The Human Show
Innovation through Social Science
Have you ever wondered whether technology and/or the people that engage and/or work with it are “evil”? Or pondered how social scientists study human behaviour and how they can – through their applied work – enhance design and/or innovation?
In the following podcasts we ask social scientists and practitioners from all over the world to consider the same question:
“What is the nature of people’s relationship to communicative and interactive technology? What is the role ethics, power, agency and trust play in the making and performance of that relationship?”
Through industry perspective pieces, we also explore the businesses that influence that relationship through product design and/or innovation and consider the role social science plays in supporting their work.
Steph Creasy: Talking about research within the New Zealand tech/business sector and working with social scientists – The Human Show Podcast 33
Steph Creasy is the Managing Director of Digital Arts which is based in Auckland. Digital Arts is one of New Zealand’s preeminent human-centered Digital Agency and has designed and delivered exceptional digital experiences for New Zealand’s largest private...
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Angèle Christin, Assistant Professor, Stanford University: risk assessment tools, algorithms and the US justice system; anxiety and moral panic about AI algorithms – The Human Show Podcast 32
Angèle Christin has a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and the EHESS (Paris). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and affiliated faculty in the Sociology Department and Program in Science, Technology,...
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Matt May, Head of Inclusive Design, Adobe: how to build inclusive technologies; ethics & trust; privilege & allyship – The Human Show Podcast 31
Matt May has had an extensive career in technology design, access and inclusivity. He is currently Head of Inclusive Design for Adobe where his work includes integrating inclusive design practices across every aspect of the Adobe user experience, training...
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Thomas Malaby, Professor/Chair of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin: inclusive avatars; chance and patterns in games – The Human Show Podcast 30
Thomas Malaby has a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University and is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interest is in the ever-changing relationships among institutions, unpredictability, and...
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Saswati (Sas) Saha Mitra, Head of Global Research, Uber: research methods; ethics, governance, policy; gender & tech – The Human Show Podcast 29
Saswati (Sas) Saha Mitra has both a diverse background (Literature, Political Science and Business) as well as an extensive career in research having worked for companies such as Google, Vodafone, Intel, Nokia, Whirlpool, United Spirits and The Bill and...
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Mizuko (Mimi) Ito, University of California, Irvine: bridging boundaries between the applied and academic fields; youth and digital cultures; access, trust, ethics and privacy – The Human Show Podcast 28
Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is a cultural anthropologist and learning scientist studying children and youth's new media use. She has 2 PhDs from Stanford University, one in Anthropology with the Dissertation "Engineering Play: Children's Software and the Productions...
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Mrudula Sreekanth, Peepal Design India: doing research in India for international companies; the value of a (social science) researcher and how to onboard one – The Human Show Podcast 27
Mrudula Sreekanth has an MICT from the International University in Germany and over 13 years of experience in User Experience Research and Interaction Design in the technology space in India having worked with companies such as SAP, Samsung and Oracle....
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Ann Hsieh: UX Research Leader, Facebook Groups: exploration & creativity in research; stakeholder management; researching groups – The Human Show Podcast 26
Ann Hsieh is a mixed-methods research leader and loves adapting or creating new methods to build greater impact with stakeholders. She currently leads research for group teams at Facebook and has 13 years of industry experience from Google, Nokia, and...
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Dr. Henrique Z. M. Parra, Professor Social Sciences, UNIFESP, Brazil: working & teaching at the intersection between technology, open data, transparency and social activism in the public space – The Human Show Podcast 25
Dr. Henrique Z. M. Parra has an MsC in Sociology (USP), a PhD in Political Science (UNICAMP) and is currently a permanent Professor of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP). He worked as a professor, researcher and project lead at...
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Jacqueline Krones: Principal for Ethics in the AI Perceptions & MR Group, Microsoft: how to transition from high level ethical principles to day to day product work; AI, trust, governance & ethics – The Human Show Podcast 24
Jacquelyn Krones has a MA in Social Psychology with an academic focus on in-group bias, tokenism and heterosexual attraction. She also has over 20 years of experience in technology companies from startups to large enterprises assisting them to uncover...
