Technology—even when “sufficiently advanced”—isn’t magic. Algorithms aren’t spells cast by programmers. When we imbue tech with mystical powers, we lose sight of the human factors, from economics to culture, and politics, that shape how it’s actually designed and used.

Does Not Compute is a podcast about technology, people, and power brought to you by the Center for Information, Technology, & Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. At CITAP, we study technology as it’s tangled up in our lives and societies. On Does Not Compute, we’ll pry into the black boxes and get to know the people behind the code to understand technology platforms in context. Together, we’ll explore how old inequities get reinvented on new platforms, how unexpected communities unite for good (and harm), and how media manipulators play on our identities and emotions to spread lies.

If we want to fix our relationship to technology, we have to understand what’s broken first. Let’s dig in.