Andreas Stefik is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

For the last decade, he has been creating technologies
that make it easier for people, including those with disabilities, to write computer software. He helped establish the first national educational infrastructure
for blind or visually impaired students to learn computer science and invented the first evidence-based programming language, Quorum.

The design of Quorum is created from data derived through methodologies similar to those used in the medical community. Stefik has been a principal investigator on 5 National Science Foundation funded
grants, many of which related to accessible graphics and computer science education. Finally, he was honored with the 2016 White House Champions of Change
award and the Expanding CS Opportunities award from Code.org and the Computer Science Teachers Association. Click here to follow Andreas Stefik on Twitter.

As always, Episode 20 of Making Better is fully transcribed, and you can click here to consume Episode 20 in text form.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Making-Better-20-Andreas-Stefik-.mp3

Lainey Feingold is a disability rights lawyer who focuses on digital accessibility, an author, and an international speaker
and trainer. Lainey’s book, Structured Negotiation, A Winning Alternative to Lawsuits, is available in print and accessible digital formats.

In 2017 Lainey was selected as one of 13 “Legal Rebels” by the ABA Journal, the national flagship magazine of the American Bar Association.

In 2017 Lainey was also the individual recipient of the John W. Cooley Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, given annually to one individual and one organization by the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. In both 2014 and 2000 Lainey was honored with a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award. Lainey is a frequent and highly regarded speaker and trainer at conferences, webinars, law school classes, and other programs and events.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Making-Better-19-Lainey-Feingold.mp3

As always, this episode of Making Better is fully transcribed. Click here to read the full transcript.

Science writer Brian Dunning is the host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast and the author of seven books on scientific skepticism.

Skeptoid is one of the longest running and consistently most popular independent podcasts, having surpassed 100 million downloads in January 2017.

Dunning is the writer and presenter of the documentary films Here Be Dragons and Principles of Curiosity. He has appeared on numerous radio shows and television documentaries, and also hosts the science video series inFact with Brian Dunning

A computer scientist by trade, Brian uses new media to showcase the rewards of science and critical thinking. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and lives in central Oregon.

As always, this episode of Making Better is fully transcribed, and you can

Dr. Lisa Willis holds a PHD in immunology, is the present assistant professor of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. She focuses on helping women achieve their goals in STEM fields: Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics, and she describes something that she calls “the glass obstacle course” which is a lot more complicated than a glass ceiling, and she provides a number of good examples as to the things a woman needs to navigate in academia. Read her full bio here, follow Dr. Willis on Twitter, and as always, read a full transcript of episode 17.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Making-Better-17-DR-Lisa-Willis.mp3

Sina Bahram from episode one joins us to talk to Liz Lutgendorff, who describes herself as "always busy, a geek, punk, historian (Ph.D. in the history of secularism), Cyclist, Londoner, and a Trustee @ConwayHall. She hosts a podcast called Science Fiction Double Feature, where she interviews an author about their science fiction novel, followed by interviewing an expert about some aspect of the book, be it science, history, or anything else really. She also blogs at blogendorff. Liz can also be found on Twitter as @sillypunk.

As always, a complete transcript of this episode.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Making-Better-16-Liz-Lutgendorff.mp3

Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century, with over 700,000 copies sold and 1,000+ five-star reviews on Amazon. In 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the coaching prize by Thinkers50, the Oscars of management. Michael was the first Canadian Coach of the Year and has been named a Global Coaching Guru since 2014. He was a Rhodes Scholar.

Michael is the Founder of Box of Crayons. Box of Crayons is a learning and development company that helps organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led.

Michael is a compelling keynote speaker, combining practicality, humour, and an unprecedented degree of engagement with the audience. He’s spoken around the world in front of crowds ranging from ten to ten thousand.

En route to today—and these are essential parts of his origin story—Michael knocked himself unconscious as a labourer by hitting himself in the head with a shovel, he mastered stagecraft at law school by appearing in a skit called Synchronized Nude Male Modelling, and his first paid piece of writing was a Harlequin Romance-esque story involving a misdelivered letter … and called The Male Delivery.

Click here to watch Episode 15 on YouTube.
Click here to read a complete transcript of Episode 15.
Michael's new book, The Advice Trap, is available for your reading pleasure.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Making-Better-15-Michael-Bungay-Stanier.mp3

Selling over 20 million albums worldwide, The B-52s—Fred Schneider [vocals], Kate Pierson [vocals], Cindy Wilson [vocals] — have quietly impacted alternative music, fashion, and culture over the course of four-plus decades.

They count John Lennon, Madonna, James Murphy, and Michael Stipe among their disciples. Panic! At The Disco, Blood Orange, The Offspring, Pitbull, Roger Sanchez, and DJ Shadow have sampled classics from the band’s discography as Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy, The Simpsons, Sugarland, and more offered up covers of their own.

