Chatter, With David M. Berry, Peggy Weil, Arthur Schwarz, Mark Marino And Jeff Shrager The Data Fix With Dr. Mél Hogan podcast

52:58

In this episode, Shannon Wait — Alphabet Workers Union-CWA organizer — speaks with me about the labour conditions for data center and AI workers. We talk about contracts, sub-contracts, sub-sub-contracts, NDAs, invisible labour -- and how all of this leads to unions, solidarity, and a fight for tech workers’ rights globally. Recorded May 8, 2025. Released June 2, 2025. Interview with Shannon Wait, Alphabet Workers Union-CWA Organizer (2024) https://poweratwork.us/shannon-wait-interview A union of Alphabet workers in the U.S. and Canada https://www.alphabetworkersunion.org/ Google Raters Participated in Historic Action at Google HQ to Demand Google End Poverty Wages for 5,000 Workers https://code-cwa.org/news/google-raters-participated-historic-action The woman who took on Google and won (2021) https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56659212 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Remade, with Allison Carruth 1:02:12

26 days ago1:02:12

1:02:12

Allison Carruth and I talk about her new book which gets at some of the material infrastructure and social systems that have made the US a settler state ever obsessed with new frontiers, including space. We talk about tech imaginaries, worlds remade, and better futures — a vision that invites confronting the state of things head-on, a slower redoing, and is based on connection, love, and friendship (maybe with aliens, too). Recorded May 7, 2025. Released May 19, 2025. Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech (2025) https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo239362741.html Allison Carruth https://allisoncarruth.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Hype, with Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne 1:00:06

6 weeks ago1:00:06

1:00:06

In this episode, Dani Shanley and Gemma Milne walk me through "hype" -- what it means in various technological contexts, how it works, what it is definitionally, how it feels in the body, who it serves, who it harms, and how we might need to nuance our relationship to it, especially as critical (tech) scholars. Recorded May 1, 2025. Released May 5, 2025. https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/gemma-milne/smoke-mirrors/9781472143655/ https://radicalsciencepodcast.com/ https://brainreel.substack.com/ https://hypestudies.org/ https://www.biss-institute.com/en/about https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/news/new-technologies-heroes-or-villains Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Damage, with Dustin Edwards 57:24

7 weeks ago57:24

57:24

Dustin Edwards and I discuss the damage caused by digital infrastructure and its extractive requirements. We talk about data centers and copper mines, but more than this, we delve into the what a decolonial, feminist, anti-racist approach can look like for white settler scholars grappling with their inheritances and obligations to the landscapes and to the stories they tell themselves, as we make (new) worlds. Recorded Apr 8, 2025. Released April 28, 2025. Enduring Digital Damage: Rhetorical Reckonings for Planetary Survival https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817322472/enduring-digital-damage/ The making of critical data center studies Dustin Edwards, Zane Griffin Talley Cooper and Mél Hogan https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231224157 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Consent, with Jasmine McNealy 52:10

9 weeks ago52:10

52:10

In this episode, I ask Jasmine McNealy about the role of consent online, from social media exchanges to the circulation of deep fakes. Who gets to define harm? Who is responsible for the damage? Does anyone have to take accountability? We also talk about surveillance, sonic privacy, and the many data trails the body leaves behind. Recorded Apr 4, 2025. Released April 14, 2025. Sonic Privacy. Yale Journal of Law & Technology/Yale ISP-Knight Foundation Public Sphere Series . https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/isp/documents/mcnealy.pdf Consent (Still) Won’t Save Us Chapter from: Feminist Cyberlaw https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1525/luminos.190.p Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Together, with Collin Bjork 58:38

12 weeks ago58:38

58:38

Collin Bjork and I discuss the double (triple?) meaning of "extractive AI". Collin explains Otter.ai -- an AI powered voice-to-text transcription software, and the capitalist logics that enable it -- vs. Maori-led Te Hiku Media, based on principles of stewardship, community and collaboration. Collin also explains how rhetoric is about togetherness more than persuasion. Recorded Feb 12, 2025. Released March 24, 2025. Mentioned in ep: Bad Ideas About Writing (Ball & Loewe); Extractive AI and Its Challenge to Technical Communication (Bjork; forthcoming, Journal of Business and Technical Communication , October 2025); "The Acousmatic Question and the Will to Datafy" (Sterne & Sawhney); "Big AI Companies Need Higher Ed...But Does Higher Ed Need Them?" (Bjork); "ChatGPT Threatens Language Diversity" (Bjork); Te Reo Māori Speech Recognition (Te Hiku Media); Abundant Intelligences - Indigenous AI (Jason Edward Lewis, Hemi Whaanga, et al...) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Deskill, with Hagen Blix 1:04:59

13 weeks ago1:04:59

1:04:59

In this episode Hagen Blix and I talk about how the fear of AI, from the non-billionaire CEO class, comes from the threat of deskilling workers. Recorded Mar 5, 2025. Released March 17, 2025. Tech Workers Can Still Fight Silicon Valley’s Overlords by Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer https://jacobin.com/2025/02/tech-workers-silicon-valley-trump/ Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares Paperback – March 21 2025 by Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer https://www.commonnotions.org/why-we-fear-ai Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Unlearning, with Kane Murdoch 1:02:39

