The Startup and the Gamelan: Shared Leadership, Tamil Hip-Hop, and Cultural AI Bias – with Pravina Manoharan
In Episode 77 of The Power of Music Thinking, host Christof Zürn speaks with ethnomusicologist, gamelan teacher, AI scholar and senior lecturer Dr Pravina Manoharan (Universiti Sains Malaysia) about music in the context of people, leadership, and technology. In this episode: • The Beach Harmonium – Shifting from Western piano to the hand-pumped Indian harmonium. • Tamil Hip-Hop – How diaspora communities in Malaysia used multilingual hip-hop as a political voice. • The Startup & The Gamelan – Why rotating roles in a gamelan ensemble teaches cross-functional leadership and ensemble listening. • Cultural AI Bias – The risks of AI platforms misrepresenting non-Western music and flattening cultural sounds. • Refugee Empowerment – Helping Rohingya refugee children learn English and process trauma through a musical adaptation of The Jungle Book. "Imagine you are part of a startup. You don't necessarily have to play all the instruments at once, but you need to know their functions so that when everyone plays together, you learn how to listen to everybody else." – Dr Pravina Manoharan Full show notes on: https://musicthinking.com/the-startup-and-the-gamelan-shared-leadership-tamil-hip-hop-and-cultural-ai-bias-with-pravina-manoharan/ Join the Community: If you are enjoying this conversation, please hit the subscribe button on your podcast player! Furthermore, join our monthly email newsletter to get the latest episodes, archive highlights, the Jam Card of the month, and more. 👉 https://musicthinking.substack.com/
