Maurice, Paul and Jill welcomed R. David Lankes, who is the author of the newly-released book Forged in War: How a Century of War Created Today’s Information Society. The book is focused on data and media. We began our conversation by talking about how Dave was inspired to write this book, which goes back to when he joined University of South Carolina. He realized that his school contained two programs – journalism and library science – which merged data, media and society. The seeds of Forged in War began then.
The ah-ha moment for him – and what got him writing – was during COVID-19 and realization that we kept using war-related messaging. That got him thinking about the language we use and what is behind it. A lot of the information field was born during times of conflicts. That starting point drove him to dug into the history of information use, the development of technology, and the business models around them.
By telling an interesting historical story, Dave hoped to get people to think about the issues we are facing now. His view of history, information, data, and journalism led us on an intense, interesting, and educational conversation. Too much to note here (although you should know about epistemicide). You must listen to this episode!
Our next T is for Training will be in July 29 at 9 p.m. ET. Please join us!
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