Flash Forward

Latest Episodes:

Fitness in a Bottle Apr 24, 2018

Show notes

Some people love going to the gym. Some people hate it. But what if there was a pill that could replace exercise? Today’s future might actually be closer than you think.

Today’s guests:

Nicola Twilley, co-host of Gastropod and New Yorker writer

David Eveleth, my dad and biotech expert

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, historian and co-host of Past Present

Sigmund Loland, philosopher of sports at Norwegian School of Sport Sciences

Casey Johnston, editor at The Outline, author of Ask a Swole Woman

Robert, my boyfriend

Further reading can be found here, including background documents, research papers, suggested books and more.

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Fire From the Deep Apr 10, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, a huge submarine volcano erupts, breaks the surface of the ocean, and forms a new island. What happens next?

Guests:

Tracy Gregg, associate professor of geology at the University at Buffalo

Rebecca Carey, senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania

Paraskevi V. Nomiku, assistant professor of geological oceanography at the University of Athens

Gianpierro Orbasano, Tongan photojournalist and explorer

Michael Bates, Prince of Sealand

James Grimmelmann, professor of law at Cornell Tech

Further reading:

The largest deep-ocean silicic volcanic eruption of the past century

Tsunami hazard risk of a future volcanic eruption of Kolumbo submarine volcano, NE of Santorini Caldera, Greece

Volcanic ash as fertiliser for the surface ocean

The Submarine Volcano Eruption off El Hierro Island: Effects on the Scattering Migrant Biota and the Evolution of the Pelagic Communities

What is law of the sea?

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

Principality of Sealand: Nation Building by Individuals

Sealand, Havenco and the Rule of Law

Hunga Tonga volcano eruption forms new S Pacific island

This episode was suggested by listener and long-time friend of the show Charlie Loyd.

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. I love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

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The Grey Dawn Mar 27, 2018

Show notes

We’re back! After a bit of a break, your regularly scheduled Flash Forward episodes will resume starting today. Every other Tuesday you’ll get a future delivered straight to your listening device. I hope you enjoy!

On this episode, we’re talking about the future of senior care. Namely: what happens when we outsource care for our aging loved ones to robots, apps and devices?

Let’s start by defining the challenge that the technology in today’s episode is trying to solve: in the United States, there are six million people over the age of 85. Experts estimate that, by 2050, that number will jump to 19 million. And a question looms over those numbers, right? Who’s going to take care of us? And who is going to pay for our care? The average cost of a year in a nursing home in the United States is over $80,000. In home services provided by humans are $48,000. At the same time, care facilities are already reporting a shortage of qualified nurses.

So of course one of the classes of solutions proposed to this looming problem is technology. There are already apps to monitor and assist seniors, robots to remind them to take their meds, and sensors to predict when they might fall. There are even little robot animals that can provide them with affection and comfort. But what do we give up when we hand our parents over to robots? What do they want? And are the products that tech people are coming up with actually solving the problem at all? Those are the questions of today’s episode.

For a full transcript of this episode, and for further reading visit flashforwardpod.com.

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voice of the annoyed father in the intro was played by Brent Rose. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to Apple Podcasts and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’ve Got Brainmail Jan 09, 2018

Show notes

In our last episode of the season, we take one one of the most requested futures: telepathy! What would it be like to be able to link minds, and communicate brain to brain? And how likely is it that we’ll ever get this kind of technology?

We start the episode by talking to Roger Luckhurst, a Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, who explains where the word telepathy comes from, and how it totally obsessed men of science in the early 1800’s. Then, futurist and science fiction author Ramez Naam walks us through both the current state of science and the futuristic world of his science fiction series Nexus, that centers around a drug that gives people telepathic powers. After that, we consider what a future full of telepathic people might mean for etiquette with Robin Abrahams, the etiquette columnist for the Boston Globe. And then we talk privacy and digital security with Kit Walsh, a a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And we finish out the episode by talking to Lateef McLeod, a poet, blogger, activist and doctoral student in the anthropology and social change program at California Institute for Integral Studies, about how those with complex communication needs might appreciate a new form of communication.

Further reading:

Could A Census Without A Leader Spell Trouble In 2020?

