Near Future Laboratory Podcast

Tina He is a writer, designer, and investor dedicated to creating technology that fosters creativity, growth, and knowledge. Her essay "The New Frontier of Belonging" caught my attention as it navigated through a number of disparate terrains while describing the peculiar kinds of social formations arising out of blockchain mechanics — and it leads with a reference to Italo Calvino, which...

A discussion about the social futures and social dynamics inherent in NFTs and Blockchain, with Sean Bonner. See his https://nftart.lol which compares various NFT platforms. And his blog: http://blog.seanbonner.com/nft/ He also publishes a semi-weekly email newsletter that I can highly recommend, called The Crowd https://tinyletter.com/seanbonner.

A long, ranging, technically challenged conversation with two participants in PizzaDAO which formed spontaneously on Clubhouse based on the idea to have a global pizza party. On March 15th, 2021 they opened Rare Pizzas Box NFT reservations to the public and raised $1.3 Million for real, cheese-y pizza. What is a DAO anyway, and what's it got to do with the future, let alone pizza? https://www.rare...

In this episode I move to the otherside of the Q&A table. Jonas Schmidt had contacted me to do a Q&A for his master's program research, specifically on the Near Future Laboratory and our own approach to design and creative work. It was good fun — so I asked Jonas if he wouldn't mind if we made it into a mirrorworld podcast episode and he happily agreed. Please support this podcast on Patreon - htt...

Devon Powers is an Associate Professor of Advertising at the Department of Advertising and PR in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Devon studies consumer culture, cultural history, and cultural circulation/intermediation, with a focus on trends, branding, and popular music. We discuss her book "On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future".

Alexis Lloyd is a product design and innovation leader who has spent her career designing experiences for how we read, write, and share information on the internet. She is currently the VP of Product Design at Medium and has previously led design and innovation work at The New York Times R&D Lab, Axios, and Automattic. She co-leads the Ethical Futures Lab and has a deep curiosity about how humans...

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Madeline Ashby who is an American-Canadian science fiction writer and futurist, best known for her 2016 novel Company Town. She is a graduate of OCAD University's Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation. If you found this episode a worthy use of your time and is helping your futures brain bulk up, consider become a patron over at our Patreon — or...

Madeline Ashby is an American-Canadian science fiction writer and futurist, best known for her 2016 novel Company Town. She is a graduate of OCAD University's Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation. If you found this episode a worthy use of your time and is helping your futures brain bulk up, consider become a patron over at our Patreon https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — or y...

Anab Jain is co-founder, along with Jon Arden, of Superflux which is a design studio based in London that create worlds, stories, and tools that provoke and inspire us to engage with the precarity of our rapidly changing world. If you found this episode a worthy use of your time and attention consider become a patron. You can do that at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — or you can offer a tip whi...

This episode is with Professor David Kirby. David coined the term ‘diegetic prototype’ to describe an important component of Design Fiction. He describes this and much more in his important book "Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema”.

This episode is a discussion with Liam Young. Liam is an Australian born archtect and film maker who uses design fiction and film in a really provocative and thoughtful and entertaining fashion. He also runs the MA in Fiction and Entertainment at the Southern California Institute of Archtecture (or SCI-ARC). Help support the Podcast by becoming a Patron at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory...

This episode is a conversation with Scott Smith, Managing Partner at Changeist. In this chat with Scott, we cover most all of that territory. We talk about what makes Design Fiction Design Fiction and not Science Fiction or Literary Fiction. We discuss David Kirby, who will be featured in a forthcoming episode, and the diegetic prototype. And a big discussion about ‘what Design Fiction is good for...

We discuss the role of the generalist in discovery-based creative, design, future-oriented explorations.