Looks Like New

What can ancient cosmologies teach the future?

Recently on Looks Like New, host Kadallah Burrowes is joined by Ytasha Womack, an author, filmmaker, and independent scholar whose work has been foundational to how we understand Afrofuturism as both a cultural movement and a philosophical practice. Best known for Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, Womack has spent decades exploring the intersections of Black culture, technology, imagination, and liberation across writing, film, music, and embodied practices like dance. In reference to her book, The Afrofuturist Evolution, this conversation explores Afrofuturism as an active world-building practice rather than a distant or purely speculative future. Womack reflects on living inside futures once imagined by thinkers like Octavia Butler, the role of imagination in shaping present realities, and how ancient cosmologies, rhythm, and storytelling can inform more humane technological systems.

What is the future of the sacred space in a digital world?

On this month's episode of Looks Like New, MEDLab’s Stephanie Abdalla speaks with Dr. Nesrine Mansour about rethinking architecture in the age of digital media and artificial intelligence. Their conversation explores how sacred spaces are being reimagined amid rapid technological change, alongside broader questions of authorship, agency, and bias in architectural imagination. They also discuss AI literacy and pedagogy, and the transformative potential of artificial intelligence within architectural practice and education. Dr. Mansour is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at CU Boulder whose work sits at the intersection of architecture, spirituality, digital media, and AI. A former research fellow at the Princeton Center for Theological Inquiry, she has published widely across disciplines and is currently editing Religion and AI: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches, forthcoming with Bloomsbury.

How has colonialism evolved under big tech?

In this month’s episode, MEDLab’s Stephanie Abdalla interviews Dr. Nick Couldry about the intricate relationship between media, power, and societal structures. Their conversation touches on data colonialism, the importance of building solidarities within and beyond academia, and the need to analyze emerging technologies through a critical lens. Dr. Couldry is Professor Emeritus of Media, Communications and Social Theory and a Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A leading sociologist of media and culture, his work has been central to understanding how media and communications concentrate symbolic power and what that means for human solidarity. His recent research focuses on the ethics, politics, and social implications of Big Data and everyday data practices. He is the author or editor of 17 books, including Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back (with Dr. Ulises Mejias) and The Space of the World: Can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What if It Can’t?

What stories do our machines tell and what do they remember?

In this month’s episode of Looks Like New, hosted by MEDLab’s associate director Júlia Martins Rodrigues, we speak with Camila Galaz, an interdisciplinary artist, editor, and researcher whose work explores the intersections of technology, memory, and historical storytelling. Galaz is the founder of Structured Knowledge, a nonfiction narrative consultancy helping creatives and thinkers translate complex ideas into meaningful public-facing work. She is also co-creator of Our Friend the Computer, a globally ranked podcast uncovering underrepresented histories of computing; an editor at the Millennium Film Journal; and co-founder of Superkilogirls, a creative research lab examining the material infrastructures of computing and their entanglement with women’s labor. Her projects have been supported by the New Museum, the Nieuwe Instituut, Creative Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. In this episode, Galaz reflects on how storytelling, archives, and experimental media can reveal the hidden human histories behind our digital world.

Who will own the future of gig work?

Who will own the future of gig work? In this month's episode of Looks Like New, MEDlab Associate Director Júlia Martins speaks with Minsun Ji, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, about empowering workers to reclaim control over their economic futures. Minsun and her team are pioneering efforts to democratize work ownership, including the launch of Colorado's first driver-owned ride-share cooperative. Together, they examine the unique challenges of competing in the ride-share market, the innovative strategies behind worker cooperatives, and why these models are essential for building resilient local economies.