logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
1h 26m

Gabriella Coleman on Hackers Cultures (P...

NEW BOOKS NETWORK
About this episode

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, and guest host, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, interview Gabriella Coleman, Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, about her long career studying hacker cultures. Topics include how hacking has changed over time, the different colored “hats” used to describe different hacker ethoses, the aesthetic dimensions of hacking including how poorly written code leads to moral outrage, and how Biella may soon found a new field of Critical Mold Studies. Professor Coleman’s books include Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Professor Bialski, a former P&T guest, is the author of Middletech: Software Work and the Culture of Good Enough.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Up next
Today
Siri Schwabe, "Moving Memory: Remembering Palestine in Postdictatorship Chile" (Cornell UP, 2023)
Two juxtaposed years frame the subject matter of Moving Memory: Remembering Palestine in Postdictatorship Chile. In one, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s troops stormed Chile’s presidential palace. In the other, 1948, Zionist militias expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinian ... Show More
49m 58s
Today
Janet McIntosh, "Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Even casual observers of the military will notice the unique ways that service members use language. With all of the acronyms and jargon, some even argue that membership in the military requires learning a whole language. But rather than treat military-specific language as a cult ... Show More
1h 28m
Yesterday
Myles Lennon, "Subjects of the Sun: Solar Energy in the Shadows of Racial Capitalism" (Duke UP, 2025)
In the face of accelerating climate change, anticapitalist environmental justice activists and elite tech corporations increasingly see eye to eye. Both envision solar-powered futures where renewable energy redresses gentrification, systemic racism, and underemployment. However, ... Show More
1h 10m
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2024
What Can Anonymous & Hacker Collectives Teach Us About Internet Activism?
In 2008, Anonymous posted a video declaring war against Scientology. Some people flocked to join the hacker collective while corporations started re-evaluating their security protocols. This week on Untextbooked, producer Caroline Somers dives into the history of the hacker colle ... Show More
23m 51s
Jul 2017
Hansa Market takedown. Recovery from EternalBlue exploits is a long slog. Banking malware rising. Power grid vulnerabilities. Devil's Ivy and the IoT. A look at criminal markets.
In today's podcast we hear about an international raid that took down the illicit Hansa Market—which, it turns out, the Dutch National Police had covertly taken over for about a week. Recovery from WannaCry and NotPetya continues its long slog. Banking malware is on the rise in t ... Show More
23m 1s
Aug 2024
“Security is an Illusion” Ethical Hacker Exposes Child Predators & Tools To Protect Against Hackers | PBD Podcast | Ep. 460
Patrick Bet-David sits down with Ryan Montgomery, a renowned ethical hacker known for his expertise in cybersecurity and passion for child safety. Montgomery, who has been at the forefront of exposing online predators, shares insights into his journey as a hacker, his motivations ... Show More
2h 4m
May 2023
Hacking the nutrition job market, with Assoc. Prof. Helen Vidgen
Helen Vidgen is an Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the Queensland University of Technology. This is Part One of a Two-part episode. In this first episode we go through Helen’s incredible career journey in public health and community nutrition and dive deep into ... Show More
52m 58s
Aug 2024
Racism Rears its Ugly Head ... Again
Just as soon as Kamala Harris' presidential campaign began nearly four weeks ago, so too did the ugly, age-old racist attacks, with Donald Trump questioning his rival's race in a sit-down interview with Black journalists. Bianna speaks with Randall Kennedy, a law professor at Har ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2024
Is This the Death of Harvard? - Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author and Harvard College Professor. One of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind, he is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. P ... Show More
1h 3m
Dec 2023
Emily Horowitz, "From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts, Not Fear" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
In her book From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts, Not Fear (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), Emily Horowitz shows how current sex-offense policies in the United States create new forms of harm and prevent those who have caused harm from the process of constru ... Show More
1 h
May 2024
Something in the Way
The fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, Iran’s president’s death, and bird fluThis week on The Bulletin, producer Clarissa Moll and Mike Cosper talk with therapist Sheila Wise Rowe and CT’s Nicole Martin about the fourth anniversary of George Floyd’s death and how race re ... Show More
51m 29s
Dec 2024
Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update)
Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. In a series originally published in early 2024, we talk to whistleblowers, reformers, and a co-author who got caught up in the c ... Show More
1h 15m
Apr 18
From the Internet’s Beginnings to Our Understanding of Consciousness, This Editor Has Seen It All
Senior mind and brain editor Gary Stix has covered the breadth of science and technology over the past 35 years at Scientific American. He joins host Rachel Feltman to take us through the rise of the Internet and the acceleration of advancement in neuroscience that he’s covered t ... Show More
20m 15s