The first Star Wars film may have been released 38 years ago, but its hold on the popular imagination remains as strong as Darth Vader’s death-grip. On today’s show, a look at the role fandom has played in the success of the Star Wars franchise. Plus, from data collection to the latest internet tracking technology, online advertisers go to great lengths to find out who we are and what we like. We’ll enter the world of intelligent marketing to find out just how much, or little, they really know about us.
Listen to the full show.
How Star Wars Conquered the Universe
Chris Tayloris the deputy editor at Mashable and his book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe is a diligently researched history of all things Star Wars – and he joined us to explore the role fandom has played and continues to play in shaping the franchise.
IKEA Hacking
Instead of following the assembly directions to the letter cartoon, some people are opting to use Ikea’s raw materials to create their own customized furniture. 99% Invisible’s Roman Mars enters the world of Ikea-hacking.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
You Are Not Your Browser History
Jer Thorp is an adjunct professor at NYU, and co-founder of the Office for Creative Research, where he and a team of colleagues have been working on a web browser extension called Floodwatch – which basically collects, monitors and analyzes your web advertising history. Jer wrote an article about his experiment "You Are Not Your Browser History."
