This week we talk about the sociology and economics of academic journal publishing, the Elsevier boycott, and whether the journal system as we know it is necessary anymore. Our decision: everybody can just podcast everything from now on. Starting with….
What the Hellsevier?
Huffduff This
This episode we start with a discussion of violent protests prompted by a question from a listener (Which is great! Send more!). We then talk about Twitter, hashtags, Gmail, and passwords before moving on to a discussion about education and universal preschool.
Links from this episode:
He Likes Organic Vegetables
Autonomous Cars, more on stadiums and Mayor KJ, and Arturo’s participation in the NorCal AIDS Challenge: Donate here!
Other links:
- Elite Squad
- Politics and Money
- Office Hours Drop In #1
- This American Life: What Kind of Country
- The Superego Podcast
- Rhymesayers (for the Brother Ali and I Self Devine mixes)
Call Us Princess
Two segments this week:
First, Chris gives a shout out to Sociological Images for their post on Push Up Bikini Tops at Abercrombie Kids, which inspires a discussion about gender and childhood culture.
Second, a discussion about Ebooks, Amazon, DRM, and the fate of public knowledge.
Links:
The Weak Board of Weakness
We start off talking about Charlie Sheen and celebrity (yeah, sorry), and then transition into a discussion about the iPad and music, and technology and qualitative data analysis. We thought we were done then, but we kept on talking about the sad state of rock music today and then NPR versus the right wing. We decided to keep the whole thing.
Links from the episode:
- GarageBand on iPad guided tour
- Alex Skolnick, Goodbye to Romance: Standards For A New Generation
- Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation?
- Siamese Dream Bassist?
- The Nevermind baby all grown up
- Cry Baby Documentary
- Rappers aren’t afraid to be weird
- Peter Dreier on Office Hours
- NPR and Muslim Brotherhood stunt
- NPR CEO Steps Down
Putting the AGIL in Agile
This week, Eric Plemons joins the conversation and Jose Marichal makes a return visit as well. After introducing the Improv Hotline at 612.242.AGIL, we have a discussion about teaching social theory, the value of reading original texts, and the challenges of tuning out distractions for sustained reading and writing. Our final segment is a lengthy discussion of the impact of the 2010 midterm elections.
By the way, be sure to watch the feed because we’ve got another new episode we recorded last week coming your way in just a few days. Editing is hard.
The Tragedy of the Creative Commons
Three topics this week*:
- Arturo talks about his journey into the world of online discussion forums and blog comments
- Phil Davison, who has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a bachelor’s degree in History, a master’s degree in Public Administration…and a master’s degree in Communication.
- We discuss Urban Legends: Why suburbs, not cities, are the answer.
* Well, actually last week: this was recorded on September 16.
An Anthropologist, a Political Scientist, and 3 Sociologists Walk Into a Bar
Jon, Arturo, and Chris are joined by Jose Marichal (of ThickCulture) and Alexandre Enkerli. A wide-ranging discussion ensues, and we tackle questions such as:
- Why haven’t we had any women on this podcast?
- Is there anything wrong with Berkeley taking DNA samples from incoming undergraduates?
- And when Eric Schmidt makes the distinction between privacy and anonymity, is he making any sense?
We also manage to start a discussion about pornography on the internet and end up talking about the failure of consensus in the Senate. Try to guess how we get from point A to point B on that one.
Various links referenced in the episode:
- Paula Priesse on Facebook (“Conservative comedy spoofing a well-meaning, young, progressive, and utterly hapless American woman”)
- Is Facebook bigger than porn?
- Facebook Privacy Settings: Who Cares?
- WEIRD biased Psychology studies
- Where People Position the Parties
- Class and location-based web services
Tigers, Geikos, and Facebook Racism. Oh My.
We’re back with a discussion of Tiger Woods (and his new Nike ad) and the strange world of celebrity role models as well as a discussion of racism on Facebook at UMD.
In future episodes, we’d love to have guests sit in on the discussion! If this sounds like fun and you want to join in some time — or if you just want to give us feedback about how we’re doing — send us an email at podcast@contexts.org.
iPad Politics and Big East Privilege
Episode number two, name number two!
This week’s show has two segments. First, we look at the fancy new iPad. We discuss its potential impact on education and publishing, as well as the political nature of the polarazing reactions the iPad has evoked. Second, Jesse shares his theory on how college basketball tournaments and rankings can help us understand white privilege.
In future episodes, we’d love to have guests sit in on the discussion! If this sounds like fun and you want to join in some time — or if you just want to give us feedback about how we’re doing — send us an email at podcast@contexts.org.
© 2013 Sociology Improv
