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Margaret O’Mara, associate professor of history at the University of Washington, in the KIRO Radio studios. (Erynn Rose Photo).

How does the technology industry impact our communities and sense of place? What are the ingredients for a strong regional tech economy? And what happens when upstart technology companies collide with traditional industries?

Those are some of the issues we address this week on the GeekWire radio show. Our guest in the studio is Margaret O’Mara, an associate professor of history at the University of Washington whose research focuses on the tech industry’s impact on our communities, cities, politics and culture. Her past work includes the book, “Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley,” and she talks with us about her upcoming book that will take her back to Silicon Valley.

In this extended podcast version of the show, we get talk about additional topics including O’Mara’s work as the lead curatorial advisor to the Bezos Center for Innovation at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry.

Listen using the audio player below or via this MP3 file.

The conversation begins at the 8:20 mark, following our weekly news roundup. Topics this week include Amazon’s Fire TV set-top box, the newly discovered glitch in the Nest Protect smoke detector, and Microsoft’s latest changes to Windows 8.

App of the Week: Distiller, Your Whiskey Companion, available now for iPhone and coming soon for Android.

Name that Tech Tune: The answer to last week’s challenge was ET for Atari 2600, aka the worst video game ever made. Congrats to Jay Levias, whose entry was chosen at random from the pool of correct answers to win tickets to the GeekWire Awards.

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