Educating to Be Human Podcast

In this episode of Educating to Be Human, host Lisa Petrides is joined by Lila Bailey, Senior Policy Counsel at the Internet Archive, to explore what it means to truly own something in a digital world, continuing this season's central theme of protecting and preserving open and decentralized access to information and knowledge. Together, they trace how human culture evolved as a communally shared experience - and how modern copyright law and digital gatekeepers have gradually closed off public knowledge, owned and created by the community. Lila unpacks the tension between traditional intellectual property, commercialization, and the foundational human drive to create, share, and remix ideas. Looking toward a more equitable future, Lila calls for efforts towards building public AI infrastructure - toolsets hosted by a diversity of entities such as libraries, schools, and civic institutions - that honor the ideals behind the "open" movement valuing community-built and -shared knowledge and culture.   Key Topics Covered The Human Default: Why open sharing and collective culture long predate copyright law. Digital Ownership: How licensing agreements distort what it means to "own" books and media. AI & The Commons: Navigating corporate extraction, reciprocity, and the pushback against Big Tech data harvesting. Public Knowledge Infrastructure: The vital role of memory institutions like the Internet Archive in protecting public data and open source tools. Rebranding "Open": Shifting the conversation away from legal jargon to focus on shared human values, community, and equitable access. Lila Bailey is Senior Policy Counsel for the Internet Archive. A seasoned attorney and copyright expert, Lila leads the library's policy work.  

In the Season 3 premiere of Educating to Be Human, we launch a series-long exploration of "open", in conversations with people who are working to ensure that public data, knowledge, and research remain open and freely accessible for all. Host Lisa Petrides is joined by sociologist and open science advocate Christopher Marcum, former Assistant Director for Open Science and Data Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In this conversation, Lisa and Chris trace the origins of open from its 17th-century roots and Robert Merton's 1940s ideal of knowledge as a non-excludable public good to the modern policies governing taxpayer-funded research today. Together, they confront the mounting threats facing open systems - from big tech monopolies and AI data scraping to the rise of closed digital gatekeepers - and explore why open infrastructure is as vital to a thriving society as physical roads and bridges. This episode challenges us to rethink how we protect public knowledge, sustain open infrastructure, and cultivate the human curiosity necessary to question the technological systems shaping our world. Christopher Steven Marcum, Ph.D., is an expert in federal data policy, open science, and scientific integrity who has served in key advisory roles across the Executive Office of the President. As Assistant Director for Open Science and Data Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), he developed transformative science policies, including the 2022 OSTP Public Access Memo and the 2023 Federal Scientific Integrity Framework, and spearheaded the White House designation of 2023 as the Year of Open Science. As Senior Statistician and Senior Scientist in the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, he directed an information policy portfolio covering data access, research security, information quality, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence across federal science and statistical agencies. In that post, he co-authored major Executive Branch information policies including OMB Memoranda M-25-05 on open government data access and M-25-21 on federal AI adoption, chaired the Federal Statistical Research Data Center Program Executive Committee, and represented OMB on key interagency bodies including the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, the Aging Forum, and the Children's Forum. Currently an independent consultant, Chris serves as Senior Advisor for Federal Data Policy at the Federation of American Scientists and Senior Fellow at the Data Foundation. He is an elected fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a full member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society.  

In Season 2 of Educating to Be Human, we asked questions about education: who controls what we learn? Who benefits? Who gets left out? What would it take to democratize education? And simply, why do we learn?  Lisa spoke with people across disciplines - community organizers, faith leaders, educators challenging traditional systems, civil servants, and business leaders - to chip away at these questions from different angles.  In this special episode, we revisit key moments from our conversations in Season 2, highlighting how our guests challenged us to think of what becomes possible when we center humans - not systems - in learning.  This special episode features clips from interviews with: Wendy Millet, founder of Gallop Ventures; Atman Smith, founder of the Holistic Life Foundation; Stephen Ritz, founder of the Green Bronx Machine; Chris Freeland, Director of Library Services at Internet Archive Joanna Strober, founder of Midi Health; Dr. Keith Curry, President of Compton College and CEO of the Compton Community College District; Maha Bali, professor of practice at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the American University in Cairo and co-founder of Equity Unbound; Paul Kruchoski, former senior U.S. diplomat and a career member of the Senior Executive Service; Fr. Jon Pedigo, a longtime social justice advocate and activist, faith leader within the Catholic diocese of San Jose, and executive director of PACT (People Acting in Community Together); Kassandra "Kassi" Talbot, educator, social justice advocate, and principal of Pescadero Elementary School.

In the season finale of Educating to Be Human, we turn our attention to rural education and the transformative power of community-centered learning. Host Lisa Petrides is joined by Kassi Talbot, educator, social justice advocate, and principal of Pescadero Elementary School, a small rural school on California's coastside. Born and raised in the same community she now leads, Kassi shares how participatory and community-based education, and a deep commitment to equitable, open education can drive lasting positive outcomes — not just in remote or non-urban schools, but across all systems of learning. This episode explores what it means to center humanity, care, and connection in education, reminding us that the lessons from small schools and rural communities often hold the keys to building a more inclusive and transformative future for all learners. Kassandra "Kassi" Talbot, EdD, is an educator and principal dedicated to her local rural schools. With nearly a decade of classroom experience teaching middle school social studies and high school Spanish, Kassi centers her work on antiracist and equitable practices. Her doctoral research, "Reclaiming the Story: YPAR in the Rural Social Studies Classroom," explored how youth can (re)claim history and stories through participatory action research. Kassi serves her community through local leadership, human rights training, and youth mentorship. She lives on the California coast with her dogs, and extended family — where she's working to build the kind of community her students will one day lead. LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/kassandratalbot https://www.lhpusd.com/   

Today, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from Educating to Be Human — and much has changed since we first recorded it. Back in September 2024, Lisa sat down with Ruth Mostern, Professor of History and founder of the World Historical Gazetteer, to explore how our sense of place influences the way we understand our past and our identities.  Through her groundbreaking project, the World Historical Gazetteer, Ruth enables historians and the public alike to visualize and contextualize historical events and relationships geographically, transforming static history into dynamic, place-based storytelling.  Since that conversation, we've seen how place names and their meanings continue to shift - and spark debate - reminding us just how deeply history is woven into geography. This year, Ruth and her team also launched something brand new: the Institute for Spatial History Innovation, or ISHI, at the University of Pittsburgh. https://ishi.pitt.edu/ - now the new home for the World Historical Gazetteer. Resources: The Institute for Spatial History Innovation: ishi.pitt.edu  Ruth Mostern at University of Pittsburgh: www.history.pitt.edu/people/ruth-mostern