Modem Futura

By Sean Leahy, Andrew Maynard

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Subscribers: 4
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Episodes: 88

Description

Modem Futura is your weekly guide to the future of science, technology, and society—where futures and foresight meets real-world impact. Hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard—educators, futurists, and public scholars—dive into the breakthroughs and big questions shaping tomorrow: AI ethics, space exploration, climate tech, bio-engineering, digital media, STEM education, and the shifting future of work. In candid, banter-filled conversations with innovators, scholars, and storytellers, they unpack how emerging technologies influence human values, creativity, and culture—and what these trends mean for you today. Whether you’re curious about quantum computing, electric air taxis, or the sociology of robots, Modem Futura connects cutting-edge research with the narratives that drive innovation. Join us each week to explore possible, probable, and preferred futures, and discover practical insights for navigating an increasingly tech-driven world. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and be part of the conversation exploring what it will mean to be human in the future!

Episode Date
School's Out for Summer: AI, Vibe Coding, and What Teaching Still Requires
May 19, 2026
The Dawkins Effect: Why Even Skeptics Fall for AI Consciousness
May 12, 2026
Convergence Day: Opus 4.7 and the Reliability Question
May 05, 2026
The Jagged Frontier: Reading Stanford's Human Centered 2026 AI Index
Apr 28, 2026
Mythos and the Sorcerer's Apprentice: When AI Outruns Our Wisdom
Apr 21, 2026
Artemis II: The Science, the Wonder, and the Future of Being Human
Apr 14, 2026
Two Tools That Will Change How You Think About the Future
Apr 07, 2026
Fluid Futures: 10 Signals Reshaping an AI-Mediated World
Mar 31, 2026
Futures Improv: Power, Probes & Post-Human Civilization
Mar 24, 2026
The Invisible Upgrade: How AI Is Already Changing How We Think
Mar 17, 2026
The Futures Cone: Preposterous to Plausible
Mar 10, 2026
Technologic: What Old iPods, Tiny Cameras, and Tangled Cables Teach Us About the Future
Mar 03, 2026
The Futures Triangle and the Intent Map: Practical Tools for Thriving with AI
Feb 24, 2026
The Fun They Had - Asimov Predicted AI Tutors in 1950's
Feb 17, 2026
Vibe Coding and the Return of Personal Software
Feb 10, 2026
The Future From a Kid's Perspective with Freddie Leahy
Feb 03, 2026
Pluribus: When Happiness Becomes the Apocalypse
Jan 27, 2026
Signals of Collapse (and Hope): WEF 2026 Global Risk Report
Jan 20, 2026
Jurassic Park Was Right: AI, Inherited Power, and the Cost of Moving Too Fast
Jan 13, 2026
Technosphere and Solarpunk: Designing Energy Futures That Let Us Thrive with Clark Miller
Jan 06, 2026
2025 Year in Review Recap: AI, Education, Futures Thinking & the Future of Being Human
Dec 30, 2025
Why Human Craft and Creativity Still Wins in an Age of AI
Dec 23, 2025
Is Life a Simulation? AI, Games, and the Future of Reality with Rizwan Virk
Dec 16, 2025
That Was Easy: The Hidden Cost of Frictionless AI
Dec 09, 2025
AI Toys: Datafied Childhoods and the Future of Play
Dec 02, 2025
Made by Humans: Inside the New Apple TV Logo
Nov 25, 2025
The AI Sustainability Paradox - Promise, Peril, and Planetary Futures
Nov 18, 2025
The Metaverse - A Stack of Reality Layers
Nov 11, 2025
Through the lens: Spatial Computing with Apple Vision Pro
Nov 04, 2025
Tech or Treat: A Haunted Futures Improv Special
Oct 31, 2025
Atlas, Higher Education, and How We Really Feel About AI
Oct 28, 2025
Sora, Slop, and the AI Economy: When ChatGPT Meets Walmart
Oct 21, 2025
