Sneakers and Preserving Data at the End of the World

If you’re like me, you love a good spy movie. And considering the popularity of spy films, you probably do. This week we travel back to 1992 to talk about seemingly everyone’s favorite nice spy film, Sneakers.

I invited media archaeologist Brian Michael Murphy drops in to talk about the cult classic starring Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, and roughly every actor in Hollywood. We talk about just how prescient this film was in predicting data mining as well as Brian's own work exploring data storage, record keeping, and the American obsession with preserving information. I hope you dig it.

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About our guest:

Brian Michael Murphy is Associate Professor of American Studies at Williams College and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. His book We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) received the Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize from the New England American Studies Association, and his writing has appeared in the The Wall Street Journal, The Kenyon Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, Narrative, and in Italian translation in Ácoma, among other places. A Fulbright Scholar, his work has also received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Vermont Arts Council. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies from The Ohio State University, where he was a Presidential Fellow.

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The Book

You can also find the book on UNC Press’ website here. Use code 01HATM30 for 30% off.