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Scott Matter: Ethnography and Co-Design in the Media Sector; ethics & effects of measuring engagement; trust, reputation & “fake news” – The Human Show Podcast 23
Scott Matter is a sociocultural anthropologist and a political ecologist with experience both in the strategic design sector as well as in the academic sector. He has run projects in four countries on three continents, in a range of rural, urban and digital...
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Matt Bernius, Lead UX Research, Measures for Justice: researching (digital) cameras; mistaking chatbots for humans; 3 “how to’s” to transition to the applied sector – The Human Show Podcast 22
Matt Bernius has had an extensive career working at the intersection of design and anthropology. Matt holds a MA in the social sciences from the University of Chicago and was a visiting professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he...
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Jessica Outlaw: How to bootstrap your Applied Research Career; researching people in AR/VR; the value of a Social Scientist in Design – The Human Show Podcast 21
We talk to Jessica about what it’s like to bootstrap your own applied research career and her past and current work with research in VR and the gaming sector. She shares how she builds and executes a research project, what is - for her - the perfect team...
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Sibel Kusimba: Mobile money and how it impacts peoples practices, relationships and perception of money in Kenya – The Human Show Podcast 20
Sibel Kusimba is an Anthropologist who does both archaeological and anthropological fieldwork within Kenya. Throughout the years 2012 to 2018 she has been doing research into mobile money such as M-Pesa in Kenya, looking into how technological payment...
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Shriram Venkatraman, IIIT-Delhi: Why We Post Project: social media and culture in India; forming/performing sociality; applied anthropology field in India – The Human Show Podcast 19
Shriram Venkatraman has academic and industry career tracks that both sit at the intersection of big and thick data. He has a background in Diversity and People Analytics with Walmart Stores, Inc., USA and a PhD in Digital Anthropology from UCL, London. He...
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José Manuel dos Santos, Head of Design & User Experience – Americas at Signify: articulating the value of social science to design; working alongside anthropologists – The Human Show Podcast 18
José Manuel dos Santos has an MA In Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design/UK, an Executive MA in Product Design and Development from the Northwestern University/USA and over 20 years of experience in design and design...
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Dr. Grant Jun Otsuki: Intuitive design & robots; service, ethics, class, power dynamics & technology in Japan- The Human Show Podcast 17
Dr. Grant Jun Otsuki is currently a lecturer in cultural anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He received his Ph.D. in Social-cultural Anthropology at the University of Toronto in 2015 and from 2015 to 2017, he was an assistant...
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Kathy Baxter, Research Architect Salesforce: definition of AI & types of intelligence for bots; enculturation & training data; fairness, ethics & research methodologies to build a neutral system – The Human Show Podcast 16
Kathy Baxter has an MS in Engineering Psychology from Georgia Institute of Technology and has been on the “Silicon Valley tour” working for companies such as Google, eBay, Oracle and (now) Salesforce. She is currently a Research Architect at Salesforce where...
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Andy Goodman, BCG Digital Ventures: methods and practices on how to move from an insight to good design; the secret sauce of a good researcher; the case for the new design of iPhone 10 – The Human Show Podcast 15
Andy Goodman, VP Experience Design at BCG Digital Ventures is an artist turned service designer with a wealth of experience in the design space having worked (amongst others) as a VP of Consumer Products for Cortica and a Group Director for Fjord. He...
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Jamie Sherman, Intel: on how (human life) it’s complicated yet actionable; why (in VR) everybody talks to the robot dog; user hacking in design; working in business as an anthropologist – The Human Show Podcast 14
Jamie Sherman holds a PHD from Princeton in Cultural Anthropology and is a Senior User Experience Researcher with the Intel Corporation most recently focused on AR, VR content creation and gaming. Her areas of expertise also include wearable...
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Dan Podjed: Working to grow a vibrant community of applied anthropologists in Europe; (applied) events, projects, symposiums; re-thinking (business) ethnography; barriers and opportunities for the applied sector – The Human Show Podcast 13
Dan Podjed is an applied anthropologist with 15+ years' experience in ethnographic research, project management, and university teaching. He is a founder of EASA Applied Anthropology Network and Why the World Needs Anthropologists event, annually organised...
