Pam Selle

Ignore All Previous Instructions

A podcast about tech, culture, and society. Hosted by Pam Selle and Sarah Withee with special guests

Author

Pam Selle

Category

Technology

Podcast website

podcasters.spotify.com

Latest episode

Nov 27, 2025

Where to listen?

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Episodes

Turkey turkey, turkey turkey turkey 27.11.2025

Turkey, turkey turkey turkey. Turkey turke turkey (turkey) turkey turkey turkey. Turkey turkey turkey!https://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf

The Evolution of Educational Technology 15.11.2025

Sarah invites us to walk through the last several decades of technology use in education (particularly K-12). This one is dedicated to the under-appreciated school IT departments.

Fun in programming and hacking vending machines 17.10.2025

Pam brings the topic this week of "fun in programming." More nostalgia, talking about how it feels in modern programming, the joy of problem solving. Also, we talk about how Sarah is hacking vending machines!

Do you remember your first computer? 01.10.2025

This episode, Sarah brings the topic and Pam & Sarah explore the intersection of technology and nostalgia, sharing personal experiences with early computers and video game consoles. The talk about the evolution of technology, the resurgence of "old tech", and how nostalgia influences modern culture.

Season 2 opener! Now co-hosted with Sarah Withee! 12.09.2025

Pam and Sarah bring back the podcast! I guess? Pam seems unsure. They talk about "unjaded internet." AI is discussed (of course), reflecting on AI since they last chatted in the new year's episode. What about social media and the youth? And Pam misquotes TS Eliot.

Pam and Helen Horstmann-Allen talk about money, optimism, and sustainable action 14.03.2025

Pam Selle and Helen Horstmann-Allen, a self-identified radical optimist, talk about optimism, the challenges of decentralized products, the contrast between online and physical communities, and the importance of aligning personal values with financial decisions. What if there are ethics in investing? What are yours? Helen shares her insights on finding sustainable paths in personal and professiona...

Pam and Meredith explore herbalism, blockchains, and intuition 26.02.2025

Pam is joined by Meredith Finkelstein, an engineer, herbalist, and artist, who shares her unique journey from an early interest in nature to her current exploration of herbalism and blockchain technology. They end up diving into lucid dreaming, the wellness industry, menopause, and intuition. And Pam gets to ask Meredith about blockchain and why she's interested in it, crypto (cryptocurrency)...

Pam and Ben Garvey deal with pasts/presents/futures in life and technology 14.02.2025

Pam and Ben Garvey talk about data viz, remote work, job searching, IRL networking, startups, and more. There's a dash of AI discussion (of course), the magic secret of Networking (the people kind), and what if all software was modifiable? They also talk about the future of decentralized platforms and in praise of boring technology. Pam's job search eBook: https://pamselle.gumroad.com/l/beyondther...

Pam and Kelley wonder where all the cowboys (and developers I guess) have gone 31.01.2025

Pam and Kelley talk about developer relations and the changing landscape of "developer communities." They wonder where all the cowboys, er, developers, have gone. Kelley teaches Pam about 'product-led growth' (aka make things good and people buy it?). They also talk about how centering humans in technology, ephemeral data, and being vulnerable online, and of course a dash of philosophy and ethics.

Pam and Sarah meet again to reflect on 2024 and predict 2025 17.01.2025

Pam and Sarah Withee, of pilot episode fame, get together to reflect on 2024 and ring in 2025. When in doubt, put an AI on it. And what about that dog who just wants to play basketball?

Pam and Tanveer Anoy talk feminism 27.12.2024

Pam speaks with Tanveer Anoy, founder of Mondro, a Bangladeshi Queer Archive, and the Bangladesh Feminist Archives. They talk about the cultural context of LGBTQ+ issues in Bangladesh, the founding of the first queer archive, and lots on feminism, including intersectional feminism and transnational feminism. https://mondro.org/about-mondro-2/ https://bdfeministarchives.org/

Pam and Mjumbe discuss appropriate technology, cities, and participatory budgeting 13.12.2024

Pam and Mjumbe Poe talk about "appropriate technology," the recent International Network on Appropriate Technology conference (INAT, which does *not* have a silly gnat mascot, unfortunately). They also talk about students (young adult humans) and cities and get into participatory budgeting a bit, which seems pretty neat. Apartheid Mapping: https://www.dair-institute.org/spatial-apartheid-mapping/...

