In Vanishing Culture, editors Luca Messarra, Chris Freeland and Juliya Ziskina bring together voices exploring what it means to lose access to our shared cultural record in the digital age. From disappearing websites and delisted music to fragile licensing agreements and platform shutdowns, the book traces how corporate control, technological change, and neglect are reshaping what survives... and what vanishes.

In this episode, Messarra and Freeland are joined by contributor Katie Livingston to discuss the forces driving cultural loss today, the stakes for libraries and public memory, and what it will take to build a more durable, accessible digital future.

Read Vanishing Culture for free at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/vanishing-culture-2026
Purchase in print from Better World Books or your favorite local bookstore: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/vanishing-culture-a-report-on-our-fragile-cultural-record-9798995425014/new

This conversation was recorded on 4/17/2026.

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In Data Cartels, legal scholar Sarah Lamdan exposes the shadowy industry built around collecting, packaging, and selling our personal data. She reveals how powerful companies hoard information and use aggressive tactics to maintain control—turning data into a commodity that can deepen inequality and restrict the democratic flow of knowledge. Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) speaks with Lamdan about the hidden power structures behind the data economy.

Grab your copy of Data Cartels: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=33205

This conversation was recorded on 11/30/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/book-talk-data-cartels

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore how the information we generate every day—email addresses, phone numbers, browsing habits, even biometric data—circulates through vast digital systems that shape our lives in ways we rarely see. Their book examines the hidden infrastructures of data collection, surveillance, and algorithmic decision-making, revealing how these systems influence culture, power, and identity in a networked world. Internet governance scholar Laura DeNardis speaks with Sinnreich and Gilbert.

Grab your copy of The Secret Life of Data: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048811/the-secret-life-of-data/

This conversation was recorded on 4/18/2024. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-secret-life-of-data

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In The Apple II Age, historian Laine Nooney tells the story of the computer that helped launch Apple, and reshape personal computing. Introduced in 1977, the Apple II became a cultural phenomenon not just because of its hardware, but because of the vibrant software ecosystem that grew around it, from classroom staples like The Print Shop to early games and creative tools that defined a generation’s first encounters with computers. Historian Finn Brunton speaks with Nooney about how the Apple II helped create the culture of personal computing and the broader historical impact of this influential machine.

Grab your copy of The Apple II Age: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo195231688.html

This conversation was recorded on 7/13/2023. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/the-apple-ii-age

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

In Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, journalist Vauhini Vara explores how the technologies we use to understand the world—search engines, social platforms, and now AI systems—are also reshaping how we understand ourselves. Drawing from her own experience using chatbots to write about her sister’s death, Vara reflects on what happens when our most human questions, memories, and emotions are filtered through systems designed to analyze and monetize them. Humanities scholar Luca Messarra speaks with Vara about the promises and limits of machine understanding.

Grab your copy of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age: https://www.vauhinivara.com/searches

This conversation was recorded on 2/26/2026. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/searches-book-talk

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

For more than three decades, Cindy Cohn, the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been at the center of the fight to protect privacy, free expression, and innovation online—taking on the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, defending encryption, and pushing back against efforts to weaken digital security in the name of safety. In her new book, Privacy's Defender, she reflects on the landmark cases that shaped the modern internet, the values that guide EFF’s work, and why privacy is not about hiding wrongdoing, but about preserving human autonomy and democracy in a networked world. Rainey Reitman, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, leads our conversation.

Grab your copy of Privacy's Defender: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051248/privacys-defender/

This conversation was recorded on 02/23/2026.

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Computer scientist Sayash Kapoor joins legal scholar Kevin Frazier to discuss “AI as Normal Technology,” the paper he co-authored with Arvind Narayanan, arguing that artificial intelligence is not an apocalyptic superintelligence or miraculous cure-all, but a powerful, ordinary technology shaped by human institutions and incentives. Kapoor challenges today’s AI hype and panic, urging us to see AI less as destiny and more as infrastructure—and to focus on governance, accountability, and public benefit.

Grab your copy of AI as Normal Technology: https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology

This conversation was recorded on 01/29/2026. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/ai-as-normal-technology

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge

Author Edward Wilson-Lee joins Brewster Kahle to uncover the astonishing true story behind The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books. Wilson-Lee chronicles the adventures of Hernando Colón, who sailed with his father Christopher Columbus before setting out to build a library of everything ever printed—a quest marked by shipwreck, mutiny, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge.

Grab your copy of The Catalogue Of Shipwrecked Books from The Booksmith: https://www.booksmith.com/book/9781982111403

This conversation was recorded on 6/28/2022. Watch the full video recording at: https://archive.org/details/book-talk-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books

Check out all of the Future Knowledge episodes at https://archive.org/details/future-knowledge