#AcademicRunPlaylist - 3/3/25

It was pretty cold today, but I still got out for a decent run and listened to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a fantastic conversation with Andrew Verstein on compiling a census of corporations on the Business Scholarship Podcast. Verstein goes into the prevalence of LLCs, how NJ's rapid fall as the state of choice is exaggerated, and why DE's demise has been greatly exaggerated (so far). Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga-N2zfJWMM

Next was an intriguing talk by Linda Hong Cheng on decolonizing machine learning at the Oxford Internet Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1eh8Gm-zAs

Next was an amazing talk by Anhong Guo on enabling personal assistive technology at Stanford. Among other incredible work, Guo finds perhaps the only societally beneficial use of auto clicking devices. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gxy0_z5oYA

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Justin Cho on contextualizing human-LLM interactions at the USC Information Sciences Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5CpzeC1nEM

Next was a compelling talk by Rebecca Willett on using data bagging to improve algorithmic stability at UW Statistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjkqs1DxgT4

Next was an engaging talk by Homanga Bharadhwaj on using web videos to scaffold robot learning at CU Boulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIMvWxYUZAU

Next was an interesting talk by Pratyusha Sharma on identifying and optimizing large model computational structures and analyzing sperm whale communication (!) at UW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKnYq2IKomA

Next was "Sourdough Culture" by Eric Pallant. I read this book because I was interested in the workplace and commercial history of breadmaking, and on that topic there are some fascinating sections here. The coverage of the horrid conditions of pre-Industrial Revolution bakeries is insightful, as are the sections dealing with technological innovations that changed the business of baking and the understanding of the breadmaking process over the centuries. If you're interested in the cultural history of bread and how to make bread yourself there's a lot here on those topics as well https://www.agatepublishing.com/9781572843011/sourdough-culture/

Last was "The Lavender Scare" by David K. Johnson. This period of American history is unfortunately more relevant than it's been in decades, and this book is an excellent in-depth account of the legislative and bureaucratic efforts to systematically ban, demonize, and ostracize LGBTQ+ people from the government and beyond. Johnson shows how the resistance activities that built up against these activities are arguably responsible for some of the gay rights movement's biggest wins in the 1970s, and represents a blueprint for the present. Highly recommend https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo193960577.html