Oct 15, 2022

introducing the sketch model podcast

I spent much of last year conceiving, creating, and producing a six-part audio series on STEM and the humanities: using the engineering classroom as a launching point for looking at the history of ideas that have shaped what technological education is for, and where it’s fallen short of the liberal arts ideal for forming lifelong civic actors. I haven’t yet started promoting it formally, but I’d love it if folks who read here would take a listen to the trailer, check out the ease of getting transcripts, or send me any ideas for where we might cross-post an episode and find the right audiences for it.

There are lots of podcasts about the ethics of technology, but this series is different. We’re zeroing in on engineering education in the classroom as a formative site that shapes the ethics of technology. How do students in the much lauded STEM fields — that’s science, technology, engineering, and math — learn to address humanistic concerns about technology? The why and should questions about what they make, whether in code or with robotics or AI? How is it that social and political concerns are so easily cut out of technical training? And what would it look like to bring them back in?

It’s here on Spotify. It’s on other platforms as well and will be accessible on the Sketch Model web page soon. My co-producer and editor was my husband Brian Funck, and it was so fun to work together on it.

I have no idea if five or fifty people read these posts with any regularity; I make it a point not to track these analytics. But if you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.