Algorithms, the Internet, STEAM, and the Continuing Struggle for Justice

It's Fun Day Monday on the Majority Report On today's show: Hundreds of masked federal agents from unknown departments have been deployed to downtown Chicago to stand around. The Feds in Chicago fail miserably at chasing down a food delivery person in a hilarious display of poor physical health. A CBP agent is recorded via bodycam describing immigrants as "literal street rats" that will "eat our children". Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to do About it joins the show to discuss his book. Enshittification comes out next week, pre order . For an audiobook version go . Also check out Cory's great work at the . In the Fun Half: Chuck Schumer unveils a two-pronged attack to resist Trump. First, we'll hope that GOP members will come to their senses and work with Dems. Secondly....social media??? Stephen Miller details the "all government" effort to dismantle alleged organized, leftist violence as Trump signs memorandum. ICE Agents swarm a small number of demonstrators in front of their facility in Illinois and pepper spray, beat and detain the peaceful protestors. Former Chicago Bears star Charles 'Peanut' Tillman who has been working as an FBI agent for the last 8 years has quit the agency over Trump's immigration policy. Adam Mockler from Meidas Touch torches Scott Jennings about Trump's role in getting the U.S. to this volatile place. Michigan gubernatorial candidate and current Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist tells folks at Arab Con in Dearborn, MI that Israel is committing a genocide and will not take a cent from AIPAC All that and more Checkout our very own Matt Lech tonight on the&nbsp;! stream. Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp; Follow us on TikTok here:&nbsp; Check us out on Twitch here:&nbsp; Find our Rumble stream here:&nbsp; Check out our alt YouTube channel here:&nbsp; Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp; Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp; Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp; Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp; Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp; Go to&nbsp;&nbsp;and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: PROLON:  Get 15% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Nutrition Program CURRENT AFFAIRS: Use code MAJORITYREPORT for 30% for a year on any @CurrentAffairsMag subscription of your choice. Go to  and enter the code MAJORITYREPORT at checkout. The offer expires October 31st. SMALLS: For a limited time only, get 60% off your first order PLUS shipping when you head to  and use code MAJORITY SUNSET LAKE: Head over to  and use the code FlowerPower25 to save 40% on all their sun-grown flower, prerolls, and even cartridges. This sale ends September 28th at 11:59 PM Eastern. See their site for terms and conditions. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Matt Binder’s&nbsp;YouTube&nbsp;channel:&nbsp; Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Ava Raiza’s music here!&nbsp;

3591 - Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse w/ Cory Doctorow

Matthew Boedy, author of “Speaking of Evil”, comes to This Is Hell!! to talk about his new book "The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy" published by Westminster John Knox Press. Matthew was targeted by Turning Point USA in 2016 and listed on its “professor watchlist” after speaking up against allowing concealed guns on college campuses. As one of the foremost experts on Turning Point USA and its founder and CEO Charlie Kirk, Boedy exposes their role in perpetuating Christian nationalism in the United States and the threat to democracy they pose. He currently teaches rhetoric and composition courses at the University of North Georgia.

A new installment of “This Week In Rotten History” from Renaldo Migaldi follows the interview.

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

The Destruction of Democracy to Christianize America / Matthew Boedy

Matthew Boedy, author of “Speaking of Evil”, comes to This Is Hell!! to talk about his new book "The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy" published by Westminster John Knox Press. Matthew was targeted by Turning Point USA in 2016 and listed on its “professor watchlist” after speaking up against allowing concealed guns on college campuses. As one of the foremost experts on Turning Point USA and its founder and CEO Charlie Kirk, Boedy exposes their role in perpetuating Christian nationalism in the United States and the threat to democracy they pose. He currently teaches rhetoric and composition courses at the University of North Georgia.

