DELVING IN: Madhumita Murgia on the Real World Harms Created by Advances in Artificial Intelligence7/14/2024
Stuart Kelter interviews Madhumita Murgia, a writer specializing in artificial intelligence and its impact on society. She was the artificial intelligence editor for Wired magazine and in February 2023 was appointed as the first A.I. Editor of the London-based Financial Times. Her recent book, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of A.I., was shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. The book explores how A.I. algorithms affect everyday workers around the world, their contribution to growing inequalities of wealth and power, and even to dystopia outcomes.
DELVING IN: Reuben Last, a V.A. Surgeon and Community Activist, Shares His Story (Rebroadcast)7/7/2024
For this week's Delving In, we replayed an interview from 4/10/22 in which general surgeon for the Albuquerque V.A. and former Las Crucen, Reuben Last, talks about the diverse experiences and family background that led to his career choices. Reuben was a founder of the Endorphin Power Company, an Albuquerque-based non-profit organization that provides support and advocacy to Veterans recovering from substance abuse. He has also been a leader in OslerSymposia.org, which addresses and pushes back against the forces that cause burn-out for all types of medical personnel. To access the interview, click here.
Stuart Kelter interviews Vietnamese-American Christina Vo, who is the author of two memoirs. The first, entitled The Veil Between Two Worlds: A Memoir of Silence, Loss, and Finding Home, was published in 2023. Our interview will focus on her second book, published this past April, entitled, My Vietnam, Your Vietnam: A Father Flees. A Daughter Returns. A Dual Memoir. This book consists of alternating passages written by Christina and her father, Nghia M. Vo, a retired physician and author of numerous books on Vietnamese culture and history.
Stuart Kelter interviews Amorina Kingdon, an award-winning science writer, at Hakai Magazine until 2021 and as a contributor to publications at the University of Victoria and the Science Media Center, both in Canada. She is also a writer of fiction, published in PRISM and Flash Fiction magazine. The subject of today’s interview is her recently released book, Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, which explores an amazing and under-appreciated world that surely deserves to become better known.
Stuart Kelter interviews Justice Malala, one of South Africa’s foremost political commentators, both in print and on television. A longtime weekly columnist for The Times of South Africa, he has also written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Financial Times, among other major publications. He is the author of the #1 bestseller, We Have Now Begun Our Descent: How to Stop South Africa Losing its Way. His most recent book, entitled The Plot to Save South Africa: The Week Mandela Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation, is the subject of today’s interview.
Stuart Kelter interviews Amanda Montell, a linguist, cultural commentator, and host of the weekly podcast Sounds Like a Cult. In addition to essays published in Time, Cosmopolitan, and other magazines, she has published three books. Her first, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, released in 2019, established her as a writer who deconstructs biases in our culture, using humor, anecdotes, and discussions of research to enlighten us about our own linguistic and cognitive tendencies. Her second book, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, published in 2021, was partially inspired by the experiences experiences of Montell's father, who spent his teen years in the cult Synanon. Her third book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, which was just published in April 2024 and is the subject of today’s interview, explores the cognitive biases that form the warp, if not the woof, of human nature.
Stuart Kelter interviews Tom Chivers, a science writer who has won several awards, including the Royal Statistical Society’s award for statistical excellence in journalism, the Association of British Science Writers’ science journalist of the year, and the Times’s science books of the year. He has written three books. His first, The Rationalist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Superintelligent AI and the Geeks Who Are Trying to Save Humanity’s Future, was published in 2019. His second book, How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) was published in 2021. His just-released third book, entitled Everything is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World, is the subject of today’s interview.
Stuart Kelter interviews Ran Barkai, co-author with Eyal Halfon, of the recently published book, They Were Here Before Us: Stories from the First Million Years. Dr. Barkai is a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, who for 20 years has co-directed the excavations and research at Qesem Cave in northern Israel. His wide-ranging research interests encompass stone tool technology, human-elephant interactions, and altered states of consciousness.
Stuart Kelter interviews Olivia Campbell, a journalist, essayist, and author focusing on the intersections of medicine, women, history, and nature. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and many other major publications. She is the author of the 2021 NY Times bestseller, Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine, which is the subject of today’s interview.
DELVING IN: Randolph Nesse on Evolutionary Explanations for Mental Illness and Human Suffering4/7/2024
Stuart Kelter interviews psychiatrist, professor, and researcher, Randolph Nesse — cofounder of the field of evolutionary medicine. Twenty-five years ago his book, Why We Get Sick, which he co-authored with George C. Williams, went on to sell more than 100,000 copies and to be translated into eight languages. He served for many years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he is a professor emeritus, and was also the founding director of the Center for Evolution and Medicine at Arizona State University, where he continues to be a research professor. His most recent book, Good Reasons for Bad Feelings, is the subject of today’s interview.
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