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Women talkin' 'bout AI
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Women talkin' 'bout AI

Author: Kimberly Becker & Jessica Parker

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We’re Jessica and Kimberly – two non-computer scientists who are just as curious (and skeptical) about generative AI as you are. Each episode, we chat with people from different backgrounds to hear how they’re making sense of AI. We keep it real, skip the jargon, and explore it with the curiosity of researchers and the openness of learners.

Subscribe to our channel if you’re also interested in understanding AI behind the headlines. 

32 Episodes
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As AI shows up everywhere, something shifts, and it becomes harder to tell what’s human and what’s generated. In this episode, Jessica and Kimberly unpack how AI-driven convenience is reshaping education, relationships, identity, and even big systems (like markets and healthcare). They explore signaling, semiotics, and why “perfect” content can feel thin or unreal, and end with small ways to choose more human signals in a noisy world. Bonus: If you want to see how this episode ended, tune in ...
We’re kicking off 2026 with our most personal episode yet. This conversation wasn’t planned. We sat down intending to talk about what comes next for the show, and instead found ourselves in a deeper discussion about work, burnout, ambition, and what it means to live in a moment where AI is rapidly reshaping labor, identity, and trust. In this episode: Why “work is sacred” feels harder to believe and harder to let go ofBurnout, hustle culture, and the cognitive dissonance of automationLabor ze...
Best of 2025 brings together some of the most impactful conversations from this year on Women Talkin’ Bout AI. In this episode, we revisit our top 5 episodes of the year: Beyond Work: Post-Labor Economics with David Shapiro: A conversation about automation, empathy, and what remains uniquely human as AI reshapes work.Refusing the Drumbeat with Melanie Dusseau and Miriam Reynoldson: A discussion on resistance in higher education and their open letter refusing the push to adopt generative AI in...
The Trojan Horse of AI

The Trojan Horse of AI

2025-12-2401:20:44

In this final guest episode of the year, we explore AI as a kind of Trojan horse: a technology that promises one thing while carrying hidden costs inside it. Those costs show up in data centers, energy and water systems, local economies, and the communities asked to host the infrastructure that makes AI possible. We’re joined by Jon Ippolito and Joline Blais from the University of Maine for a conversation that starts with AI’s environmental footprint and expands into questions of extraction, ...
Why can AI crush law exams and chess grandmasters, yet still struggle with word games? In this episode, Kimberly and Jessica use Moravec's Paradox to unpack why machines and humans are "smart" in such different ways—and what that means for how we use AI at work and in daily life. They start with a practical fact-check on agentic AI: what actually happens to your data when you let tools like ChatGPT or Gemini access your email, calendar, or billing systems, and which privacy toggles are worth ...
What happens when you automate away a six-hour task? You don't get more free time ... you just do more work. In this impromptu conversation, Kimberly and Jessica break down what agentic AI actually does, why the "time savings" narrative misses the point entirely, and how to figure out which workflows are worth automating. WHAT WE COVER: What agentic AI actually is (and how it's different from ChatGPT)Jessica's real invoice automation workflow: how she turned 6 hours of manual work into ...
In this conversation, Kimberly Becker and Jessica Parker explore the concept of 'enshitification'—as articulated by Cory Doctorow in his book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It—as it relates to generative AI and tech platforms. They discuss the stages of platform development, the shift from individual users to business customers, and the implications of algorithmic changes on user experience. The conversation also explores the work of AI researchers Em...
In this conversation, we sit down with Dr. Michelle Morkert, a global gender scholar, leadership expert, and founder of the Women’s Leadership Collective, to unpack the forces shaping women’s relationship with AI. We begin with research indicating that women are 20–25% less likely to use AI than men, but quickly move beyond the statistics to explore the deeper social, historical, and structural reasons why. Dr. Morkert brings her feminist and intersectional perspective to these questions, off...
In this episode, Jessica teaches Kimberly about the "containment problem," a concept that explores whether we can actually control advanced technologies like AI and synthetic biology. Inspired by Mustafa Suleyman's book The Coming Wave, Jessica and Kimberly discuss why containment might be impossible, the democratization of powerful technologies, and the surprising world of DIY genetic engineering (yes, you can buy a frog modification kit for your garage). What We Cover: What is the con...
Refusing the Drumbeat

