Theatre Explores the Moral Quandaries of Tech - The Story
TechStuff
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Theatre and tech don't usually share the same stage. But that's changing. This season, two plays caught our eye: Data, a play about the inner workings of a data mining company, and Marjorie Prime, a play where grief, family, and AI collide. Karah interviews both playwrights: Matthew Libby (Data) and Jordan Harrison (Marjorie Prime). They discuss the origins of their plays, from failed collabs with AI chatbots to the internship with Palantir that never was. And how plays about technology can teach us about our humanity.
Data runs through March 29th. Tickets are at lortel.org
Marjorie Prime runs through February 15th. Buy Tickets at 2st.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:18.5 | Welcome to Tech Stuff. |
| 0:20.2 | I'm Kara Price, and today I have two very special interviews from an unexpected place, the theater world. |
| 0:27.4 | For those of you who don't know, in addition to being a tech enthusiast, I'm also a very passionate theatergoer. |
| 0:33.0 | And this season, I noticed quite a few shows opening on and off-Broadway that grapple with the moral |
| 0:37.8 | quandaries of our tech-fueled world. |
| 0:40.1 | So I went and saw two of them, Data and Marjorie Prime. |
| 0:44.3 | Data focuses on some of the darker sides of Silicon Valley behemoths, while Marjorie |
| 0:48.9 | Prime considers what it would be like to use grief tech to preserve a loved one's memory. |
| 0:54.0 | I sat down with both playwrights, and I wanted to share those conversations with you today. |
| 0:58.3 | Just a warning. |
| 0:59.4 | Both conversations have some spoilers, but don't worry, we'll tell you when that happens. |
| 1:04.2 | Let's start with Matthew Libby. |
| 1:05.8 | He wrote Data, which is currently running off Broadway through March 29th. |
| 1:10.3 | Matthew wrote the play eight years ago, but it is all too relevant today. |
| 1:14.1 | You'll see what I mean. Take a listen. |
| 1:18.6 | Welcome, Matthew. |
| 1:20.0 | Hi. |
| 1:20.5 | So without giving away any spoilers, can you just give us an overview of the play for those who haven't seen it? |
| 1:26.3 | Yeah, so data is set in a Silicon Valley tech company, a data mining company called |
| 1:31.8 | Athena Technologies, and it follows a young entry-level employee named Manish who works on the |
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