Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: The political questions of science and technology
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kaméa Chayne
4.8 • 694 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“I think the bigger question is not necessarily specifically about physics, but generally speaking, about how we culturally engage with science and the role of science in our communities and how it shapes our mindset and what our mindset about science is. ”
Joining us in this episode is theoretical physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, whose research on small-scale particles points us to a large, cosmic picture. From particle physics and astrophysics to astronomy and Black feminist science studies, Chanda’s work spans a wide range of disciplines, practices, and texts.
Named as one of 10 people who helped shape science in 2020 as part of Nature’s 10, Chanda also leads in expanding awareness of and unpacking racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression that continue to govern scientific scholarship, particularly the field of physics. Through her deep love of math and physics as a form of storytelling, Chanda is committed, in her own words to “understanding the biggest story there is: the origin and history of the universe”—histories stemming from pluri-cultural lenses.
Tune in to this episode as Chanda talks through some of the themes explored in her latest award-winning book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, pointing to the entanglement of Western scientific institutions tethered to specific cultural and historical hegemonies. Shining a light on the political nature of technology, she problematizes supremacist ways of knowledge-seeking and questions universalized visions of advancement—including the idea that expanding the accessibility of broadband internet connection to every community on Earth is a shared and necessary goal of inclusivity.
(The musical offering featured in this episode is Trust The Sun by Oropendola. The episode-inspired artwork is by Fernanda Peralta)
This episode was brought to you by our supporting listeners. Join us on Patreon to help us keep our show alive: www.greendreamer.com/support
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I have a quick but important ask. As you're probably aware, Green Dreamer is an independent |
| 0:07.9 | podcast and we don't take on corporate advertisers to fund our work because we don't want those |
| 0:13.7 | considerations to influence our curiosities or our abilities to question whatever it is that we want to question. |
| 0:22.3 | So if you value and believe in our work, this is our call out. |
| 0:26.8 | We need your direct support in order to continue this podcast. |
| 0:30.7 | And you can help us out so, so much through a paid substack subscription to my newsletter at |
| 0:37.3 | camaya.substack.com or through a one-time |
| 0:40.4 | donation at greendreamer.com slash support. It really means a lot to have you here and we're so |
| 0:47.6 | grateful for whatever form or level of support that you're able to share with us. |
| 0:56.0 | You're listening to Green Dreamer, a listener-supported podcast, and I'm your host, Kamea Shane. |
| 1:02.0 | As we embark on a new year for the show, we would love to invite you to join our Patreon community, |
| 1:08.0 | where we'll begin to share bonus episode offerings, some of my own reflections |
| 1:11.9 | on these conversations, and more. If you've been with us for a while, you also know that we |
| 1:17.3 | often explore ideas and perspectives that go against mainstream currents in order to seed more |
| 1:23.3 | imaginative thinking for what could be. So if you value our platform and curiosities and intention and want to support us to break |
| 1:31.1 | through the noise of mainstream media, join us today on Patreon at greendreamer.com |
| 1:37.0 | slash support. |
| 1:40.7 | From my point of view, the problem is when someone walks up and is like, no, that's the only way to look at the world. |
| 1:46.1 | And I remember, for example, like, Stephen Hawking, towards the end of his life would talk about how, like, there was no need for God anymore because we had physics. |
| 1:55.3 | And I'm paraphrasing and potentially poorly paraphrasing, but that was my takeaway from it. |
| 2:03.5 | And I'm actually not a person who has like faith in the supernatural, but it's my point of view as a physicist that actually |
| 2:09.5 | what we do as physicists doesn't tell us anything about whether there's a God or not. That's not |
... |
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