Age of Technology

Washington D.C.  has been a lucrative place for startup companies over the past few years. A report from the Small Business Administration shows that, in 2013, more than 92 percent of businesses in D.C. are small businesses and employed about half of the workforce in the city. Bethany Mulcahy is the marketing director for Surprise Ride, a company founded in 2013 that offers children learning kits to help them develop creativity in a screen-free environment. In an interview, Mulcahy talks about what it is like being a startup in D.C.

What is the presence of diversity in the field of technology?  In this episode of Politicin’ with Taylor Moore, we talk to Cherisse Datu, an Asian-American woman who has held several positions in the world of politics, and was not afraid to express her true thoughts on the challenges of being a women of color in this field.

After the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., cities erupted in chaos. Philip Meyer, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press during the 1968 Detroit riots, published the Riot Commission Report, using data and social sciences to “count and sort and analyze the thoughts of that many people” to analyze race relations throughout the city. Scholars haven’t pinpointed the exact origin of data journalism. But Jennifer LaFleur, former director of computer-assisted reporting at ProPublica and current data editor at the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, said one of the earliest successes of using data and computers to tell stories was Meyer’s work for the Free Press.

At 17 years old, Hugh Herr, the future director of bio-mechatronics at MIT, had his legs amputated from the knee down after an ice-climbing accident. Undaunted, Herr built his own bionic limbs, which allow him to walk, run and even climb.

The newest addition to Washington D.C.’s vast number of historical institutions has arrived. Opening its doors with two giant bronze tablets of scripture, the Museum of the Bible stands just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. 

Technology is changing lives, from the way people get their news to how they listen to music. Now, it is even changing classroom dynamics.