Team Human

Playing for Team Human today, author and social critic Walter Kirn. Walter and Douglas engage in a two-part conversation that questions the so-called “evolution” of technology. Just how much of our humanity are we willing to surrender to our devices? Why do we deem our own replacement by computer programs to be the inevitable path of progress? And whose progress are we actually talking about?We’ve broken this conversation into two parts. Tune in next week for Part 2. Visit walterkirn.com to learn more about his work including his latest book, Blood Will Out. Check out Kirn’s most recent column in Harper's. Douglas begins the conversation citing this recent interview with Kirn in Playboy.Today’s show inaugurates our launch on Patreon. Visit patreon.com/teamhuman to support the show. Your subscription not only earns premium gifts, but also grants you access to the TeamHuman Slack channel, where we discuss the issues raised on the show, hold production meetings, and entertain ideas for new guests and features. J

This week, a special holiday episode featuring conversations with Astra Taylor and Thomas Gokey of the Debt Collective plus worker cooperative organizer Esteban Kelly.  We launched Team Human a little less than a year ago with little fanfare or promotion. Steadily we’ve assembled a formidable team of listeners via word of mouth, retweets, and person-to-person conversation. We’d like to take this week to introduce our more recent listeners to two conversations that set the tone for Team Human. Today’s show begins by going all the way back to very first Team Human interview with Astra Taylor and Thomas Gokey, co-founders of Strike Debt, Rolling Jubilee and most recently the Debt Collective. The Debt Collective is a direct action campaign that leverages the collective power of debtors, united together, against exploitative for-profit education and lending institutions in the US. Astra and Thomas give Team Human listeners a template for hacking real world systems and tapping into the power of solidarity

Playing for Team Human today is permaculturalist Adam Brock, author of Change Here Now. Adam joins Douglas for a conversation about how humanity is integrally connected to natural ecosystems. “Nature is a textbook,” Adam explains, and so by paying close attention to ecological systems, we can better understand ourselves as part of a greater whole. It’s a theme that serves as the springboard into a conversation not only about the ways we grow food, but also about community, trust, and the deeper sense of connection that comes from a permaculture mindset.Rushkoff opens today’s show with a monologue about Amazon’s recent purchase of Whole Foods and how scaling up in the digital economy threatens to leave humans behind. Rushkoff's most recent book Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity was just released in paperback with new expanded material last week.Adam Brock's new book Change Here Now is available at Amazon and Indie Bound.Adam founded www.thegrowhaus.

Playing for Team Human is Ramesh Srinivasan, professor and author of Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World. Today, information travels around the globe in an instant, and connection to far away people and places is merely a click away. Yet the prevalence of filter bubbles, the rise of political extremism, and the consolidation of network power into the hands of behemoth companies like Facebook and Google portend a growing disconnection in society. Ramesh Srinivasan looks beyond the slogans and "empty metaphors" often used to brand these technologies as inclusive, free, and liberating. On today's episode, Srinivasan and Rushkoff challenge the notion that technology automatically builds community as it is deployed globally. It’s a conversation that critically assesses the presumptions of Western technocrats who see growing data and digital connectivity as the end itself for building a more just world. For more information about Ramesh’s work and his latest book, Whose Global

Playing for Team Human today, master of human connection and consensus, Loomio co-founder Richard Bartlett.Bartett, hailing from New Zealand, stopped by Douglas's home studio while on a community organizing workshop tour of the US. Bartlett and Rushkoff discuss the challenges of building consensus in an all too often top-down, winner-takes all society. Together we'll learn how Loomio, inspired by the general assemblies of Occupy Wall Street, strives to amplify collaborative power and foster more participatory democratic practice. It's a project that starts with small-scale, human-to-human connection and grows outward from there. Rushkoff begins today's episode with a monologue premised on a similar theme. Being human is a "team sport" and the more we cave into the divisive fear of these hostile times, the harder it becomes to "occupy a reality" of mutual care and concern.To learn more about Richard Barlett's work with Loomio visit his blog at http://blog.loomio.org/author/rdbartlett/ Loomio is part of the Ens

Playing for Team Human today is Daniel Berninger. Berninger is a communications technologist who brings his unique, behind-the-scenes insight to a discussion about what distinguishes human-centered technological advancement from today’s all too prevalent machine-focused visions for the future. Berninger, who played an instrumental role in the creation of VoIP, or voice over internet communications technology, offers a critique of systems whose power is inflated by machine agendas. Berninger also takes aim at the bureaucratic glut of institutions and government and their self-serving structures that also threaten to alienate humans. Together, Berninger and Rushkoff find common ground in their celebration of solidarity and the irreducible nature of humanity as key to solving society’s intractable problems.This show begins with a monologue from Rushkoff on how agendas, be it the "machine agenda" of the tech industry or the conspiracy-driven narratives of today’s establishment political punditry, serve to distort

