Libsyn Directory

#24 Who Are Museums REALLY Speaking For (And What About The Rest of Us) | WeAreSTS

Release Date: 01/02/2023

#203 Baby-Botox: Anti-Aging Is Out Of Control | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Children as young as eight are targeted by influencers and advertisers towards anti-aging products, from skin creams and anti-wrinkle devices to “baby botox”. Maddy Ross (Human Sciences ’25) investigates how influencers and social media algorithms drive anti-aging anxiety to ever increasing levels while industry advertising markets solutions to ever younger people, especially girls. She identifies increasing concerns over risks that are physical, psychological, and social. Are young people being exploited without even knowing it? Influencers play a key role in these processes, especially...

#202 Outlaw Ocean – Ian Urbina’s Book is STS1Book for 2024-25 | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Ian Urbina’s 2019 book, Outlaw Ocean, brilliantly investigates hidden worlds of human activity on the high seas. From modern day pirates and traffickers to gargantuan fishing fleets to “freedom-loving” recluses and entrepreneurs, his stories build on the idea of oceans as lawless spaces well beyond the awareness of most people. He documents extremes of human behaviour. He also describes the extraordinary scale of extraction and exploitation that takes place off shore. In this world, who’s “free” and what are the consequences of “lawless” spaces? Outlaw Ocean is this year’s...

#201 Dark Matter and the Search for Elusive Evidence | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

What is dark matter? Mary Westover investigates, featuring insights from Dr. Joe McLaughlin and Dr. Marcello Messina. She visits the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy to understand how a research lab sunk deep into a mountain and holding a giant tank of liquid Xenon holds the promise of evidence for this most elusive substance. From the lab's mountain setting to the complex physics involved, this episode provides a deep dive into one of physics’ most perplexing questions. This episode is a practical project submitted by Mary Westover as part of her UCL degree, MSc Science Communication. She...

Season 2 Trailer

WeAreSTS

Well, the wait is over. The time has come. Season 2 of WeAreSTS is on its way. This season we’ll feature some cracking projects from STS students. And we’ll have conversations with all sorts of folks here in the department. I’m gonna sneak in a few bonuses too, just to add that tiny bit of sparkle. WeAreSTS is your window into science and technology studies. You know that science and technology don’t live inside isolated bubbles. You know they’re shaped by all sorts of forces and constraints. STS explores that interplay between science and context. For some, it’s money and...

#30 Don’t Look Up! How Hollywood Imports Science Policy into Films | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Hollywood chooses to portray experts in particular – sometimes peculiar – ways. Those choices have profound impacts on how audiences think about subjects as diverse as dinosaurs, robots, and climate catastrophes. But do those portrayals also change the way we think about the experts themselves and the process of expertise? Does Hollywood play some kind of under-the-table role in teaching us which experts to trust? That’s the theme for today’s podcast. Today, we listen in on a conversation between three experts here in STS who study science policy making as a process. They talk about a...

#29 Can Comedy Help Us Tackle Conversations About Climate Change? | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Ever heard of climate change comedy? Here’s the idea. The climate crisis dominates our news. But more and more, messages about action are ignored. Fatalism is growing. People seem frozen with the scale of the problem. It’s clear we need new ways to tackle these tough conversations. In this episode, STS’s very own Grace Tyrrell explores the growing niche of climate change comedy. With her guest Dr Matt Winning, an environmental researcher and comedian, Grace shows us how climate change comedy works and she explores the question of how these two ideas can fit together. Grace is finishing...

#28 Promising Potential for Generative AI at University: Is it a Personal Tutor for Every Pocket | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Mandy dives optimistically into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on education as we know it. Think ChatGPT and all those related tools called generative AI. Along the way, we touch on some fundamental and relevant concepts from science and technology studies - including the Turing Test and technological determinism - that can help us gain a more nuanced understanding of emerging technology and big tech. With insights from UCL experts and others in Silicon Valley, we explore the incredible potential of AI to enhance university education, plus we dip into some of the...

WeAreSTS

The assignments students do in STS modules today are nothing like what they used to be. These days, they build portfolios with all sorts of things: short writing, long writing, posters, blogs, in-class presentations. Add to these, projects like podcasts, film clips, campaign strategies, briefing papers, debates, and full-on project proposals. Research of different kinds. They all require hard work, creativity, and rising to the challenge. We diversify our curriculum because we know the future holds work as varied as we do ourselves each day. We want our students skilled up, practiced, and...