Pam and Nora find technology as a way of expressing artistry 29.11.2024

Pam is joined by Nora Gibson, an artist and researcher who explores the intersection of technology, dance, and embodied experiences. Nora shares her journey from traditional choreography to integrating technology into her art, discussing the impact of technology on human connection and the loneliness epidemic. They delve into the philosophical aspects of technology as a tool for creating meaningfu...

Pam and Georgia talk tech policy and (oof) US politics 15.11.2024

Pam is joined by Georgia Iacovou, a tech policy writer with a focus on AI and media training. They talk about tech policy, journalism, the US election (oof), how the 'left' can't stop cancelling itself, and Pam spends a bit of time calling Elon Musk a loser.

Pam flies solo and talks propaganda. Also, The Substance 01.11.2024

Pam flies solo due to some civic duty interfering with recording. This week she records a minisode and talks about voting (tis the season), vote swapping, ballot selfies, The Substance (f*ing insane), and the book Invisible Rulers, and talks about propaganda. swapyourvote.org Can you take a ballot selfie? https://www.vox.com/21523858/ballot-selfies-state-rules The Substance: https://www.imdb.com/t...

Pam and David Dylan Thomas take the diversions counter off the charts 18.10.2024

Pam and David Dylan Thomas take the diversions counter off the charts talking about David's work in inclusive design and filmmaking, the nature of time, personal brands giving the ick, and the challenges faced in the tech industry and The Internet At Large. Why talking about ideas feels better than "talking about yourself," the impact of success on artistic expression, and the implications of lang...

Pam and Asheesh discover it's all about relationships – and ticketing systems 04.10.2024

Pam is joined by Asheesh Laroia, an engineer who was involved in the Code for America pilot program linked to the IRS' e-file program. They talk about how making government systems more accessibly has direct impact on millions of Americans, that really it's all about relationships (and ticketing systems), and how things are possibly better, but maybe we're not noticing.

Pam and Christine decentralize the web 20.09.2024

Pam is joined by Christine Lemmer-Webber, executive director of the Spritely Institute and lead author of the ActivityPub standard. They talk about imagining a decentralized social web, what is means to be secure by default, and putting horse heads on cars so people better understand them.

Pam and Jasmine talk about rest, not REST 06.09.2024

Pam is joined by Jasmine Greenaway, and they talk about teaching computer science, wth is a data lake or vector databases, and talk about rest (not to be confused with REST), making things for yourself and for the joy of it, and that maybe plateaus get a bad rap.

Pam and Dawn imagine the solarpunk future 27.08.2024

Pam is joined by Dawn Wages, chair of the Python Software Foundation, Python community program manager at Microsoft, and lives down the street from Pam. They talk about open source, racism in open source, what does the next generation of software engineers want, and tell stories about the solarpunk future. Pam experiments with space noises for when the audio has to cut away.

Pilot: Pam and Sarah are diamond-level engineers 27.08.2024

For the pilot episode of Ignore All Previous Instructions, Pam is joined by Sarah Withee, polyglot engineer, open source maintainer, and cat fan. They talk about ethics in AI (what even is an LLM?), AI in government, WordPress vulnerabilities, and more. Pam rants a bit about how the City of Philadelphia exposed her data but didn't care.

Pilot: Pam and Sarah are diamond-level engineers [video] 26.08.2024

For the pilot episode of Ignore All Previous Instructions, Pam is joined by Sarah Withee, polyglot engineer, open source maintainer, and cat fan. They talk about ethics in AI (what even is an LLM?), AI in government, WordPress vulnerabilities, and more. Pam rants a bit about how the City of Philadelphia exposed her data but didn't care.

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