Humanistic Thinking in the Age of Big Data with Christian Madsbjerg

Breaking Boundaries: A podcast from Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Breaking down silos, trying to help people to work together across boundaries of discipline, profession and culture, is a difficult job and one that Christian Madsbjerg has spent much of his career trying to accomplish with much success. Madsbjerg is the co-founder of the consulting company, ReD Associates, Professor of Applied Humanities at The New School and has just launched a new venture called Lateral Data.

On this episode, Madsbjerg talks with Annelise Riles about diagnosing silo problems and removing them in business, health care and other industries. He also discusses the silos that exist at research universities, which he calls the “mother of all silos.” Madsbjerg, author of Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, also talks about artificial intelligence, algorithms and the need for an infusion of humanistic approaches into algorithms or as an alternative to algorithms.