Great episode of Peoples & Things today featuring Colleen Dunlavy, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison, talking about her recent book, Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. A history of standards oooh la la. 😍😍 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

Periodic reposting of the secret seal of the American Historical Association. Its image: a wet blanket. One motto: "Historians - we are here to bum you out." (Grainy because I risked my life to smuggle this out of a secret history ritual.)

ICYMI: Join us tonight at 7pm ET for a special livestream edition of Peoples & Things featuring Cory Doctorow and special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social talking about Cory's new book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...

#ICYMI: Tonight at 7 PM, ET (6 PM, CT), @zephoria.bsky.social & Cory Doctorow discuss the #enshittification 💩 of the Internet on a special live edition of @leev.bsky.social's Peoples & Things podcast! #histSTM #histsci #histtech #STS 🗃️📜

Kate Epstein discussed her new book, ANALOG SUPERPOWERS, with @leev.bsky.social on Peoples & Things! Listen to learn about the intersection of defense contracting, intellectual property, and government secrecy in Great Britain and the United States.

Join us on Monday November 3 at 7pm ET for a Peoples & Things livestream featuring Cory Doctorow @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy on his book, _Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It_, with special guest host @zephoria.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFv...

Do you wish there were a way to distinguish “innovation-speak” from actual, sustainable #innovation? Come to the 2026 ARL President’s Institute #PI26! @leev.bsky.social will foster realistic conversations around necessary changes to truly unlock innovation in #libraries bit.ly/PI26Vinsel

Read an enlightening interview with Lee Vinsel about "Using Podcasts to Humanize Scholars" in the new issue of Technology and Culture via @projectmuse.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/article/971306

Hard for me to put into words how touched I was when the editors of Technology & Culture, which I've been reading for half my life, interviewed me about Peoples & Things, the technology studies podcast I make with a production team here at Virginia Tech. doi.org/10.1353/tech...

Folks, asking for a friend: Are there any good, short, clear pieces that you use to teach students about the history of the Dot-Com bubble and bust? Extra points for these traits: Written as narrative history, chapter/article length, free or easily obtainable.

Well done. I especially appreciated Ariel's attention to the real history of . . . . interchangeable parts - ooh la la.

We've had a lot of great episodes of Peoples & Things recently. This week's features Whitney Laemmli talking about her neat forthcoming book, _Making Movement Modern: Science, Politics, and the Body in Motion_. newbooksnetwork.com/whitney-laem...

I really enjoyed and was grateful for the opportunity to go on Charley Johnson's Untangled podcast to talk about my essay, "Against Narcissistic-Sociopathic Technology Studies, or Why Do People USE Technologies?" untangled.substack.com/p/be-curious...

Very happy to see my article “Join us in preparing people for tomorrow’s jobs”: Robert Reich, the “New Economy,” and mythic thinking as interventionist knowledge - doi.org/10.1017/S026... - finally out in Science in Context.

A new post on The Conversation estimates that flushing the toilet equals the water used in 154 GPT-5 prompts and 1,714 GPT-4o prompts. I am wondering if anyone has seen analysis or pushback on the piece. theconversation.com/ai-has-a-hid...

A bane of hosting a podcast about technology is that I get loads of press releases and such, including not one but four - FOUR! - emails relating to this supposedly AI-enabled . . . pen.

I wrote a little post about where the Peoples & Things podcast is at these days and, more importantly, about our most recent episode with Mary Bridges on her book, _Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower_. peoples-things.ghost.io/podcast-refl...

I just posted "Against Narcissistic-Sociopathic Technology Studies, or Why Do People *USE* Technologies?" about the need in technology studies to be less preoccupied with our own judgments and more interested in what people who are not ourselves are up to. peoples-things.ghost.io/why-do-peopl...

Had fun working on this post most of the day. Should be up tomorrow morning.

Any of y'all have favorite reporting/analysis of Trump and the Bureau of Labor Statistics? A reading group I'm a part of is looking for resources. Thanks!

Ch 6 of Fintech Dystopia has dropped, wherein I explain why we’re predisposed to buy Silicon Valley’s BS hype: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha... Come for the psychology & bad puns about 17th century warships, stay for the evisceration of vibe coding, enshittification & God Bless Bitcoin movie.

Contender for best podcast episode of the year is out today, with Jane Flegal & @jessedjenkins.com talking about climate and energy policy with Ezra Klein. Get up to speed with where we are and what is next for decarbonization. 🔌💡 Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/o...

Headed to a departmental writing retreat in an old farmhouse here in Blacksburg. Really looking forward to it.

Annoyed at myself. Some years ago I bumped into a big quantitative - and I think UK-based - research project that was studying the emergence of capitalism/growth in Europe and pushing the dates back considerably. And now I can't remember them. Ringing bells for anyone?

