{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Biography & Memoir","slug":"new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642","podcast_index_feed_id":580642,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT3954564801","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/biography/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/fbd0c2d2-f054-11e8-a8ce-cb9f219b63bb/image/dedd9fb04a5206bed692bcedf1f086ea.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":2020,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T16:22:18.513920+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642"},"episode":{"title":"Thomas S. Mullaney, \"How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information\" (W. W. Norton, 2026)","slug":"thomas-s-mullaney-how-we-disappear-a-personal-history-of-information-w-w-norton-2026","published_at":"2026-06-28T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642/thomas-s-mullaney-how-we-disappear-a-personal-history-of-information-w-w-norton-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2192617481.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2192617481.mp3","summary":"This is the third time I have the great fortune of interviewing Tom Mullaney. I can hardly think of a more worthy ambassador for the history discipline, and the work we are discussing today, I believe, will serve as the perfect bridge from Tom’s historical scholarship to the wider, reading public. We are discussing Tom’s latest book, How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information (W.W. Norton, 2026). Tom’s book takes on some of the most philosophically rich ideas at the center of both history and memory. Over time, things come apart: objects, archives, ephemera, people, memories, histories. For millennia, we relied on common tools to remember the past: oral tradition, writing, and artifacts. In under 200 years, we developed more advanced information technology like the camera, phonograph, typewriter, computer, and more. The information encoded by these devices has a shelf life too, decaying over time, disintegrating, becoming obscured, getting deaccessioned. How We Disappear explores this process through the lens of family tragedy: the death of Tom’s parents and the attempts to recover and remember the past. What happens when we try to recover the lives of our parents, the people who shape our world, and what do we do when we discover the unexpected? To take us through his brilliant new book, I’m pleased today to have Tom Mullaney on the podcast. Thomas S. Mullaney is Professor of History and UNESCO Chair in Digital Futures at Stanford University. Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography","meta_description":"This is the third time I have the great fortune of interviewing Tom Mullaney. I can hardly think of a more worthy ambassador for the history discipline, a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4562,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642/episodes/thomas-s-mullaney-how-we-disappear-a-personal-history-of-information-w-w-norton-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-biography-memoir-580642/thomas-s-mullaney-how-we-disappear-a-personal-history-of-information-w-w-norton-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}