BBC Radio Podcasts from The Digital Human

The Digital Human

Update from the Digital Human Team

The Digital Human is pausing to focus on what everyone's talking about - AI

Reminiscence

Aleks explores how AI can aid in the care of people living with dementia.

Permanence

Aleks Krotoski explores the durability of existence in the digital world.

Cursed

Aleks Krotoski traces the origin of an iconic internet curse - Smile Dog.

Subvert

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world.

Matchmaker

From AI to offline, Aleks Krotoski explores dating in the digital world

Synthetic

How can we get what we need from synthetic human companions?

Nope

Aleks Krotoski looks at the digital world and those quitting it and dropping out.

Utopia

Aleks discovers if high tech megaprojects will be utopian dreams, or crumbling follies.

Reunited

Aleks Krotoski explores what it means to reunite in the digital world.

Disk

Aleks seeks out the last people selling, and experimenting with, floppy disks.

The Orbital Human

Aleks Krotoski looks up from the screen to the heavens and the tech orbiting the planet.

Dialogue

How can we avoid being silenced by AI moderation? Aleks explores the rise of Algospeak.

Overturn

Aleks Krotoski explores what happens when, once freely given, data turns dangerous.

Retreat

Aleks Krotoski explores the value of retreat from the outside world, both on and offline.

Salvage

Aleks Krotoksi examines how we salvage value from legacy systems, structures and objects.

Unfinished

Aleks Krotoski explores whether the digital world results in more unfinished business.

Curate

When algorithms choose who can see what, what becomes of our relationship with the arts?

Generate

When AI art generators produce images in seconds, where can human imagination bloom?

Schadenfreude

Aleks Krotoski explores Schadenfreude in the digital world.

Implant

Aleks Krotoski asks how far we can trust digital technology implanted in our bodies.

Bona Fide

Aleks Krotoski asks, how you fabricate a believable life if everything is out in the open?

Disinhibition

Aleks Krotoski explores disinhibition in the digital world

Paradigm

Aleks Krotoski explores how we deal with technological paradigm shifts.

Power

Aleks discovers how the digital economy has reshaped class and the rights of workers.

Flip

Aleks Krotoski explores how the internet strayed so far from its original purpose.

Solitary

Aleks Krotoski explores what it means to be solitary in our digital world.

Unintended

Aleks Krotoski asks if we've all become techno-fundamentalists.

Token

Aleks Krotoski finds out what happens when everything becomes a token.

Reflections

Aleks Krotoski asks if AI companions will be like imaginary friends of childhood.

Virtue

Aleks discovers if the digital world is still one that can be a force for good?

Function

Aleks Krotoski explores who owns the function of the devices we use.

Anticipation

Aleks Krotoski asks why we're always yearning for new technological solution to problems?

Partisan

Aleks Krotoski discovers how Hacktivists operate in Europe's last dictatorship.

Folk Wisdom

Aleks Krotoski asks how the online crowd can turn folk wisdom into misinformation.

Collapse

Aleks Krotoski explores what context collapse could mean in the metaverse.

Banished

Where did those deplatformed after the Jan 6th riots go and what have they been doing?

Fleeting

Aleks Krotoski asks if how we use technology has affected our attitudes to ephemerality.

Taint

Why are tech companies building a multi-billion dollar AI industry on discredited science?

Unfocus

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world.

Encrypted

Aleks Krotoski explores what can happen when the good & bad guys have access to encryption

Servitude

Aleks Krotoski explores the relationships between content creators and their audience.

Tilt

Aleks Krotoski explores the age old human urge to cheat.

Vilify

Aleks Krotoski explores what it's like to be 'villain of the day' on social media.

SOS

Aleks Krotoski on how ordinary people stepped in to save lives during India's second wave.

Shadow

Aleks Krotoski explores the impact of Sci-hub.

Orphaned

Aleks Krotoski talks to the children of parents now lost to them because of QAnon.

Legacy

Aleks discovers how software can leave a legacy.

Saved

Aleks Krotoski explores how we can preserve video games.

Find

Aleks Krotoski on why the world for people who need to hide is becoming increasingly small

Dreams

Aleks Krotoski discovers why people want to control their dreams.

Novelty

Aleks Krotoski explores the importance of novelty and if the digital world can provide it.

Treasure

Aleks Krotoski hunts for treasure in the digital world.

Troll

Aleks Krotoski asks why only the malicious breed of troll seems to thrive online.

Fated

Aleks Krotoski explores how toys might influence our technological futures.

Stream

Aleks Krotoski explores content versus culture in the digital word.

Monstrous

Aleks Krotoski asks what digitally native monster myths tell us about our fears of tech.

Sacred

Aleks Krotoski explores the sacred

Nocturne

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital night.

Trust

Aleks Krotoski explores how remote working changes the dynamics of trust.

Solidarity

Aleks Krotoski asks if crowdfunding is the magic bullet for the post pandemic economy.

