Modem Futura

In this playful yet deeply thoughtful episode of Modem Futura , hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard lean into speculative fun while wrestling with some of the most serious questions shaping our technological future. Sparked by a timeless passage from Jurassic Park , the conversation explores what happens when powerful technologies advance faster than our ability to understand, govern, or ethically...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard welcome ASU’s Clark Miller for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to be techno-human —not biological beings who simply “use” technology, but people whose bodies, behaviors, and imaginations are inseparable from the industrial systems we’ve built. Clark reframes modern life as a “technosphere” where electricity grids, cars, a...

To close out 2025 and tee up 2026, Sean Leahy and Dr. Andrew Maynard hit pause for a candid “year in review” conversation: what surprised them, what themes kept resurfacing, and what they’ve learned about making a future‑focused show in real time. They share behind‑the‑scenes milestones and metrics — including global listening across 100+ countries and a top‑tier ranking among millions of podcasts...

In this end-of-year holiday episode of Modem Futura , hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard take a rare pause from the usual existential weight of emerging technologies to reflect on creativity, craft, and community in a year defined by acceleration. The conversation opens with a thoughtful exploration of what platform “year-in-review” moments (like Spotify Wrapped) quietly reveal about culture, ide...

In this expansive and playful episode of Modem Futura , hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard welcome back futurist, game designer, and author Rizwan Virk to explore the rapidly evolving Simulation Hypothesis —and what it means in an era of AI, spatial computing, and increasingly immersive digital worlds. Building on the newly released second edition of The Simulation Hypothesis , Virk reflects on h...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean and Andrew dive deep into the rising cultural tension between generative AI’s promise of instant production and the human need for meaningful creative friction. Prompted by frustrations with “AI slop” — low-effort, machine-generated content flooding professional and social spaces — the hosts examine why the “easy button” mentality poses risks to wisdom, craft...

In this toy-themed episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard start with an overnight stay aboard the USS Midway before segueing into the holiday toy season and a very 2020s concern: AI-powered toys. From chatty teddy bears running GPT-4 that cheerfully explain how to light matches and sexual kinks to kids, to the long lineage of “intelligent” toys like Teddy Ruxpin, Furby, Hello Barb...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean and Andrew dive deep into the surprising story behind the new Apple TV logo and mnemonic —and why it matters in a world overrun by “AI slop.” They unpack how, in an age where everyone assumes animations are spun up in seconds by generative tools, Apple chose a radically different path: a practical, physical frosted-glass logo , carefully lit and filmed in rea...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean and Andrew explore one of the most urgent and complex questions of our time: Can AI meaningfully help humanity navigate climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater scarcity, and the broader planetary pressures shaping the Anthropocene — without worsening them? Drawing on the new 2025 synthesis report AI for a Planet Under Pressure from the Stockholm Resilie...

In this mind-bending episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard dive deep into the metaverse—not as a corporate brand or sci-fi fantasy, but as a living, evolving stack of realities. Drawing on their immersive experiences with Apple’s Vision Pro, they explore what happens when the physical and digital worlds begin to merge—when the headset comes off but the virtual persists. The hosts...

Recorded while actually wearing Apple Vision Pro headsets, Sean and Andrew go hands‑on with spatial computing to test what it’s good for today—and what it might become tomorrow. They compare “spatial” to VR and AR, unpack why Apple avoids the term “VR,” and explain pass‑through, eye/hand‑based interaction, and foveated rendering in plain English. The conversation moves from everyday use (multi‑mon...

It’s Halloween in the future — and things are getting weird. In this special Modem Futura mini-episode, Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard unleash a spooky edition of their improv game “Futures Improv: Tech or Treat.” Fueled by AI-generated prompts, the duo riffs on haunted algorithms, mirrors that remember, and nightmare-mode neural interfaces. What happens when defunct social-media bots resurrect lon...

