The Received Wisdom - Shobita Parthasarathy – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Received Wisdom - Shobita Parthasarathy

Shobita Parthasarathy & Jack Stilgoe

Technology

Frequency: 1 episode/44d. Total Eps: 17

Are robots racist? Should we regulate gene editing? Have people stopped trusting experts? Does scientific research make the world a more unequal place? The Received Wisdom is a podcast about how to realize the potential of science and technology by challenging the received wisdom. Join Shobita and Jack as they talk to thinkers and doers from around the world about governing science and technology to make the world a better place.

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Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
20/08/2026
#80
🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
08/08/2026
#81
🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
07/08/2026
#65
🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
06/08/2026
#55
🇨🇦 Canada - socialSciences
05/06/2026
#86
🇨🇦 Canada - socialSciences
04/06/2026
#64
🇨🇦 Canada - socialSciences
03/06/2026
#45
🇩🇪 Germany - socialSciences
23/02/2026
#94
🇩🇪 Germany - socialSciences
22/02/2026
#68
🇩🇪 Germany - socialSciences
21/02/2026
#40

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Score global : 69%

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Episode 39: The Politics of Air Pollution, Ozempic, and Luddism ft. Brian Merchant

Episode 39

Monday, April 22, 2024 • Duration 01:11:06

Episode 39: The Politics of Air Pollution, Ozempic, and Luddism ft. Brian Merchant

In this episode, Shobita and Jack tackle the EPA's recent efforts to increase monitoring of air pollutants, Jack's new documentary on existential risks, and the Ozempic craze. And Jack chats with Brian Merchant, a freelance journalist who focuses on tech who recently wrote Blood in the machine: The origins of rebellion against big tech about the history of Luddism.

Links:

- Merchant, Brian. (2023) Blood in the machine: The origins of rebellion against big tech. Hatchette Book Group. New York.

- Brian Merchant’s Substack

- For UK listeners, an audio adaptation of Blood in the Machine on BBC Radio.

- Stilgoe, Jack (2024). How Real is the Existential Risk from AI? Analysis 4. BBC Radio.

Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

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Episode 29: British Politics, the CHIPS and Science Act, and Rethinking the Green Revolution ft. Glenn Stone

Episode 29

Thursday, November 3, 2022 • Duration 59:13

Jack and Shobita chat about the disasters in British politics, the CHIPS and Science Act, and how to determine whether self-driving cars are safe. Plus we chat with anthropologist Glenn Davis Stone, Professor at Sweet Briar College and author of the recent book The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World. Stone argues that we've been learning the story of the Green Revolution all wrong, and this has huge implications for how we think about more recent agricultural technologies like fertilizer and genetically modified organisms.

Links related to the episode:Dan Reed and Darío Gil (2022). "Insufficient NSF funding could doom the Chips and Science Act." The Hill. October 13.Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (2022). "Responsible Innovation in Self-Driving Vehicles."
Glenn Davis Stone (2022). The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World. Routledge.Glenn Davis Stone (2022). "Surveillance Agriculture and Peasant Autonomy." Journal of Agrarian Change.
Glenn Davis Stone (2020). "A Long-term Analysis of a Controversial GMO Crop." Nature Plants. March 13.Glenn Davis Stone (2020). "The Philippines has rated ‘Golden Rice’ safe, but farmers might not plant it." . February 7.

Episode 28: The Politics of Open Access, Alzheimer’s Research, and Ghost Work ft. Mary Gray

Episode 28

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 • Duration 01:11:58

It's a new season of The Received Wisdom!! After their partial summer hiatus, Shobita and Jack discuss the fraud allegations that are rocking the foundations of what we know about Alzheimer's Disease, and the Biden Administration's directive to make freely available all publications based on federally funded research. And, they chat with Macarthur Fellow Mary Gray about the "ghost workers" behind digital technologies and supposedly artificial intelligence. Gray is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and faculty in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University.

Relevant Links

- Charles Piller (2022). "Blots on a Field?" Science. July 21.

- The White House (2022). "Breakthroughs for All: Delivering Equitable Access to America’s Research." OSTP Blog. August 25.

- Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri (2019). Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a Global Underclass. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

- National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2022). Fostering Responsible Computing Research: Foundations and Practices. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

- Mary L. Gray with Catherine Powell (2021). "." Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy Roundtable Series and Roundtable Series on Cybersecurity and Cyberconflict.

Episode 27: How could self-driving cars change the world? - Part 2

Episode 27

Friday, July 15, 2022 • Duration 30:40

This episode is the second of Jack’s investigations into self-driving cars. Last time, he was interested in Phoenix, Arizona. This time, he’s back home in London, an old, complicated, messy city with an extensive public transport system.

The episode was presented and written by Jack Stilgoe and edited by Gemma Milne, with research assistance from Nuzhah Miah.

Relevant links

- Joe Moran, (2006). Crossing the road in Britain, 1931–1976. The Historical Journal, 49 (2), 477-496.

- Joe Moran (2010). On roads: a hidden history. Profile Books.

- Lucy Suchman (1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge university press.

