Ganges

Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part II

A stranded American tourist shares the story of a six-month screen-free quest through India and Nepal just as the coronavirus explodes. Part II.

Escaping Screens: A Tech-Free Travel Quest, Part I

An American tourist stranded in India shares his story: six months traveling without a screen, only to pick one up again just in time for the global meltdown.

Michael Zimmerman

Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

Betsy Brunner

Podcast #21: Betsy Brunner on Circumventing Censorship

Betsy Brunner of Idaho State examines social media and social movements, particularly in China, where she’s looked at the creative ways people get around the limits of surveillance and censorship.

Catherine Steiner-Adair

Podcast #18: Catherine Steiner-Adair on Tech and Child Development

Catherine Steiner-Adair is a clinical psychologist whose empathic 2013 book The Big Disconnect warned us about the impacts of digital tech on child development and family relationships. She’s been on a non-stop speaking tour ever since.

Mix Tape

Spotify Automates; Humans Get Played

When Spotify’s music algorithms lead one writer to a band he can’t stand that he loves, he wonders about who’s programming who.

Dr. David Greenfield

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.

Podcast #5: David Krakauer on Tech, Cognition, and Social Systems

David Krakauer is President and Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute, a private, not-for-profit, independent research and education center, where he focuses on the evolutionary history of information processing mechanisms in biology and culture. He sat down with The Technoskeptic to talk about the idea of complementary vs. competitive cognitive artifacts—that is, how technologies extend or supress our own capabilities.