US Census Director Resigns Amid Turmoil Over Funding of 2020 Count

Departure of U.S. Census director threatens 2020 count

The 2020 Census is at risk. Here are the major consequences

With 2020 Census Looming, Worries About Fairness and Accuracy

Trump's threat to the 2020 Census

NAACP lawsuit alleges Trump administration will undercount minorities in 2020 Census

Census 2020: How it’s supposed to work (and how it might go terribly wrong)

Census watchers warn of crisis if 2020 funding is not increased

Likely Changes in US House Seat Distribution for 2020

What Census Calls Us: A Historical Timeline

As 2020 Census Approaches, Worries Rise Of A Political Crisis After The Count

The American Census: a social history by Margo J. Anderson

The Story Collider podcast: Dawn Fraser, The Mission

Note: This is the second to last episode of this season of Flash Forward! The last episode drops January 9th, and then the show will be in hiatus for a few months while I prep for season 4, which is going to be great I can already assure you! If you want to follow along with the prep for season 4, and just generally keep up with what's going on with the show and when it's coming back stay in touch via Twitter, Facebook , Reddit, or, best of all, Patreon, where I'll post behind the scenes stuff as I get ready for the next Flash Forward adventures.

Also, I’m going on tour with PopUp Magazine in February! Get your tickets at popupmagazine.com.

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Special thanks this week to Liz Neeley who voiced our discouraged bureaucrat. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

As a bonus, at the end of this episode, you'll hear a human chorus record a psalm that was written by Janelle Shane's machine learning algorithm. (Remember her from the super religion episode?) and arranged by Hamish Symington and Owain Park.

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There’s No Great Future in Plastics Dec 12, 2017

Show notes

This episode is all about a world without plastic. What would that look like? Is it even possible?

Today, plastic is seen as one of our great environmental enemies. But it actually wasn’t always that way. Bradford Harris, a historian of science and the host of a podcast called How It Began: A History of the Modern World, and Susan Freinkel, a journalist and the author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, walk us through how plastic started out as a solution to unsustainable practices. Then we talk to Sherry Lippiatt, California Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, about what exactly is going on with garbage in the ocean. And finally I visit Danielle Trofe at her studio in Brooklyn, where she grows sustainable materials using mushrooms.

Further reading:

Debbie Chachra on peak plastics

"On a scale beyond all previous conceptions" [electronic resource] : plastics and the preservation of modernity

Bradford Harris: Plastics and Sustainability

Our 'Toxic' Love-Hate Relationship With Plastics

99 Percent Invisible: The Post-Billiards Age

Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean

There Is No Island of Trash in the Pacific

Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags

Different Types of Plastics and their Classification

Health risks posed by use of Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in PVC medical devices: A critical review

How Stuff Works: bioplastics

Taxation and Regulation of Plastic Shopping Bags in Botswana and South Africa

GROW: A Lamp YOU Grow from Mushroom Mycelium

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voices from the future this episode were provided by Lisa Pollak, Arielle Duhaime-Ross, Brent Rose, Victor Dorff and Mary Beth Griggs. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Father, Who art in Algorithm Nov 28, 2017

Show notes

In this episode, we travel to a future where a tech mogul feeds a machine learning system all the religious texts he can find, and asks it to generate a “super religion.”

Buckle up because this is a long episode! But it’s fun, I promise.

For the intro of this episode I worked with Janelle Shane to actually train a machine learning algorithm on a big chunk of religious texts that I assembled, and spit something back out. The specifics of the texts and the machine learning algorithm come with a handful of caveats and notes, which you can find at the bottom of this post. Janelle has done of ton of really funny, interesting things with machine learning algorithms that you can find here.

To analyze the text that this algorithm generated, and talk about the limitations of this kind of project, I spoke with a big group of people from a variety of backgrounds:

Linda Griggs is an Episcopal priest and an assisting priest at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Providence Rhode Island.

Lauren O’Neal and Niko Bakulich are the hosts of a podcast called Sunday School Dropouts, whose tagline is: "an ex-Christian (Lauren) and a non-believing sort of Jew (Niko) read all the way through the Bible for the first time."

Elias Muhanna is the Manning Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University, and director of the Digital Islamic Humanities Project.

