A podcast exploring the inherently political nature of technology
Politechs
Claim This Podcastby Politechs
5.0(2 reviews)
23 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
A podcast exploring the inherently political nature of technology
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
7/7/2025
1 verified contact email on file for Politechs
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
Recent Episodes
August 17, 2026
Redemption? - Dr. Chris Gilliard
Host [Host Name] interviews Dr. Chris Gilliard about the concerning evolution of surveillance technology and its potential for redemption.
August 3, 2026
Decomputing - Dan McQuillan
Host [Host Name] interviews Dr. Dan McQuillan, Senior Lecturer in Critical AI, exploring his concept of Decomputing as a hybrid of decolonial and degrowth approaches.
July 20, 2026
Rhetorical Technology - Emily M. Bender
<p>Josh and Ray are joined by computational linguist Dr. Emily M. Bender to discuss what "AI" really is, and why the slippery nature of the term is very much intentional. We look at the eugenicist history of the quest to define and measure human intelligence and try to understand what the project of "artificial intelligence" is, then explore LLMs as synthetic text extruding machines and automation technology, as opposed to a machine god on the cusp of being born.</p><p>Mentioned in this episode:<ol><li><a href="https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000</a> - podcast by Drs. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260618212535/https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">permalink</a>]</li><li><a href="https://thecon.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">THE AI CON - How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want</a> - book by Drs. Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260623160600/https://thecon.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">permalink</a>]</li><li><a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜</a> - paper by Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, et al. [<a href="https://archive.org/details/stochastic-parrots-3442188.3445922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">permalink</a>]</li><li><a href="https://notaidoc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ghost in the Machine</a> - film by Valerie Veatch [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Machine_(2026_film)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">permalink</a>]</li><li><a href="https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636/11599" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The TESCREAL Bundle</a> - paper by Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250707230652/https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636/11599" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">permalink</a>]</li></ol>See the <a href="https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-rhet-tech/#footnotes-section">transcript footnotes</a> for more!</p><div class="episode-epilogue"><p>We'd love to hear from you if you disagree with something we've said. Please read our <a href="https://politechs.dev/rules.html">rules of engagement for good faith discussions</a>, and then send an email to <a href="mailto:podcast@politechs.dev">podcast@politechs.dev</a> or hit us up on socials.</p><p class="cljcaster-player-hidden">To view full show notes, including transcripts, please visit the <a href="https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-rhet-tech/index.html">episode page</a>. Be sure to follow us on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/politechs.bsky.social">BlueSky</a> and <a href="https://mastodon.social/@politechs">Mastodon</a>!</p><p>Cover art by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://anyakjordan.com/">Anya K. Jordan</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/anyakjordan.bsky.social">@anyakjordan.bsky.social</a></p><p>Theme music by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://soundcloud.com/ptzery">Xylia</a></p><p>Politechs is provided under the terms of the <a href="https://politechs.dev/licence.html">Attribution-NonCommercial-NoAI licence</a></p></div>
23 total episodes available with 2 transcripts
Recent guests on Politechs
Guests from recent episodes — sign up to see every guest that has ever appeared on this show.
Chris Gilliard
Guest
Dan McQuillan
Guest
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