#AcademicRunPlaylist - 12/8/25

It was another wintry day, but I bundled up and got out for a good run and listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a thought-provoking discussion with Brian Feinstein on "small" business favoritism in US law on the Business Scholarship Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05oJTSwnFEg

Next was a compelling talk by Mirca Madianou on when tech for good is harmful at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJP73xHNW4

Next was a nice talk by Mirta Galesic on modeling the dynamics of belief networks at the Institute for Analytical Sociology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MWeCGN_OIc

Next was an engaging panel on AI policy in Africa with Jane Munga, Virginia Dignum, Vukosi Marivate, and Barbara Glover at Deep Learning Indaba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnWANTlEyqI

Next was an incredible talk by Tracy L Dumas on how family structure and after-work plans shape work contributions at the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Through a series of studies, Dumas subverts the common assumption that single people without children are more engaged at work than those with family responsibilities, demonstrating significantly more absorption at work due to single people more frequently looking forward to leisure activities. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMpz9rz18uU

Next was a great talk by Duncan Brumby investigating why people keep using LLMs despite them failing to improve outcomes at OzCHI: Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y4ehueNSpY

Next was an excellent talk by Mel Andrews on false promises and false premises of fair machine learning at CITP Princeton. Andrews deconstructs the notion of fairness in ML, the need for contextual expertise before determining what should be optimized (if it even can be) and how, and issues with flattened, simplified notion of "fair" metrics. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZ4s3nqxbs

Last was "Plantation Goods" by Seth Rockman. This book is a triumph of scholarship, providing a rigorously researched view into some of the businesses and individuals that drove the production and sale of products that supported American slavery. This is a qualitative examination, with insightful philosophical analysis added in for good measure. As with many books in this vein I would've loved a quantitative, macro perspective of the issues reviewed here to add further weight and support to many of the claims made here, but Rockman's thorough research overall makes this less necessary than in other cases.

What was most eye-opening for me was the modern management techniques of these firms, even engaging in market research for their products by talking to enslaved people. Beyond further demonstrating the inextricable dependence of Northern industrialization and economic development on slavery, it also shows how modern management itself is still tied to that history. Highly recommend https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo237040605.html