How To Citizen with Baratunde iHeartPodcasts

In this bonus episode, Baratunde learns how data, well-defined goals, and a sense of collective ownership are helping those at the front lines of America’s housing crisis work to solve, not manage, homelessness. His partner in conversation is Aras Jizan, the Portfolio Lead for Data and Technology for the Built for Zero initiative at Community Solutions.  



Guest: Aras Jizan

Bio: Portfolio Lead for Data and Technology for the Built for Zero initiative at Community Solutions 

Online: Community Solutions website, Twitter @cmtysolutions, and Instagram @cmtysolutions



Go to howtocitizen.com for transcripts, our email newsletter, and your citizen practice.





ACTIONS



- PERSONALLY REFLECT 

Say these aloud to yourself

Inspired by Aras's recommendations, repeat these: I believe that homelessness is solvable. I understand that we must fix systems, not people. I consider people experiencing homelessness in my community to be my neighbors. 



- BECOME INFORMED

Hear stories of homelessness from those experiencing it

Visit InvisiblePeople.tv which uses storytelling, education, news, and activism to change the narrative on homelessness. Their videos are compelling and tell a whole story we often don't see. They are on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Follow the Community Solutions Playbook

Aras's organization, Community Solutions, has an entire page literally devoted to citizen action. It's a whole playbook to learn more, connect locally, and hold our communities accountable for ending homelessness.

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Baratunde asks how can we citizen with tech when we disconnect millions from technology and from society as a whole by incarcerating them? He closes the season in conversation with two people who’ve served time for felony convictions and are now working in tech to expand opportunities for all: Shaka Senghor, author and head of DEI for TripActions, and Teresa Hodge, president of Mission: Launch and co-founder of R3 Score which changes how employers use background checks.




Guest: Shaka Senghor

Bio: Bestselling author and speaker; Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at TripActions 

Online: Shaka’s website, Twitter @shakasenghor, and Instagram @shakasenghor




Guest: Teresa Hodge

Bio: President of Mission: Launch, co-founder of R3 Score

Online: Mission: Launch website; R3 Score website; Teresa’s Twitter @teresayhodge




Go to howtocitizen.com for transcripts, our email newsletter, and your citizen practice.




ACTIONS




- PERSONALLY REFLECT 

Are we that bad?

The United States has five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Ask yourself the question Teresa wants us all to ask: are we that bad? 



- BECOME INFORMED

Who is leading the spaces you spend time in?

Take stock of the companies whose products and services you use the most and the non-profits you may be supporting. Now go take a look at their boards and senior leadership. Do they reflect the experiences of the communities they serve? 

While you’re in a learning mode, check out Shaka’s TED Talk, Why Your Words Deeds Don’t Define You



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Citizen with those who have felony convictions

The Last Mile is an incredibly effective organization that prepares incarcerated individuals for successful reentry through business and technology training. Support their work through donation, volunteering, or better yet, hire their graduates!

Redeemed Sole, an organization Shaka founded, highlights a number of organizations helping people avoid or return from incarceration. Find an initiative there, and donate, amplify, or join in some way. 

Find out if your workplace, school, or even landlord uses traditional criminal background checks to determine someone’s suitability. If they do, encourage them to join Teresa’s Bank on 100 Million initiative, and take the pledge yourself. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

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Baratunde is reminded that “tech companies” are really just people and asks what it would mean for tech employees to think critically about their work and its impact and use that power to remake the industry from the ground up? He talks with Xiaowei Wang, whose work at Logic School helps workers answer those questions. They also discuss blockchain, rice farming in rural China, and tarot. It’s all connected. 




Guest: Xiaowei Wang

Bio: Lead steward of Logic School, author of Blockchain Chicken Farm 

Online: Logic School website; Xiaowei on Twitter @xrw




Go to howtocitizen.com for transcripts, our email newsletter, and your citizen practice.




ACTIONS



- PERSONALLY REFLECT 

Consider consent and care

Think of what consent and care mean to you, and think of what consent-ful and careful tech would look like, function like, feel like. What relationships would be strengthened? Shattered?



- BECOME INFORMED

Learn about critiques and better ways

Read this explainer on Platform Co-ops, which are digital platforms collectively owned and governed by the people who depend on and participate in them. And follow the work of The Gig Worker’s Collective which is shining a light on and advocating for the people who work at the other end of our smartphone taps and swipes. 



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Support the alternatives and whistleblowers

Support community internet and technology groups like the Detroit Community Technology Project, NYC Mesh, and Oakland Mesh. And check out The Tech Worker Handbook, a collection of resources to better prepare and support tech workers considering whether to speak out on issues that are in the public interest. Recommend it to a tech worker near you, but don’t send it to their work email!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baratunde continues his journey to discover how we can embed more justice into the data driving our increasingly automated lives and focuses on the most intimate data there is: our DNA. He talks with Krystal Tsosie, an indigenous geneticist, and bioethicist who fights for data sovereignty and the rights of indigenous peoples to have agency over their personhood and knowledge.




