Medieval Techno-Optimism with Jennifer Jahner
Show notes
This episode we talk about Roger Bacon, maybe not perfect for Instagram but not far off. There’s some medieval science (and using data to understand the medieval world), some alchemy, and some antichrist. Peter Thiel even gets a mention, but only briefly.
Guest
Jennifer Jahner is a Professor of English at Caltech, where she has worked since 2012. Trained in literature, she has migrated over time into histories of law, science, and rhetoric. Her current research examines the prehistory of “data science,” asking how medieval thinkers organized and aggregated large amounts of information and made inferences about the future. Find her on Instagram at jajahner.
Credits
- Host & Executive Producer: Matthew Gabriele. Find him on Bluesky @profgabriele.com or his homepage profgabriele.com
- Editor: Julia Schifini
- Music: “Sleeping Bags” by OTE
- Art: Ulysses Gabriele
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About Us
American Medieval is a podcast about the Middle Ages, but with an American twist. Each week, joined by expert guests, we’ll explore either some fascinating part of the medieval world, or some way Americans have used this period to help them understand themselves.
After all, if America has never been modern, it’s because we’ve always been slightly medieval.
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