De Dépendance Podcast

De Dépendance
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De Dépendance Podcast addresses the complex issues of our time and how they manifest themselves in our cities and urban regions. From Rotterdam, The Netherlands we interview writers, scholars, and thought leaders.

  1. Ruha Benjamin on Imagination

    12/12/2025

    Ruha Benjamin on Imagination

    In this episode, acclaimed sociologist and Princeton professor Ruha Benjamin joins De Dépendance Podcast for a compelling conversation on the occasion of her new book, Imagination: A Manifesto. Interviewed by historian Marianne Klerk, Benjamin explores how emerging technologies—especially algorithms and AI—shape inequality, and why we must treat imagination as a powerful site of struggle and possibility. If we hope to dismantle systems shaped by white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism, she argues, we must first learn to imagine the world anew. Benjamin lays out a poetic yet pragmatic vision for worldbuilding—one that invites listeners to reflect on how their everyday choices help maintain or transform the status quo. She is joined by Sennay Ghebreab, Professor of Socially Intelligent AI at the University of Amsterdam and director of the Civic AI Lab, whose work investigates how artificial intelligence can be designed in service of equity and social justice. Together, they delve into the politics of technology, the urgency of critical imagination, and the practical steps toward building fairer futures.

    1h 11m
  2. Lea Ypi on Indignity and the Fragility of Truth

    12/03/2025

    Lea Ypi on Indignity and the Fragility of Truth

    In this episode, political scientist and philosopher Lea Ypi joins us to discuss the ideas behind her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined. Named one of the world’s top ten thinkers by Prospect magazine, Ypi draws on her upbringing in communist Albania to examine the intertwined questions of freedom, democracy, memory, and political change. Building on the success of her memoir Free, Indignity blends philosophy and personal history to reimagine Europe’s past—from Ottoman aristocracy to the rise of modern Albania and Greece, and from war and communism to the global financial crisis. In conversation with De Dépendance-editor Nuria Ribas Costa, Ypi reflects on what it means to survive in an age of extremes, exploring the fragile boundary between truth and narrative, fact and fiction. Together, they confront difficult questions about moral judgment, inherited histories, and what the crises of liberal democracy might teach us about our present moment.

    57 min
  3. Grace Blakeley on Vulture Capitalism

    11/21/2025

    Grace Blakeley on Vulture Capitalism

    In this episode, De Dépendance editor Hani Salih sits down with political commentator, economist, and author Grace Blakeley to delve into the ideas behind her new book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom. Blakeley argues that today’s economic, social, and democratic crises aren’t signs of a system in collapse, but the intended outcomes of a capitalist model functioning exactly as designed. From JPMorgan to Boeing, and from Henry Ford to Richard Nixon, she traces how free-market ideology has empowered corporations and undermined democracy. Together, they explore what it would take to turn the tide and reclaim control over our collective future.

    55 min
  4. Nikole Hannah-Jones on Democracy, Resistance and the Politics of Memory

    10/09/2025

    Nikole Hannah-Jones on Democracy, Resistance and the Politics of Memory

    In this episode, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, joins us for a powerful conversation on the state of American democracy. At a moment when history itself is being rewritten for political ends, Hannah-Jones reflects on how the stories a nation tells — and those it chooses to forget — shape its democratic foundations. Together with moderator Hani Salih, she unpacks the struggle over narrative, the power of memory, and what it takes to defend democracy when its core ideals are under siege.

    41 min
  5. Meredith Whittaker on Signal, Surveillance & AI

    07/09/2025

    Meredith Whittaker on Signal, Surveillance & AI

    In this episode, we welcome Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation and one of the world’s leading tech critics, for a powerful conversation on privacy, surveillance, and the future of technology. Whittaker, who also co-founded the AI Now Institute, shares her insights on how surveillance and AI are deeply intertwined, and how tech giants profit from large-scale data extraction. She highlights Signal as a radical alternative—a privacy-focused, non-profit messaging app that challenges the dominance of surveillance capitalism. Joined by Evelyn Austin of Bits of Freedom, Whittaker discusses how current tech infrastructures shape our lives, the urgent need for oversight in AI deployment, and what it takes to build digital tools that truly serve the public good.

    1h 10m
  6. LIVE: The Big Con w/ Rosie Collington

    06/26/2025

    LIVE: The Big Con w/ Rosie Collington

    In this episode, we dive into The Big Con, the provocative book by economists Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington, which exposes the deep entanglement between the consulting industry and the modern management of business and government. From McKinsey to PwC, the authors argue that these firms don’t just advise—they shape policy, stifle innovation, and erode accountability. In this lecture by Rosie Colington, followed by a discussion with professor of public administration Martijn van der Steen, we unpack how decades of privatization, financialization, and risk aversion have empowered consultancies to act as unchallenged arbiters of expertise, often to the detriment of the public good. Collington calls for a bold reimagining of how we build capacity within our institutions, shifting from outsourced dependency to collective intelligence—reclaiming the promise of both democracy and innovation.

    1h 11m
  7. LIVE: The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule w/ Angela Saini

    05/28/2025

    LIVE: The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule w/ Angela Saini

    In this episode, we’re joined by award-winning science journalist Angela Saini to discuss her bold and timely book: The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule. In this interview with historian Marianne Klerk, Saini traces the deep and complex roots of patriarchy — from the world’s earliest known human settlements to modern-day societies. Drawing on cutting-edge research in archaeology, history, and science, she challenges the myth that male dominance is natural or inevitable, revealing it instead as a fragile construct that has been built, contested, and reshaped throughout history. Together, we explore how gendered inequality became entrenched across cultures, how it continues to shape our present, and why rethinking old narratives is crucial to imagining a more equal future.

    50 min
  8. LIVE: The Suspicion Machine w/ Gabriel Geiger, Miriyam Aouragh & Sofia Ranchordas

    02/10/2025

    LIVE: The Suspicion Machine w/ Gabriel Geiger, Miriyam Aouragh & Sofia Ranchordas

    Across the world, experimental predictive algorithms are being deployed that promise to prevent welfare fraud. Now for the first time, an international team of journalists gained unprecedented access to one of these "suspicion machines" in the city of Rotterdam. An investigation by Lighthouse Reports, WIRED and Vers Beton demonstrates how governments all over Europe - and municipalities like Rotterdam - are deploying AI risk scoring systems in welfare fraud detection, revealing discrimination, wide-scale surveillance, and a trail of lives ruined.  In this podcast investigative journalist Gabriel Geiger (Lighthouse Reports) shares what they uncovered and discusses it with media anthropologist Miriyam Aouragh (Westminster University London) and law Professor Sofia Ranchordas (Tilburg University). Examining Rotterdam’s welfare fraud algorithm they look at the serious flaws and biases it contains, the human impact caused by its decisions, and what it reveals about the future of AI.

    46 min
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About

De Dépendance Podcast addresses the complex issues of our time and how they manifest themselves in our cities and urban regions. From Rotterdam, The Netherlands we interview writers, scholars, and thought leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    De Dépendance
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    26
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    De Dépendance Podcast