It’s fair to say that most people have heard about diversity reports. And it’s probably also fair to say that most of us have watched, sometimes with a metaphorical bucket of buttered popcorn, as companies crisis-comms their ways out of … crises. But most of us do not know what goes on behind the scenes. On this episode of Mixtape, we chat with ex-Facebook, Twitter and Reddit employee Mark Luckie, author of the upcoming book Valley Girls, which details issues of diversity and inclusion through a fictional lens based heavily on real events.

This week, we chatted about artificial intelligence, disability and bias with Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of AI Now Institute, Mara Mills, associate professor of media, culture and communication at NYU and Sara Hendren, professor at Olin College of Engineering.

This week, Megan moderated a panel at the first Sight Tech Global, a conference dedicated to fostering discussion among technology pioneers on how advances in AI and related technologies will alter the landscape of assistive technology. The panel featured three heavy hitters in the accessibility space: Haben Girma, the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School and who is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice; Lainey Feingold, a disability rights lawyer who was on the team that negotiated the first web accessibility agreement in the U.S. in 2000; and George Kerscher, the chief innovations officer for the DAISY Consortium.

This week we spoke to Y-Vonne Hutchinson, the CEO of ReadySet, a consulting firm that works with companies to create more inclusive and equitable work environments. We discussed what a Biden administration means for DEI practitioners, how companies are now focusing more on structural change to systemic issues of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, and more.

This week Marah Lidey, co-founder and co-CEO of Shine, joins us to discuss mental health, portfolio diversity and connecting with other founders trying to make it work.

On the first episode of Season 3 of Mixtape, we talked to two drivers, one on each side of the proposition. Vanessa Bain is an Instacart shopper who is opposed to Proposition 22. Earlier this year, she co-founded Gig Workers Collective, a nonprofit to fight for fair pay and better treatment for gig workers. She says the future of labor is at stake. On the other side is Doug Mead, an Uber Eats and Postmates driver who lives in Palm Springs and sits squarely in the Yes on 22 camp.

This week we are joined by TechCrunch’s resident bearer-of-bad-news -- security reporter Zack Whittaker.

Season 3 kicks off with Meena Harris, founder of the Phenomenal Woman campaign, and head of strategy and leadership at Uber.

Angelica Ross, co-star the FX show ‘Pose,’ joined us in the studio this week.

This week we sit down with Neil Shah, CEO of Concrn, a compassionate care app that allows people to request help for homeless people experiencing a mental health crisis.

It’s that time of the week again when Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet talk about the good and could-be-better tech companies. This week, we talked about Instacart getting caught shorting its shoppers out of dough they rightfully deserved. Of course the company apologized for its “misguided” approach. Which at least sounds better than apologizing for getting caught — and getting caught, the company did.

Screen time for kids, corporations not paying people from underrepresented groups and IBM offers some hope for the future of facial recognition technology: These are the topics that [Megan Rose Dickey][1] and [Henry Pickavet][2] dive into on this week’s episode of Mixtape. 

This week Megan Rose Dickey and I welcome Tiana Kara, the head of partnerships and growth at #builtbygirls (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by Verizon Media). We also take a look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her near-perfect ability to troll the GOP through her social media presence. And we already knew that the algorithms of some of those DNA services can yield different results. But it’s harder to take when they’re twins.

This week, Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet get into a discussion about women’s sexuality, because the world’s biggest "consumer electronics show” revoked an innovation award from Lora DiCarlo, a company that created a sex toy for women. We also discussed robot delivery dogs, because those things don’t seem like they’re ever going to go away. And finally, people continue to do stupid "Bird Box" challenges based on dumb ideas they have after watching Netflix’s hit movie starring Sandra Bullock. Stop it. 

This time Megan and Henry talk about all of those hubs in your abodes — you know, your Google Homes, your Amazon Echo Shows, your Facebook Portals …. There really are a lot. Stripe is doing a little something different when it comes to reporting diversity: It’s looking within. AR might finally have a use that we can all get behind and Super Mario Party is apparently fun to play.

This week, Megan and Henry talk about a startup called Bungalow that is trying to make the housing search a little easier. Also on tap this week was a conversation about 23andMe and its efforts to provide more specific regional data about the origins of people of color. And Sarah Cooper, comedian and author of “How to Succeed Without Hurting Men’s Feelings” joined us in the studio.

It's dogs, mac and cheese and working out this week!

Welcome to another episode of TC Mixtape, where Senior Reporter [Megan Rose Dickey][1] and Editorial Director [Henry Pickavet][2] talk about some tech news of the week and sometimes go on field trips. This week they took a ride in a self-driving car -- and survived.

Welcome to the first episode of TechCrunch Mixtape (formerly CTRL+T). In this episode, join Senior Reporter Megan Rose Dickey and Editorial Director Henry Pickavet at San Quentin State Prison for The Last Mile’s the demo day and graduation.

Apple released the public beta of iOS 12 this week, and Megan and Henry downloaded it so they could play with the new Memoji feature. Their feelings are mixed. Also this week Microsoft improved its facial recognition technology to better detect darker skin tones. Some improvement. And finally, they spoke to Karla Monterroso, CEO of [Code2040][1], an organization dedicated to ensuring equal representation of black and Latinx people in tech.

Welcome back to CTRL+T. This week, [Megan Rose Dickey][1] and [Henry Pickavet][2] talk about the World Health Organization identifying 'gaming disorder' as a mental health issue. We disagree. Gamers gonna game. Also this week we were joined by [Adina Tecklu][3], VC at Canaan Partners. She was here to talk about Canaan Beta, which is essentially a fund within the larger Canaan fund designed to seek out "category-defining and category-creating companies."

Between electric scooter permit applications and drunk passenger patents, Uber was doing too much this week.

This week is Apple's big developer conference, creatively called Worldwide Developers Conference (or WWDC), and TechCrunch was there. Each year the company showcases the things developers will be able to do in upcoming versions of their various operating systems (iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS). While there were a bunch of features that didn't really elicit much excitement from either of us, there was one in particular that we are quite looking forward to: Memoji. We talk about it all and what messaging means out there in that big bad world of ours. Next up was Kanye West. This week he announced that his latest album, ye, wouldn't be available exclusively on Tidal like his 2016 release Pablo had been. And these days you can't have a conversation about the rapper without discussing his recent comments about American slavery having been a choice. So we got into that.