All Episodes - Things of Interest
Things of Interest is hosted by Serena Chen and Sophia Frentz, and is a podcast that encompasses, in its purest form, things that we find interesting. Our discussions often center around technological advancements and how they affect social issues. As two socially-conscious millennial nerds, who is better placed to talk about artificial intelligence, leadership, bitcoin, quantum computers, gene editing, and fandom? Probably no-one.fandom? Probably no-one.
View Podcast Details40 Episodes
Vaccines
You all saw this coming, right? We couldn't have one of our hosts be a genetics PhD and not geek out about the new mRNA vaccines.
Pandemic Brain
We're easing back into it with a chat about how this pandemic has affected our brains and general functioning.
Allyship
What does it mean to be a good ally? How can better support each other without drawing unwanted attention to ourseleves? What does allyship mean in a world obsessed with individual personality, and how do we normalise and advocate for different styles of allyship?
Scams
Today: scams. Sophia talks about the wild ride that is Elizabeth Holmes's Theranos. How are we scammed? What do they target? How can we protect ourselves, without losing trust and goodwill?
Feelings to Action
I can only describe this episode as catharsis. We start with a mini-therapy session as we discuss our feelings and the different ways we manage them. Then, as we feel stronger and more capable, we move on to discussing the real change that we can influence to make the world a better place for everyone. This episode uplifted me and placated my worst anxieties. I hope you enjoy it too.
AI in Healthcare and Societal Anxiety
Two topics today: First, we revisit artificial intelligence, and its uses (and dangers) in healthcare. Second, we talk about climate and societal anxiety — how to do better in an increasingly scary world, while taking care of ourselves and our mental health.
Perfectionism and Procrastination
Why do we procrastinate? How do we overcome our perfectionist tendancies, without sacrificing quality and pride? Today we have a nice, lowkey, casual chat about our personal approaches to perfectionism and procrastination, and riff of what works and doesn't work for us.
Privacy and Trust
How do we ensure our privacy in an increasingly digitised world? How does trust work in this space and how is it different from what we understand? What is informed consent when we cannot be informed, when it is impossible to be informed? And if we cannot consent, who should manage that consent? Governments? Corporations? Neither or both? And what does this mean for our genetic information?
White Supremacist Terrorism
This is not a happy episode. This is not a light episode. We spend some time processing the tactics, groups and propaganda that lures people into white supremacist online groups. We are a country still in mourning, so please skip this episode if needed. Take care of yourselves. Arohanui.
Cryptography (and Global Warming)
Today's episode is a bit of a two-for-one: listen to the first part to learn about the ins and outs of how to send secret messages (and how your information is privately stored online!). Here's the thing that you probably can't hear in the audio though: there was a heat wave when we were recording, and it got so hot we could barely think. And cryptography is a subject that requires a lot of thinking! So, listen to the second part (starting at 29:29) to hear us lament about global warming, and the things we can do to alleviate and hopefully avoid the worst possible future. Throw in a classic Sophia rant™ about mental health, and you've got yourself a classic Things of Interest episode! Enjoy.
Marketing
Today we grapple with multinational corporations endorsing social justice messages as a part of their marketing. How does this empower rising social movements? How does this dilute their civil rights messages? And how might we approach this with the right balance of support and skepticism? We then chat about the gamer identity, and how that niche has become a hotbed for hate. And how we can offer different aesthetics for gaming culture that's pastel and soft and nice.
Quantum Computing
Have you ever wanted to know how quantum computers work? Brace yourself for this episode, because we're going to go deep down into the weeds of the strange world of quantum mechanics, and learn how a new class of computers emerges from this weird and wacky world.
Science is Broken (feat. CRISPR babies)
Happy 2019! Science's funding model is fundamentally broken! Meanwhile, someone used CRISPR to edit germ line genes and we potentially have no idea how it might manifest! Listen to two former scientists wail about science. Happy 2019!
