25 episodes

Our culture is shaped by technology, and the people building that technology determine how it’s changing our lives. But who are they? And how do they think about their responsibility to the rest of us? From mental health to algorithmic bias, entrepreneur Anil Dash talks to developers, designers, and culture experts to understand the ways tech is changing culture, and what it means for us. Produced by Glitch and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Function with Anil Dash Vox Media

    • Technology

Our culture is shaped by technology, and the people building that technology determine how it’s changing our lives. But who are they? And how do they think about their responsibility to the rest of us? From mental health to algorithmic bias, entrepreneur Anil Dash talks to developers, designers, and culture experts to understand the ways tech is changing culture, and what it means for us. Produced by Glitch and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

    Online Safety is a Human Rights Issue

    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 face on Twitter.
    Finally Anil speaks with Gina Bianchini, CEO of Mighty Networks, about her platform and what it takes to build safer online communities.
    LINKS:
    Toxic Twitter - Amnesty International Report
    Mighty Networks
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 32 min
    Live from Texas Tribune Fest

    Live from Texas Tribune Fest

    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.
    Panelists

    Charlton McIlwain

    Anne Helen Petersen

    Sarah T. Roberts

    Siva Vaidhyanathan


    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 57 min
    Stopping Fake News

    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 disinformation and misinformation, meet its victims, and go over solutions. 

    Listen closely for the steps that platforms can take right now to stem the tide of fake news and fake accounts. 

    LINKS:
    Avaaz.org
    Factbook.org
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 44 min
    How to Save the 2020 Election

    How to Save the 2020 Election

    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, like attention hacking and misinformation, in order to focus on how the press and us as citizens can reclaim “the news” and what they care about.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 49 min
    What It Was Like To Work With Prince

    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 and confidants they helped “The Artist” realize tech dreams that would serve us all. We also learn that the vision of freedom we often associate with Prince isn’t what we thought. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 1 min
    Prince's Online Legacy

    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 The Current, where she helms The Local Show, a weekly show dedicated to exploring the Minnesota music scene.
    From being summoned to Paisley Park to being part of early crowdfunding and subscriber based models pioneered by Prince; we learn what it felt like to build a relationship with Prince online a decade before social media made artists accessible to fans.
    As Prince's relationship with technology evolved, he worked hard to control his image often times butting heads with his fans and record labels.

    ***Check out Anil's guest episode with Switched on Pop where he talked more in-depth about the ways technology influenced Prince's music. ***
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 51 min

Top Podcasts In Technology

Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
نشرة السبت
ITech Club
Search Off the Record
Google
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
All-In Podcast, LLC
Darknet Diaries
Jack Rhysider

More by Vox Media

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Vox Media Podcast Network
The Arthur Brooks Show
Vox Media
The Cut
Vox Media Podcast Network
Displaced
Vox Media
Divided States of Women
Vox Media
Start to Sale
Vox Media