Podcasts We Learn From

Written By Daniel Krutka

by Marie Heath and Dan Krutka

Podcasts (and radio) are an intimate form of learning. If you have ever listened to a podcast for a long period of time, you feel like you get to know the hosts. Their voices become strangely familiar. We say “strangely” familiar because you sense that you know them… but you don’t. And they don’t know you. The strangeness becomes evident if you ever meet your favorite podcast hosts in person. Dan has met the hosts of local podcasts which he’s listened to for years and it’s an awkward experience as you encounter their bodies, not just their voice. It’s weird. Dan has experienced this from the other side in meeting people who’ve listened to the Visions of Education podcast that he co-hosts with Massachusetts classroom teacher Michael Milton. It is such an honor to meet someone who listens to episodes, but the feelings are all one way in the moment.

It’s also not surprising that the audio medium can also be a way to spread propaganda, bigotry, and hate. Hosts can offer long-form rationalizations with audiences who develop an affinity for their voice. Anyway, this post isn’t about those podcasts. We want to focus on the podcasts from which we learn about critical perspectives on technology.

We have two very different approaches to podcasts—Dan is always listening and Marie only does so occasionally on a commute. Regardless of the regularity of different voices speaking through our headphones, the ideas and conversations help us learn new perspectives and consider new ideas that shape our work in the Civics of Technology project. Oftentimes when we encounter a new scholar or thinker that we want to learn more about, we search their name in the podcast app and learn more. Podcasts often provide a context for someone’s work that their writings don't always include.

We want to share podcasts we’ve listened to, including some of our favorite episodes, that meet the aims of the Civics of Technology project. For both of us, our favorite tech podcast was probably Recode Daily during the time when Arielle Duhaime-Ross was the host. The episodes were current, critical, and concise. If you want to know more about a topic in tech, we recommend searching those episodes. Episodes rarely ran longer than 20 minutes, which fits especially well with Marie’s podcast listening temperament. We mourned when ADR left the air, but also mourned the loss of storytelling shows like Crazy/Genius and informative shows like Raw Data quit recording new episodes. However, the good news is all the episodes are still there due to the affordance of the podcasting medium.

Here’s a list of some our favorite shows and episodes… which ones have you listened to? Which ones are we missing?

Favorite Regular Listening

  • Tech Won’t Save Us with Paris Marx: Silicon Valley wants to shape our future. Why should we let it?

  • The Sunday Show from Tech Policy Press: Tech Policy Press is a nonprofit media and community venture intended to provoke new ideas, debate and discussion at the intersection of technology and democracy. The Sunday Show is its podcast.

  • The Convivial Society hosted by L.M. Sacasas: The Convivial Society is a newsletter and podcast exploring the relationship between technology and society. It’s grounded in the history and philosophy of technology, with more than a sprinkling of media ecology. No hot takes, only shamelessly deliberate considerations of the meaning of technology for human experience.

  • The Slate Technology Feed by Slate Podcasts: Technology coverage from across the Slate Podcast network, curated in one feed.

Some Favorite Episodes

  • “Digital Technology and Democratic Theory,” Episode 141 of Data & Society with Lucy Bernholz, Rob Reich, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Archon Fung: Data & Society and Stanford PACS host a special book launch: One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments.

  • “Hey Google: Scan my Race,” from Recode Daily with Arielle Duhaime-Ross: The week this was recorded, Google announced its new Pixel 4 phone. One of the features it touted was Face Unlock, which uses facial recognition to unlock the phone. But the advancement came with a price - for black people.

  • “The Snapchat Thief,” Episode 130 from Reply All: After Lizzie's Snapchat gets hacked, things start getting really creepy. Alex investigates social media privacy and security. 

  • “Media Ecology for Educators: An Introduction” by Matt McGuire: This one off podcast serves as an introduction to the field of media ecology, particularly to those who are interested in applying some of the contributions from its main scholars to the field of education. I attempt to weave some of the main scholars’ key concepts from the field of media ecology into a web directly pertaining to educational technology and shed light onto how these ideas might translate into a media ecology pedagogy for an audience new to these concepts. This podcast is about three big questions: What is Media Ecology? Why is it important to study media? What useful approaches might students and teachers take to better understand media? Dan even created a listener’s guide so it can be used in class.

Expired Podcasts Still Worth Your Listen

  • Recode Daily by Vox: The Recode Daily podcast ended its run in June 2022. Discover how the digital world is changing — and changing us — with Recode's weekly newsletter.

  • Crazy/Genius hosted by Deerk Thompson of the Atlantic: Big questions about technology, science, and culture.

  • Raw Data hosted by Andrea Mustain from Stanford and PRX: A podcast about how information becomes power.

  • Reply All hosted by Alex Goldman and Emmanuek Dzotsi from Gimlet: “‘A podcast about the internet’ that is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it.” – The Guardian

  • Black Mirror Reflections hosted by Hern Baldwin: Black Mirror Refections is a fancast on the show Black Mirror hosted by Stacy Baldwin, Jackie Hern, and Reese Dunlap.

Finally, while Dan’s podcast primarily focuses on social studies education, he does have some episodes on tech that may be of interest to our community:

Please let us know, what do we need to add to the queue? We are working on a Civics of Technology “Library” for the site that will include a variety of references and links. We plan to have a podcast section. We’d love to add your podcasts to our list.

Daniel Krutka
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