Tiny Spark

‘Dirty Work’ Raises Moral Questions

Journalist and author Eyal Press’ book Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America examines the morally troubling jobs that are done in our name, and shines a light on the workers who do them. Press argues that these workers are hidden by the powerful in society who want to keep the violence of prisons, slaughterhouses, and battlefields out of the public eye.

How the Prison-Industrial Complex Undermines Immigrant Rights

As the federal government pours billions of dollars into private detention facilities, new research shows political donations from these for-profit companies are influencing policymakers to support legislation criminalizing undocumented immigrants. University of New Mexico associate professor Loren Collingwood talks about his findings, and emotionally shares why they matter.

For This Art Curator, the Aesthetic is Political

‘There have been so many important critiques of the nude in art history,’ writer and art curator Macushla Robinson tells us, and she’s added her own critique in the form of an upcoming book project. Every Rape at the Met Museum digs into the way sexual violence has been publicly displayed and even artistically praised in exhibition and catalogues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In this candid conversation, Robinson explains how the images of women on art museum walls, and the bodies of women in the art world today, are still subject to misogyny and sexual violence.

Community First! Tiny Homes, Big Intentions

As the U.S. deals with a severe crisis with up to 600,000 people experiencing homelessness each night, we tour the Community First! village in Austin. This unique community was established to provide affordable, permanent housing for the chronically homeless in Central Texas. Why do the residents think it works? 

Stanford Professors Take On Silicon Valley

We speak to the authors of System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong, and How We Can Reboot. The trio of Stanford professors use a cross-disciplinary approach to critique technologists and the outsized power they wield in society. By weaving together philosophy, engineering and social science disciplines, the authors make a compelling case that we need ethics and an active democracy to ensure tech serves the public interest above shareholder’s interests.