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.
Dr. Grant Jun Otsuki: Lecturer in Cultural Anthropology – 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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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....
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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, ...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more
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...
read more