The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

Mél Hogan

Hi everyone, my name is Mél Hogan and I’m a critical media studies scholar based in Canada. I’m working on a project called The Data Fix through a series of conversations with scholars, thinkers, and feelers. Together we explore the significance of living in a world of data, and especially the growing trend of “digital humans” in the form of chatbots, holograms, deepfakes, ai images and videos, and even tech that revives the dead. The conversations are minimally edited, and serve as an archive of the collective thinking and feeling that is going into the Data Fix project. Please see thedatafix.net for more details and show notes. Thank you so much for listening.  Cover art by Oona Ode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2D AGO

    Simulation, with Dan McQuillan

    In this episode with Dan McQuillan, we discussed the current AI moment as/within the polycrisis, and also as a temporary period between illusion and simulation. Dan proposes a series of countermeasures to AI under the umbrella of 'decomputing'. We also spend some time talking about illusion, shame, authenticity, and a slew of other contradictions that are important to note in relation to this AI moment. Recorded Apr 7, 2026. Released Apr 27, 2026. Preprint: AI, Decomputing and the Interregnum https://www.danmcquillan.org/ai_decomputing_interregnum.html  Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence (2022) https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai  Meta Security Researcher's AI Agent Accidentally Deleted Her Emails https://www.pcmag.com/news/meta-security-researchers-openclaw-ai-agent-accidentally-deleted-her-emails Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr

  2. APR 13

    Offloading, with [Anonymous]

    For this episode, I interviewed someone who asked to be made anonymous (and voice altered) in order to openly discuss their complicated feelings of regularly offloading work tasks to an AI chatbot. Is there any shame is using AI? Isn’t everyone doing it? Why would people pretend not to? Does it change you? Is it bad for the brain? Recorded Mar 22, 2026. Released Apr 13, 2026. How I Realized AI Was Making Me Stupid—and What I Do Now https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/how-i-realized-ai-was-making-me-stupidand-what-i-do-now-5862ac4d Study Finds That People Who Entrust Tasks to AI Are Losing Critical Thinking Skills https://futurism.com/study-ai-critical-thinking  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 9m

  3. MAR 30

    Mundane, with Wendy H. Wong

    In this episode, Wendy H. Wong explains the human rights implications of datafication. We talk about how data become valuable, sticky data, big tech’s encroachment on governance, our faces/selves as datapoints, and how the mundane underlies and explains so much of how data collection happens in the first place. Recorded Mar 20, 2026. Released Mar 30, 2026. Wendy H. Wong We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048576/we-the-data/ Human Rights in the Digital Age https://youtu.be/HyLV5Tf54QM?si=y08lMREdIgYVULcG Big Tech companies govern our lives. It’s time they’re held accountable for it https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-google-amazon-apple-meta-microsoft-governance-accountability/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr

  4. MAR 16

    Hollowed, with Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij and Andrea Reyes Elizondo

    In this episode, Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij and Andrea Reyes Elizondo discuss why it’s important to the overall purpose and significance of the university to resist the uncritical adoption of AI in academia. The risk of AI adoption is that it’ll hollow out the institutions first, and then society at large. Recorded Feb 27, 2026. Released March 16, 2026. Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, Barbara Müller, Edwin van Meerkerk, Arnoud Oude Groote Beverborg, Ronald de Haan, Andrea Reyes Elizondo, Mark Blokpoel, Natalia Scharfenberg, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, Ileana Camerino, Marieke Woensdregt, Dagmar Monett, Jed Brown, Lucy Avraamidou, Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez, Felienne Hermans & Iris van Rooij https://philarchive.org/rec/GUEATU *the 2nd quote read on the episode: Guest, O. (2025). What Does 'Human-Centred AI' Mean?. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.19960 We've been here before! What do you mean? Olivia Guest, 18 February 2026 https://olivia.science/before/ Summer School: Critical AI Literacies for Resisting and Reclaiming https://irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2026/02/18/summer-school-critical-ai-literacies-for-resisting-and-reclaiming/ and https://olivia.science/ai/  Academic Collaborations and Public Health: Lessons from Dutch Universities' Tobacco Industry Partnerships for Fossil Fuel Ties. Zenodo.  Knoester, L., Pereira, A., Vanheule, L., Reyes Elizondo, A., Littlejohn, A., & Urai, A. (2025). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15274865 Why AI transparency is not enough https://www.leidenmadtrics.nl/articles/why-ai-transparency-is-not-enough  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 1m

