The Human Show: Innovation through Social Science

Mike Youngblood is a cultural anthropologist working at the nexus of social science and human-centered design. He is the chief conspirator behind The Youngblood Group, an innovation consultancy focused on reimagining critical products, services, and systems to foster equity, social justice, and environmental sustainability. He has conducted ethnographic work with people around the globe—including...

Sarah Pink is a design anthropologist, researcher, consultant and thought leader, whose work focuses on scholarship and intervention in the fields of technology design, digital technologies in everyday life and design for wellbeing. She is currently Director of the interdisciplinary Emerging Technology Research Lab at Monash University. Sarah’s work engages with contemporary issues and challenges...

In today’s episode we are joined by Anna Berza, founder and president of Asociația Inițiativa pentru Antropologie Utilă (Romanian Initiative for Useful Anthropology) and co-organizer of the conference to discuss WRNA 2019, its current theme and panels on the topic of Mental Health. This conference is a satellite event of the well-known annual international symposium “Why The World Needs Anthropolo...

Jeffrey Greger, UX Researcher at banking startup Varo Money, has a background in both design and anthropology with a BA in Industrial Design and recently completing an MA in Applied Anthropology at San Jose State University. His thesis research explored the challenges, opportunities, and ethical issues design professionals encounter when developing banking services with low-income communities in t...

Julien Cornebise is a Director of Research, AI for Good at Element AI and head of the London Office. He is also an honorary researcher at University College London. Prior to Element AI, Julien was at DeepMind (later acquired by Google) as an early employee, where he led several fundamental research projects used in early demos and fundraising. After leaving DeepMind in 2016, he worked with Amnesty...

Fumiko Ichikawa is Co-Founder and Managing Director at Re:public, think and do tank. She has studied human-computer interaction, and she has been the practitioner of ethnographic research in Japan and around the world. After the financial crisis and great earthquake that took place in Northern Japan in 2011, Fumiko co-founded Re:public. The company extensively work with cities and regional governm...

This field school aims to provide participants with an intensive, boot-camp style learning experience that includes academic grounding in business anthropology, opportunities to practice skills in the fields of international research, consumer behaviour, and storytelling and learn from experts in China, Africa, Brazil, India and the US through online guest talks. This week-long field school will t...

The conference aims to bring together technologists working in tech companies on emerging technology projects and applied anthropologists under the theme of championing socially-responsible AI. The specific objective is to show why anthropologists are needed and how they can add value, and to create a forum where people from both fields can network, share ideas, and collaborate across the discipli...

Laith Ulaby is Director of Research at Udemy, Lecturer in the MIMS (Master of Information Management and Systems) program at the UC Berkeley School of Information and teaches UX Research Methods as part of the UC Berkeley Extension UX Program. After completing his PhD in Ethnomusicology (anthropology of music and popular culture) at UCLA, Laith made the jump into applied research through a Mellon...

Mānuka Henare works at the University of Auckland within New Zealand and is a professor in Maori Business development. Manuka is foundation director of the Mira Szaszy Research Centre for Maori and Pacific Economic Development. Has advised governments, councils’ businesses and advised in policies among many other high profile projects. And has done research into Maori culture, Business and policie...

Greg Bennett is a Linguist and Lead User Researcher at Salesforce with extensive experience in the technology sector having previously worked for companies such as Yahoo! and Microsoft. He believes the core of user experience lies in the intersection of language and culture and utilizes ethnography and linguistics to cultivate empathy with users and inform design for the best possible user experie...

In today’s episode we talk to Steve about his blended experience in both the technology sector and the educational field ; the individual and collective manners in which people (both consumers and product teams) learn and the challenges of addressing that in an inclusive way; how learning happens in a multidisciplinary team; implicit vs explicit knowledge transmission; how to read and incorporate...

Jan Chipchase is a director of international research and design projects, writer, photographer and co-founder of Studio D Radiodurans, SDR Traveller and The Fixer List. He has over 15 years’ experience in running international projects, has authored three books, including The Field Study Handbook and is an accomplished international keynote speaker from TED to WEF. Before founding his own practic...

CPDP (Computers, Privacy and Data Protection) is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University. The platform was joined in the following years by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique and the Fraunhofer Institut für System und Innovationsforschung and has now grown...

Alexis Walker has over ten years of experience within research design and applying her skills as a social scientist and ethnographer in projects of both academic and business (having worked for companies such as American Airlines, Mars, and Root etc.). She has a PhD and focusses on researching the social aspects surrounding Technology and Science and during her PhD did an ethnography on project de...

Dr. Anupam Das is a linguist and an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, (IIMK) Kerala, India in the area of Humanities & Liberal Arts in Management. Dr Anupram has a Ph. D. in Linguistics with a minor in Information Science from Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He has done extensive research work on the topics of impression management, politeness, and...

Samantha Rosenthal is a digital anthropologists and User Experience Researcher who studies the ways in which digital technologies permeate our daily lives and experiences. She has applied anthropology within companies that create and sustain new digital technologies to help contextualize design within lived experience. Currently she is working at Task Rabbit as an experience researcher and has gra...

Today we are back again with the intelligent Susan Wardell who talks to us about her recent work on religion, ethics and care practices in Uganda and New Zealand. In this very special episode we also have a conversation about Christmas, the holidays and rituals, practices and ideologies that surround the holidays. Susan’s work: Wardell, S. (2018). A Stranger in the Name of Jesus: Exploring cosmopo...

In today’s episode, we talk to Nazima about her career path and the limitations of both the commercial and academic worlds. We discuss the transition from academia to private sector consulting, including the different forms of language used in each sector and how anthropologists uniquely contribute in the private sector. We explore the ethics of conducting research in the private sector. Finally,...

In today’s episode we talk to Stine about healing architecture, space, sensorics and home making; the manner in which she reconciled her interests in academia and the applied sector through the topic of healing architecture and a successful partnership with the fields of design and architecture; her way into a multidisciplinary PhD and how she built it blending anthropology with 2 other discipline...

Ari Nave is a design anthropologist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained as an anthropologist at UCLA, he is the founder of The King’s Indian - a strategic consulting firm sitting at the intersection of design and brand strategy. Focused on evolutionary psychology and behavioural economics, he works to fit ethnographic sensibilities into a start-up environment. Grounded in user-insights, A...

Kerry Gibson is a clinical psychologist and her research interests are in the areas of child and family psychology, trauma and psychotherapy. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where she is the Director of the Clinical Psychology Programme. She is also the former President of the New Zealand Psychological Society. Her research interests have recently...

Dr. Duncan Hay, currently a Research Associate at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL, London, has an extensive experience at the intersection of linguistics and technology. He received his PhD in 2012 in in English Literature from Manchester University, where his thesis looked at the writing of the London-based writer Iain Sinclair in relationship to the theories of urban space...

Dr. Duncan Hay, currently a Research Associate at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL, London, has an extensive experience at the intersection of linguistics and technology. He received his PhD in 2012 in in English Literature from Manchester University, where his thesis looked at the writing of the London-based writer Iain Sinclair in relationship to the theories of urban space...

Dr. Susan Wardell is a Professional Practice Fellow at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand). She is a medical/social anthropologist, with an interest in digital media technologies, particularly in relation to mental health. Her research on mental health and illness, especially among nonprofit workers, has spanned New Zealand and Uganda. She has additionally been involved with research ex...