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Spark (Science-Technology)

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Next available on CBC Radio One Corner Brook 990
in 15 hours 26 minutes
Find another station or time for this show on one of 648 other stations & times
Host: Nora Young
Tech, trends, and fresh ideas. Nora has a love hate relationship with technology, culture, and armchair sociology, which she pursues on CBC Radio, on television, in print, and online.
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Genres: Science-Technology
Location: Canada
Language: English
Networks: CBC

Last updated 228 days ago Update show info

Recent Topics

2009-11-15 - Spark 91: CAPTCHAs, data visualization and romancing the phone

Sun, Nov 15 Listen

Luis von Ahn fights spam and digitizes books with CAPTCHAs and reCAPTCHA, John Lee plays matchmaker for mismatched shoes with unevenfeet.com, Daemon Fairless investigates texting and dating, December's issue of Esquire magazine has an augmented reality cover, Hannah Classen wonders why we don't have robotic butlers, Fernanda Viegas visualizes data with Many Eyes, and Lawrence Lessig explains the perils of openness in government

2009-11-08 - No new podcast this week

Sun, Nov 8 Listen

The Spark team has been hard at work for the past couple of weeks, working on a new project, which we hope is going to turn into something wonderful. We needed to carve out some extra time to work on it, though, so this week on the radio, a repeat broadcast of an episode of Spark from September. Thanks for listening and we'll be back with a brand new episode next week.

2009-11-01 - Spark 90: The pleasures and sorrows of work, continuous partia

Sun, Nov 1 Listen

Alain de Botton on the pleasures and sorrows of work, and Linda Stone on continuous partial attention and email apnea

2009-10-25 - Spark 89: Traditional knowledge, instant film, and online bord

Sun, Oct 25 Listen

V. K. Gupta protects ancient wisdom in the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, Jeremy de Beer on traditional knowledge and intellectual property, Spark Quest: Grant Lawrence tries out Sony's Party-shot camera accessory, Nora checks in with Andr Bosman of The Impossible Project, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty advises Patrick Horneker about writing for an international audience on the web, Pete Nowak updates Nora on Canadian net neutrality, Dan Misener explains geoblocking, and Roger Martin...

2009-10-04 - Spark 88: Tracking trash, the real value of stories, and socia

Sun, Oct 18 Listen

David Eaves explains VanTrash, Jennifer Dunnam tracks trash with MIT's Sensible City Lab's Trash | Track, Rob Walker co-curates the Significant Objects Project, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty gives advice about email subject lines, Rick Fogarty uses Skype for hairstyle consultations, Bernd Boesemeyer deals with a negative review of his B&B on TripAdvisor, and Mitch Joel explains why businesses should embrace online conversations

2009-10-04 - Spark 87: Open science, general knowledge, and doctors before

Sun, Oct 4 Listen

Tom Howell fixes his leaky sink with a little help from his father (and Skype), Daemon Fairless learns cabinetmaking, cooking, and guitar on YouTube, Jenny Carpenter explains Open Science, Mignon Fogarty (AKA Grammar Girl) explains where to place emoticons and links in email messages, Your Job Before the Internet: Dr. Stewart Cameron, Francois Jacques worries about covert Googling at his pub trivia night and Brian Cathcart wonders, "Is Google Killing General Knowledge?"

2009-09-27 - Episode 86: Digital forgetting, email salutations, and food pi

Sun, Sep 27 Listen

Andrew Feldmar is barred from entering the US after a border guard Googled his name, Viktor Mayer-Schnberger believes that digital technology should forget, Mignon Fogarty (AKA Grammar Girl) talks about email salutations and parentheses, Lynn Glazier explores the culture of sexual harassment among teens, Hannah Classen discovers what ever happened to the food pill, Dan Misener looks at the "new old" way to be a pirate, and Peter Nowak of cbc.ca/technology drops by for a Net Neutrality update

2009-09-20 - Episode 85: Augmented reality, chiptune jazz, and a world with

Tue, Sep 22 Listen

Luis Suarez explains how he got rid of corporate email and replaced it with social software tools, Marla Thirsk is still on dial-up, Cathi Bond explains two trends in augmented reality, science fiction author Bruce Sterling contemplates the future implications of AR, Daniel Jones tells the story of NBC versus the pirates, Andy Baio crowdfunds a chiptune cover of Kind of Bloop, and THWOMP revives classic video game music in their "Nintendo cover band"

2009-09-13 - Episode 84: Regrettable videos, Open Textbooks, and Twittering

Sun, Sep 13 Listen

Timothy Tackett (AKA Mr UNSTABL3) takes a bath in a Burger King sink, Bill Wasik and Hal Niedzviecki on regrettable online videos, and what to do about them, Hannah Classen wonders what happened to the promise of a flying car, Eric Frank from Flat World Knowldge publishes open textbooks, Kate Arkless Gray and the BBC's World Service preserve endangered sounds with Save our Sounds, and Cyrus Farivar dines at Twittering taco trucks

2009-08-26 - Spark in the Summer: Anil Dash and Gina Trapani on keeping las

Wed, Aug 26 Listen

Extended interview with Anil Dash and Gina Trapani.

2009-08-19 - Spark in the Summer: Gary Hustwit on Objectified

Wed, Aug 19 Listen

Extended interview with Gary Hustwit.

2009-08-12 - Spark in the Summer: William Deresiewicz on “The End of Solitu

Wed, Aug 12 Listen

Extended interview with William Deresiewicz.

2009-08-05 - Spark in the Summer: Rachel Wagner on digital culture and reli

Wed, Aug 5 Listen

Extended Interview with Rachel Wagner.