Humans and Technology
How has technology changed what it means to be human? How we view our identities? How have machine learning algorithms conditioned our brains and who is to blame? How do we make technological leaps without doing harm? How does technology affect how we talk about ethics and morality? We also chat about the cultural and linguistic changes that comes with technology: our increased awareness of mental health issues, our ability to communicate through memes. And finally, how we can spend time with friends irl when everyone is extrememly on the internet.
Rejection and Failure
How do we deal with the inevitable rejections and failures we'll experience in life? Today we talk about how we've dealt with rejection in our lives, and what we've learned from it all.
Resilience
How do we overcome stress, pain, and trauma? Today we talk about resilience: how it manifests personally, interpersonally, and at companies and in communities. How did we learn acts of resilience? What is the interplay between resilience and health? Answers (almost) to that and more.
Culture
This is a very personal episode for both of us. Today we talk about our own histories — childhood memories, experiences, and how the communities around which we grew up have shaped our own culture. We talk about how we relate to our parents, our families. How Sophia's time growing up in Lebanon shaped her view of the world and how she reacted to events like 9/11. How Serena's journey back to China wasn't quite what she had hoped for. But most of all, we find that these concepts of culture, community and home are things that we can build for ourselves. In this episode, we're a little more vulnerable than usual. We enjoyed it, and we hope you do too.
Free Speech
Today, Serena and Sophia pick apart the ins and outs of free speech. What is free speech? Does absolute free speech exist at all? How does it relate to the Overton window? How does access affect the impact and effectiveness of free speech? What kind of speech is inventivised in a world where The Algorithm controls what we see? Also: racial sentiment, code of conducts, and why everyone should learn a new language.
Erica Chan, Part 2
In part two: academia, science, and the shortcomings of our education system. Being a role model for others, discrimmination and the flexibilities in life, working with people, being the smart kid, and more. Enjoy!
Erica Chan, Part 1
Today we have a very special guest: Erica Chan is a published science fiction author, a lawyer, and someone who delivers such great chats we had to break this episode up into parts. For our frist part we hear about her story: how she started writing and how she became a lawyer. We touch on laws around techonolgy, data privacy, corporate morality, dystopian fiction, representation, technology as a tool for empathy, and more! Enjoy :)
Good Habits, Bad Habits
Getting to get through life reasonable happy, healthy, and productive is all a part of being a Real Human Adult. Today Serena and Sophia talk about habits: the good, the bad, the ugly. We talk about how we get over procrastination, how we make time to do the things we love, how our routines have evolved, and how we face-off with the ennui of life.
Video Games
Special guest Dr. Alayna Cole joins us this episode as we get deep into the nitty gritty of diversity, inclusion and representation in video games.
Pseudonyms
What is in a name? Today we talk pseudonyms, identity, and personal perception. Is your name a branding tool, something to be co-opted then discarded when necessary? Is it a family treasure, something imbued with history, ancestry, and deep spiritual meaning? Is it a commodity used to strengthen unpopular opinions, or an anchor that ties us to remaining decent human beings? When is it these things, and how do we reconcile the paradoxical nature of the names, handles, and pseudonyms we use throughout life?
Global Warming
Join us as we grapple with the inevitable march towards climate doom! What is there left for us to do, if anything at all? What pieces of our culture and our societies need to be refactored in a post-global-warming world? Should we just give up and shoot off to Mars? How would that even work?
Blockchain
How many chains could a blockchain block if a blockchain could block chains? Today we get deep in the weeds to talk about the details behind blockchain: what is it? How does it actually work? And how does it relate to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? And more importantly, how is this affecting our world? How is it changing it, if at all? And what does it mean for the future?
CRISPR
CRISPR is an incredibly new and fascinating techonology in gene science - a technique that allows us to programmatically edit genes. This episode, we really get in the weeds, and discuss what it is, how it works, what the current research looks like and the ethical and moral implications of such a technology.