- Peter Norton (2011). Fighting traffic: the dawn of the motor age in the American city. MIT Press.

- Peter Norton (2021). Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-tech Driving. Island Press.

- https://www.wayve.ai/ (and the company’s published papers, e.g.: Hawke, J., Badrinarayanan, V., & Kendall, A. (2021). Reimagining an autonomous vehicle. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.05805).

- Chris Tennant, & Jack Stilgoe, (2021). The attachments of ‘autonomous’ vehicles. Social Studies of Science, 51(6), 846-870. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063127211038752

- Tennant, C., Neels, C., Parkhurst, G., Jones, P., Mirza, S., & Stilgoe, J. (2021). Code, culture and concrete: Self-Driving Vehicles and the Rules of the Road. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 122.

Transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org.

Episode 26: How could self-driving cars change the world? - Part 1

Episode 26

Friday, June 10, 2022 • Duration 31:13

This month is a bit different. This episode is the first part of an investigation, led by Jack, into self-driving cars, trying to locate the technology in particular places. The first part focuses on Phoenix, Arizona, a testbed for some of the technology’s most ambitious developers and also the scene of the first self-driving car crash to kill a pedestrian. Jack talks to various experts - historians, crash investigators, journalists and tech company representatives - to ask what the technology might mean for different places. The second part moves to Jack’s home town, London.

The episode was presented and written by Jack Stilgoe and edited by Gemma Milne, with research assistance from Nuzhah Miah.

- Jack Stilgoe, (2019) Who Killed Elaine Herzberg?, OneZero, 12 Dec 2019, https://onezero.medium.com/who-killed-elaine-herzberg-ea01fb14fc5e

- Chris Tennant, & Jack Stilgoe, (2021). The attachments of ‘autonomous’ vehicles. Social Studies of Science, 51(6), 846-870. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03063127211038752

- Lucy Suchman, (2019). Demystifying the intelligent machine. In Cyborg Futures (pp. 35-61). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21836-2_3

- Madeleine C Elish, (2019). Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 5, 40-60.

- Peter Norton, (2011). Fighting traffic: the dawn of the motor age in the American city. Mit Press.

- Wetmore, J. (2003). Driving the dream. The history and motivations behind 60 years of automated highway systems in America. Automotive History Review, 7, 4-19.

Full transcript and study questions available at .

Episode 25: Science in Abortion Politics and the Failure of One Laptop Per Child ft. Morgan Ames

Season 1 · Episode 25

Saturday, May 14, 2022 • Duration 01:07:10

This month, Shobita and Jack discuss how scientists are engaging in the boiling politics of abortion in the United States, the implications of large language models (a new type of artificial intelligence), and Elon Musk's possible takeover of Twitter. And we have a fascinating conversation with Morgan Ames about her award-winning book The Charisma Machine, which focuses on the global One Laptop Per Child project. Ames is Professor of Practice at the School of Information and Associate Director of Research for the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society at the University of California, Berkeley.

- Morgan G. Ames (2019). The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop Per Child. MIT Press.

- Morgan G. Ames (2021). "Laptops alone can’t bridge the digital divide." MIT Technology Review. October 27.

- Morgan G. Ames (2019). "Future Generations will Suffer if we Don't Solve Unequal Access to Tech." Pacific Standard. April 2.

- Morgan G. Ames (2019). "The Smartest People in the Room? What Silicon Valley’s Supposed Obsession with Tech-Free Private Schools Really Tells Us." LA Review of Books. October 18.

- Roger A. Pielke Jr. (2007). Cambridge University Press.

Episode 24: The TRIPS Patent Waiver and Communicating Science Differently ft. Sabrina McCormick

Season 1 · Episode 24

Wednesday, March 23, 2022 • Duration 58:04

In this episode, Shobita and Jack discuss this uncertain moment in the pandemic around the world, including the latest negotiations related to the TRIPS patent waiver related to COVID vaccines. They consider emerging efforts to develop a "pangenome" that emphasizes human genetic diversity. And they chat with Professor Sabrina McCormick, a scholar, policymaker, and filmmaker, about her efforts to advocate for climate change action in creative ways.

Relevant links:

- Roxane Khamsi (2022). "A more-inclusive genome project aims to capture all of human diversity." Nature. 16 March.

- Sequestra film (2020).

- The Years of Living Dangerously film (2014).

- The Years of Living Dangerously, Bringing Climate to the Classroom (2016).

- www.sabrinamccormick.com

- www.resilienceentertainment.com

Full transcript and study questions available at thereceivedwisdom.org

Episode 23: The Myths of Genius, IP, and Surveillance ft. Chris Gilliard

Season 1 · Episode 23

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 • Duration 01:02:38

This month, Jack and Shobita discuss the resignation of the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, African scientists' success in copying the Moderna vaccine and the potential long-term implications, and the politics of long COVID. And we speak with scholar and writer Chris Gilliard about the rise of surveillance technologies, their implications especially for marginalized communities, and what we can do about it.

The Received Wisdom - Shobita Parthasarathy – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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The Received Wisdom - Shobita Parthasarathy – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

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