Technology

Is technology taking over and/or fundamentally changing and/or worsening our lives? It's a debatable question...or series of questions...but, for whatever it's worth, there do seem to be more and more books and novels and TV shows these days in which technological devices are taking over, fundamentally changing, or even, yes, worsening our lives as human beings.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Laleh Mehran, a Denver-based multi-disciplinary artist who moved to the United States from Iran when she was a child in the 1970s. Her art work explores cultures and locations, ideas and identities, patterns and shapes -- and it seems especially focused on issues of technology, geography, and media. Her striking pieces have been shown/installed over the years -- both individually and in group shows -- in Holland, Germany, Italy, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere.

On this edition of ST, we welcome back Tulsa City-County Library CEO Gary Shaffer. He joins us to describe in detail the TCCL's newly renovated Central Library, which will re-open to the public tomorrow morning (October 1st) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. For the past two years or so, the Central Library branch -- which originally opened in 1965 near Fifth and Denver in downtown Tulsa -- has been getting a complete overhaul, both its exterior and interior.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Nathan Pritchett, executive director of Fab Lab Tulsa. This popular nonprofit, which opened in Tulsa (near 7th and Lewis) in 2011, offers, per its website, "community access to advanced manufacturing and digital fabrication tools for learning skills, developing inventions, creating businesses, and producing personalized products. Fab Lab Tulsa is one of over 700 MIT-chartered Fab Labs in more than 70 countries and the first in the southeastern region of the United States.

On this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, we speak with Scott Phillips, a Tulsa-based entrepreneur and innovator -- and avid "hacker" -- who was recognized as a "Champion of Change" in a 2013 ceremony at The White House.

On this edition of ST, we speak by phone with Robert Penn, a British writer and journalist whose books include, "It's All About the Bike," a bestselling memoir of craftsmanship. Penn joins us to speak out his new book, just out from W.W.

On this installment of StudioTulsa, we welcome the bestselling author Mark Kurlansky back to our show. Kurlansky's latest book, which he discusses with us today, is "Paper: Paging Through History." It's a detailed and deeply researched volume that both explains and explores one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past 2,000 years or so, the ability to produce paper in ever more efficient ways has supported -- if not driven -- the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art.

On this edition of ST, we speak with P.W. Singer, who is a strategist and senior fellow at the New America Foundation; the founder of NeoLuddite, a technology advisory firm; and the author of several award-winning books. Singer is widely considered a leading expert on trends and tactics in 21st-century warfare, and he'll be giving a free-to-the-public lecture tonight (Tuesday the 29th) on the TU campus. The talk is entitled "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know," and it begins at 7:30pm in Helmerich Hall.

(Please note: This show originally aired back in March.) Our guest on ST is Marc Goodman, whose still-in-progress professional career has focused on law enforcement and technology; he's served as everything from a street police officer to a senior adviser to Interpol.

On this edition of ST, we speak with journalist and editor Rick Tetzeli, who's the executive editor of Fast Company -- and who's also the co-author, with Brent Schlender, of "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader." This newly released biography is, as was noted by a book critic for Business Insider, "detailed and thorough....

On this edition of ST, we welcome Roger Mailler, an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Tulsa. Mailler tells all about a big event that's organizing here in Tulsa; it's the third-annual Heartland Gaming Expo, happening this coming weekend (April 10th through the 12th) at the Cox Business Center in downtown Tulsa. As noted of this event at its website, the Heartland Gaming Expo "invites computer gaming enthusiasts of all ages to explore the industry’s products, designs, and latest technology.

Why are we so addicted to our cell phones, our Facebook pages, our email In Boxes, and so forth? Some say it's a culture-wide (and incurable?) case of "FOMO" -- or, fear of missing out. On this installment of ST, we explore that fear by speaking with Christina Crook, a Canadian journalist. Back in 2012, Crook disabled the data on her smartphone, turned off her email, and entirely avoided the Internet for 31 days. That experience is chronicled in her new book, "The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World," which she discusses with us today.

On Tuesday, March 3rd, the citizens of Tulsa will vote on a $415 million bond for Tulsa Public Schools. This bond -- which would not raise taxes -- is focused on four areas: facilities and classrooms, books and classroom technology, transportation, and libraries. As we learn on today's show, the bond is part of TPS's 20-year capital improvement plan to transform and expand aging facilities while also making schools safer throughout the district.

