The Good Robot

What does it mean to live in a world that is already broken, and what can disability justice teach us about creating more livable futures? In this episode of The Good Robot, Eleanor Drage speaks with Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire, authors of Broken Worlds, Disabled Kin: Strategies for Collective Survival, about disability, technology, accessibility, care, maintenance, and collective survival.
They explore how technologies from ramps to genetic medicine are shaped by social, political, and economic systems. The conversation takes us from why mainstream tech innovation can distract us from maintenance and repair, how "brokenness" is experienced unevenly, and what AI means for accessibility and disability justice. At its heart, this episode asks a powerful question: What are we maintaining, what are we repairing, for whom, and toward what kind of world?
Reading List:
Broken Worlds, Disabled Kin: Strategies for Collective Survival by  Kelly Fritsch & Anne McGuire
“Crip Technoscience Manifesto” by  Aimi Hamraie & Kelly Fritsch 
“Crip Technoscience” by  Kelly Fritsch and Suze Berkhout
War on Autism: On the Cultural Logic of Normative Violence by Anne McGuire 
Disability Injustice: Confronting Criminalization in Canada edited by Kelly Fritsch and colleagues
Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

What happens when we treat hearing as an economic duty, and global tech corporations turn assistive devices into a lifetime commitment?
In this episode of The Good Robot, Eleanor Drage sits down with medical anthropologist Michele Friedner (University of Chicago) to discuss her groundbreaking book, Sensory Futures: Deafness and Cochlear Implant Infrastructures in India. Together, they dismantle the normative project of "normalization" and expose the immense, hidden labor required to keep assistive technologies up and running.
From the strict boundaries placed on mothers in auditory-verbal therapy sessions to the global shadow economies keeping obsolete devices "on-air," Friedner shares a deeply personal and poignant look at what happens when tech forces a narrowing of the human experience. Ultimately, she points us toward a more beautiful alternative: "fugitive sensing", where multi-sensory care, touch, and love actively resist an ableist failure of the imagination.
Reading List:
Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India
Deaf and Incarcerated in the U.S.
The Obsolescence Issue
Feminist, Queer, Crip
Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds

Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

Most companies unwittingly undermine their biggest growth opportunities by ignoring the complex morality of social media—where good technology depends on who controls it, and who benefits. Hosted by Eleanor Drage, this episode features Crystal Abidin, Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, who exposes the hidden power plays behind platforms like TikTok, revealing how what’s 'good' or 'bad' technology is often a matter of perspective—and power.
This eye-opening episode, Eleanor and Crystal explore how social media’s ambivalence shapes youth cultures and influence—covering TikTok’s surprising origins, from climate activism to viral animals, and how state bans and geopolitical tensions transform global online communities. Crystal breaks down how content creators, from neurodivergent communities to cultural niche groups, leverage memes, humor, and subcultural capitals to forge solidarity and push back against systemic inequities.
Reading List:
https://wishcrys.com/
TikTok Cultures Research Network
Her work:
Abidin, Crystal. 2026. TikTok and Youth Cultures. Emerald Publishing.
Abidin, Crystal. 2026. Child Influencers: How Children Become Entangled with Social Media Fame. Polity Press. 
Abidin, Crystal, and Natalie Pang (eds). 2025. Internet Popular Culture and (Everyday) Politics: Methodological & Ethical Critiques from Southeast Asia. Routledge.
Gurrieri, Lauren, Jenna Drenten, and Crystal Abidin (eds). 2025. Influencer Marketing: Interdisciplinary and Socio-Cultural Perspectives. Routledge. 
Tiidenberg, Katrin, Natalie Ann Hendry, and Crystal Abidin. 2021. tumblr. Polity Press.
Warfield, Katie, Crystal Abidin, and Carolina Cambre (eds). 2020. Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media. Bloomsbury Academic.
Leaver, Tama, Tim Highfield, and Crystal Abidin. 2020. Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Polity Press. 
Abidin, Crystal, and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds). 2018. Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame. Emerald Publishing. 
Abidin, Crystal. 2018. Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online_. _Emerald Publishing.

In this episode of The Good Robot, Eleanor Drage sits down with David Griffiths, founding director of the nonprofit Then Try This. Inspired by a childhood spent coding pixels next to his mother’s traditional floor loom, Dave unpacks the deep historical links between textiles and programming, arguing that technology is never neutral and that true innovation relies on grassroots, participatory design.
They explore brilliant local projects like Sonic Kayaks, which use underwater soundscapes to map marine data for visually impaired paddlers, and Nergal, an accessible game tracking public health trends using specialized audio cues. Finally, they reveal the hidden, feminist histories of computing, showing how modern microchips directly owe their legacy to the complex creativity of Navajo weavers. Tune in to discover why the future of tech belongs to frugal, community-led innovations rather than just the next iteration of GPT.
Reading List:
Then Try This
Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture
Queer In AI: A Case Study in Community-Led Participatory AI 
Sensing Bodies: Engaging Postcolonial Histories through More-than-Human Interactions
Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo

Join host Eleanor Drage and guest Tara Merk as they explore how community-owned data centers can revolutionize digital ownership. Discover innovative models that challenge big tech's dominance, promoting sustainability and local empowerment. Learn from Germany's success in renewable energy and cooperative governance. This episode reimagines internet ownership, focusing on community needs for a fairer, greener future.
Reading list:
Tara Merk’s LinkedIn
Community Data Centers  
The making of critical data center studies 
Data infrastructure studies on an unequal planet  
Getting into fights with data centers: Or, a modest proposal for reframing the climate politics of ICT
Data Center Opposition Report 
Edited by: Meibel Dabodabo