Greater Than Code
The Human Side of Technology
About the show
For a long time, tech culture has focused too narrowly on technical skills; this has resulted in a tech community that too often puts companies and code over people. Greater Than Code is a podcast that invites the voices of people who are not heard from enough in tech: women, people of color, trans and/or queer folks, to talk about the human side of software development and technology. Greater Than Code is providing a vital platform for these conversations, and developing new ideas of what it means to be a technologist beyond just the code.
Featuring an ongoing panel of racially and gender diverse tech panelists, the majority of podcast guests so far have been women in tech! We’ve covered topics including imposter syndrome, mental illness, sexuality, unconscious bias and social justice. We also have a major focus on skill sets that tech too often devalues, like team-building, hiring, community organizing, mentorship and empathy. Each episode also includes a transcript.
Greater Than Code on social media
Episodes
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045: Sexual Assault and Project Callisto with Lynn Cyrin
September 6th, 2017 | 53 mins 27 secs
In this episode, we talk to Lynn Cyrin, a developer on the Project Callisto sexual assault reporting application. In this episode, we talk about institutional betrayal, the importance of keeping survivor information private and the technology behind th...
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044: Lazy Perfectionism and Performative Diversity and Inclusion with Shanise Barona
August 23rd, 2017 | 49 mins 11 secs
In this episode, we talk to Shanise Barona about the terms "lazy perfectionism" and "performative diversity".
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043: The Accessibility of Board Games with Mischa Lewis-Norelle and James Edward Gray
August 16th, 2017 | 1 hr 57 secs
In this episode, James Edward Gray and Mischa Lewis-Norelle join us to talk about the accessibility of board games, talk about the various different kind of games and particular challenges of each category,
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042: @CallbackWomen and Organizing Conferences for Diversity and Inclusion with Carina C. Zona
August 9th, 2017 | 1 hr 11 mins
In this episode, Carina C. Zona joins us to talk about making a difference with her organization, @CallbackWomen, why diversity and inclusion is so important to have at conferences, and sending signals and/or indicators that encourage people to apply to speak at your conference.
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041: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mind Manipulation with Casey Watts!
August 2nd, 2017 | 53 mins 30 secs
In this episode, we talk with Casey Watts about cognitive behavioral therapy and mind manipulation.
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040: F*ck It And Be Nice
July 26th, 2017 | 50 mins 14 secs
In this episode, we talk about communication on the Internet and especially in social media. Topics covered include dealing with jerks, teaching by example and practicing restraint.
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Episode 039: The B-Side of Software Development with Scott Hanselman
July 11th, 2017 | 48 mins 39 secs
We talk to Scott Hanselman, about struggling and prevailing, instilling systems thinking values on children, and being a teacher.
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Episode 038: Category Theory for Normal Humans with Dr. Eugenia Cheng
July 5th, 2017 | 1 hr 9 mins
Dr. Eugenia Cheng joins us to talk about math, and even more specifically, category theory. Then we talk about changing the terminology around gender to focus on character traits instead.
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Episode 037: Failure Mode with Emily Gorcenski
June 21st, 2017 | 54 mins 21 secs
Emily Gorcenski talks about data science, failure modes in software and in democracy, and open data and open science.
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Episode 036: Metaphors and Microservices with Matt Stine
June 7th, 2017 | 1 hr 14 mins
Matt Stine joins us for a conversation that starts out about consulting and morphs into a meta-conversation about rigorous communication, ubiquitous language, metaphors, and microservices.
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Episode 035: Behind the Scenes at npm with Laurie Voss
May 31st, 2017 | 1 hr 3 mins
Laurie Voss joins us to talk about what goes on behind the scenes at npm, including setting workplace culture, technical hiring, and organizing engineers.
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Episode 034: Systems Thinking in the Real World
May 24th, 2017 | 1 hr 1 min
In this episode, we talk about new ways to organize society around a culture of plenty rather than a culture of scarcity. Along the way we discuss the intersection of corporations and open source and the gatekeeping that prevents marginalized people from participating in open culture.
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Episode 033: Mental Illness with Greg Baugues
May 17th, 2017 | 49 mins 47 secs
Greg Baugues talks about how mental illness affected his life and early career as a software developer. Collectively, we discuss stigma, shame, fear, our personal experiences, and individual coping mechanisms.
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Episode 032: Curation vs Algorithms: Who Is Writing Our History? with Amy Unger
May 10th, 2017 | 55 mins 10 secs
Amy Unger joins us to talk about accessing and preserving history, categorizing information, and digital vs human curation.
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Episode 031: Retrospectives and Agile Fluency with Diana Larsen
May 3rd, 2017 | 50 mins 24 secs
Diana Larsen joins us to talk about an earlier episode (#28) that we did where we touched on retrospectives and Agile Fluency.
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Episode 030: Essential Developer Skills with Tom Stuart
April 28th, 2017 | 1 hr 20 mins
Tom Stuart stopped by to talk about software development over the years, “junior” and “senior” developer nomenclature, good mentorship, and OOP.