  5. MAR 2

    Opposition, with Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus & Gilberto Manzanarez

    In this episode, Daisy Maldonado, Annie Ersinghaus, Gilberto Manzanarez and I discuss on-the-ground opposition to two data centers being built against the will of local residents: Project Jupiter (Oracle/Open AI) in New Mexico, and the largest data center in California -- in Imperial Valley. This conversation was part of: Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers, facilitated by Dustin Edwards. Recorded Feb 24, 2026. Released Monday March 2, 2026. Powering AI from the Borderlands: Organizing Against Data Centers https://cal.sdsu.edu/humtech/events Gilberto Manzanarez on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/valleimperialresiste/ Resistance to data centers rises on the border https://www.hcn.org/articles/resistance-to-data-centers-rises-on-the-border/ "Jupiter Watch" videos on Project Jupiter in New Mexico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_phIsUpRg&t=5s The Water Is Coming ¡Ya Viene La Agua! Annie Ersinghaus’s short doc on the politics of the Rio Grande (Project Jupiter is pulling from underground water along the Rio Grande) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgab5ICoWJI&t=430s  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 hr

  6. FEB 16

    Enough, with Adam Becker

    In this episode, Adam Becker and I talk about our AI overlords and their “philosophical” influences — mostly eugenics-based pseudoscience and bad readings of sci-fi that make tech billionaires feel like they’ve earned their billions by being the smartest people on the planet… while ruining the planet. Recorded Feb 13, 2026. Released Feb 16, 2026. More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (2025) https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9781541619593  BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172zsskmkss5ll (start at 39:15) Rolling Stone Q&A: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tech-billionaires-adam-becker-1235381649/ Dreaming Against the Machine http://dreamingagainstthemachine.com/ Forthcoming: Adam Becker’s new podcast website (bookmark this now for later!) Mentioned in our conversation: I Am An AI Hater by Anthony Moser https://anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/haterdom/2025/08/26/i-am-an-ai-hater.html  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 12m

  7. FEB 2

    Containment, with Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingrid Richardson

    Great theorists make you see the world differently forever after. This is the case with my guests for this episode, Zoë Sofoulis (Zoe Sofia) and Ingrid Richardson — brilliant scholars helping us rethink containers and containment as a feminist strategy to rework worldly narratives about what holds, filters, leaks. This conversation was a special honour for me. Recorded January 23, 2026. Released February 2, 2026.  Containment Technologies of Holding, Filtering, Leaking (2025) https://meson.press/books/containment/  Zoë Sofia Container Technologies (2000) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227700296_Container_Technologies  Shoutouts to: Re-Understanding Media: Feminist Extensions of Marshall McLuhan (Duke University Press) https://dukeupress.edu/re-understanding-media  Insufferable Tools: Feminism Against Big Tech https://www.dukeupress.edu/insufferable-tools  Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Paperback –1994 https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262631594/understanding-media/  And much more… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    59 min

  8. JAN 19

    Friendship, with Am Johal and Matt Hern

    In this first episode of 2026, I speak with Am Johal and Matt Stern, authors of the "O My Friends, There Is No Friend: The Politics of Friendship at the End of Ecology" (2025) to better understand what friendship means these days... at the "end of ecology". Is friendship political? Can an AI chatbot be a friend? Recorded Jan 16, 2026. Released Jan 19, 2026. Matt Hern, Am Johal O My Friends, There is No Friend (pdf) https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/022e1f6f-f14a-4c11-a94c-c95610919f8c/9783839470268.pdf Below the Radar podcast: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast.html *** New Cover art by Oona Ode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    58 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Hi everyone, my name is Mél Hogan and I’m a critical media studies scholar based in Canada. I’m working on a project called The Data Fix through a series of conversations with scholars, thinkers, and feelers. Together we explore the significance of living in a world of data, and especially the growing trend of “digital humans” in the form of chatbots, holograms, deepfakes, ai images and videos, and even tech that revives the dead. The conversations are minimally edited, and serve as an archive of the collective thinking and feeling that is going into the Data Fix project. Please see thedatafix.net for more details and show notes. Thank you so much for listening.  Cover art by Oona Ode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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