14 weeks ago1:02:39

1:02:39

In this episode I speak with Kane Murdoch about the perils of contract cheating. As an integrity officer, he frames what's happening with "cheating" as an unlearning that we should all be paying attention to if we care about education. Recorded Feb 6, 2025. Released March 10, 2025. Guerilla Warfare https://www.guerillawarfare.net/ Ellis, C., & Murdoch, K. (2024). The educational integrity enforcement pyramid: a new framework for challenging and responding to student cheating. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 49(7), 924–934. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2329167 Lures and violent threats: old school cheating still rampant at Australian universities, even as AI rises — The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/01/lures-and-violent-threats-old-school-cheating-still-rampant-at-australian-universities-even-as-ai-rises Ghost writers helping UNSW students to cheat on assessments, leaked report reveals https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cheating-unsw-students-hire-ghost-writers-from-messaging-site-wechat-to-complete-work-20200505-p54q3f.html Cheating found at UNSW up by 2000% as new detection methods used https://www.smh.com.au/education/cheating-found-at-unsw-up-by-2000-percent-as-new-detection-methods-used-20190814-p52gz4.html University students caught paying others to do their work at record levels https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/university-students-caught-paying-others-to-do-their-work-at-record-levels-20221025-p5bsrx.html The Rise of Plagiarism: Contract Cheating https://www.turnitin.ca/products/originality/contract-cheating Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Indexicality, with Roland Meyer and Gillian Rose 1:02:39

16 weeks ago1:02:39

1:02:39

AI images are circulating more and more online and sometimes we can't tell the 'real' from AI-generated. But as I discuss with the inimitable Gillian Rose and Roland Meyer, we need to think about AI images beyond their indexicality, i.e. the idea that a photograph is a direct representation of the subject it captures. In this episode, we grapple with AI generators that are part of extractive, colonial industries, and how that shapes the affect of AI visuals. Recorded Jan 29, 2025. Released Feb 24, 2025. It’s a flat world. The Synthetic Realities of Sora https://rrrreflect.org/special-issue-1/its-a-flat-world-the-synthetic-realities-of-sora “It’s a flat world. The Synthetic Realities of AI Video” by Roland Meyer at Hidden Layers 24 https://vimeo.com/1011342969 The New Value of the Archive AI Image Generation and the Visual Economy of ‘Style’ https://image-journal.de/the-new-value-of-the-archive/ “Generic Pastness. AI Image Synthesis and the Virtualization of the Archive” https://vimeo.com/873978726 Models All The Way Down by Christo Buschek & Jer Thorp https://knowingmachines.org/models-all-the-way Gillian Rose, Professor of Human Geography Fellow of the British Academy and Academy of Social Sciences webpage: https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/grose.html bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/profgillian.bsky.social blog: visualmethodculture.wordpress.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Asymmetries, with Jathan Sadowski 1:00:36

18 weeks ago1:00:36

1:00:36

In this episode Jathan Sadowski discusses the 'risk industry' as imagined by FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) and the asymmetries they create. Recorded January 15, 2025. Released February 10, 2025. The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite/paper This Machine Kills: A podcast about technology and political economy https://soundcloud.com/thismachinekillspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Lessons, with Charles Logan 55:08

20 weeks ago55:08

55:08

Charles Logan is the go-to person to talk to about how AI is infiltrating the many layers of education, from K-12 to universities. In this conversation, we learn our lessons; we talk about what Ed Tech is, its promise and hype, and (ultimately) how to refuse it as professors and teach students to resist it as well. We also wonder about 'AI-proofing' the classroom and wether this is the way to deal with its onslaught. Recorded January 14, 2025. Released January 27, 2025. Applying the Baldwin Test to Ed-Tech https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/applying-the-baldwin-test-to-ed-tech The Captivating Creature from Educaria and Other Scary Stories https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/the-captivating-creature-from-educaria-and-other-scary-stories Iggy Peck, Architect Is an AI Doomer and Other Things I Struggle to Talk with My Kids About https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/iggy-peck-architect-is-an-ai-doomer-and-other-things-i-struggle-to-talk-with-my-kids-about Lessons on How to Practice Everyday Resistance and Refusal https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/lessons-on-how-to-practice-everyday-resistance-and-refusal You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/05/1079009/you-need-to-talk-to-your-kid-about-ai-here-are-6-things-you-should-say Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Storying, with Dillon Mahmoudi and Anthony Levenda 56:46

21 weeks ago56:46

56:46

In this episode I speak with Dillon Mahmoudi and Anthony Levenda about the relationship (feedback loop) between data and urban planning. We focus on the idea of 'storying' data to make it compelling and to get past the inertia of data delivered as mere stats or numbers that have little resonance and don't (or no longer) move people to action, towards better living conditions. Recorded January 13, 2025. Released January 20, 2025. The urban-tech feedback loop: a surveillance and development data-walk in South Lake Union https://dillonm.io/papers/the-urban-tech-feedback-loop/ The Amazon Warehouse https://dillonm.io/papers/the-amazon-warehouse/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Defining, with Ali Alkhatib 55:02

22 weeks ago55:02

55:02

I got to speak with the brilliant Ali Alkhatib about his blog post "defining AI" -- an object, subject, metaphor, and discursive formation used amongst all of us trying to figure out how to grapple with AI's ownership, deployments, and impacts. Who gets to define AI? Is it just computer scientists? What are the stakes of having it defined only technologically? Recorded December 23, 2025. Released January 13, 2025. Ali Alkhatib (website) https://ali-alkhatib.com/ Defining AI https://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/defining-ai Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Colonialism, with Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry 1:00:14

23 weeks ago1:00:14

1:00:14

I start the new year with an episode on "data colonialism". I had the great pleasure of speaking with Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry about our contemporary relationship to corporations, about the idea that there’s no capitalism without colonialism (and vice versa), about how human lives are being exploited these days, and about data being a cheap resource. Recorded December 16, 2024. Released January 6, 2025. Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo216184200.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

1
Investigative, with Déborah López and Hadin Charbel 1:02:00

24 weeks ago1:02:00