Refusing the Drumbeat

2025-10-1801:12:54

On saying no to “inevitable” AI—and what we say yes to instead. Kimberly and Jessica recently sat down with Melanie Dusseau and Miriam Reynoldson for an episode of Women Talkin’ ’Bout AI. We were especially looking forward to this conversation because Melanie and Miriam are our first guests who openly identify as “AI Resisters.” The timing also felt right. Both Kimberly and I have been reexamining our own stance on AI in education—how it intersects with learning, writing, and creativity—and t...
In this episode of Women Talkin’ ’Bout AI, we sit down with Rebecca Fordon — law librarian, professor, and board member of the Free Law Project — to talk about how generative AI is transforming legal research, education, and the meaning of “expertise.” Rebecca helps us cut through the hype and ask harder questions: What problem are we really trying to solve with AI? Why are we using certain tools, and do we even know what data they’re built on? We talk about: 🔹 How AI is reshaping the practic...
In this episode of Women Talkin’ ‘Bout AI, we start by discussing the findings of a 2024 study "Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI" (🔗 below). One overall finding is that women are 20–25% less likely than men to use generative AI, which unspools into something bigger: a story about power, voice, and who gets to shape the future. We also discuss own experiences in tech, noticing how the gender gap in AI isn’t just about access to tools. It’s about what counts as legitimate work,...
In this episode, we open up about something we haven’t shared publicly before: our decision to shut down Moxie, the startup we spent years building. We talk honestly about what led to that choice—the excitement of early growth, the challenges of raising money as non-technical founders, and the impossible reality of competing with free tools from tech giants like Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft. This isn’t just a story about one company. It’s about trust, expertise, failure, and the messy human ...
Today we sit down with Dr. Leslie Gruis — mathematician, NSA veteran, and author of The Privacy Pirates — to talk about the urgent importance of protecting personal information in our tech-driven world. From children’s online privacy to the rise of corporate data exploitation, Dr. Gruis shares both her insider experience from decades in national security and her practical advice for safeguarding our digital lives. 📚 About our guest: First president of the NSA’s Women in Mathematics SocietyCon...
Summary In this conversation, Jessica and Kimberly interview David Shapiro to explore the concept of Post-Labor Economics. They discuss the implications of automation and AI on traditional job structures, the need for new economic measurements, and the evolving social contract. They explore the potential of Universal Basic Income and the importance of education in preparing future generations for a changing economy. The discussion emphasizes the need for a shift in how we perceive work, pro...
In this episode, hosts Jessica and Kimberly are joined by Dr. Juliana Peloche, global educator and senior AI literacy advisor at Edith Cowan University. With over 20 years of cross-cultural teaching experience in Brazil, Chile, and Australia, Juliana shares how a curious 12-year-old student sparked her journey into AI education. Together, they explore why AI literacy is more than a technical skill—it's a foundation for critical thinking, equity, and ethics in the classroom. From digital basic...
🎧 Episode Summary Dr. Tamara Tate joins Jessica and Kimberly to talk about AI, education, and the evolving role of writing in a world where students can co-write with machines. Tamara shares how she transitioned from a 17-year legal career into education research, what she’s learning through the development of Papyrus AI, and why feedback, voice, and agency matter more than ever. The conversation covers everything from AI literacy and middle school classrooms to the complexities of funding, p...
In this episode of Women Talkin’ 'Bout AI, host Kimberly Becker sits down with Dr. Mathilde Cerioli—a cognitive neuroscientist, mom, and Chief Scientist at Everyone.AI—to unpack the complex, often messy intersections of child development, technology, and artificial intelligence. We cover: What AI can and can’t do for young mindsHow critical thinking actually develops—and why it can’t be outsourcedThe myth of "tech for tech’s sake" and why some edtech harms more than it helpsWhy your kid doesn...
What happens when a passionate educator steps away from the whiteboard and into the world of AI? In this episode, we sit down with Marissa Sadler Holder, a former classroom teacher turned consultant/entrepreneur, and the founder of Teaching with Machines. With a master’s in e-learning and recognition as a two-time recipient of SVS’s Leading Women in AI, Marissa brings a grounded, human-centered approach to AI literacy in education. We unpack her journey from teaching French to building a busi...
In this episode, hosts Jessica and Kimberly welcome Amanda Bickerstaff, founder and CEO of AI for Education. Amanda shares her journey from teaching to EdTech and discusses the current state of AI in education. Key topics include: The limitations and potential of AI tools in educationThe importance of AI literacy for educators and studentsHow generative AI is challenging traditional educational structuresEffective prompting techniques for AI systemsBalancing AI optimism and resistance i...
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