Just getting a thousand humans into a room together to sit and watch other humans act out something on stage is the miracle. Playwright J.T. Rogers understands why the very act of doing live theater is so hopeful, and applies this hope to intractable problems like the Middle East conflict - with surprising, and Tony-nominated results.Also, a monologue from Douglas Rushkoff on the Manchester bombing, and what it means when a fatal stampede at a Who concert in Cincinnati can be considered the good old days.More on J.T. Rogers, including tickets and info for his critically acclaimed work Oslo, at jtrogerswriter.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s Team Human, we discover one of the reasons why knowing history matters. William Hogeland, author of Autumn of the Black Snake, tells the story of how and why the US Army was created - not to defend our borders, but to wipe out indigenous nations. And all that, in an effort to satisfy the growth mandate embedded in our economy by heroes of the neoliberal left like Alexander Hamilton. Make no mistake: Hogeland is a live wire.The show opens with a related monologue from Rushkoff about why successful businesses should refrain from scaling up. How about staying local, and letting other companies just copy your model? Why and how has the need to scale and colonize new territory become our default?Purchase Autumn of the Black Snake:  Indie Bound -or- AmazonRead more from Hogeland on the book here.Team Human is supported thanks to listeners. Visit teamhuman.fm to pledge your support. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human is Micah Sifry. Next month Micah will host the 2017 Personal Democracy Forum. On today’s show, Micah and Douglas discuss how the stakes are higher than ever for bringing people into an active civic life and engagement with democracy. Looking beyond the 2016 electoral postmortems and whodunits, Micah and Douglas talk about the power of humans breathing together–conspiring–in real space and time, while also leveraging technologies of connection, to build an actionable progressive agenda. Listeners of Team Human will find kindred spirits at the Personal Democracy Forum and Civic Hall. If you voted and you've been marching and calling your representatives but are still looking for ways to enhance your civic power and find community, PDF 2017 is ready for you. Personal Democracy Forum 2017, themed What We Do Now, will be held June 8-9 at the NYU Skirball Center, NYC. Team Human will be recording on location at this year’s PDF. Also check out Team Human Ep. 07 recorded at last year’

Playing for Team Human today is musician Tessa Lena. Tessa's music explores the tension between technology and human agency. In her songs and in this interview, Tessa playfully challenges robotic conceptions of humanity. Tessa offers a compelling argument for power of music to call us out of those automatic, quantified notions of self and society.Both Lena and Rushkoff pose essential questions; Is technology being used to extend our human potential? Does the embedded economic agenda driving technology inevitably thwart ambitions that focus on people over profit?Tessa's brand new record Tessa Fights Robots serves as the launching point for a true Team Human conversation about the power of art, music, and play in an increasingly robotic society.Team Human is supported by listeners. A special thanks to our new supporters as well as all of our monthly sustainers who make each episode possible. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is Pia Mancini. Pia is a visionary democracy activist who co-founded the Net Party in Argentina and DemocracyOS. Today Pia joins Douglas to talk about her new project Open Collective. Open Collective is platform that helps small, non-traditional organizations to collectivize, raise funds, and manage expenses in a networked and transparent fashion. Open Collective is a useful resource for listeners who are trying to build sustainable funding for their local community group, political organization, and even school club. Pia explains how Open Collectives not only is helping to fund a growing number of unique organizations, but signals a future where transparent, collective partnerships might foster new models of democratic participation and exchange of resources.Douglas begins today's show with a monologue on shame. How is shame used as an instrument of social control? Rushkoff advances a thesis on how open, transparent social organizing, like what is being fostered by Pia and O

Playing for Team Human today is author and Bloomberg Businessweek and New Yorker columnist David Sax. Sax’s latest book Revenge of the Analog, Real Things and Why They Matter explores the resurgence of the tactile, human-to-human, brick-and-mortar encounters that characterize the analog experience. How might our rekindled love of vinyl LPs, local book stores, and face-to-face interaction help reground society to the physical realities of land, labor, and our fellow humans? Sax and Rushkoff explore the real world experiences and “flesh and blood consequences" that lie just beyond the glow of our screens and mediated environments.In today’s show monologue, Rushkoff looks at the extreme political and policy binaries being pushed by the Trump administration. He argues for an embrace of liminal spaces; the continuous, ambiguous, and messy analog work of building peace in these turbulent times. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today, memeticist and social change agent Laszlo Karafiath Ph.D.Laszlo, memetic engineer for Culture 2, shares his analysis of the weaponized media now paralyzing so much of our thought, and tells us what we have to do - collectively - to build our immunity to thought viruses. Together Karafiath and Rushkoff look at the ways we might redeploy memetic power to foster positive social change. You can learn more about Karafiath's work at www.purposeandplay.com or follow him on twitter.Also on today's show - Rushkoff on avoiding the rabbit holes of speculation and distraction in the context of war and the volatile Trump administration. How might we get back to the work of rebuilding society rather than being pulled deeper into the sensationalized narratives unfolding on our screens? Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A unique episode of Team Human, on today's show Douglas Rushkoff is joined by longtime friend and counterculture legend R.U. Sirius (aka Ken Goffman), founding editor of Mondo 2000. R.U. will help us evaluate the place of the counterculture in the digital landscape. Is counterculture even possible today? Is humanity itself the counterculture as we resist increasingly quantified and abstracted lives? Together R.U. and Rushkoff playfully and thoughtfully examine these questions while asserting those quirky yet challenging expressions of humanity not so easily reduced to code or marketing demographics.The music on today's show comes from a variety of R.U. Sirius's musical projects. Visit https://rusirius.bandcamp.com/ to listen. Follow Sirius's work at https://stealthissingularity.com/. Musicians are encouraged to connect with R.U.Sirius to collaborate. Needle drops in this show:Glad-Handed I PoliticianPunching A Nazi Be My Valerie SolanisLove is the Product President Mussolini Makes the Planes Run On Time Get