Guest: Krystal Tsosie

Bio: Indigenous (Diné/Navajo) geneticist-ethicist at Vanderbilt University and incoming faculty at Arizona State. Co-Founder of the Native BioData Consortium. 

Online: Native BioData Consortium website; Krystal’s TED talk and Twitter @kstsosie




Go to howtocitizen.com for transcripts, our email newsletter, and your citizen practice.




ACTIONS



- PERSONALLY REFLECT 

What’s your data worth?

Ask yourself, “how much is my data privacy worth to me, and how do I feel about nonconsensual surveillance based on my data?” Now add in the element of genetic information. How would you feel if any of your biological kin donated genetic information that was tied to information about you that can be bought and sold?



- BECOME INFORMED 

Learn about nonconsensual data collection

Read this NY Times article about Indigenous tribes in the Amazon who felt “duped, lied to, exploited” when they realized their donated blood samples were being sold for $75 a vial while the medicines they were promised in exchange never arrived. Or learn about Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cervical cancer cells (“HeLa”) changed the field of biology and have been commodified by laboratories, but without the knowledge of her or her family. Now let’s make it more personal. Find out what Big Tech knows about you with some of the suggestions in this article.



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE 

Support ethical data practices

Empower science led by Indigenous scientists working with tribal communities to ensure that the benefits of biomedicine and public health benefit Indigenous peoples. Consider making a donation to the Native BioData Consortium. And help protect yourself and slow the market for selling our data by installing the Global Privacy Control. This is a feature of certain web browsers that lets you signal to a site not to trade information about you, and it’s backed by law! 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Baratunde knows what is healthy to eat or not, thanks to the required nutrition labels on our food. But how do we know the ingredients in the algorithms and AI we depend on are safe to use? Baratunde speaks with Kasia Chmielinksi about the Data Nutrition Project, which helps data scientists, developers, and product managers assess the viability, health, and quality of the data that feeds their algorithms and influences our decisions daily. 




Guest: Kasia Chmielinski

Bio: Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, senior research advisor at the Partnership on AI

Online: The Data Nutrition Project website; Kasia on Twitter @kaschm







Show Notes + Links

Go to howtocitizen.com to sign up for show news, AND (coming soon!) to start your How to Citizen Practice.

Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!

We are grateful to Kasia Chmielinski for joining us! Follow them at @kaschm on Twitter, or find more of their work at datanutrition.org.




ACTIONS




- PERSONALLY REFLECT 

Like people, machines are shaped by the context in which they were created. So if we think of machines and algorithmic systems as children who are learning from us - their parents - what kind of parents do we want to be? How do we want to raise our machines to be considerate, fair, and to build a better world than the one we are in today?



- BECOME INFORMED

Watch: Coded Bias

Listen: Radical AI Podcast

Read: Race after Technology, Weapons of Math Destruction, Data Feminism

Make Choices: *privacy not included (consumer guide for buying technologies)



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Donate to these groups on the front lines ensuring the future of AI is human and just: Algorithmic Justice League, ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Discuss: Host a book club! The books above are really great platforms to gather folks who want to learn from the literature and each other.

Attend a lecture or event: Data & Society, AI Now

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can we inoculate ourselves against misinformation and conspiracy theories in the way we do for infectious diseases? Instead of debunking, can we “pre-bunk?” Sander van der Linden, co-founder of Inoculation Science, has created games that offer to do just that. Baratunde plays one of them and speaks with Sander about online misinformation campaigns, polarization, and how we can better protect ourselves.




Guest: Sander van der Linden

Bio: Professor of Social Psychology in Society at the University of Cambridge, co-founder Inoculation Science, author of The Truth Vaccine (writing)  

Online: Inoculation Science website; Sander’s website and Twitter @Sander_vdLinden




Show Notes + Links

Go to howtocitizen.com to sign up for show news, AND (coming soon!) to start your How to Citizen Practice.

Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!

We are grateful to Sander for joining us! Follow Sander at @Sander_vdLinden on Twitter, or find more of his work at inoculation.science. 




ACTIONS




- PERSONALLY REFLECT

Reflect on the game. 

After you play the game at https://inoculation.science and watch a few videos, reflect on how they made you feel. Are there online experiences you’ve had that make more sense once you consider you might have been intentionally manipulated? How do you think these games will affect your future online experiences?



- BECOME INFORMED

Play the game. 

Point your browser over to https://inoculation.science and play their set of inoculation games. In addition to Breaking Harmony Square, which we featured in this episode, they offer games to help you limit the harm of fake news and COVID misinformation. 



- PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Share the game. 

Finally, share the games with people you care about. Friends don’t let friends spread misinformation. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.