Episodes

  • Darryl Campbell, "Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software" (W. W. Norton, 2025)

    Darryl Campbell, "Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software" (W. W. Norton, 2025)
    May 9 2025
    A tech insider explains how capitalism and software development make for such a dangerous mix. Software was supposed to radically improve society. Outdated mechanical systems would be easily replaced; programs like PowerPoint would make information flow more freely; social media platforms like Facebook would bring people together; and generative AI would solve the world’s greatest ills. Yet in practice, few of the systems we looked to with such high hopes have lived up to their fundamental mandate. In fact, in too many cases they’ve made things worse, exposing us to immense risk at the societal and the individual levels. How did we get to this point? In Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software (W. W. Norton, 2025), Darryl Campbell shows that the problem is “managerial software”: programs created and overseen not by engineers but by professional managers with only the most superficial knowledge of technology itself. The managerial ethos dominates the modern tech industry, from its globe-spanning giants all the way down to its trendy startups. It demands that corporate leaders should be specialists in business rather than experts in their company’s field; that they manage their companies exclusively through the abstractions of finance; and that profit margins must take priority over developing a quality product that is safe for the consumer and beneficial for society. These corporations rush the development process and package cheap, unproven, potentially dangerous software inside sleek and shiny new devices. As Campbell demonstrates, the problem with software is distinct from that of other consumer products, because of how quickly it can scale to the dimensions of the world itself, and because its inner workings resist the efforts of many professional managers to understand it with their limited technical background. A former tech worker himself, Campbell shows how managerial software fails, and when it does what sorts of disastrous consequences ensue, from the Boeing 737 MAX crashes to a deadly self-driving car to PowerPoint propaganda, and beyond. Yet just because the tech industry is currently breaking its core promise does not mean the industry cannot change, or that the risks posed by managerial software should necessarily persist into the future. Campbell argues that the solution is tech workers with actual expertise establishing industry-wide principles of ethics and safety that corporations would be forced to follow. Fatal Abstraction is a stirring rebuke of the tech industry’s current managerial excesses, and also a hopeful glimpse of what a world shaped by good software can off. Alfred Marcus is Edson Spencer Professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Sandra Matz, "Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior" (HBRP, 2025)

    Sandra Matz, "Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior" (HBRP, 2025)
    May 7 2025
    A fascinating exploration of how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology—from the pioneering expert on psychological targeting. There are more pieces of digital data than there are stars in the universe. This data helps us monitor our planet, decipher our genetic code, and take a deep dive into our psychology. As algorithms become increasingly adept at accessing the human mind, they also become more and more powerful at controlling it, enticing us to buy a certain product or vote for a certain political candidate. Some of us say this technological trend is no big deal. Others consider it one of the greatest threats to humanity. But what if the truth is more nuanced and mind-bending than that? In Mindmasters: The Data-Driven Science of Predicting and Changing Human Behavior (Harvard Business Press, 2025), Columbia Business School professor Sandra Matz reveals in fascinating detail how big data offers insights into the most intimate aspects of our psyches and how these insights empower an external influence over the choices we make. This can be creepy, manipulative, and downright harmful, with scandals like that of British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica being merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet big data also holds enormous potential to help us live healthier, happier lives—for example, by improving our mental health, encouraging better financial decisions, or enabling us to break out of our echo chambers. With passion and clear-eyed precision, Matz shows us how to manage psychological targeting and redesign the data game. Mindmasters is a riveting look at what our digital footprints reveal about us, how they're being used—for good and for ill—and how we can gain power over the data that defines us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • Jessica Smith on Engineering and Public Accountability in Energy Industries