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

It's News Day Tuesday on the Majority Report On toady's show: Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries held a post-meeting press conference with Trump, where they declined to warn the public about the dangers of the spending bill and instead focused on procedure and decorum. Hours later, Trump posted a racist AI-generated video depicting Jeffries in a sombrero. The next day, Jeffries responded with a hollow display of self-serving bravado. Argentine historian and chair of the History Department at the New School, Frederico Finchelstein joins the program to discuss the Trump's administrations bail out of Milei's Argentina. In The Fun Half: Illinois governor JB Pritzker urges people to film, document and narrate ICE activities as the only way to hold these abusers to account is to have it on film. Pete Hegseth holds military top brass hostage as he performs his one-man show on the Warriors Ethos. Trump closes out the Hegseth rally with a sleepy, confused ramble about stairs and fascism. Ezra Klein doubles down on his claim that Democrats should run pro-life candidates in red states in a conversation with Ta-Nahisi Coates. Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp; Follow us on TikTok here:&nbsp; Check us out on Twitch here:&nbsp; Find our Rumble stream here:&nbsp; Check out our alt YouTube channel here:&nbsp; Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp; Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp; Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp; Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp; Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp; Go to&nbsp;&nbsp;and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: NAKED WINES:&nbsp;To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to  and use code MAJORITY for both the code AND PASSWORD. CURRENT AFFAIRS: Go to  and enter the code MAJORITYREPORT at checkout. The offer expires October 31st FAST GROWING TREES:&nbsp;Get 15% off your first purchase.&nbsp;  SUNSET LAKE: &nbsp;Head to m and&nbsp;use the code FlowerPower25 to save 40% on all their sun grown flower, pre rolls, and even vapor cartridges. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Matt Binder’s&nbsp;YouTube&nbsp;channel:&nbsp; Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Ava Raiza’s music here!&nbsp;

3592 - Trump's Government Shut Down and Argentine Bailout w/ Frederico Finchelstein

Political Scientist Laleh Khalili joins us to discuss her new book, "Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy" out now from Verso. "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview.

Check out Laleh's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3405-extractive-capitalism

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Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

The Global Economy Runs on Extraction / Laleh Khalili

Political Scientist Laleh Khalili joins us to discuss her new book, "Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy" out now from Verso. 

Check out Laleh's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/3405-extractive-capitalism

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Bronwen Everill joins This Is Hell! to talk about her new book "Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance”, published by The New Press. https://thenewpress.org/authors/bronwen-everill/?v=eb65bcceaa5f

We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will also be sharing your answers to this week's Question from Hell! from Patreon.

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

How Western Ignorance Has Been Plundering Africa / Bronwen Everill

Bronwen Everill joins This Is Hell! to talk about her new book "Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance”, published by The New Press. https://thenewpress.org/authors/bronwen-everill/?v=eb65bcceaa5f

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thisishell

Ashley Dawson returns to discuss his new piece at the New York Review of Books, "The Costs of the Cloud: How much power does AI consume?" "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview.

Check out Ashley's article here: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/09/27/the-costs-of-the-cloud/

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Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

AI's Environmental Footprint / Ashley Dawson

Ashley Dawson returns to discuss his new piece at the New York Review of Books, "The Costs of the Cloud: How much power does AI consume?" 

Check out Ashley's article here: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/09/27/the-costs-of-the-cloud/

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

Sometimes when we say an algorithm discriminates, we mean it can tell the difference between two types of items.  But in this episode, we'll talk about another, more troublesome side to discrimination: algorithms can be... racist?  Sexist?  Ageist?  Yes to all of the above.  It's an important thing to be aware of, especially when doing people-centered data science.  We'll discuss how and why this happens, and what solutions are out there (or not).

Relevant Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/upshot/when-algorithms-discriminate.html
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/02/machine-learning-and-human-bias-an-uneasy-pair/
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/why-machines-discriminate-and-how-to-fix-them/
https://medium.com/@geomblog/when-an-algorithm-isn-t-2b9fe01b9bb5#.auxqi5srz




Discriminatory Algorithms


Algorithms have become a powerful force in the world, but for all the impressive good they do, they sometimes show some worrying tendencies. Algorithms that discriminate are a problem that nobody's found a solution for yet. This week, we discuss why some algorithms appear to be racist, and whether there's anything that can be done about it.

The Techdirt Podcast

Is Your Algorithm Racist?