(Please note: This program originally aired in September of last year.) On this edition of ST, an in-depth discussion with David Rose, an award-winning entrepreneur and instructor at the MIT Media Lab who specializes in how digital information interfaces with the physical environment. Rose also founded Ambient Devices, which pioneered the technology used to embed Internet information in everyday objects like lamps, mirrors, and umbrellas.

On this installment of ST, a fascinating chat about historic preservation -- how it works, how it's changed over the years, and how we learn so much from it -- with Fenella France, who's the Chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division at the Library of Congress. She's also worked for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service, and from 2001 to 2007, she was the project and scientific manager for Art Preservation Services in New York.

(Note: This program originally aired earlier this year.) The Internet is, of course, bringing massive changes to our lives -- and bringing them rapidly -- but how often do we really consider what these changes mean, or how they will affect us? In the not-too-distant future, for example, no one will remember what life was actually like before the Internet. What does this unavoidable fact mean? What lessons can we draw from it?

Our guest is Luke A. Nichter, an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University: Central Texas, and a noted expert on the Nixon tapes. Tomorrow night, Thursday the 4th at 7pm, TU's Oklahoma Center for the Humanities and Book Smart Tulsa will co-present a free-to-the-public lecture by Professor Nichter on "The Nixon Tapes: 40 Years Later." This event will happen in Kendall Hall on the TU campus -- not in TU's Tyrrell Hall, as was originally announced.

On this edition of ST, an in-depth discussion with David Rose, an award-winning entrepreneur and instructor at the MIT Media Lab who specializes in how digital information interfaces with the physical environment. Rose also founded Ambient Devices, which pioneered the technology used to embed Internet information in everyday objects like lamps, mirrors, and umbrellas.

The "Rediscover Gilcrease" weekend -- a two-day, free-to-the-public gala happening at the museum on September 6th and 7th -- will feature unique attractions, special activities, and lots of family-friendly entertainment. Among the highlights, without question, will be the official opening of the striking new Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease. Several different lectures and presentations will be presented at the Helmerich Center, and one of them will be given by our guest today. Our guest is Brian Hosmer, the H.G.

Dr. David Casarett is a physician, researcher, and tenured associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He's a long-practicing and widely published palliative care expert -- and also the author of an entertaining and well-written new general-audience book, "Shocked: Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead." As a critic for The New York Times has recently noted, this book is "a comprehensive review of the fascinating science of resuscitation.... A specialist in end-of-life care at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr.

"Imagine. Design. Fabricate." Such is the tag line for the Hardesty Center for Fab Lab Tulsa. Fab Lab Tulsa, as it's commonly called, is -- per its website -- a nonprofit "entity that provides community access to advanced manufacturing and digital fabrication tools for learning skills, developing inventions, creating businesses, and producing personalized products. Fab Lab Tulsa is one of over 150 MIT-chartered Fab Labs in more than 40 countries and the first in the southeastern region of the United States.

The Internet is, of course, bringing massive changes to our lives -- and bringing them rapidly -- but how often do we really consider what these changes mean, or how they will affect us? In the not-too-distant future, for example, no one will remember what life was actually like before the Internet. What does this unavoidable fact mean? What lessons can we draw from it?

Organized labor, generally speaking, has had a tough time of it in our country over the last several decades; from coast to coast, for many reasons, professional unions have been minimized, marginalized, disrespected, demonized, etc. But has this also been the case for today's professional musicians? Our guest is Raymond Hair, Jr., the President of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (or AFM). This labor union, founded in 1896, is the largest organization in the world representing the interests of professional musicians.

(Note: This interview first aired earlier this year.) We speak by phone with Molly Knight Raskin, a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Psychology Today, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere; her TV credits include two PBS documentaries. Raskin is also the author of "No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet," which The Daily Beast has hailed as "a fascinating biography, but...also a history of the Internet and those who took it from clunky dial-up service to the speed-of-light marvel.

Today we speak by phone with Molly Knight Raskin, a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Psychology Today, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere; her TV credits include two PBS documentaries. Raskin is also the author of a new book, "No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet," which The Daily Beast has hailed as "a fascinating biography, but...also a history of the Internet and those who took it from clunky dial-up service to the speed-of-light marvel.

On today's ST, we offer a thoroughly gosh-wow-how-cool discussion with Stephen Voltz. Along with Fritz Grobe, Voltz is co-founder of the EepyBird Laboratory in Maine --- please see website here --- which is well-known for its experiments with ping pong balls, sticky notes, balloons, soda cans, Ivory soap, and so forth, with many of these experiments becoming viral videos at YouTube and other sites.