2009-07-22 - Spark in the Summer: Carl Wilson on MP3s and the Sound of (Pop

Wed, Jul 22 Listen

Extended Interview with Carl Wilson

2009-07-29 - Spark in the Summer: Glen Hougan on designing for seniors

Sun, Jul 19 Listen

Extended interview with Glen Hougan.

2009-07-15 - Spark in the Summer: Seth Godin on Tribes

Wed, Jul 15 Listen

Extended interview with Seth Godin

2009-07-08 - Spark in the Summer: Jane McGonigal on gaming for the greater

Wed, Jul 8 Listen

Extended interview with Jane McGonigal.

2009-07-01 - Spark in the Summer: Ed Burtynsky on 10,000 year old photos

Wed, Jul 1 Listen

Extended interview with Ed Burtynsky.

2009-06-24 - Episode 83: Corrupted files, what I wore, and email sabbatical

Wed, Jun 24 Listen

Scott Jaschik on trust and digital cheating in the classroom, Dan Misener looks at "What I Wore"-style blogs, Jenny Carpenter investigates forensic linguistics and sentiment analysis, and danah boyd takes an email sabbatical

2009-06-10 - Episode 82: Teen texting tales, accessible technology, and vir

Wed, Jun 17 Listen

Spark listeners call in with their terrifying teen texting tales, Al Rae tries to send and receive 80 texts in one day, Nora visits the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto, and Bill Wasik on how the internet is changing culture

2008-06-10 - Episode 81: Canadian broadband, Twaiku poetry, Cigarette vendi

Wed, Jun 10 Listen

CANARIE's Bill St. Arnaud explains the current state of Canadian broadband, and comments on the OECD's recent broadband report, Rayat Deonandan writes Twitter haiku poems, Michael Keferl of CScout Japan explains Taspo, the Japanese RFID-enabled "tabacco passport," and Hugh McGuire explores the future of books and publishing in the digital age at BookCamp Toronto.

2008-05-27 - Episode 80: Social Translation, Mapmaking 2.0, Drunk Dialing,

Wed, Jun 3 Listen

Ethan Zuckerman explains social translation and the multilingual web, Cyrus Farivar reports back from the Where 2.0 conference, Nora mentions Bad Decision Blocker iPhone app, and Gmail's Mail Goggles feature, and Andrea Reimer explains Vancouver's plan to open up municipal data

2008-05-27 - Episode 79: Digital preservation, Exclamation Marks (!!!) and

Wed, May 27 Listen

Seamus Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, explains digital preservation, Mignon Fogarty (AKA Grammar Girl) talks about exclamation marks and interrobangs, and Wally Satzewich starts a web-powered, veggie growing revolution called SPIN Farming

2009-05-20 - Episode 78: Soaking dishes, driving tech innovation with porn,

Wed, May 20 Listen

Stef and Luigi disagree about soaking dishes online with Sidetaker.com, Peter Nowak explains how the business of pornography fuels the business of technology, Kate Rich runs Feral Trade, a "freight network outside of commercial systems," and Cyrus Farivar admits his cultural laziness.

2009-05-13 - Episode 77: QWERTY, Objectified, and Last Year's Model

Wed, May 13 Listen

Nora delves into the deep, dark history of the QWERTY keyboard layout (guests include: Martin Howard, Bill Buxton, Stan Liebowitz, Philip Steadman, and Jared Spool), Gary Hustwit interviews industrial design heavyweights for his documentary Objectified and Anil Dash and Gina Trapani want you to buy great gadgets, then keep them with LastYearsModel.org

2009-05-06 - Episode 76: Online activism, lurking, mashups, and APIs

Wed, May 6 Listen

Anders Colding-Jrgensen created a real Facebook group about a fictitious cause: "No to the demolition of the Stork Fountain," Evgeny Morozov on Slactivism and the role social media can play in political activism, Jim Lebans defends lurking, Jer Thorp uses the NYT NewsWire API to control a smoke detector called the NewsAlarm, and explains the importance of APIs.

2009-04-29 - No new Spark this week

Wed, Apr 29 Listen

Nora asks for your help: Have you ever been asked to sign an online petition, or join a Facebook Group to support a cause. Have you ever wondered if signing up for these things can actually change anything?

2009-04-22 - Episode 75: Self-monitoring, interactive magazines, and a Twit

Wed, Apr 22 Listen

Gus and Penny (who are cats) use a Twittering Cat Door, Nicholas Felton on self-monitoring and Daytum.com, Nora and Elizabeth review some of the messy desktop contest entries submitted so far, Anand Agarwala explains human-computer action, and shows Nora Bumptop, and Tim Devin publishes I Left This Here for You to Read.

2008-04-15 - Episode 74: Religion in a digital age, WiFi t-shirts, and cura

Wed, Apr 15 Listen

Rachel Wagner researches the intersection of digital culture and religion, and what it means for how we understand the sacred, Liane Balaban reads her poem "Wireless Networks," Nora and Jesse Wente try out the WiFi t-shirt, and Jason Kottke curates the web

2009-04-10 - Hour-long Spark Special

Fri, Apr 10 Listen

As part of CBC's special programming on April 10, we put together a one hour-long "best of" program, featuring some of our favorite guests and items from past seasons, including: Ben Terrett's Things Our Friends Have Written On The Internet, David McCallum's Warbike, Christian Payne’s grandmother on Twitter, Dan James's shingling, Tom Howell's Techiquette, Celeste McWhorter's gamedar, and Jenova Chen's video games with a sophisticated emotional palette.