We Turned One - plus Liquid Media, Work Slop, and the Road Ahead
Oct 14, 2025
AI and the Art of Being Human: How to Thrive with AI
Oct 07, 2025
AI in Elementary Education: Teaching Tech to Our Youngest Learners
Sep 30, 2025
Sloppy Clankers: Is This AI’s Frankenfood Moment?
Sep 23, 2025
Futures Thinking: Foresight You Can Use
Sep 16, 2025
Films from the Future: Moviegoer’s Guide to Tomorrow
Sep 09, 2025
Up in the Air: The Future of eVTOLs and Urban Air Mobility
Sep 02, 2025
Agentic AI in Education & the Art of Becoming with Punya Mishra
Aug 26, 2025
AI, Not AI: Riding the Hype Cycle
Aug 19, 2025
Show Me the Receipts: the Futures of AI Super-intelligence
Aug 12, 2025
Living Machines: Inside the Future World of Bio‑Hybrid Robotics
Aug 05, 2025
Futures of Agentic AI and the 2025 AI Action Plan
Jul 29, 2025
Summer School with AI: Rethinking Learning in the Age of GPT
Jul 22, 2025
Summer Movies, liquid media, and alien AI languages
Jul 15, 2025
Summer Vibes & Spatial Rides: Inside Vision Pro, F1 & Jurassic Reboots
Jul 08, 2025
Future Vibes: Sean & Andrew’s 2025 Summer Reading List
Jul 01, 2025
World Economic Forum Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025
Jun 24, 2025
Osaka Expo 2025 Futures Lab: an inside look with Jamey Wetmore
Jun 17, 2025
Murderbot: Futures of AI Superintelligence, Rogue Robots, and Care
Jun 10, 2025
Living Circuits and Biofoundries: Ethics and Care of Synthetic Biology with Emma Frow
Jun 03, 2025
Futures of Learning: AI in Education with Punya Mishra
May 27, 2025
Symbiotic Futures: Megatrends, foresight, and Futures Thinking
May 20, 2025
Severed Minds: Brain Implants, AI, and the Future of Being Human
May 13, 2025
AI on Campus: How Gen Z Is Redefining College with ChatGPT
May 06, 2025
Dire Wolves and Dinosaurs: The Bioscience of De-Extinction
Apr 29, 2025
Beyond the Hero’s Journey: AI, Protopia & the Future of Film with Taryn O'Neill
Apr 22, 2025
Electronic Vehicles and the Future of Transportation with Jamey Wetmore
Apr 15, 2025
Vibecasting: Studio Ghibli and AI Redefining Creativity and Intellectual Property
Apr 08, 2025
When AI Takes the Wheel: Rethinking Education for a Post-Scarcity World
Apr 01, 2025
Tech Trends 2025: Exploring Futures of Living Intelligence
Mar 25, 2025
AI and the Natural Impulses for Learning
Mar 18, 2025
AI and Technological Change: the Postman Always Delivers
Mar 11, 2025
Computational Photography: AI & Creative Process
Mar 04, 2025
The Art of Doing Nothing
Feb 25, 2025
AI: the Medium is the Message
Feb 18, 2025
Artisanal Intellectual: a response to OpenAI's Deep Research
Feb 11, 2025
Going Pro with ChatGPT and DeepSeek - with Mark Daley
Feb 04, 2025
Stargate AG-I
Jan 28, 2025
AGI, Superintelligence, Synthetic Personas, and is the Internet dead?
Jan 21, 2025
Autonomous Vehicles and Systems with Brunno Moretti
Jan 14, 2025
Humans in Space with Astronaut Cady Coleman
Jan 07, 2025
2024 Retrospective Prospective
Dec 31, 2024
Live Holiday Special: Futures Speed Round
Dec 24, 2024
Live from the Pub! Exploring Digital Realities
Dec 17, 2024
Radical Creativity: A Future of Unconventional Possibilities
Dec 10, 2024
Envisioning Tomorrow: The Power of Futures Thinking with Ruth Wylie
Dec 03, 2024
Can AI Reason Like Humans?
Nov 26, 2024
Simulation Hypothesis with Rizwan Virk
Nov 19, 2024
Waymo we go! - Navigating the Future of Autonomous Driving
Nov 12, 2024
Future of AI: Can Machines Think?
Nov 05, 2024
Halloween edition featuring War of the Worlds
Oct 31, 2024
Futures and Ethics of Bio Hacking
Oct 29, 2024
Daydreaming of digital notebooks and virtual artificial worlds
Oct 22, 2024
What does it mean to be human in the future?
Oct 15, 2024
The Pilot - Exploring the Future of Being Human
Oct 08, 2024
Hello World! [it's a trailer]
Oct 01, 2024