Right?! I’m sure there’s a way. I’d like to read it first and then join a book club for the second pass through, but who am I kidding. It will take me 3 months to read it because I read in bed so I can fall asleep, alas.
It solves the problem of not having enough time. And why do we not have enough time? It’s being stolen from us by corporations who overwork us and understaff their services. AI is a solution to the wrong problem.
This was such a good conversation. I appreciate both of you so much. In taking into consideration the extraction that we endure all around us, I wanted to share Aaron Ping's podcast, specifically the last episode. Aaron lost his 16-year-old son Avery in 2024 after a prolific Snapchat drug dealer sold him drugs. Snapchat was notified by police about the drug dealer's years-long targeting of children in our community. Snapchat did nothing and sat on a search warrant. Had Snapchat responded to the warrant timely, the Narcotics Task Force would have arrested the dealer weeks before the dealer found Avery.
Aaron has since made it a life goal to advocate for children and online safety, testifying at legislatures nationwide on various child safety and chatbot bills, speaking at high schools, and on podcasts. As a creative, he also made an outright incredible podcast--Superhuman: Engineered Design to Engineerd Consent. Superhuman is an investigative podcast and publication exploring child online safety, platform accountability, antitrust, and concentrated power and its endless extraction in our society. Through Avery's story in the podcast, Aaron examines what it will take to build a safer digital world and what history has taught us about how we got here. It is a beautifully haunting piece of work with an original score and interviews with former FTC attorneys, Meta whistleblowers, victim rights attorneys, historians, parent survivors, and so many more. The last episode is especially moving. Two months before he died, Avery and his grandparents attended a concert of the Philip Glass Ensemble's live rendition of "Koyaanisqatsi." Koyaanisqatsi was first released in 1982 and is a non-narrative documentary film that explores the relationship between humanity, nature, and technology. The film depicts images of our world and the extraction of that world. No words needed and it is set to a haunting score by Philip Glass. The title comes from the indigenous Hopi tribe's phrase that translates to "life out of balance." The last episode of Aaron's podcast is titled "Out of Balance" and really hits all the nails on their heads with how concentrated power and extraction economy, especially through Big Tech, has harmed us all--some of us, like Aveey and Aaron, have been harmed in irreparable ways.
There is so much to be said about the podcast and Aaron's work and Avery's story. It just seems so fitting with the conversation you all had. Here is a link. Thank you for your work!
Gentlemen: a very valuable conversation. Thank you. Geremie
Just preordered the book. I really enjoyed the discussion. It was uplifting.
Thank you for listening! I also preordered the book. I wish there was a way to organize something like an informal book club here on the stack.
Right?! I’m sure there’s a way. I’d like to read it first and then join a book club for the second pass through, but who am I kidding. It will take me 3 months to read it because I read in bed so I can fall asleep, alas.
Thank you for your clarity, breadth of thought and wisdom, Baratunde. So grand and achievable, you make this.
It solves the problem of not having enough time. And why do we not have enough time? It’s being stolen from us by corporations who overwork us and understaff their services. AI is a solution to the wrong problem.
So excited to hear about
Bercerra’s book! Feel strongly these traditions being covered are world changing.
This was such a good conversation. I appreciate both of you so much. In taking into consideration the extraction that we endure all around us, I wanted to share Aaron Ping's podcast, specifically the last episode. Aaron lost his 16-year-old son Avery in 2024 after a prolific Snapchat drug dealer sold him drugs. Snapchat was notified by police about the drug dealer's years-long targeting of children in our community. Snapchat did nothing and sat on a search warrant. Had Snapchat responded to the warrant timely, the Narcotics Task Force would have arrested the dealer weeks before the dealer found Avery.
Aaron has since made it a life goal to advocate for children and online safety, testifying at legislatures nationwide on various child safety and chatbot bills, speaking at high schools, and on podcasts. As a creative, he also made an outright incredible podcast--Superhuman: Engineered Design to Engineerd Consent. Superhuman is an investigative podcast and publication exploring child online safety, platform accountability, antitrust, and concentrated power and its endless extraction in our society. Through Avery's story in the podcast, Aaron examines what it will take to build a safer digital world and what history has taught us about how we got here. It is a beautifully haunting piece of work with an original score and interviews with former FTC attorneys, Meta whistleblowers, victim rights attorneys, historians, parent survivors, and so many more. The last episode is especially moving. Two months before he died, Avery and his grandparents attended a concert of the Philip Glass Ensemble's live rendition of "Koyaanisqatsi." Koyaanisqatsi was first released in 1982 and is a non-narrative documentary film that explores the relationship between humanity, nature, and technology. The film depicts images of our world and the extraction of that world. No words needed and it is set to a haunting score by Philip Glass. The title comes from the indigenous Hopi tribe's phrase that translates to "life out of balance." The last episode of Aaron's podcast is titled "Out of Balance" and really hits all the nails on their heads with how concentrated power and extraction economy, especially through Big Tech, has harmed us all--some of us, like Aveey and Aaron, have been harmed in irreparable ways.
There is so much to be said about the podcast and Aaron's work and Avery's story. It just seems so fitting with the conversation you all had. Here is a link. Thank you for your work!
https://superhumanpodcast.substack.com/p/out-of-balance