Normal

Aleks Krotoski asks if moving our lives online has given us a false sense of normality.

Five Minutes

Aleks Krotoski explores how quickly and easily misinformation can spread online.

Chrysalis

Aleks Krotoski explores the role of techology in lifting us above our realities.

Mourn

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world.

Symbiosis

Aleks Krotoski discovers how to live symbiotically with technology.

Disrupted

Aleks asks if Covid-19 is a technological accelerator, giving a glimpse into the future.

Coercion

How has technology extended the reach of emotional abuse?

Plenty

Aleks Krotoski asks, who will we be in the age of automation, AI and post-scarcity?

Sync

Aleks Krotoski explores our urge to converge.

Lab Rats

Aleks Krotoski finds out what happens when we are all turned into digital lab rats.

Connections

Aleks Krotoski explores how the online space is changing our social connections.

Oops!

Aleks Krotoski explores an example of unintended consequences in the digital world.

Faceless

Aleks Krotoski asks whether we still have the option to remain faceless.

Messiah

"He's not the messiah..."

Devotion

Aleks Krotoski tells a story of where divinity, technology and mental illness all collide.

Character Witness

Aleks Krotoski on how social media is being used as a character witness to convict.

Uncomfortable

Aleks Krotoski wants to have an uncomfortable conversation.

Animism

Aleks Krotoski explores if some our anxieties around AI and automation are cultural.

Between

Aleks Krotoski takes a look at the space between us.

Ghoul

Aleks Krotoski asks what it is that draws people to the dark corners of the web.

Cameo

Aleks Krotoski explores the tension between storytelling and privacy online.

Obsession

Aleks Krotoski explores the thin line between passion and obsession online.

The Analogue Human

Aleks Krotoski celebrates the 100th Digital Human with a special analogue episode.

Numb

Are we using tech as a digital sedative? Aleks explores why we want to numb ourselves.

Haven

Aleks Krotoski explores whether it is possible to find a haven online.

Crutch

Aleks Krotoski explores the impact digital technology is having on the way we live.

Wisdom

Aleks Krotoski finds out if wisdom, or only data, can be shared in the digital world.

Illusion

Aleks Krotoski explores what happens when an online illusion meets reality.

Snake Oil

Aleks Krotoski explores why science is being drowned out by Snake Oil online.

Gentrification

Aleks Krotoski asks 'has the internet been gentrified?'

Rescue

Can technology empower a person to turn from a victim to a rescuer?

Subservience

Aleks Krotoski explores if how we treat our robots impacts how we treat one another.

Average

Aleks Krotoski explores the unexpected advantages of average.

Flawless

Aleks Krotoski explores the disconnect between real life flaws and the perfect life online

Harm

Why do we sometimes remain silent when others need help? Aleks explores why we hold back.

Jigsaw

Aleks Krotoski discovers how the information others have about you affects your life.

Detached

Aleks Krotoski asks whether we can become detached from ourselves using technology.

Joy

Aleks Krotoski wonders if it's possible to convey a sense of joyful abandon online...

Unnoticed

Aleks Krotoski enters the world of the unnoticed, all the content that no-one ever sees.

Confidante

Aleks Krotoski explores how effective the digital world is as a confidante.

Regret

Aleks Krotoski explores regret, those moments of should have, could have, would have.

Friction

Aleks Krotoski explores the unforeseen consequences of a frictionless digital life.

Oracle

Aleks Krotoski explores living in a digital world.

Vortex

Aleks Krotoski asks if blaming social media for recent political upheaval misses the point

Bliss

Aleks Krotoski asks if there are some things that we would be better off not knowing.

Visage

Aleks Krotoski discovers how a face changes a robot from a machine into a social being.

Tribe

Aleks Krotoski considers the concept of 'tribe' in the modern world.

Resist

Aleks Krotoski looks at how our online world can be a portal to a better physical world.

Shame

Aleks Krotoski asks if technology is changing our experience and relationship with shame.

Insatiable

Aleks Krotoski asks why we just cannot get enough of what our digital devices dish up.

Protection

Aleks Krotoski explores living in a digital world.

Duped

Aleks Krotoski explores the world of spam, scams and caches of forgotten gold.

Ritual

Aleks Krotoski explores whether we use rituals enough in the digital world.

Sin-eaters

Aleks Krotoski uncovers the harm that comes to those keeping the internet safe.

Silence

In a digital world Aleks explores whether silence is becoming harder to experience.

Alternate

Follow The Digital Human's Aleks Krotoski as she heads down a rabbit hole.

Echo

Aleks Krotoski explores how much of what we do online is akin to talking to ourselves.

Subconscious

Aleks Krotoski explores to what extent technology can tap into our unconscious mind.

Authenticity

Aleks Krotoski asks what it means to be authentic in a digital world full of filters.

Anger

Aleks Krotoski explores the role of digital media in our age of anger.