Playing for Team Human today is Bas van Abel. Bas is the founder of Fairphone, which began with the radical idea that technology should be built without exploiting human laborers and destroying the planet. Van Abel's experiment of building a "fair" phone has taken him around the world to witness first-hand the lives made invisible in the digital supply chain. Bas and Douglas talk about how putting people first requires both a redesign of economic systems and a reshaping of our individual perspectives as consumers in an age of hyper-materialism.Learn more about Fairphone here. Watch this VPRO documentary on producing the fairphoneOn today's opening monologue, Rushkoff on his weekend viewing of the Broadway sensation Hamilton and the tension between retreating into fantasy versus committing to fix our reality.Photos thanks to Fairphone's Flickr Photostream Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is media historian and theorist Caroline Jack. Caroline is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Data + Society Research Institute. In today's episode Caroline and Douglas explore how powerful people and institutions shape networked civic life through media and communications technology. Caroline has us think deeply and broadly about corporate personhood, imagined machines, epistemological chaos… in other words–media and persuasion.You can find more of Caroline Jack’s work on her Medium Blog including this recent piece entitled “What’s Propaganda Got To Do With It?”In today's monologue Rushkoff offers a thought-provoking take on the exhausting and overwhelming news cycle. Rather than be defeated by cynicism, how might we foster both internal coherence and focused collaborative action? Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is digital media artist, activist, and filmmaker Alex Rivera. Known for his acclaimed 2008 feature film, Sleep Dealer, Rivera's work explores the contradictions of a free-flowing globalized economy and the simultaneous stigmatizing of immigrant laborers and erecting of border walls. Together, Rivera and Douglas Rushkoff interrogate the rhetoric of the digital "global village." We'll learn about what Rivera calls "Dronification," a highly connected, yet ever-more alienated digital subjectivity. Rivera and Rushkoff then discuss how we might restore true human connection and build bottom-up solidarity, or what the Zapatistas call "globalization from below."In today's intro monologue Rushkoff considers the need for both empowering local, grassroots organizing as well as fortifying public structures that bring the benefit of mutual aid and collectivity up to scale.This episode closes with a song from Team Human co-producer/editor Stephen Bartolomei, entitled&nb

Playing for Team Human today is activist trainer and executive director of theRules.org, Alnoor Ladha.Ladha will help us understand the interplay between political organization, system thinking, storytelling, technology, and the decentralization of power. In a conversation spanning a wide range of topics including anarchism, collective organizing, local economies, psychedelics, and even spirituality, Ladha and Rushkoff underscore the multifaceted and necessary work of building a resilient and just society.Learn more about Alnoor and his work at http://therules.org/In today's monologue Rushkoff addresses the deleterious effects of our algorithmically programmed cyber experience. Are Facebook and Google a threat to the health of civil society? How can we restore human agency and critical thinking to our digital lives? Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Playing for Team Human today is Jason Van Anden. Jason is an artist, inventor, and software developer who builds apps to promote social justice. In 2011, Van Anden invented I’m Getting Arrested, software that enabled Occupy Wall Street demonstrators to alert friends and family in the event they were arrested. In 2012 Van Anden developed Stop and Frisk Watch , a tool used to monitor the New York City Police Department’s controversial practice. Van Anden has since has gone on to head Quadrant 2, developers of Mobile Justice, a police video taping app and part of the Bystanders Rule! platform. Quadrant 2 is also currently developing Workit, designed to offer networked support for 1.3 million non-unionized Walmart employees.In this episode, Van Anden and Rushkoff talk about flipping handheld digital technology toward human ends. How can technology be re-centered to effect real world change? How might technology promote proactive, activist efforts on the ground? Van Anden and Rushkoff, look at these questions and

Playing for Team Human today is data-visualization humanist Danne Woo. Woo is going to share with us how he uses data to provoke critical thinking, humor, and even human connection with his creative design. Woo is the creator of Data Visual  a user-friendly web-based design interface that empowers individuals to create their own shareable data-driven graphics. We'll learn why the Trump presidency has inspired Woo to design "a chart a day" and to "make tweets trump again". Dannewoo.com is where you can find a link to Woo’s work. Check out the politically inspired projects like “Make Tweets Trump Again” and Woo’s Chrome extension “Don’t Support Trump Supporters” driven by data from the #grabyourwallet campaign. Woo’s site also features creative works including Woo’s large format multiplayer game Splat! and his generative font project,Type Galapagos, plus the fantastically quirky music projects AC Symphony and Light Hum.Design your own data visualizatio