Nature’s Past Episode 07 – click to play | right click, ‘save as’ to download
The problem of e-waste grows with each new mobile phone, music player, laptop computer or other type of consumer electronic device. Because many of these products are made with toxic substances, disposal is a major challenge. The environmental crisis of e-waste can be attributed to a strategy of industrial manufacturing developed over the course of the twentieth-century known as obsolescence. On this episode of the podcast, we hear from Giles Slade, author of the award-winning book Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, on this historical trend in manufacturing.
Also, Bill Turkel from the University of Western Ontario tells us about a workshop he held called “Hacking as a Way of Knowing”.
Please be sure to take a moment and review this podcast on our iTunes page.
Works Cited:
- Slade, Giles. Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.
- Sean Kheraj, Canadian History & Environment
Music Credits:
- ‘Running Man’ by short_hopper
- ‘Do It, Bucky’ by short_hopper
- ‘Intergalactic Journey’ by spinmeister
- ‘Hej rozmaring (Folk Flutes)’ by Grizzly616
- Giles Slade
- Bill Turkel
Kheraj, Sean. “Episode 7: E-Waste and Obsolescence.” Nature’s Past. 15 June 2009.

Sean Kheraj

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