    Jessica Smith on Engineering and Public Accountability in Energy Industries
    May 5 2025
    Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks to Jessica Smith, Professor in the Engineering, Design, and Society Department and Dean’s Fellow for Earth and Society Programs of the Colorado School of Mines, about her work on engineering and public accountability in energy and mining industries. The pair discuss Smith’s long-held interests in mining and extractive industries, including her roots in coal country; her book, Extracting Accountability: Engineers and Corporate Social Responsibility (MIT Press, 2021); her current work on the social and community dimensions of carbon sequestration projects; and many asides about what it takes to study the social dimensions of engineering, including in humanities and social sciences cultures that contain many negative stereotypes of engineers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Ipek A. Celik Rappas, "Filming in European Cities: The Labor of Location" (Cornell UP, 2025)

    Ipek A. Celik Rappas, "Filming in European Cities: The Labor of Location" (Cornell UP, 2025)
    May 2 2025
    Filming in European Cities: The Labor of Location (Cornell University Press, 2025) explores the effort behind creating screen production locations. Dr. Ipek A. Celik Rappas accounts the rising demand for original and affordable locations for screen projects due to the growth of streaming platforms. As a result, screen professionals are repeatedly tasked with chores such as transforming a former factory in Istanbul to resemble a war zone in Aleppo, or finding a London street that evokes Barcelona. Dr. Celik Rappas highlights the pivotal role crew members play in transforming cities and locations into functional screen settings. Examining five European media capitals—Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Istanbul, and Paris—the book delves into the overlooked aspects of location-related screen labor and its ability to generate production value. Filming in European Cities demonstrates that in its perpetual quest for authentic filming locations, the screen industry extracts value from cities and neighborhoods, their marginalized residents, and screen labor, enriching itself through this triple exploitation. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 mins
  • "Brand Strategy, Diet Culture and Cultural Histories of Desire" with Jessica Hamel-Akré

    "Brand Strategy, Diet Culture and Cultural Histories of Desire" with Jessica Hamel-Akré
    May 1 2025
    I spoke with Jessica Hamel-Akré about her journey from literary scholar to historian to director of qualitative research at the consulting firm LoveBrands, and her work at the intersection of academia and industry. We discussed her fascinating 2024 book, The Art of Not Eating: A Doubtful History of Appetite and Desire (Atlantic Books), and how her research into the intellectual history of diet culture and desire informs her insights on brand strategy. Jessica shared how she uses historical documents—and historical ways of thinking—to engage with clients, her approach to bridging academic and corporate worlds, and her experiences working with clients in France, where LoveBrands is based. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    53 mins
  • Dessy T. Levinson, "From Overwhelm to Flow: Sailing the Seas of Self with Courage, Meaning, and Resilience" (Crate Mind, 2025)

    Dessy T. Levinson, "From Overwhelm to Flow: Sailing the Seas of Self with Courage, Meaning, and Resilience" (Crate Mind, 2025)
    Apr 27 2025
    Why do our attempts to control uncertainty often leave us feeling more adrift? What if our greatest source of stress could become our deepest well of creativity? Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and two decades of experience across advertising and venture capital, Dessy T. Levinson offers a radical reframing of how we relate to intensity. From Overwhelm to Flow: Sailing the Seas of Self with Courage, Meaning, and Resilience (Crate Mind, 2025) reveals how our nervous system actually processes complexity-and how understanding this transforms our relationship with uncertainty. Through intimate stories and cutting-edge research, the book introduces CRATE-a framework that combines cognitive insight with emotional intelligence to build lasting resilience. At its core, this book challenges our default response to overwhelm. Rather than trying to eliminate intensity or bypass emotion, we learn to welcome these experiences as portals to deeper understanding. Whether you're a founder navigating startup chaos, a leader building psychological safety for your team, or simply someone seeking to understand why your emotions feel like they're steering the ship, you'll discover practical tools for charting a new course. The journey unfolds in three parts. First, we dive into the science of how our minds and emotions actually work, discovering why traditional approaches to managing stress often backfire. Next, we explore the CRATE framework-Clarity, Regulation, Agency, Trust, and Energy-learning how to transform these insights into practical tools for navigating complexity. Finally, we discover how personal transformation extends beyond the individual, creating ripples that enhance our relationships, teams, and communities. More than just another self-help manual or management guide, this is an invitation to remember what we've always known but perhaps forgotten: that our struggles become our strengths when we learn to sail with, rather than against, the seas of our nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    35 mins
  • Joe Sutherland, "Analytics the Right Way: A Business Leader's Guide to Putting Data to Productive Use" (Wiley, 2025)