Fred Schneider joins our hosts on this episode to talk about everything from the B-52s writing process, to implementing positive things for the average citizens of the US, using coffee as a jumping-off point for implementing solutions that benefit everyone, healthy sex positivity, the New York music underground, and finally, upcoming new music from the B-52s.

As always, this episode is transcribed, and you can click here to read a full transcript of Episode 14.

Click here to visit the Breyting Community Roaster website, and click here to like and follow the B-52s on Facebook.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Making-Better-14-Fred-Schneider.mp3

Amber D. Miller is the 22nd dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She holds the Anna H. Bing Dean’s Chair and a faculty appointment in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Click here to read her full biography and click here to read a transcript of this episode.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Making-Better-13-Dean-Amber-Miller.mp3

Jennifer Michael Hecht is a poet, historian, and commentator. She is the author of the bestseller Doubt: A History, a history of religious and philosophical doubt all over the world, throughout history. Her newest book is Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against It (Yale University Press, 2013).

Read some of Hecht's writings on the blog at her website,
Read Hecht's bio and enjoy some of her quotes at Wikipedia,
Follow Hecht on Twitter and finally Read a transcript of Episode 12 of Making Better.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Making-Better-12-Jennifer-Michael-Hecht.mp3

James O'Malley is a London-based freelance writer and journalist who has previously written for The Spectator, Wired, Politico and New Statesman, among other publications, WHERE HE WRITES ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

Click here to read James O'Malley's full professional bio and find a list of his writings and other accomplishments.

Click here to follow James O'malley on Twitter.

As always, this episode of Making Better is transcribed, and you can click here to read the full transcript of Episode 11: James O'Malley.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Making-Better-11-James-OMalley.mp3

Yvette d'Entremont, also known as SciBabe, is a public speaker, science blogger, and former analytical chemist.

She has a background in forensics and toxicology. Her blog, SciBabe, is dedicated to "clearing up misinformation about science, food and nutrition."

She also works to debunk falsehoods in alternative medicine, the anti-vaccination movement, and the anti-GMO (genetically modified organisms) movement.

D'Entremont started blogging in 2014.[7] She believes that using "snarky humor" is an important tool for communicating science and has been influenced by the style of Penn & Teller's show, Bullshit.[8] She began to get wider recognition in April 2015, when her Gawker article about Vani Hari, titled The 'Food Babe' Blogger is Full of Shit went viral.

Like SciBabe on Facebook

As with all episodes of Making Better, this one is transcribed so that everyone can enjoy it. Click here to read the full transcript of Episode 10.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Making-Better-10-SciBabe.mp3

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Making-Better-09-Howard-Bloom.mp3

Howard Bloom has been called “next in a lineage of seminal thinkers that includes Newton, Darwin, Einstein,[and] Freud,” by Britain’s Channel4 TV , “the next Stephen Hawking” by Gear Magazine, and “The Buckminster Fuller and Arthur C. Clarke of the new millennium” by Buckminster Fuller’s archivist. Bloom is the author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History (“mesmerizing”—The Washington Post), Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century (“reassuring and sobering”—The New Yorker), The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism (“Impressive, stimulating, and tremendously enjoyable.” James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic), and The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates (“Bloom’s argument will rock your world.” Barbara Ehrenreich). Click here to read his full biography, find Howard on Wikipedia, read Howard's writings on Medium, follow Howard on Twitter and finally watch Howard on YouTube.

As always, there is a transcript available for this episode. Click here to read Episode 9 in its entirety.

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Hayley Stephens is a paranormal researcher and she lives in what she refers to as "Weird Wiltshire" in the United Kingdom. she is studying towards a BSc (Hons) Psychology. she works full time and in between working and studying, she researches paranormal claims and phenomena. Hayley hosts The Spooktator podcast and is also active on Twitter. Click here to read Hayley's full biography and feel free to browse her website, which she updates frequently. As with all Making Better episodes, this one is fully transcribed. Click here to read a full transcript of Episode 8.

https://www.makingbetterpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Making-Better-07-Penny-Arcade.mp3

Since first climbing out of her bedroom window at age 14 to join the fabulously disenfranchised world of queers, junkies, whores, stars, deviants and geniuses she has become one of the most influential performers in the world. By fearlessly displaying her singular brand of feminist sexuality and personal conflict she has garnered countless fans worldwide with an emotionally and intellectually charged performance style. Internationally revered as writer, director and actress, she has influenced generations of artists around the world. (Click here to read a rather lengthy biography of Penny Arcade). Click here to follow Penny Arcade on Twitter in English, and click here to read a complete transcript of Making Better Episode 7: Penny Arcade.

