#AcademicRunPlaylist - 8/16/25

Four prefectures (Kanagawa, Tokyo, Chiba, and Saitama) in one day - 52.4 miles (84.3 km) - a new record for me! I had to do a wardrobe change before heading to Saitama, I had a blast running around and listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Gaël Le Mens social experience sampling influence on attitudes at the Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcOldF6bJBA

Next was an intriguing talk by Amir Goldberg on how peripheral actors drive more unique ideas through a network at IAS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltVYoloK_Vc

Next was a thought-provoking talk by Petri Ylikoski on the philosophy of explanation, prediction, and understanding at IAS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXLn1ZbSxPs

Next was a great talk by Daniel McFarland on intellectual lineages at IAS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwOjy1eZ0Uc

Next was a fantastic talk by Phil Kim on amateurs and lay-expertise legitimation in the early US radio field at IAS. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywAIzVLkMA4

Next was an engaging Power At Work discussion on the latest US labor news with Seth Harris, Matt Alley, Ruben Garcia, and Bill Samuel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQz2KMyyto

Next was "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies" by Seth Holmes. It is a shame that this book is still timely in 2025, but Holmes' deep ethnographic examination of the fruit picking industry and the migrant workers who by and large keep them operating is enlightening. Holmes illuminates the reality of these workers - their precarious work environment, high skill level, and health issues - as well as some surprising insight into the long-term immigration goals of at least this sample of workers. I would have loved more quantitative metrics to help ground the deep observational data that Holmes collected, since it was hard to discern how representative some of his observations were. Still, this book is a must read if you're in the US or at all interested in the workplace more generally. Highly recommend https://www.ucpress.edu/books/fresh-fruit-broken-bodies/paper#about-author

Last was "The AI Con" by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. This book will now be my go-to recommendation for anyone who wants to understand the AI industry. With their characteristic wit and meticulous analysis Bender and Hanna absolutely demolish the hype around current AI technologies, detailing the technological underpinnings of the field, how framing is used to warp public perception, and the incentives that the hype serves. It's also incredibly well referenced - citations pepper the text reassuringly whenever a statement is made (unlike most books on AI). My only very minor gripe is with the policy recommendations towards the end - I would've liked antitrust to make a more prominent appearance, and I'm skeptical of some of the other suggestions put forward - but this is just a small bump in what is otherwise a masterful work. Highly recommend https://thecon.ai/