Team Human: Occult America
On this week’s episode of Team Human, occult scholar and author Mitch Horowitz. Mitch, the author of Occult America (Bantam); One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life (Crown); and Mind As Builder: The Positive-Mind Metaphysics of Edgar Cayce(A.R.E. Press) joins Douglas for a conversation about the shared histories of magic, capitalism, and American political thought. It’s a conversation that asks questions […] read more »
Team Human: In Our Backyards
Joining Douglas on his Team Human podcast today is Erin Barnes co-founder of ioby. Ioby (in our backyards) is a “crowd-resourcing” platform for citizen-led, neighborhood-focused projects. Rather than just raise money, ioby mobilizes civic engagement by putting resources in the hands of local leaders who want to steward positive change in their neighborhoods. Erin shares with […] read more »
How Being in the Crosshairs of the GOP Tax Plan Forces Progressive to Take Stock of Our Own Privilege
As most of us who have reviewed the proposed tax plan have now realized, the changes are pointedly directed at the upper middle class – specifically, those who didn’t vote for Donald Trump. The elimination of the State Tax deduction, for just one example, hurts only those people who live in high-tax states, such as […] read more »
Team Human: More Than Mere Dirt
What can we learn from a mere handful of dirt? For Nikki Silvestri, soil is both a metaphor and the literal “fertile” ground through which complexity and diversity thrive. Having worked on issues of food systems, sustainability, and public health, Silvestri describes soil as the link through which to engage in the work of building […] read more »
Team Human: “The Thrill of Democracy”
Playing for Team Human today are Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen from the Small Planet Institute. Lappé and Eichen are out on the road with a mission to reinvigorate “civic courage” and inclusive participation in democracy. Their latest book Daring Democracy Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want offers a diagnosis […] read more »
Team Human: An Outsider’s Approach
Today on Team Human, we share a conversation with author, musician, humorist, and culture hacker Hugh Gallagher. Gallagher began his professional writing career thanks in part to a college entrance essay that went viral in the 90s, earning the distinction of being an early, if not the first, internet comedy meme. With lines like, “I am a dynamic figure, often […] read more »
Team Human: Solving for Inequality?
Net impresario Tim O’Reilly now recognizes how the short-term focus of digital business is draining the real economy. Its algorithms have been programmed to extract value from us all. For O’Reilly, however, the solution is not to eliminate algorithms, but to write better ones. If there’s an argument to made for technosolutionism, O’Reilly makes as […] read more »
Team Human: Shareable Cities
Today on Team Human, Neal Gorenflo from Shareable.net joins Douglas on the podcast to spread the word about Shareable’s latest resource, Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons. Sharing Cities is an inspiring collection of 137 case studies and policies across a wide spectrum of issues that show how empowered communities are building citizen-run, democratic solutions using commons thinking. Whether it […] read more »
Team Human: Big Hunger
A high school basketball team organizes a canned food drive. A church volunteer group restocks the local pantry with donations from Walmart. Both examples are seemingly positive portrayals of American civic engagement… So what’s wrong with this picture? On Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human podcast today is Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger: the Unholy Alliance […] read more »
Team Human: Calming Technology
What is a robot? Are robots our friends? Does the term “friend” even apply? So begins this week’s episode of Douglas Rushkoff’s Team Human with cyborg anthropologist Amber Case. Amber and Douglas look at how algorithmically programmed systems of automation and control might just be turning us into the robots. Case’s recent book, Calm Technology […] read more »