Jim Fruchterman is a leading social entrepreneur, a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and a Distinguished Alumnus of Caltech. Jim believes that technology has the power to improve—even transform—the lives of people around the world. As Founder and CEO of Benetech, he focused on bringing Silicon Valley’s technology innovations to all of humanity, not just the richest five percent. He is a former rocket engineer who also founded two successful for-profit technology companies. Under Jim’s leadership, Benetech created and scaled multiple software for social good enterprises spanning education, human rights, and environmental conservation. Jim has recently founded a new nonprofit, Tech Matters, to provide strategic technology services that maximize impact, not profit. Jim is active on Twitter as @JimFruchterman

As with all of our episodes, this one also is accompanied by a transcript so that everyone can enjoy it. Click here to read a transcript of Episode 6.

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M. E. Thomas is the pseudonym of a practising lawyer and law professor. She is also the founder of the popular blog Sociopath World.
Twitter: @sociopathworld

Click here to read a transcript of episode 5.

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Richard Matthew Stallman leads the Free Software Movement, which shows how the usual non-free software subjects users to the unjust power of its developers, plus their spying and manipulation, and campaigns to replace it with free (freedom-respecting) software.
Born in 1953, Stallman graduated Harvard in 1974 in physics. He worked at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab from 1971 to 1984, developing system software including the first extensible text editor Emacs (1976), plus the AI technique of dependency-directed backtracking, also nown as truth maintenance (1975).
In 1983 Stallman launched the Free Software Movement by announcing the project to develop the GNU operating system, planned to consist entirely of free software. Stallman began working on GNU on January 5, 1984, resigning from MIT employment in order to do so. In October 1985 he established the Free Software Foundation, of which he is president as a full-time volunteer.
Stallman invented the concept of copyleft, "Change it and redistribute it but don't strip off this freedom," and wrote (with lawyers) the GNU General Public License, which implements copyleft. This inspired Creative Commons.
Stallman personally developed a number of widely used software components of the GNU system: the GNU Compiler Collection, the GNU symbolic debugger (gdb), GNU Emacs, and various others.
The GNU/Linux system, which is a variant of GNU that also contains the kernel Linux developed by Linus Torvalds, is used in tens or hundreds of millions of computers. Alas, people often call the system "Linux", giving the GNU Project none of the credit.
Their versions of GNU/Linux often disregard the ideas of freedom which make free software important, and even include nonfree software in those systems.
Nowadays, Stallman focuses on political advocacy for free software and its ethical ideas. He spends most of the year travelling to speak on topics such as "Free Software And Your Freedom" and "Copyright vs Community in the Age of the Computer Networks". Another topic is "A Free Digital Society", which treats several different threats to the freedom of computer users today.
In 1999, Stallman called for development of a free on-line encyclopedia through inviting the public to contribute articles. This idea helped inspire Wikipedia.
Stallman is officially a Visiting Scientist at MIT.
Free Software, Free Society is Stallman's book of essays. His semiautobiography, Free as in Freedom, provides further biographical information.
He has received the following awards:
• 1986: Honorary life time membership in the Chalmers Computer Society
• 1990: MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
• 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)."
• 1996: Doctorate honoris causa from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology
• 1998: Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award
• 1999: Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award
• 2001: The Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being
• 2001: Doctorate honoris causa from the University of Glasgow
• 2002: United States National Academy of Engineering membership
• 2003: Doctorate honoris causa from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• 2003: Honorary professorship from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú
• 2004: Doctorate honoris causa from the Universidad Nacional de Salta, in Argentina
• 2004: Honorary professorship from the Universidad Tecnológica del Perú
• 2005: Fondazione Pistoletto prize
• 2007: Honorary professorship from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, in Peru
• 2007: First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimi...

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Anne Devereux-Mills is a sought-after speaker, author and advocate for women, particularly on the subject of how to create a powerful cycle of personal growth, empowerment, and advancement. Anne’s mission is to share what she has learned through her own experience: recognize one's own strengths and skills – and use them to help other women, creating an outward moving circle of positive change, and, in the process, empowering yourself.

Capping a 25-year career as one of the most influential women in the advertising industry, in 2012 Anne founded Parlay House, (@ParlayHouse on Twitter)c an expanding national salon-style gathering of 1500 women who meet to pull each other forward through a combination of shared experiences, meaningful content, and peer-to-peer connections. She has been a mentor for SHE-CAN, an organization supporting and grooming the next generation of female world leaders coming from post-genocide countries, and served as the director of Stanford University's Healthy Body Image Programs. She was the Executive Director of The Return, an Emmy-nominated documentary about the experience of people returning to society post-incarceration. She and her husband were the lead sponsors of California’s Proposition 36, which restored fairness in sentencing to the State’s excessive Three Strikes Law.

As with all episodes of Making better, a transcript is available for this one as well. YOu can begin reading it below and continue reading by following the link in the embedded copy.
https://www.makingbetterpod.com/2019/06/01/welcome-to-the-m…etter-podcast-in/

Michael Marshall introduces our hosts and listeners to the skeptic community, debunks homeopathy, discusses doing absolutely atrocious things with coffee, and advocates a people-first approach to convincing those we disagree with to change their positions.

Sina discusses inclusive design, museums, and the future