Familiar Shapes

Heather D. Freeman

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WEEKLY SERIES

Familiar Shapes Podcast

Technology and magic have a long, rich history together. Each Wednesday, filmmaker Heather Freeman guides us through this apparent paradox with technologists and historians from around the world. If you're into history, witchcraft, magic, social media, artificial intelligence, infotech, or ethics, this podcast brings them together with friendly familiars and malicious bots.

EPISODE 1

1. Magnum Opus Postmortem

What do you do when Covid-19 kills the context of your feature documentary film? You turn it into a podcast, apparently. Filmmaker Heather Freeman interviews Owen Davies (University of Hertfordshire), Marion Gibson (University of Exeter), Douglas Guilbeault (Annenberg School of Communication), Paolo Parigi (AirBnB and Stanford University), Samira Shaikh (UNC Charlotte), Tim Weninger (University of Notre Dame), and Samuel Woolley (University of Austin at Texas) about the early modern witch tri...

28 min
EPISODE 2

2. Tay and John Walsh

Tay is a bot-gone-wrong and John Walsh was a cunning-man accused of witchcraft. Their stories are chased with a crash course in the history of information technologies. Filmmaker Heather Freeman interviews Owen Davies (University of Hertfordshire), Susan Etlinger (Altimeter Group and The Centre for International Governance Innovation), Marian Gibson (University of Exeter), and Samuel Woolley (University of Texas - Austin).Addition Sounds thanks to:Freesound.orgfromtexttospeeach.comchild...

27 min
EPISODE 3

3. Magical Networks

What did early modern people really think about magic? And how do on-line spaces differ from real-world spaces?In this episode, Heather Freeman interviews:Dr. Vikki Carr, an independent scholar researching witchcraft beliefs of Early Modern England and ScotlandDr. Nicholas Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University Prof. Owen Davies Reader in Social History at the University of Hertfordshire Susan Etlinger, industry analyst for the Altimeter...

31 min
EPISODE 4

4. The Cunning Folks' Commons

Who were the early modern cunning folk, and what exactly were they doing with all those books? And how do we act ethically in a community and avoid the 'Tragedy of the Commons'?In this episode, Heather Freeman interviews:Dr. John Callow, Visiting Lecturer at the University of SuffolkDr. Nicholas Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University Dr. Alexander Cummins, an independent historian researching early modern European and early American religion, philo...

37 min
EPISODE 5

5. The Well-Intentioned Bot

We’ll look at how social bots interact with people in on-line social networks, and how sometimes people behave like, well, bots. In this episode, Heather Freeman interviews:Susan Etlinger, industry analyst for the Altimeter Group;Alex Hogan Managing Partner in Etic Labs;Srijan Kumar Assistant Professor, School of Computational Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology;Samira Shaikh Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlo...

26 min
EPISODE 6

6. My Buddy Luridan

We’ll see what early modern grimoires tell us about the magical beliefs and practices of that era. And then we’ll take a gander at summoning Luridan the Familiar. (You know. For kicks.)In this episode, Heather Freeman interviews: Dr. John Callow, Visiting Lecturer at the University of SuffolkDr. Vikki Carr, an independent scholar researching witchcraft beliefs of Early Modern England and ScotlandDr. Alexander Cummins, an independent historian researching early modern European and early Ameri...

27 min
EPISODE 7

7. Fool Me Once

Note to Listeners - DOH! I managed to upload an incorrect version and just realized that now. Classy. Your welcome. If you already listened to it, really sorry about those audio errors. And if you haven't listened yet -- excellent! And if you haven't gotten to this episode yet, jump ahead to end for some practical advice of social media hygiene.What exactly constitutes a "bad bot"? And how they manipulate human behaviors in online social networks? In this episode, Heather Freeman ...

23 min
EPISODE 7 BONUS

6.1 Addendum - Present and Dangerous Disinfo

This is an important note to listeners. Disinfo campaigns are happening right now on social media, amidst national protests, demonstrations, and the on-going pandemic. It's up to each of us to fact check the things we see before we share them.For more information, please read (and consider sharing) the following articles:'None Of This Is True': Protests Become Fertile Ground for Online Disinformation. NPR (6/1/2020) https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867137863/none-of-this-is-true-protests-...

4 min

See All Season 1 (22)

Technology and magic have a long, rich history together. Each Wednesday, filmmaker Heather Freeman guides us through this apparent paradox with technologists and historians from around the world. If you're into history, witchcraft, magic, social media, artificial intelligence, infotech, or ethics, this podcast brings them together with friendly familiars and malicious bots.

Creator

Heather D. Freeman
Episodes

22
Seasons

1
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2023 Heather D. Freeman
Show Website

Familiar Shapes