Podcast #35: Ainissa Ramirez

Science evangelist Ainissa Ramirez takes a look at how major technologies have shaped human culture—both intentionally and not.

By Betsy Brunner | June 4, 2020 | Culture, Ethics, Health, Knowledge, Media, Podcasts, Society, Transportation, Well-Being | Attention, Bias, Binary Thinking, Circadian Rhythms, Communications, Community, Consumerism, Control, Coronavirus, Critical Thinking, Diversity, Education, Electric Light, Emotional Reactivity, Empathy, Engineers, History, Imagination, Invention, Inventors, Language, Literature, Memory, Motivation, Non-Verbal Communication, Nuance, Photography, Polarization, Politics, Reading, Science, Self-Empowerment, Self-Identity, Social Media, Speed, STEM, storytelling, Telegraph, Texting, The Alchemy of Us, Trains, Twitter, Unintended Consequences

Now’s the Time to Go Screen-Free

Tired of Zoom calls and virtual meet-ups? Just turn everything off.

By Mo Lotman | April 30, 2020 | Cognition, Community, Family, Society, Well-Being | Attention, Calm, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Community, Connection, Focus, Screen Sabbath, Screens

Podcast #32: Josh Golin on Marketing to Kids

Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, fights a metastasizing marketing machine that has swept kids into its orbit of consumerism and surveillance.

By Mo Lotman | June 19, 2019 | Advertising, Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Family, Law, Media, Podcasts, Privacy, Psychology | Activism, Advertising, Alexa, Amazon, Baby Einstein, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Children, Citizenship, Commercials, Community, Consumerism, Critical Thinking, Digital Nanny, Disney, Echo Dot for Kids, Ed-Tech, Edward Markey, Environment, Fast Food, Hello Barbie, Internet, iPads, Josh Hawley, Marketing, Mattel, Movement Building, Obesity, Pornography, Schools, Scree-Free Week, Screen Time Action Network, Screens, Smartphones, surveillance, Technology in Schools, TV, Violence, YouTube

The Challenge of Driverless Cars Goes Far Beyond Safety

While engineers devise systems narrowly focused on safety, no one is grappling with the moral and enivornmental quandaries driverless cars pose.

By Samantha Maxwell | January 16, 2019 | Automation, Community, Environment, Ethics, Safety, Transportation | Autonomous Vehicles, Cities, Climate Change, Community, Driverless Cars, Emissions, Morality, Safety, Sprawl, Walkability

Living on Sunshine: A Real, Sustainable Energy Model

A farmstead in Virgina has built a sustainable low-energy lifestyle. Can the rest of us follow their example?

By Alexis Zeigler | January 2, 2019 | Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Society | AC Power, Agriculture, Batteries, Community, Daylight Drive, DC Power, Fossil Fuels, Green Energy, Heat, Infrastructure, LEDs, Living Energy Farm, Photovoltaics, PV, Refrigeration, Renewable Energy, Scalability, Solar Power, Sustainability

A River Divides Two Tanzanias

In a southern Tanzanian village, a river reveals a technological divide with cultural implications for the whole country.

By Daniel Bellerose | May 9, 2018 | Community, Culture, Family, Identity, Society | Africa, Celebrity, Community, Culture, Development, Disconnection, Elders, Foreign Aid, Globalism, Internet, Loneliness, Mbeya, Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, Television, Village Life

A Message From the Publisher

It’s our 2nd birthday! Publisher Mo Lotman shares a few thoughts about where we’ve come and where The Technoskeptic is going.

By Mo Lotman | February 28, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Community, Economics, Ethics, Government, Media, Philosophy, Privacy, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Amazon, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Business, Center for Humane Technology, Community, Depression, Disconnection, Economics, Ethics, Facebook, Farhad Manjoo, Google, Microsoft, Opioids, Reality, Roger McNamee, smart phones, Specialization, Suicide, Tristan Harris

Podcast #15: David Greenfield on Internet Addiction

Psychiatrist, professor, and author David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, was one of the first medical professionals to recognize and study the addictive qualities of the Internet. He explains what we know, what it means, and what can be done.