I'm excited to announce the launch of my new internet serial "Fintech Dystopia: A summer beach read about Silicon Valley ruining things," available at fintechdystopia.com. It's a sometimes irreverent and occasionally straight-up pissed off take on how Silicon Valley is making finance worse.

Title/angle of this piece is absurd. Most examples come from medical imaging and sensing that people have been doing for *YEARS* before "AI." All kinds of ways we use technologies to look at humans in ways that we cannot look at ourselves. Peter Winch would have a field day.

I didn't find the analysis in this piece very interesting or cogent, but the thought - if true - that OpenAI is exploring advertising as a way to prop up its non-existent business model has me LMAOOOOOOOOOOO. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/o...

Who could possibly have foreseen it?

In "Every American an Innovator," Matt Wisnioski investigates how innovation—a once obscure academic term—became ingrained in our institutions, our education, and our beliefs about ourselves: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255073...

Nice summary from Sam Gilbert of what we know + don't know about the environmental impacts of Generative AI. While some impacts are real enough, it's also clear that folks have significantly overplayed them in comparison with other everyday activities www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/is-chat...

I appreciated @adamtooze.bsky.social's critique of Naomi Klein's and Astra Taylor's talk of “end times fascism.” Such terms are thrown around so loosely these days and obscure more than they clarify. adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

I had a blast talking with @leev.bsky.social on his great STS Peoples & Things podcast. Topics discussed: Firesign Theatre, the history of recording, Trevor Pinch, obscure robot statues. @ucpress.bsky.social @firesigntheatre.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/firesign

Just learned about this cool hype studies conference: (DON'T) BELIEVE THE HYPE, involving @danishanley.bsky.social and other smart folks. Event September 10-12, abstracts due May 10. hypestudies.org/conference

Has anyone been talking or writing about how uncomfortable it is - I mean, it downright hurts - to rooting for Harvard?

I really appreciated this op-ed from the Director of my university's Center for Humanities.

I wrote this talk especially for the graduate students I work with. In it, you learn why I do what I do and about my book project, A Good History of S*** Jobs, a history of economic hardship in the US, including reflection on the PMC and resentment politics. www.youtube.com/live/9jEATBx...

The Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech presents a talk by Lee Vinsel (@leev.bsky.social) entitled "A Good History of $@#% Jobs." 📆 Fri., March 28 ⏰ 1:30pm 📍Athenaeum Classroom, Newman Library or via Zoom Details and Zoom link: mailchi.mp/236ba41d2da8...

If you are free this Friday afternoon (1:30pm ET) and want to hear about my current book project, A Good History of Shit Jobs, you can tune into my department's seminar YouTube stream. www.youtube.com/@VTDepartmen...

I have it on good authority that this time is different. But in case it is not, you should listen to Jeffrey Lee Funk discuss the AI investment boom in his new Unicorns, Hype & Bubbles on @leev.bsky.social /@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social Profitable use cases? newbooksnetwork.com/unicorns-hyp...

Wall Street Worry Porn at its finest. Can't remember the story of the guy pictured here, but photographers LOVE to snap shots of him when markets turn sad.

Productivity charts from @adamtooze.bsky.social's Chartbook. What stands out to me is that the 2010s were a period of several bubbles focused on overpromised digital technologies and Silicon Valley. That stuff just wasn't making organizations that much more effective.

Today, I'm interviewing historian of computing Thomas Haigh about his forthcoming book,_ Artificial Intelligence: The History of a Brand_, for a future Peoples & Things episode. It's really, really, really good. Best thing I've ever read on the history of "AI." Made me LOL lots.

Dear @pseudoerasmus.bsky.social and others into related topics, Have you seen anything from the last few decades regarding the Lynn White-ian thesis about the heavy plow re-ordering social relations during the Medieval period? Thinking about the kinds of claims in this paragraph.

Well put.

Loved co-hosting this episode of Peoples & Things with my buddy @leev.bsky.social ... thank you Lee for the invite and to @biella.bsky.social for coming over to St. Gallen to chat.

civic tech and gov tech friends, this might interest you

Thank you so much, Lee, for having me on! It was thrilling to chat about the past and future of tech organizing. Today, it seems all the more important that we imagine genuinely democratic alternatives in technology design to right-wing authoritarianism.

This week's Peoples & Things episode features @aschrock.bsky.social talking about their interesting book, _Politics Recoded: The Infrastructural Organizing of Code for America_. The book is a testament to the power of interpretation aimed first at understanding. newbooksnetwork.com/politics-rec...

ICYMI: Thinking a lot about this Peoples & Things episode on hacker cultures (plural!) with guest @biella.bsky.social and guest host @bialski.bsky.social . Sadly, our conversation about the "Dark Enlightenment" and other strands has become even more relevant. newbooksnetwork.com/hacker-hoaxe...

Last semester I took part in a fun live event with my friend @lmsacasas.bsky.social on "The Question of the Human, and the Question of Technology," which became an episode of Peoples & Things. newbooksnetwork.com/mike-secasas...