#AcademicRunPlaylist - 7/4/25

I was able to explore a bit with the family today, and while taking a bunch of cool down breaks I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was a great discussion on recent labor-related news at the Burnes Center for Social Change with Seth Harris, Ali Bustamante, Chris Garlock, and Sharon Block https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkne2kMNTSA

Next was an informative rundown of the latest BLS employment numbers by Sarah Dickerson at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhpFSBSbAbY

Next was a great talk by Mirko Draca on the role of human capital and STEM skills in UK tech adoption at the Workshop on Entrepreneurial Finance and Innovation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gEXaYANNA

Next was an amazing talk by Adam Badger on making the case for food delivery gig work as high skill at the Oxford Internet Institute. Through deep ethnographic field work, Badger absolutely eviscerates the concept of one-dimensional labor "skill," advocating for a reconceptualization of how we discuss and categorize work. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTeVZBEBkOE

Last was "Mapmatics" by Paulina (Paula) Rowińska. This book is an incredible journey for how maps have been conceptualized and developed throughout history, eventually getting to more abstract map types and applications of map-based visualization and analysis. Rowinska does a great job grounding why certain map types were created and how their acceptance can warp societal activities when their methodology is misunderstood. I did find the sections on applications of maps to be a bit extraneous, I would've preferred more time on different kids of maps that weren't examined here. Still highly recommend https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674294233