogame industry worked, how law shaped business and technology strategy and vice versa. The conversation touches on the book’s three major themes: intellectual property, freedom of speech, and international law. The pair also discuss Mailland’s new project, a geopolitical history of the best-selling videogame of all time, Tetris.
    1 hr 11 min
  • The Homework Machine Ep 5 "Winterset"

    Education technology companies have been falling over themselves to provide AI powered tools for schools, and to convince schools to buy their product. The array of AI powered products is dizzying, and while some can likely be put to good use, it can be hard for school leaders to gauge which are worth adopting.

    One school system in Iowa, Winterset Community School District has gone all in on generative AI, piloting at least three AI powered products and encouraging faculty and students to experiment with AI. They kindly let us visit for a week, and we dive in to see what they’re excited about, and what has been challenging.

    This episode was produced by Andrew Meriwether and Jesse Dukes. We had editing from Ruxandra Guidi and Alexandra Salomon. Reporting and research for the Homework Machine from Natasha Esteves, Holly McDede, Andrew Parsons, Marnette Federis, and Chris Bagg. Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson. Production help from Yebu Ji. Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon and Eric Klopfer.

    Administrative support from Jessica Rondon.

    Thanks to Chad Sussex and everybody at Winterset who spoke to Andrew Meriwether. We’re happy to share that AI Express: Leading the Future of Learning — written by Chad Sussex and Sandy Groom-Meeks, who guided the AI journey for Winterset — is now available. This book offers school leaders and educators a practical roadmap for safely and effectively implementing AI in schools. Find the book here:

    https://bit.ly/AIExpress_Amazon

    Original music for this series was created by Steven Jackson, Andrew Meriwether and Jesse Dukes, as part of the music project Cue Shop. Thanks to Will Grueb, Andy Wilds, and the MIT Music Department for letting us use the MIT Harpsichord.

    The research and reporting you heard in this episode was supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Kapor Foundation, the Jameel World Education Lab, the Social and Ethical Responsibility of Computing initiative at MIT, and the RAISE initiative, Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education also at MIT. We had support from Google’s Academic Research Awards program.

    44 min
  • Stephanie K. Kim, "Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul" (MIT Press, 2023)
    Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul (MIT Press, 2023) challenges the popular image of the international student in the American imagination, an image of affluence, access, and privilege. In this provocative book, higher education scholar Stephanie Kim argues that universities -- not the students -- create the paths that allow students their international mobility. Focusing on universities in the United States and South Korea that aggressively grew their student pools in the aftermath of the Great Recession, Kim shows the lengths to which universities will go to expand enrollments as they draw from the same pool of top South Korean students.
    Using ethnographic research gathered over a ten-year period in which international admissions were impacted by the Great Recession, changes in US presidential administrations, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Constructing Student Mobility provides crucial insights into the purpose, effects, and future of student recruitment across the Pacific.
    Constructing Student Mobility received the Best Book Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education Council on International Higher Education.
    Stephanie Kim is a scholar, educator, author, and practitioner in the field of comparative and international higher education. She teaches at Georgetown University, where she is an Associate Professor of the Practice and Faculty Director of Higher Education Administration in the School of Continuing Studies. She is also an affiliated faculty member of the Asian Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service.
    Leslie Hickman is a translator and writer. She has an MA in Korean Studies from Yonsei University. You can follow her activities here.
    53 min
  • Dan Roche, "Eyes by Hand: Prosthetics of Art and Healing" (MIT Press, 2025)
    Eyes by Hand: Prosthetics of Art and Healing (MIT Press, 2025) is a book about artificial eyes—about the artisans and artists who make them, and about the life-changing and sometimes life-saving experience of wearing them, as author Dan Roche has done for 15 years. Eye making is done by hand, for one person at a time, by a very small number of ocularists (fewer than 200 in the US); it is a slow, intricate, and unusually intimate process of molding, fitting, and painting that brings ocularist and patient together for many hours or even days.In Eyes by Hand, Dr. Roche describes the craft that goes into the making of an eye that looks uncannily real, as well as the psychological and emotional healing that such service brings to someone who has suffered the very visible trauma of eye loss—a loss that can go to the heart of self-identity.In an engaging, frankly fascinating fashion, Roche captures the intricacies of a profession whose techniques and culture have been remarkably consistent for 200 years. He explores, too, how that profession may now be facing a digital transformation in the form of scan-print-mail possibilities. Such a change might make prosthetic eyes more easily and cheaply available, though it may also risk the aesthetic qualities and intimate connection fundamental to the process of healing.
    This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
    1 hr 7 min
  • The Homework Machine Interlude: Justin Goes Back to School

    We’re halfway through “The Homework Machine” series, and as our production team works to finish the final episodes, we check in with Teaching Systems Lab director Justin Reich, who is returning to the classroom after a full year of sabbatical. Justin has been nervous, since some of the assignments he’s relied on in the past are not “AI-proof”. He tells us how he plans to adapt,

    We want to share A Guide to AI in Schools: Perspectives for the Perplexed the guidebook authored by TSL, based on the interviews we conducted for “The Homework Machine”.

    Justin is a fan of these protocols for evaluating student work:

    0 min
  • Innovation Alchemy: Industry and Academia with Lori Glover
    From sports drinks to self-driving cars, some of the most transformative innovations have emerged when universities and businesses join forces. In this episode, host Kara Miller talks with Lori Glover, author of Innovation Alchemy and Managing Director of Global Strategic Alliances at MIT CSAIL, about the surprising ways academic research and industry collaboration shape technology, talent, and the global economy.
    Together, they explore stories from the invention of Gatorade to modern AI research, the challenges of aligning two very different cultures, and how partnerships can spark unexpected breakthroughs, sometimes changing entire industries.
    Whether you’re curious about how new ideas move from the lab to the marketplace or want to learn why companies and universities need each other more than ever, this episode offers a deep look into the evolving innovation ecosystem at the juncture of academia and industry.
    Episodes, listener discounts, meet the host, and more can be found here: https://csail.mit.edu/podcast
    Connect with CSAIL Alliances:
    On our site: cap.csail.mit.edu/about-us/meet-our-team
    On LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mit-csail
    #MITCSAIL #AI #Education #MIT #GenerativeAI #Leadership #Technology #csailpodcast
    32 min
  • Mindshift: Why Poetry Is Making a Comeback in Schools

    We’re about halfway through The Homework Machine min-series, and we have more episodes coming. We're taking a break this week, which gives us the opportunity to share an episode of one of our favorite education podcasts with you.

    Mindshift from KQED features in depth interviews and reports from classroom about education and educators. We particularly enjoy this episode about a shift to teach contemporary poets, alongside the classics.

    Hanif Abduraqqib. Sarah Kay. Elizabeth Acevedo. Clint Smith. Do any of these names sound familiar? How about Amanda Gorman? All of these writers are part of America’s thriving contemporary poetry scene. But you won’t find them in many text books, because high school poetry units tend to focus on dead poets, like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe. North Carolina teacher Melissa Smith is working to change that. For the last seven years, she’s been diversifying the canon in her classroom, and encouraging other teachers to do the same with the hashtag #teachlivingpoets. The shift has inspired teachers across the country to get creative with how they teach students things like tone, rhythm and structure in poetry. And it’s inspired students to connect with and see reflections of themselves in the poets they study.

    We have more episodes of the Homework Machine coming in a little over a week. In the meantime, please take our listener survey. (We'll enter you in a drawing to win a $25 gift card).

    https://forms.gle/KwPGTeVYZh2mo6gF7

    0 min

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