Bonus: Why Online Safety is a Human Rights Issue

In keeping with our season long discussion of trust on the internet, on this bonus episode of Function - we explore online safety. Writer and activist Feminista Jones talks about the lasting effects of online harassment. Then, Anil talks with Tarah Demant of Amnesty International about an Amnesty report that calls out the abuse and harassment women...

Mar 2020

Bonus: Live from Texas Tribune Fest: Reclaiming Community on the Web

The integrity of the internet is at stake -- what have we lost and how do we get it back?At the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival, Anil spoke with web scholars and writers about reclaiming the internet through historical context, how we are tethered to social media and the inventive ways marginalized people have always reinvented the platforms available.PanelistsCharlton...

Dec 2019

How To Save the 2020 Election: Stopping Fake News

Are social networks downplaying their complicity in the problem that is “fake news?”Anil talks to Fadi Quran of the people powered social advocacy group, Avaaz, about how tech is used to target groups of people and spread disinformation that affects our elections, relationships, and social justice movements. Together they discuss insidious nature of...

Dec 2019

How to Save the 2020 Election: Journalism and Social Media

What happens when social networks become social media, and tech starts making editorial decisions?Anil talks with NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen about the priorities of tech companies and how their faux neutrality and feigned ignorance has taken a toll on our news cycles and elections. Together, they identify the problems that the press is facing,...

Dec 2019

Purple Reign: What it Was Like to Work with Prince"

Part 2 of Anil's discussion of Prince's complicated relationship with technology.How do you go from fan to colleague to friend with an icon?Prince’s manager, Phaedra Ellis Lamkins and Sam Jennings, one of Prince’s webmasters take us on a journey of growth and evolution of an artist realizing his worth and his power. As part of a team of trusted friends...

Nov 2019

Computer Blue: Prince's Online Legacy

What does it mean to be on the receiving end of a Prince direct message?This week on Function, Anil takes us through Prince’s complicated relationship with technology through his eyes and the eyes of super fans Jay Smooth, social commentator and former host of WBAI's Underground Railroad; and Andrea Swensson, host and writer at Minnesota Public Radio’s...

Nov 2019

Introducing Reset: Can AI Teach You to Write Better

Function is back next week with a new episode. In the meantime, check out Reset from Vox and Recode. Students across the country are graded by artificial intelligence. But does an algorithm really know how to write?Links to resources discussed:Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ EssaysHow I’m using AI to write my next novelFeaturing:@SigalSamuel@ToddFeathersAbout...

Oct 2019

American as Apple Pie: How Racism Gets Baked into Technology

Anil speaks with Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of Race After Technology, about design discrimination. They discuss how systemic racism is replicated in the technology we use and how tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning and software used in the criminal...

Oct 2019

GIFs as Blackface

It seems like every month a new cringe worthy picture of a public official in Blackface is shared on social media. The pictures usually surface decades after they were taken but they are born out of a long tradition of Blackface and racial mockery in America. But that tradition isn't just a part of our history, it's being replicated online through our...

Oct 2019

Design Bias is Ruining Accessibility

Are we making sure the tech we create is usable for the people we say we want to help?Accessibility is more than a buzzword. Anil speaks with Emily Ladau, co- host of The Accessible Stall podcast; Alex Haagaard, Director of Communications at the Disabled List, and Vilissa Thompson, founder of Ramp Your Voice, about accessibility bias in tech and what...

Oct 2019