No episode playing
Looks Like New is the podcast that asks old questions about new technology. Each month, we speak with someone who works with technology in ways that challenge conventional narratives and dominant power structures. The name comes from the phrase “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” repeated throughout the works of Peter Maurin, the French-American agrarian poet. Looks Like New is a production of the Media Enterprise Design Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. It airs on the fourth Thursday of every month on KGNU radio at 6 p.m., or online as a podcast at lookslikenew.net.
Whether or not we have children of our own, many of us have wondered how we approach their privacy in the digital world. What's the best way we can approach this increasingly important question? In this episode, MEDLab research fellow Antoinette Kendrick speaks with danah boyd, a leading researcher, scholar, and thought leader in the fields of technology, social media, and youth culture. She is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research, founder of the non-profit organization Data & Society, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. Her book It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens is a foundational text on youth digital culture ,examining the ways teens use social platforms and the societal expectations that follow.
Every one of us has felt the impact of the shortcomings within our current economic system. Where did this system go wrong? More importantly, what can we do to make it right?
To answer these questions we spoke to Marjorie Kelly, a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Democracy Collaborative, author of The Making of a Democratic Economy (co-authored with Ted Howard), Owning our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, and The Divine Right of Capital. For years Kelly has been a thought leader in the next generation of employee ownership, impact investing, and the construction of a community-rooted democratic economy.
In this episode, we explore Marjorie Kelly’s long list of experiences and unique perspectives on the economic situation we all find ourselves in. MEDLab director Nathan Schneider moderates a discussion with Marjorie Kelly and a cast of live audience members about our unique socio-economic challenges and what we can do about them.
Within a rapidly evolving digital landscape, it can be difficult to identify the more harmful effects of digital media use on children.
This month we interviewed Antoinette Kendrick, a second-year doctoral student and Instructor in CU Boulder’s department of Media Studies. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology and her master's degree in social work from the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on the social impact of digital media use on children and how we can enable effective strategies for teaching media literacy.
On the episode, we discuss how Antoinette's background in social work informs her approach to media literacy for youth. Tune in to listen as we discuss platform politics, how we can curtail exposure to graphic media, and reforms for educating children on digital media literacy.
This month we interviewed Dr. Shamika Klassen, a User Interface Scientist and recent graduate of C.U. Boulder’s Department of Information Science. Dr. Klassen is interested in creating technologies that put humans first, particularly those who are traditionally marginalized.
On this episode, Dr. Klassen discusses with us her how she arrived at her dissertation research topic and process of conducting the research. Tune in to listen as we discuss Afro Futurism, Ethical Speculative Projects, and Black Mirror.
Dr. Christopher Bell is a culture consultant at Skydance, Disney, and Pixar as well as a Associate Professor of Media Studies at C.U. Boulder, "Harry Potter" scholar, and all around nerd. His TED Talk, "Bring on the female superheroes," asked where were all the strong women in modern media? And where were all the toys, games, and costumes to accompany such characters?
In this episode of "Looks Like New" Dr. Bell discusses how modern technology allows scholars and academics to turn to audiences beyond the classroom, both directly through content of his own making and as the informed voice of accountability in his role as culture consultant.
Online technologies have often taken on a life of their own when a community forms around them. Users put their tools to use in ways the designers never expected. What would it mean to truly hand ownership and control of tools to the people who rely on them most? This month, we turn to Anjali and James Young, the founders of Collab.Land, a piece of software used by thousands of online communities. In 2023, they distributed control of their product to their users, thanks to a blockchain-based token and a cooperative company. But this was not a straightforward process. They explain their hopes and their challenges in attempting this "exit to community."
A new kind of social media is emerging that is open, interoperable, and not controlled by any one company. One iteration of it is called Bluesky. Bluesky lets you follow feeds specific to your interests, and each feed is created, curated, and run by individuals or groups. Rather than relying on corporate engineers, this is everyone's opportunity to try their hand in building their own algorithm and cultivating an online experience.
This month's guest, Rudy Fraser, is the founder of Papertree, a resource that provides joint money accounts for communities. Papertree started as a crowdfunding system to help neighborhoods provide financial assistance for groceries to community members. Rudy chose to build Blacksky, his own feed on Bluesky, to create a space for Black internet users to build a safe and supportive community online. Listen to this month's episode to learn more about the emerging opportunities in social media through Rudy's experience building Blacksky—and how novel moderation systems are reaching for new ways of connecting people online.
On this episode we have the privilege of hosting a distinguished returning guest, who’s groundbreaking research has reshaped the landscape of media studies; the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, Education, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California, Dr. Henry Jenkins.
What does it mean to be a fan in the digital age? What do fan practices look like?
In this episode Dr. Jenkins takes us through fan activism to purchasing practices in China as he discusses research on emerging fan cultures. In this episode we will learn all about the new landscape of global fandom in an increasingly digitally mediated world.
Rachel O’Dwyer is a writer and researcher whose work looks at digital economies and culture. Her writing touches on online transactions, art markets, programmable money, and alternative currencies. Rachel’s work probes the social and political landscapes that these technologies bring into being.
She serves as a lecturer in digital cultures at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. Her first book, Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform, was published in 2023.
Rachel’s work digs into the complexity of financial exchange. How especially in the digital era, payment and the platforms and tools that we use to do it bring different social relations into being. Her work offers an ethnography of sorts, drawing on real-life research she’s conducted into money burners and Bitcoin fanatics.
She’s a bracing critic of the connection between big tech and big finance yet offers frameworks for a hopeful future.
In this month’s episode, we dive into what tokens are, what makes them different from regular money, and how they matter today.
On this episode, we host Dr. Henry Jenkins, an esteemed scholar of fan studies, participatory culture, and transmedia.
As the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the author of influential works such as "Textual Poachers," Dr. Jenkins explored how audiences actively engage in shaping and reshaping media content.
He was the principal investigator for "The Civic Imagination Project," a venture funded by the MacArthur Foundation. This project seeks to inspire creative collaborations within communities, emphasizing shared values and visions for the future.
Dr. Jenkins has been at the forefront of transformative projects like "Project New Media Literacies" and "The Education Arcade," advocating for the educational use of computer technology and video games. As a public advocate, he has testified before the U.S. Senate, contributed to the legal struggles over fan-made films, and consistently championed the importance of media literacy.
Today, we have the unique opportunity to delve into Dr. Jenkins' insights on emerging technology, such as AI, its impact on participatory culture, and on our evolving relationship with media and technology.
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