#26 Women in History of Science Through 53 Original Sources | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Women in the History of Science brings together primary sources that highlight women’s involvement in scientific knowledge production around the world. Drawing on texts, images and objects, each primary source is accompanied by an explanatory text, questions to prompt discussion, and a bibliography to aid further research. Arranged by time period, covering 1200 BCE to the twenty-first century, and across 12 inclusive and far-reaching themes, this book is an invaluable companion to students and lecturers alike in exploring women’s history in the fields of science, technology, mathematics,...

#25 Are We Over-Hyping Mindfulness for University Students? | WeAreSTS

WeAreSTS

Chances are you’ve had something to do with “mindfulness” recently. Maybe you’ve been sent to “mindfulness” training. Or, perhaps you’ve been listening to a mindfulness podcast. Or, perhaps you’re using a “mindfulness” app, such as HeadSpace. In this episode, Franziska Link investigates the growing use of mindfulness therapies at universities, such as UCL, in their provision for student support and welfare. What good are they? What do they involve? What are the pros – and the cons – of this approach. Franziska interviews four people with quite different relationships to...

More Episodes

Alex Hancock explores how research about museum collections is helping to connect British museums with more of the publics they claim to support. His emphasis is on decolonisation, engagement, and white European power. Ultimately, how do structural inequalities manifest in our museums, and how do we move to a new set of relationships?

Alex undertook this project for the STSNewsRoom in summer 2021. His reporting focused on two specific events.

First, Alex discusses with Tannis Davidson the “Displays of Power” exhibition at UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, which explores legacy of empire through objects in the museum and other natural history collections. Objects in these collections have complex histories of collection and ownership. We need to move past merely celebrating the collector and collecting, the exhibition argues, and instead highlight issues of power and control, removal and appropriation, privilege and the ability to ignore.

Second, Alex discusses critiques of representation and engagement in museums with Professor Emily Dawson in light of Black Lives Matter campaigning. Professor Dawson has a long history working with groups from many communities to explore what museums mean to them and how museums serve different groups. For some people, museums just aren’t welcoming places, Professor Dawson explains.

Alex asks the straightforward question: where are these movements leading the future of museums? Is change likely in the near future?

Featuring

Presenter and researcher

Alex Hancock, UCL Class 0f 2021

Alex also contributed to STS Alchemy 2021

Interviewees

Tannis Davidson, Curator of UCL Grant Museum of Zoology

Professor Emily Dawson, UCL Professor of Education, Science and Society

In the break, you heard Jasmine Charkravarty, also part of the STSNewsRoom2021.

Additional materials

Professor Dawson’s papers regarding the social exclusion of groups in museum spaces include:

Dawson, E. (2014). “Not Designed for Us”: How Science Museums and Science Centers Socially Exclude Low-Income, Minority Ethnic Groups. Science Education, 98(6), 981-1008.
Dawson, E. (2018). Reimagining publics and (non)participation: Exploring exclusion from science communication through the experiences of low-income, minority ethnic groups. Public Understanding of Science, 27(7), 772-786.

The study mentioned by Dr. Dawson regarding Indigenous curatorial practices and how their artefacts and artwork are cared for in museums:

Nagam, J., Lane, C., and Tamati-Quennell, M. (Eds.). (2020). Becoming our future: global indigenous curatorial practice (Winnipeg, Canada: ARP Books)

Host: Professor Joe Cain, UCL Professor in History and Philosophy of Biology

Music credits

“Rollin At 5,” by Kevin MacLeod

https://filmmusic.io/song/5000-rollin-at-5

“Ecossaise in E-flat,” by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/3700-ecossaise-in-e-flat-woo-86-

In the episode, Alex also uses this music:

Young Logos, “Papov”, YouTube Audio Library

Bad Snacks, “Wallflowers”, YouTube Audio Library

Podcast information

“WeAreSTS” is a production of the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at University College London (UCL). To find out more, and to leave feedback about the show, visit us online:

https://ucl.ac.uk/sts/podcast

STS Students and staff also can find on the website information about how to get involved with our programme.

“WeAreSTS” producer is Professor Joe Cain.

Twitter: @stsucl #WeAreSTS

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