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MLTalks: Hoops, Tech, and Justice

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MIT Media Lab

by Chia Evers

Oct. 15, 2018

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MLTalks

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Friday

October 12, 2018

5:00pm — 6:00pm

MIT Media Lab, E14 - Third-Floor atrium
75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA

Jaylen Brown in conversation with David Sun Kong and Kade Crockford

At 21, Jaylen Brown is a polymath and a rising star in the NBA with the Boston Celtics. In a wide-ranging conversation, Jaylen will discuss innovation, creativity, the intersection of basketball and culture, social justice, reflections on his career ahead, and his interests both on and off the court. Jaylen will be hosted by David Sun Kong, director of the Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative and hoops fanatic, and Kade Crockford, a Media Lab Director’s Fellow and director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts.

About the Speakers

Jaylen Brown is an NBA basketball player for the Boston Celtics. Prior to the league, he played one season at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned First-Team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. Jaylen is equally engaged off the court, with wide-ranging interests and passions including Spanish, history, finance, technology, meditation, philosophy, and social justice advocacy. Speaking most recently at The Players Technology Summit and Harvard University, he has also hosted "Tech Hustle" during All-Star Weekend, and he mentors players prior to their entry into the NBA draft.

Kade Crockford is the director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts. Kade writes, researches, organizes, lobbies, and advocates to ensure privacy and civil liberties law keeps pace with new technologies, with a focus on how systems of surveillance and control impact not just society in general but their primary targets—people of color, Muslims, immigrants, and dissidents. Recently, the program's work has expanded to include open data projects that aim to harness the power of digital technologies to reform the criminal legal system in Massachusetts, towards the end of shifting resources from police and prisons to social services and public health. Kade's writing on digital security, surveillance, and state power has appeared in outlets including the Nation, the Guardian, The Boston Globe, New Inquiry, and the Baffler.

David Sun Kong is a synthetic biologist, community organizer, DJ, and photographer. He is the director of the MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative, a pioneer in developing “lab-on-a-chip” technologies, and a leader in the global movement to bring biotechnologies to diverse communities around the world. He has a passion for education, the arts, innovation, and social justice, and explores the interfaces of these domains in his work. His photography has been featured at the Smithsonian and in galleries around the world, and through his project Biota Beats, has made beats from the microbiome of hip hop legend DJ Jazzy Jeff. His work has been covered in outlets including the Washington Post, NPR Boston, Scientific American, and Gizmodo. David earned his PhD in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab.

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MLTalks: Hoops, Tech, and Justice

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Jaylen Brown in conversation with David Sun Kong and Kade Crockford

The best quotes from Jaylen Brown's appearance at MIT Media Lab