Our guest on this episode is Safiya Umoja Noble, Associate Professor of Information Studies and African American Studies at UCLA.

In this episode:

What happens when you type “black women” into a search engine? (1:15) — Or if you search for “good schools”? (3:15) — Is there any degree of algorithmic transparency available to the consumer of these products, and what are the limitations of that concept? (6:30) — How do you understand “colorblind ideology” in practice? (9:30) — What happens to an African-American woman hairstylist who wants to advertise her business on Yelp? (13:15) — Why we need engineers who are trained in the humanities (16:30) — High-tech industries’ demand for metals like coltan, copper, and gold, and the environmental consequences in countries such as Ghana (17:45)