Living in the Panopticon

Inspired by a 200 year old design for a more efficient prison called the panopticon, this show explores just a few of the ways we experience surveillance in society today, and how we respond to it. A story by Andrew Altschul about phones and loss, an interview with the founder of a site that uses cell phones to fight street harassment, and a speech about the joys of Facebook.

Host: Charlie Mintz
Producer: Charlie Mintz
Featured: Andrew Altschul, Ben Olmsted, Eli Edwards
Music: Zach Katagiri, Johnny Hwin, DJ Matic and Mikey Lee, Maxwell Citron, Johnny Hwin

Release Date: 14 January 2008

Listen to the Full Show:

Intro Story: Red Light Camera District

Charlie’s mom gets caught by a red light camera, before she even knows that such a thing exists… Why DO they exist, anyway? To keep order? To make money? To make Charlie’s mom pursue evasion technologies from seedy sources?

Story 1: A Man on Hold

We’re all familiar with the Patriot Act, the National Security Agency, and Carl Rove, but less familiar to us are the everyday instances of surveillance we experience. This is a story about a man with a telephone, which will make you never want to answer another call. Short fiction by Andrew Altschul.

URL’s: Andrew Altschul’s Web Site, Bonus Interview with Andrew Altschul

Story 2: If you can’t slap ’em, snap ’em.

How your camera phone, plus the internet, can help fight street harassment… and whether we even want that.

Producer: Charlie Mintz
Featuring: Eli Edwards and Hollaback

Story 3: Roger Doultry’s 250 Fingers

A few snarky reasons to do something most of us have probably already done… it’s typically called Facebook, although some may suggest that it’s a “participatory panopticon of the internet.”

Producer: Ben Olmsted

intro story image via flickr | story 1 image via flickr | story 2 image via flickr | story 3 image via flickr