Stanford WiCS Podcast: The Significant Bit
Hello! If you’re reading this, you’re probably staring at a screen, recognizing these funny-looking pixel shapes we like to call words. And if you’re listening to these words, a text-to-speech service might be making that possible. Either way, you’ve probably been doing this technology thing a lot lately.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on just how much our lives are connected to computers. Technology really is everywhere — and now more than ever, we rely on technology to learn, work, and communicate with others. And yet, studying virtually doesn’t mean that we’re outside of Silicon Valley’s sphere of influence; being a Stanford student means developing an awareness of the tech world, consciously or subconsciously, and how it influences our own. But as students, it’s also easy to get wrapped up in everything we’re always doing. A computer is just a portal to p-sets. We seem to have reduced our interactions with the tech world to mere task-enabling machines that let us get on with our lives. Video calling with friends. Playing games. Making memes. Scrolling through social media. And email — always so much email. Industry is a place to submit job applications. CS majors across the globe hope that one day they, too, can help develop the tools that everyone stares at but few pay attention to. And so the entire universe of innovation becomes the day-to-day.
But there’s a bit more to the tech world than that.
Purpose
Technology has enabled us as a society to push the boundaries of what’s possible. We can talk to people across the world as if they’re next to us. We can expose ourselves to new ideas and ways of thinking. The world is teeming with opportunities — and as long as we’re careful about the ones we pursue, we’re headed for wonderful things.
It’s time to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. In our new podcast, The Significant Bit, our goal is to share ideas, perspectives, and advice from innovators, entrepreneurs, and tech visionaries. Of course, details matter, too: we’ll be inviting experts on the show to help us delve into the tech world and emerge with new insights about how it’s shaping our lives — and how we’re shaping it.
Perspectives
We didn’t design The Significant Bit to be for one type of person, or to reinforce one set of ideas. Instead, we hope to create a podcast experience that is diverse in as many ways as possible — from inviting a variety of guests from different backgrounds to exploring a wide range of tech-related topics. And we’re committed to making our episodes accessible, with manually-written audio transcripts available on our website.
As Silicon Valley evolves to become more inclusive, we look forward to exploring how we got to where we are today, where exactly that is, and where we’re headed next. We’re excited for new perspectives, and the innovation they can inspire.
People
Meet the creators and contributors of The Significant Bit!
First of all, we wouldn’t be able to make our podcast without support from WiCS and our wonderful Co-Presidents, Cathy Zhang and Briana Berger!
The Industry Events team, part of the WiCS Board, led the development and implementation of The Significant Bit. Here’s more about us:
Deveshi Buch — Deveshi co-chairs the Industry Events team with Eghosa and plans, co-hosts, and edits The Significant Bit. She is a current sophomore interested in computer science and computational physics. When she’s not podcasting or doing projects, she’s trying out new recipes, doodling, taking photos, and spending time outdoors.
Annel Amelia Leon — Amelia is a sophomore on the Industry Events team and co-hosts The Significant Bit. She plans to major in computer science, minor in economics, and is also interested in the intersection of healthcare and technology. She enjoys playing tennis, reading books, and dancing.
Eghosa Amadin — Eghosa is a senior majoring in computer science and minoring in economics. She’s been involved with WiCS and Industry Events since her frosh year and currently co-chairs the team with Deveshi. She brainstorms guests and topic ideas for our podcast, and she loves to take spin classes, listen to bubblegum pop music, and watch cheesy Christmas movies.
Lydia Chan — Lydia is on the Industry Events team and is the liaison between Industry Events and the Marketing team, helping maintain our podcast website. She is a junior studying Computer Science and has been involved in WiCS since freshman year. She also enjoys paddling for the dragon boat team, stargazing, and trying new recipes.
Finally, a HUGE SHOUTOUT to Carina Ly and Grace Zhang on the Marketing team for working with us to distribute and promote The Significant Bit to the Stanford community and beyond. (They also created our cover art!)
Find The Significant Bit on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