Emotional Labour
Emotional labour is important, invisible work that we all do - and it's great! It strengthens relationships and makes us better people. The problems arise when there is an imbalance, when a member of a relationship is left to do the majority of the labour, while the other reaps the benefits. Today we discuss this labour: what it is, how historically women are expected to perform the vast majority of it, and how it interplays with our relationships. We make our usual diversions into work, unions, pay equity, and discuss how to be better reciprocators of emotional labour ourselves.
Filmmaking
Welcome to the wonderful world of film. Today we have the talented and insightful Cassandra Tse joining us as we discuss the power of films, what they mean to us and how it interacts with the people in society. We touch on the political power of movies (for both conservative and progressive messaging), representation, modern myths, #MeToo, film as a training tool for empathy, the emotional impact of stories, how women are represented on screen, awards, and how everything interplays with the public consciousness.
Happy 2018
Join us for a chat on the happenings and horrors of 2017, and our hopes and dreams for 2018.
Social Media
How is social media making us all less sociable? Today we talk about social networks, the morally ambiguous things they do, how it served as a manipulation tool during elections, how the economic model of the Internet (advertising) incentivises companies to put up with bad actors, abusive users, and sometimes even lead them to act immorally by themselves. We also touch on the horrific situation on Manus Island, and the #MeToo movement of women coming out against their sexual harrassers and abusers. And of course, how post-capitalism continues to be a nightmare. It's a fun episode!
Arohanui
This episode we talk race, culture and identity in New Zealand with the wonderful Marcelle Wharerau. Did our teachers in high school communicate the importance of NZ history enough? What cultural aspects did colonialism imprint on Māori and what did it erase? How does it affect other non-European New Zealanders, even now? And what is Pākehā culture?
Self Care
Is self care another mushy fad, or is it underrated and critical to our lives? Does it mean staying in bed and binge watching TV or does it mean going outside for a run? Or both? How do we care for ourselves in this tumultuous world?
Finding Strength
Where do we find strength? How do we take care of ourselves when everything feels hopeless? How do we deal with feeling a lot, or nothing at all? How do we deal with feeling overwhelmed? What are our rituals to tune out the world? Also: relationships, found family, and change.
YELLING INTO THE VOID
We react to the events of Charlottesville, the danger of white moderates and neo-nazi sympathisers, free speech, the importance of continually interrogating your own beliefs. On the topic of things that infuriate us, we touch on the Google screed. From 32:53 we officially run out of emotional energy and do a 180 and ask each other about the positive things that have happened in our lives lately. We hope this podcast finds you smiling, despite the current state of the world. Take care of yourselves.
Government, poverty, welfare and you
Today: the ins and outs of MMP, bicameral parliaments, welfare, political segregation, poverty, and the paradox of choice. And of course: VOTING. Sophia then gives us the low-down on a particularly silly section of the Australian constitution. But yeah. Go vote!
Celebrity
What is a reasonable amount of responsibility to expect from high-visibility individuals? Why are some celebrities so vehemently defended when they've done something wrong, while others shamed for the public's enjoyment? How do we navigate a world that is increasingly intrusive and less authentic? Plus, we gush over our shared love of Suzy Cato. Content warning for chats around suicide and how people respond to it from 28:36 to 35:14.
Avril Lavigne is Dead
CONSPIRACIES. What makes people believe them? How do we fight against them? When are they real? Also: fake news, journalism, and the investigation into reality itself.
Communities
This week: guest host Leesa Charlotte joins us to chat about communities — from the old to new, organic to artificial, mundane to extreme.
Scifi
Probably our nerdiest episode to date. Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect, Star Trek, Animorphs, with the usual distractions and foray into race, gender and identity, and how that manifests differently in different cultures. Also: Mars Trilogy, The Three Body Problem, Orphan Black, Steven Universe, mild Joss Whedon, Gattaca, Gravity, Arrival, good/bad storytelling, and the distribution of the future.