Media
Ideas in public.
Interviews, essays, talks, and commentary that connect the deeper histories of technology and power to the choices institutions face now.
Podcasts & Radio
Essays, interviews & commentary
Featured Conversation
How Black communities shaped the internet.
On Decoder, Charlton joins Nilay Patel to trace the Black communities, entrepreneurs, activists, and technologists whose work helped build online life—and to examine how those histories shape current debates about technology and justice.
Listen on Decoder ↗Decoder · The Verge
A technology story with history inside it.
Selected Media
Watch. Listen. Read.
Watch · C-SPAN
Black Software and racial justice movements
Watch the program ↗ Watch · Reimagining the InternetThe prehistory of Black Twitter
Watch on YouTube ↗ Watch · Duke LawAI and marginalized groups
Watch the keynote ↗ Watch · Microsoft ResearchComputing technology as racial infrastructure
Watch the lecture ↗ Watch · Digital Good NetworkDigital Good, Enough?
Watch the keynote ↗ Watch · New York Public LibraryReorienting AI for the public interest
Watch the conversation ↗ Watch · Data & SocietyData & Society at 10: Foreseeable Futures
Watch the speech ↗ Watch · Microsoft ResearchRace and Technology: A Research Lecture Series
Explore the lecture series ↗ Watch · YouTubeCharlton McIlwain: Featured Talk
Watch on YouTube ↗ Listen · DecoderHow Black communities shaped the internet
Listen to the podcast ↗ Listen · Science FridayThe Black engineers who opened up the computer revolution
Listen to the segment ↗ Listen · Data & SocietyBlack Software and the possibilities of digital technology
Listen to the podcast ↗ Listen · Andrea Mitchell CenterThe technological lead-ups to Black Lives Matter
Listen to the interview ↗ Listen · Digital VoidThe internet, inequality, and racial justice
Listen to the podcast ↗ Listen · Stack OverflowA conversation with the author of Black Software
Listen to the podcast ↗ Listen · Public BooksThe internet’s lesser-known origins
Explore the podcast and reading guide ↗ Read · SSRC Just TechBlack participation in the development of digital spaces
Read the interview ↗ Read · MIT Technology ReviewOf course technology perpetuates racism. It was designed that way.
Read the essay ↗ Read · New AmericaThe code that launched computational policing
Read the essay ↗ Read · Fast CompanyWhy tech’s equity pledges produce so little change
Read the interview ↗ Read · Logic(s)The Fort Rodman Experiment
Read the essay ↗ Read · Duke Law & Technology ReviewAI and marginalized communities
Read the symposium report ↗ Read · Zócalo Public SquareCharlton McIlwain at Zócalo Public Square
Browse the author archive ↗ Read · SlateThe three civil rights–era leaders who warned of computers and racism
Read the essay ↗ Read · The GuardianSilicon Valley’s cocaine problem shaped our racist tech
Read the essay ↗ Read · Los Angeles Review of BooksAlternative Internets and Their Lost Histories
Read the review ↗ Read · The AtlanticThe Internet May Be as Segregated as a City
Read the article ↗ Read · NPR Code SwitchCombing Through 41 Million Tweets to Show How #BlackLivesMatter Exploded
Read the story ↗Media Requests