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Stephen Rea & Taylor Nelms: An Anthropological Conversation about Mobile Money & Financial Technologies – The Human Show Podcast 12
Stephen C. Rea is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on how digital and mobile technologies intersect with issues of community, labour, and health. He has done extensive ethnographic fieldwork on digital gaming culture in South Korea, and has...
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Betsy DiSalvo: More than just play, or the significance of ethnicity, race, gender & sociality in how young people engage with video games, education & technology – The Human Show Podcast Podcast 11
Dr. Betsy DiSalvo is an Assistant Professor at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. There she leads the Culture and Technology Lab, where they research how cultural values impact the use and production of technologies....
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Erin B. Taylor: Researching mobile money in Haiti & The Netherlands; the ethics & methods for asking people about money; regulation and financial design – The Human Show Podcast 10
Erin B. Taylor is an economic anthropologist with experience both in the applied financial sector and in the academic sector. She holds a PhD in Socio Cultural Anthropology from Sydney University and was a postdoctoral researcher on financial mobility at the...
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Amy Sheppard, Xero: What is an insight, how to build great design teams & what she looks for in a researcher role – The Human Show Podcast 9
Amy Sheppard has an extensive experience in the design space, having been in leadership positions in design across companies such as Deloitte Digital, Australia Post and Johnson & Johnson. She is currently the Head of Design for Xero (beautiful accounting...
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Susanna Helen Trnka: The many ways in which people make medical technologies work for them; how to approach building multifaceted medical apps; what’s next for a student of anthropology – The Human Show Podcast 8
Susanna Helena Trnka holds a PhD from Princeton University in social anthropology and has studied the body, citizenship and subjectivity. Her specific interests include (amongst others) illness experience; new medical technologies and patient-doctor...
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Nimmi Rangaswamy: Stories from India on mobile internet & Facebook use of slum youth; technology as a force for good; the access & (corporate) ethics of technology – The Human Show Podcast 7
Nimmi Rangaswamy has an extensive experience in the technology space that spans both academia and the business sector. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems, Indian Institute of Information Technology, IIIT, ...
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Kevin Lee: Working with insight across organisational silos and on being human inside a company role – The Human Show Podcast 6
Kevin Lee is a design executive with an extensive experience in Design & Brand Strategy, UX, Product Design and Co-Creation and an MsC in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon. He has held global design positions with top 500 global brands (such as...
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Crystal Abidin: Influencers, Youth Online and the Intersections of Social Media and Traditional Media – The Human Show Podcast 5
Crystal Abidin has a PhD in Anthropology & Sociology, and Media & Communications and done extensive research into the practices of internet celebrity. She studies the online practices of youth on various social media platforms and also examines the practices of...
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Shikha Desai, Microsoft: Learning about Product Design, AI and working with social scientists – The Human Show Podcast 4
Perspective Industry Piece Shikha Desai is a Principal Designer for intelligent experiences across Office apps for Microsoft Seattle HQ, with an extensive experience of understanding both user and business needs. She leads design teams within Microsoft to think...
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Nick Seaver: Understanding Taste, Algorithms and Context in Music Recommender Systems – The Human Show Podcast 3
Nick Seaver is a cultural anthropologist who works as an assistant professor at Tufts University where he also teaches in the Science, Technology, and Society program. He is a co-chair of the American Anthropological Association’s Committee for the Anthropology...
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Sam Ladner: On the emotional bonds we build with Software, Hardware and each other – The Human Show Podcast 2
Sam Ladner holds a PhD in sociology and has studied work, technology, and organisations in both academic and applied settings. She worked as a Senior UX Researcher both for Microsoft and Amazon, wrote extensively about applying ethnographic research methods in the...
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Danya Glabau: From patients to users and the fears and hopes of managing ones health – The Human Show Podcast 1
Danya Glabau is a medical anthropologist and the founder of Implosion Labs, an ethnography-driven research and consulting group focused on health and technology. She teaches as an Adjunct Instructor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and a Core Faculty...
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