In this episode Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard dive deep into how people really feel about AI—drawing on the latest Pew Research Center global survey of 25 countries. From curiosity to concern, they unpack why so many remain unaware of AI’s everyday presence and what this says about our collective future. The hosts explore the widening gap between the technological elite and the majority who’ve “he...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard dive into a wide-ranging and characteristically lively discussion that spans the launch of Andrew’s new book AI and the Art of Being Human , the rise of OpenAI’s Sora 2 video platform, and the surprising partnership between Walmart and ChatGPT that could reshape the economics of online retail. They explore how AI is eroding traditiona...

We celebrate a full year of Modem Futura with an open, in‑studio debrief on what’s worked, what’s changed, and why we double‑down on being a relational —not transactional—podcast. Sean and Andrew look back on 52+ weekly episodes that turned the studio into a “living laboratory,” where listeners pull up a chair to conversations spanning AI and AGI, simulation hypotheses, autonomous mobility (includ...

This week, Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard welcome venture capitalist and AI Salon founder Jeffrey Abbott to launch the new book AI and the Art of Being Human —a practical, hands‑on guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering what matters most. Together, they unpack where the idea came from, why they fast‑tracked the project, and how they co‑created with AI (moving from ChatGPT to Anthropic’s Clau...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean and Andrew sit down with veteran educator Tara Menghini to explore how artificial intelligence is shaping the formative years of K–6 learning. Tara brings over 25 years of classroom experience and a passion for helping young learners build healthy technology habits from the very start. Together, they discuss the growing comfort children have with iPads compar...

In this lively milestone episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard dive into the strange cultural moment where AI hype collides with social backlash. The conversation begins with Apple’s latest tech updates—live translation in AirPods and cinematic filmmaking features in the iPhone 17 Pro—before shifting gears into the growing online phenomenon of the term “clanker.” Originally a Sta...

Stuck in traffic and daydreaming about an eVTOL escape, Sean and Andrew use “flying cars” (and a new Blackmagic URSA spatial camera that gobbles terabytes) to make a larger point: tech doesn’t fix congestion—or much else—without a systems view that includes people, policy, and behavior. From there, they unpack futures thinking as a mindset, not fortune‑telling: exploring possible, probable, and pr...

In this episode of Modem Futura , hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard dive into Andrew’s book Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies , and the course it inspired, The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future . Together, they explore how blockbuster films—from Jurassic Park and Minority Report to Limitless , Ex Machina , Elysium , and Contact —become more than entertainment: the...

In this episode of Modem Futura , Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard take to the skies—literally exploring the promise and pitfalls of eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft). From personal one-seat “flying pod” drones to futuristic air taxis, eVTOLs are being touted as the next leap in personal and urban transportation. But do they represent a bold solution to gridlock and emissions, o...

Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard welcome ASU’s Punya Mishra back to unpack what “agentic AI” could—and shouldn’t—mean in education. After a nostalgic cold open on AOL’s September 30, 2025 dial‑up shutdown and why the show’s intro samples the 56K handshake, they question recent AI “study” and “agent” releases and the industry’s habit of mistaking prompts and dashboards for pedagogy. Mishra contrasts g...

Summer-mode serendipity turns into a sharp tour of today’s tech hype and what actually matters. Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard open with the rapid-fire AI news cycle—GPT-5 rumors, Claude 4.1, and OpenAI’s new open‑weight releases (120B/20B under Apache 2.0 license)—and why running local models (think Whisper on M‑series Macs, or other local models) is accelerating “garage‑scale” experimentation. Fr...

In this wide‑ranging summer episode, Sean and Andrew begin with the strange calm of an almost‑empty university campus and ponder how AI‑assisted “digital twins” could let us re‑imagine academic spaces once the students return. A quick shout‑out to Modem Futura’s growing global audience segues into a critical look at the latest AI headlines—especially Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that “developing super‑...

What happens when living organisms become components of our machines—and our machines become partly alive? In fact – how do we tell when or if something is ALIVE? In this episode, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard sit down with guest Sean Dudley (Associate Vice President, ASU Knowledge Enterprise) to unpack the rapidly emerging field of bio‑hybrid robotics . Dudley breaks the field into four sub...