What We Talk About When We Talk About Tech

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with the CEO of OpenUK Amanda Brock about the role of open technology in the UK's tech industry and wider economy.Amanda explains the work of Open UK and highlights some of the work the organisation does to promote open technology. She also discusses exactly why this work matters so much, and suggests that the UK doesn't always do as good a job as it could in talking about the extent to which it contributes to the global communitie...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with digital anthropologist Caitlin McDonald about what it means to be a digital anthropologist and why it matters in helping us to understand the way we build and use technology today. Caitlin begins by talking through how her work intersects with questions of agency and digital literacy, providing some useful context on how perceptions and understanding about what techbology does and how it's made can have an impact on the w...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with Sarah Drinkwater, the Director of Responsible Technology at Omidyar Networks to discuss how we can cultivate organisations and people that will enable a more equitable, responsible - and ultimately compassionate and exciting - technological future. We talk about the challenges the tech industry faces, and why it can be difficult to talk about responsibility and ethics. Sarah explains how the work she does at Omidyar Netwo...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to privacy advocate Michelle Wolfe (aka "Stella" on Twitter) about the challenges of security and privacy in today's increasingly sinister landscape of surveillance capitalism. Taking in key terms (including the monstrosity that is "cyber"), and looking closely at some of the limits and flaws in the conversation around online security, Michelle/Stella explains how she approaches her work and why she thinks we need to reevaluat...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to Lorinda Brandon and Mike Amundsen about APIs and the evolution of the tech industry in the last 30 years in a very special episode - the first to feature two guests. We discussed issues of equality in the industry, in particular how 'women in tech' has emerged only in recent years - Lorinda offers her perspective on what it was like working as a woman in tech in the eighties, and also explains what frustrates her about the ...

Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) and Rich Gall (@richggall) are joined by Saron Yitbarek, Founder and CEO of audio learning platform Disco and co-host of the brilliant Command Line Heroes podcast, to discuss the virtues of audio learning in age of excessive screen time and the importance of highlighting the stories of the people that have shaped the technology and software landscape today. Saron talks about her background and some of the challenges she faced when starting out in the softwar...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to Yin Mei, Director of Strategy and Curriculum Design at Per Scholas about her career and background in psychology in this special episode that went out live on Chubhouse.In the conversation Yin talks about her journey into the field, and how she developed an interest in technology from a young age as a child of Chinese immigrants in Minnesota, and explains how she moved from an academic background in psychology into tech training...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with the "sickeningly entertaining" coding drag queen Anna Lytical about drag, software development, and the LGBTQ+ community in tech.Anna discusses how they found their way into the tech industry and explains how they gradually discovered a way of bringing their love of software engineering, drag, and performing together. They also describe the journey from starting out making videos on YouTube, to building a huge audience of lear...

Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) and Rich Gall (@richggall) talk with Jessica Rose, a DevRel at CodeSee and advocate for improving access to technical education and the tech industry, about burnout, impostor syndrome and the challenges of learning the skills needed to navigate a fast-paced and occasionally hostile industry.Jessica talks about her role at CodeSee, a developer tool currently in its 'stealth' phase, and explains why its such an exciting project to work on, and explains ...

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to author, software architect, and meme wrangler at ThoughtWorks about the importance of storytelling, language and communication in his worker as both a consultant and an educator.Neal discusses his career in tech publishing, with 8 books already under his belt (the most recent being The Fundamentals of Software Architecture, published in January 2020), and explains what makes it so challenging but so vital in today's saturated in...