In this week's podcast InfoQ’s editor-in-chief Charles Humble talks to Data Scientist Cathy O’Neil. O'Neil is the author of the blog mathbabe.org. She was the former Director of the Lede Program in Data Practices at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Tow Center and was employed as Data Science Consultant at Johnson Research Labs. O'Neil earned a mathematics Ph.D. from Harvard University. Topics discussed include her book “Weapons of Math Destruction,” predictive policing models, the teacher value added model, approaches to auditing algorithms and whether government regulation of the field is needed.

Why listen to this podcast:

 - There is a class of pernicious big data algorithms that are increasingly controlling society but are not open to scrutiny.
 - Flawed data can result in an algorithm that is, for instance, racist and sexist.  For example, the data used in predictive policing models is racist. But people tend to be overly trusting of algorithms because they are mathematical.
 - Data scientists have to make ethical decisions even if they don’t acknowledge it. Often problems stem from an abdication of responsibility.
 - Auditing for algorithms is still a very young field with ongoing academic research exploring approaches.
 - Government regulation of the industry may well be required.

Notes and links can be found on http://bit.ly/2eYVb9q

Weapons of math destruction

0m:43s - The central thesis of the book is that whilst not all algorithms are bad, there is a class of pernicious big data algorithms that are increasingly controlling society.
1m:32s - The classes of algorithm that O'Neil is concerned about - the weapons of math destruction - have three characteristics: they are widespread and impact on important decisions like whether someone can go to college or get a job, they are somehow secret so that the people who are being targeted don’t know they are being scored or don’t understand how their score is computed; and the third characteristic is they are destructive - they ruin lives.
2m:51s - These characteristics undermine the original intention of the algorithm, which is often trying to solve big society problems with the help of data.

More on this:

Quick scan our curated show notes on InfoQ. http://bit.ly/2eYVb9q

You can also subscribe to the InfoQ newsletter to receive weekly updates on the hottest topics from professional software development. bit.ly/24x3IVq

InfoQ Podcast

Show Notes

Cathy O'Neil on Pernicious Machine Learning Algorithms and How to Audit Them

Cathy O'Neil, author of Math Destruction:&nbsp;How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, explains how data can be bias. Who Defines success and algorithms. Big data hype and being "beyond morals". Data and the war on teachers. Targeting teachers through data. Data-driven models to predictive policing and sentencing. The myth that numbers don't mislead and algorithms and job discrimination. On The Fun Half: The Republican civil war. Trump's most amazing spokesperson yet. A Trump supporter says Hillary Clinton is&nbsp;hypocrite&nbsp;because she listens to Beyonce. Sean Hannity calls Republican leaders "feckless". Alex Jones says Clinton is possessed by demons. Ben Carson defends Trump in the most amazing way. Why the mainstream still does not understand the Republican Party even in the age of Trump and your calls and IMs. Check out today’s sponsors: Texture: Texture.com/majority and Harry’s.com use promo code MAJORITYREPORT Members make the Majority Report possible. Please join us by becoming a MEMBER. Go to https://majority.fans.fm/memberships/new. &nbsp;You can also show your support by going to http://majority.fm/about/donate-to-the-majority-report/&nbsp;Thanks!

1441 - Cathy O’Neil: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

When we covered the Word2Vec algorithm for embedding words, we mentioned parenthetically that the word embeddings it produces can sometimes be a little bit less than ideal--in particular, gender bias from our society can creep into the embeddings and give results that are sexist. For example, occupational words like "doctor" and "nurse" are more highly aligned with "man" or "woman," which can create problems because these word embeddings are used in algorithms that help people find information or make decisions. However, a group of researchers has released a new paper detailing ways to de-bias the embeddings, so we retain gender info that's not particularly problematic (for example, "king" vs. "queen") while correcting bias.

Debiasing Word Embeddings

Writer Sara Wachter-Boettcher explains how racial and sexual bias finds its way from society into digital products (and back into society) as a result of the tech industry's unwillingness to examine its own values, and they way their work engages with and shapes society beyond the mostly white, male corporate campuses of Silicon Valley.

Sara is author of "Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech" from W.W. Norton: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-63463-1/

Social inequality is coded deep within the devices of Silicon Valley.

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1441 - Cathy O’Neil: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

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