Connected: How a Mexican Village Built Its Own Cell Phone Network (U California Press, 2020) is the true story of how, against all odds, a remote Mexican pueblo built its own autonomous cell phone network—without help from telecom companies or the government. Anthropologist Roberto J. González paints a vivid and nuanced picture of life in a Oaxaca mountain v ... Show More
Yesterday
Yi-Ling Liu, "The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet" (Knopf, 2026)
Not too long ago, in the 2000s and 2010s, many felt that the internet–even one behind the Great Firewall–would bring about a more open China. As President Bill Clinton famously quipped in 2000, Beijing trying to control the internet would be like “trying to nail jello to the wall ... Show More
44m 43s
Yesterday
Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley et al. eds., "Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media" (Routledge, 2025)
Studying Chinese media has never been a stable intellectual enterprise. As Professor Yuezhi Zhao once observed, it often resembles aiming at a target that appears clear from a distance but becomes elusive on closer inspection. Over the past decade, that target has grown even more ... Show More
38m 35s
Feb 11
Daniela Stockmann and Ting Luo, "Governing Digital China" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
China's approach to digital governance has gained global influence, often evoking Orwellian 'Big Brother' comparisons. Governing Digital China (Cambridge UP, 2025) challenges this perception, arguing that China's approach is radically different in practice. This book explores th ... Show More
58m 3s
Dec 2022
Ask Us Anything: You Asked, We Answered
Welcome to our first-ever Ask Us Anything episode. Recently we put out a call for questions… and, wow, did you come through! We got more than 100 responses from listeners to this podcast from all over the world. It was really fun going through them all, and really difficult to ch ... Show More
42m 51s
Jun 2023
The Singer Sewing Machine in Spain and Mexico: Multinational Business, Gender, and Technologies
Historian Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez talks about her book, Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-1940 (Routledge, 2021), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. Gendered Capitalism tells the fascinating tale of how the Singer co ... Show More
1h 20m
Aug 2023
Fighting forest fires with technology
Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft's AI For Good Lab, tells Tech Life how artificial intelligence can help predict wildfires.Driverless cars are popping up on streets around the world. But not everyone welcomes them, and some protestors in San Francisco have t ... Show More
27m 18s
Jul 2023
GEN C: Coachella's Sam Schoonover on Building Communities Online
We sat down with Sam Schoonover, innovation lead at Coachella, to discuss Coachella Island, music NFTs and the shift in physical experiences with the rise of social media.
Sam joins the podcast to talk about his work with Coachella but also as the founder of Forward, a creative a ... Show More
49 m
Sep 2021
#473: [African Stories #1] Beyond Technologies
Today Simon is joined by Clive Charlton, Head of Solution Architecture at AWS, and Ian Lester, CEO of Beyond Technologies - A South African based company with a presence in close to 80 countries around the globe. Today we will learn how Beyond is using the Internet of Things (IoT ... Show More
18m 27s
Jul 2019
199. Is Tech Making Us- Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid?
Is technology really rotting our brains, destroying our society... or is that what everyone has always worried about with every technological advance, going back to tv, or telephones, or even writing letters? The new book, Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings about Tec ... Show More
39m 29s