YOU: Technology + Identity

Digital assistants have become a normal, but not necessarily seamless, part of our lives. In this episode of YOU, host Claire L. Evans and Lillian Rincon, who leads the team developing Google Assistant, dig into what our growing relationship with digital assistants says about who we are and how we relate to one another.

Is virtual reality the ultimate escape? Done right, could it completely convince the user that they are in an entirely different place—or even an entirely different person? In this episode we explore how virtual reality is challenging our notions of who we are. Alvaro Morales, co-founder of the Reunions Project, uses VR to connect families across continents. Then, host Claire L. Evans talks with Unity Labs’ Timoni West about how VR isn’t just an escape: It could actually help make our reality better.

When it comes to technology, the United States government has a reputation for lagging behind the private sector. But in a time when technology runs our lives, the real question is whether the government can use it to be more transparent and connected to the public. First, we hear from Anna Piperal about e-Estonia, the most advanced digital society in the world. Then host Claire L. Evans talks with Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code For America, on how the government can better harness technology to serve a tech-hungry population.

This week on YOU, host Claire L. Evans digs into blockchain, this trendy new thing everyone seems to be talking about—but that no one really seems to understand. Our guest Saya Iwasaki of Bitski talks about the mysterious origins of blockchain; how it’s being used to protect our money, our information, our art, and our identities; and its potential to change the entire internet—and possibly the world—forever. Artist Mitchell Chan explores the uses and philosophy of blockchain in conceptual art, and Grayson Earle and Maya Binyam talk about using blockchain to make bail.

So many people are searching for love, and dating apps are one of the most popular ways to find it. How can looking at the ways people date online reveal more about what we want and who we are? In the first episode of YOU, host Claire L. Evans talks with app developer Justin Long about how he hacked Tinder, photo editor Kelly Rakowski revamps old school personal ads for the modern age on Instagram, and Bumble’s former in-house sociologist Jess Carbino reveals how much dating has changed over the years—and how it hasn’t.