Beth Duckles is a sociologist (who you heard last episode talking about peanut allergies).

Carol Edelman Warrior is an Assistant Professor of English at Cornell’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. She is also enrolled with the Ninilchik Village Tribe (Dena'ina Athabascan / Alutiiq), and is also of A'aninin (Gros Ventre) descent.

Mark Harris is a journalist who writes about technology, science and business for places like WIRED, The Guardian and IEEE Spectrum. He wrote a great piece about Anthony Levandowski’s new religion of artificial intelligence called Way of the Future.

Further reading:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Self Deception

The Elements of a Scientific Theory of Self-Deception

People don’t know when they’re lying to themselves

Temporal view of the costs and benefits of self-deception

The slow decay and quick revival of self-deception

DENIAL: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind

Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal

Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection

Patrons are going to get a really fun bonus segment next week that didn’t quite make it into this episode. It’s about hypnosis. So if you want that, go to Patreon and sign up as a $5 donor!

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voice from this episode’s future was provided by Cynthia Graber. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Easy Bake Organs Oct 31, 2017

Show notes

This episode we take on a future full of bioprinted replacement organs. You asked for more hopeful futures, this is about as hopeful as they get!

We start by hearing a bit about what the current organ donation market is like from Christine Gentry, who donated a kidney to a stranger. Then we talk to Dr. Anthony Atala, the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and of the world’s leading regenerative medicine specialists. Dr. Atala has implanted organs grown from the cells of patients themselves in clinical trials. Then Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join us to talk about what they learned while writing a chapter about bioprinting for their new book Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. And finally, we get an impassioned indictment of 3D printing file formats from Meghan McCarthy, Project Lead for the NIH 3D Print Exchange.

Further reading:

Organ Donation Statistics

Neural and cognitive characteristics of extraordinary altruists

Boston woman's donation creates 3rd-longest kidney transplant chain, saving 28 people

The Doctor and the Salamander

How An Economist Helped Patients Find The Right Kidney Donors

TED Talk: Printing a Human Kidney

Rebuilding the Breast

Soonish: Zach and Kelly Weinersmith on 10 technologies that will change everything

Online Course Bioprinting: 3D Printing Body Parts

Scientists 3-D Print Mouse Ovaries That Actually Make Babies

If you’re interested in becoming a living organ donor and want to know what it’s like, you can get in touch with Christine Gentry. Her email is christine.gentry at gmail.com, and she’s all about helping people understand donation.

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Our intro future voices were skillfully provided by Alyssa Mondelli, BW and Josh Kirby. The music from the intro was by Unheard Music Concepts, PC III and Soft and Furious. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buzz Off Oct 17, 2017

Show notes

In this episode we travel to a world without bees. And not just honey bees, all bees.

You’ve probably heard a lot of doom and gloom predictions about what might happen if honey bees went extinct. Mass famine! The end of coffee! World economic collapse! But is that all true? (Probably not.) And how likely is a honeybee extinction anyway? (Extremely unlikely.) Plus, what about all the other bees in the world? We ponder these questions and more in this episode.

To walk us through what might happen to agriculture if bees went away, I talked to Marcelo A. Aizen, a researcher who studies plant pollinator interactions. His research suggests that the loss of honeybees might not be as dire as everybody claims. And to talk about the more neglected bees out there, I called up Elaine Evans, a professor at the University of MInnesota’s Bee Lab, and Paige Embry, the author of the forthcoming book Our Native Bees: North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them.

Plus, a little bonus “what if” at the end, featuring cartoonist Dean Yeagle, the man who drew the original Honey Nut Cheerios bee.

Further reading:

How much does agriculture depend on pollinators? Lessons from long-term trends in crop production (PDF)

How to befriend bumblebees

What if bees went extinct?

Why bees are disappearing

Citizen Science: Bumble Bee Surveys

Has Anybody Seen the Franklin’s Bumblebee?

Franklin’s Bumblebee Still Elusive

The Old Man and the Bee

Wallace’s Giant Bee

Honey Nut Cheerios Mascot Goes Missing as Brand Addresses Declining Bee Populations

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The future voice this episode was provided by Mike Rugnetta. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices