A Historian Grapples with ‘How We Disappear’ After We Die
About this episode
Historian Thomas Mullaney discusses his new book on how we disappear from the historical record after death.
As a historian who teaches a class called “The History of Information,” Stanford professor Thomas Mullaney has spent decades thinking about the unreliability of archival materials in understanding the past, subject as they are to decay, disorder and obsolescence. But it wasn’t until his own father died and he scrambled to preserve the evidence of his life that he decided to write a personal history of information about how we disappear from the historical record and from the world. We talk with Mullaney about his new book, “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information.” Thomas Mullaney, professor, Stanford University; author, “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More episodes of KQED's Forum
- Novelist Karen Tei Yamashita on the Relevance of Japanese Internment Today
- Drones, Plate Readers, and AI Facial Recognition: The Surveillance Technology Watching the Bay Area
- The Battle for the Future of Burning Man
- Should the UCs Reinstate the SAT?
- Peptides: Miracle Molecules or Marketing Hype?
- Why California Wants to Block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the KQED's Forum podcast page.