#AcademicRunPlaylist 11/5/25

Author

Ben Waber
November 05, 2025

A selfie of me in a seat in an airport lounge, holding a glass of water, with a black and white photo of a United plane flying against a grey sky in the background. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing glasses with thick black rims and a black sweatshirt with Boston written in red across the chest with a Murakami monster below.

I'm back in Japan! I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and collaborators in person over the next week, and on the way over I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

Next was an excellent talk by Kris Hauser on integrating visual and tactile perception to understand the world at the GRASP Lab. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Vw2rN4IkM

Last was "African Founders" by David Hackett Fischer. This is a conventional but thorough review of the history of Africans and their descendants in the US through emancipation. This book would be at home in the 90s, with much of the analysis dated and the history filtered through positive, rose-colored glasses. This is particularly egregious with the treatment of slaveholders who played prominent roles in US history. There is a good collection of stats on slavery itself, so if you're looking to do some research on the topic you can probably find sources here https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/African-Founders/David-Hackett-Fischer/9781982145095