    Joe Sutherland, "Analytics the Right Way: A Business Leader's Guide to Putting Data to Productive Use" (Wiley, 2025)
    Apr 26 2025
    Organizations have more data at their fingertips than ever, and their ability to put that data to productive use should be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage. Yet, business leaders looking to tap into a steady and manageable stream of “actionable insights” often, instead, get blasted with a deluge of dashboards, chart-filled slide decks, and opaque machine learning jargon that leaves them asking, “So what?” Analytics the Right Way: A Business Leader's Guide to Putting Data to Productive Use (Wiley, 2025) is a guide for these leaders. It provides a clear and practical approach to putting analytics to productive use with a three-part framework that brings together the realities of the modern business environment with the deep truths underpinning statistics, computer science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The result: a pragmatic and actionable guide for delivering clarity, order, and business impact to an organization’s use of data and analytics. The book uses a combination of real-world examples from the authors’ direct experiences—working inside organizations, as external consultants, and as educators—mixed with vivid hypotheticals and illustrations—little green aliens, petty criminals with an affinity for ice cream, skydiving without parachutes, and more—to empower the reader to put foundational analytical and statistical concepts to effective use in a business context. Joe Sutherland has worked as an executive, public servant, and educator for the Dow Jones 30, The White House, and our nation's top universities. His firm, J.L. Sutherland & Associates, has attracted clients such as Box, Cisco, Canva, The Conference Board, and Fulcrum Equity Partners. He founded the Center for AI Learning at Emory University, which focuses on AI literacy and integration for the general public. Caleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network. Let's face it, most of the popular podcasts out there are dumb. NBN features scholars (like you!), providing an enriching alternative to students. We partner with presses like Oxford, Princeton, and Cambridge to make academic research accessible to all. Please consider sharing the New Books Network with your students. Download this poster here to spread the word. Please share this interview on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Bluesky. Don't forget to subscribe to our Substack here to receive our weekly newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • Mike Ganino, "Make a Scene: Storytelling, Stage Presence, and the Art of Being Unforgettable in Every Spotlight" (Authors & Co., 2025)

    Mike Ganino, "Make a Scene: Storytelling, Stage Presence, and the Art of Being Unforgettable in Every Spotlight" (Authors & Co., 2025)
    Apr 22 2025
    Today I spoke with Mike Ganino about his new book Make a Scene, Storytelling, Stage Presence, and the Art of being Unforgettable in every Spotlight (Authors & Co., 2025) “The most powerful asset whether you want to lead a team, whether you want to pitch a deal, whether you want to close business, whether you want to interview for a new job, your most powerful asset is the way you communicate. So I would say if you're out there and you're someone who is working in the business world and you're looking at numbers and crutching things and you're under this stress, don't let your most powerful asset atrophy.” -Elite speaking coach and Former TEDx Executive Producer Mike Ganino. With his Five Stage Languages and Rapid Prototyping Protocol, Ganino reveals the exact framework he's used to train over 5,000 speakers-from bestselling authors and TED stars to Fortune 500 executives. With equal parts attitude and expertise, he teaches you to: Master the art of authentic storytelling that captivates any audience; Transform nervous energy into magnetic stage presence; Own virtual presentations with more impact than a viral TED talk; Turn everyday moments into opportunities to shine; Craft messages so compelling, people forget to check their phones. Make a Scene is for anyone tired of playing it safe and ready to own the spotlight. Whether you're a professional speaker crafting your next keynote or a leader delivering a crucial presentation, this book will help you stop shrinking and start shining. It's time to make a scene-and make it count. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins