The Future

World Dispatch: What a classroom learns from Black Mirror

On today’s episode, Black Mirror as a teachable moment, an unfortunate trip to the restroom, and a whistling language in Greece.

The Future

The Future

World Dispatch: What a classroom learns from Black Mirror

On today’s episode, Black Mirror as a teachable moment, an unfortunate trip to the restroom, and a whistling language in Greece.

Tired of the daily news doom and gloom? Looking to explore curious stories from weird corners of the internet? Every Monday through Thursday, we bring you stories about Power, Culture, and the Future. We guarantee you’ll feel smarter and more hydrated. Hosted by the inimitable Aaron Edwards.

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Here’s what we have for today’s episode.

Jon Christian talks with Pattie Maes, the founder and director of the Fluid Interfaces research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. She has an interesting curriculum — assigning episodes of Black Mirror to her grad students to scare them straight. In the episode, you hear from Pattie herself about her thoughts on the assignment, and what she’s afraid of if uninformed engineers enter the workforce.

Meanwhile Jeremy Gordon is scared in a different way. He always has awkward encounters with co-workers in and on the way to the bathroom. Listen for a dreamy monologue of Jeremy waxing poetic about what’s on everyone’s mind — why are we scared to admit that we all shit?

Lastly, all throughout the episode, there are beautiful sprinkles of whistling. These clips of an ancient whistling language come from a small Greek island. Freelance journalist Sarah Souli reported on the residents there that are preserving this piece of their culture.

That’s what we have on today’s Dispatch. We’ll be back tomorrow with another fantastic story for your ears.