Lol

Aleks Krotoski asks if what we find funny has changed with digital media.

Perspective

Aleks Krotoski explores whether technology can allow us to walk in another man's shoes.

Haunted

Aleks Krotoski asks if we are haunted by our technology, or are we haunting it?

Traces

Aleks Krotoski explores whether it's true that, 'I'm recorded, therefore I am'.

Jennifer

Aleks Krotoski looks for the woman who made vlogging famous, then mysteriously disappeared

Sublime

Aleks Krotoski explores the often ignored physicality of the digital world.

Changeling

Aleks Krotoski explores why parents are so fearful of their children's technology use.

Lost and Found

Aleks explores if people are more likely to find lost items using online social networks.

Wayfinding

Aleks Krotoski compares technological solutions to our intuitive wayfinding skills.

Taste

Aleks Krotoski explores whether or not the digital world is changing food culture.

Home

Aleks Krotoski asks whether home can be anywhere you can go online.

Work

Aleks Krotoski looks at work in a digital world.

Imagine

Aleks Krotoski explores how technology may be unlocking, and aping, human imagination.

Body

Aleks Krotoski asks what the advent of digital technologies has meant for the human body.

Mind

Aleks Krotoski explores living in a digital world.

Doppelganger

Aleks Krotoski explores the world of the digital doppelganger

Vigilante

The web is a gateway to online vigilantism, but heroic actions come with a price

Detection

Aleks Krotoski explores the impact of the web upon the age-old process of detection.

Silt

Aleks Krotoski asks if we know what to keep and what to throw away in the digital age.

Seduction

Aleks Krotoski explores how technology is impacting on seduction.

Rear Window

Aleks Krotoski goes 'people watching' online and offline to find out how they differ.

Breathe

Aleks Krotoski explores the overlap between technology and the natural world.

Magic

Aleks Krotoski explores if we treat technology like magic.

Secrets

Aleks Krotoski explores the impact digital technology is having on secrets.

Ethics

Aleks Krotoksi explores whether we can embed ethics into our technologies.

Maps

Aleks Krotoski examines what digital mapping has meant for our understanding of the world.

Nostalgia

Aleks Krotoski explores if the internet is a nostalgia machine.

Abandon

What happens when we abandon a place? Aleks explores abandon both on and offline.

Language

Aleks Krotoski asks if language is a technology and how it has changed in the digital age.

Risk

Aleks Krotoski explores how our monkey brains cope with the risks of the digital world.

Sell

In the digital world everyone sells to us, and we sell ourselves to everyone.

Broken

Aleks Krotoski asks how the concept of broken has changed in a digital world.

Quantize

Aleks Krotoski asks how human beings can cope with a world saturated by data.

Whispers

Aleks Krotoski asks if the the digital world has ushered in an age of misinformation.

Voice

Aleks Krotoski asks if the digital world is muting the human voice.

Time

Aleks Krotoski looks at our oldest and most universal technology - timekeeping.

Detox

Aleks Krotoski asks if we could all do with a detox from our digital devices.

Isolation

Are our connected modern lives making us lonelier than ever?

Transgression

Aleks Krotoski asks if the internet fuels the breakdown of social and moral boundaries.

Mischief

On April Fool's Day, Aleks examines if mischief is an essential part of the online world.

Chance

Aleks Krotoski explores whether serendipity can exist in the digital world?

Last Word

Aleks Krotoski looks at whether our online lives are transforming our experience of death.

Augment

Aleks Krotoski asks if we have all become cyborgs without even knowing it.

Tales

Aleks Krotoski looks at whether how we tell stories has changed with the digital world.

Intent

Aleks Krotoski looks at whether we have all become techno-fundamentalists.

Memory

Aleks Krotoski asks how digital devices are changing our memories.

Influence

How has the digital world changed the way opinions are voiced and shaped?

Diaspora

Aleks looks at how different cultures combat the homogenising effects of technology.

Crowded

Aleks Krotoski looks at group think in the digital world.

Crush

Crush: Aleks Krotoski explores how the digital world has impacted upon love.

Conviction

Aleks Krotoski looks at religious belief and the internet.

Conceal

What is the biggest threat to privacy: governments, corporate entities or our friends?

Control

Is control over one's digital life an illusion? And what happens if control is lost?

Capture

In a new series, Aleks Krotoski takes a journey through the digital world.

Adaptation

Aleks explores how technology can give someone back a life that had seemed gone forever.

Dark

We might want to drown it out in light, but as Aleks discovers darkness can be good for us

Value

Aleks Krotoski asks if the digital world is changing how we value things.

Wander

Have we sacrificed the pleasure of travelling to discover new places and ourselves?

Urban

Aleks Krotoski explores what technology tells us about ourselves and the age we live in.

Altruism

Aleks Krotoski asks if the digital world is allowing us to be more altruistic than ever.