Ours is an era of breathless talk about innovation, technical change, and disruption –- all for the presumed greater good. But what if the focus on relentless innovation has obscured the more important work of maintenance and care? Historian Lee Vinsel discusses the trajectory of technical innovation and its valorization, as well as the devaluing … Continued


Guest: Alexander Stille is the San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of many books including Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism; Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic. His latest, The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune.