PBS NewsHour, 2018, 7:45… At the Oakland Museum of California, a new exhibit traces decades of history of hip-hop, an industry and culture that's both mainstream and underground, global but rooted in the local.
The Identity of Hong Kong
Vox, 2018, 14:24… When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Chinese leaders agreed that Hong Kong would be able to keep its economic and political systems, including some of the civil freedoms denied to China’s citizens on the mainland, for the next 50 years. Although Hong Kong still has nearly 30 years of semi-autonomy left, China has started tightening its grip, and many believe it is chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedoms.
Social Class and the Retail Apocalypse
Hobo Graffiti
Vox, 2018, 5:36… Hobos used graffiti, or tramp writing, as a messaging system to tell their fellow travelers where they were and where they were headed next. Hobos would scratch or draw their road persona, or moniker, onto stationary objects near railroad tracks like water towers and bridges. News stories at the time, largely informed by hobos themselves, spread tales of a different kind of graffiti though.
The Case For Nudity In Art
Learning To Be A Russian Housewife
Fair Trade Hair
Critical Theory, Culture Industry, and the Lego Movie
The Concerted Cultivation of Spelling
Vice News, 2018, 7:12… If you keep up with the world of competitive spelling, you've noticed the 10 year winning streak of South Asian-Americans. Kids from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have simply dominated the competition, and the South Asian Spelling Bee circuit has a lot to do with that. Launched in 2008, the South Asian Spelling Bee is an elite circuit whose alumni account for a decade of spelling dominance in the nation's most competitive spelling competition.
Algorithmic Policing
Where are the women in art?
Sex Robots (SFW)
ABC News, 2018, 7:27… The makers of Real Doll (the most like-life sex dolls) have built AI into their latest models, creating a conversation partner akin to Siri, Alexa, and other digital assistants. This development is not surprising given that digital technology has been infiltrating our love lives for years.
The Ugly Business of Beauty Apps
NYT, 2017, 4:02… You don't have to get digital plastic surgery in order to be a person online, but there are a lot of companies that strongly suggest that you do. And many of these products have a really particular idea about how we're supposed to look: super white, hyper feminine and creepily youthful.
The Clutter of Consumerism
Sexism in Chinese Tech Companies
Space for the Dead in Hong Kong
Social Settings as a Placebo
PBS NewsHour, 2018, 5:36... The placebo effect influences all types of healing, from yoga to laying of hands to remedies in your doctor's office. While researching his book, “Suggestible You”, on the science of belief, science writer Erik Vance visited healers in the U.S., China and Mexico. He has been blessed, cursed and tortured in countless ways. He joined ScienceScope to journey from Mexico to Maryland to show how these beliefs influence healing.
Gender Pricing Exposed
CBC, 2014, 15:36... See a marketing team create fictional gendered toothpaste and learn how you can combat gender price discrimination. Although this video is from Canada it touches on New York City's legislation barring such discrimination. Yet laws can't solve this issue alone as a 2015 study from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found that, on average, women's products were 7% more expensive than similar products for men.
