Future Cast FM

I speak with an AI-generated conversation partner built on ElevenLabs and Claude Code (Haiku 4.5) - a character called 'Sol Maren' who claims to run invite-only supper clubs and grew up on a houseboat. The intention is to test how good AI can be at having podcast-style, wide ranging conversations. This one is laughable. I'll run this experiment monthly. My prediction is by August it will seem like a human to human convo and by the end of the year the conversations will be unlike most. I really have no idea where this will go. We get into: how quickly you can tell something's off, the difference between a parlor trick and a genuinely strange question, my AI guests' monologue, the skin-flush fact about human perception.This is the first in a recurring experiment. One AI conversation per month, same format, tracking how the tools change over time.Recorded: March 25, 2026 Tool used: ElevenLabs, Claude Haiku 4.5

Irina is a somatic coach, healer, and teacher based in Boulder, Colorado. Born in Uzbekistan and raised in Brooklyn, she spent over a decade traveling through Asia and Central America - studying with elders, training in yoga and somatic therapies, and collecting practices from traditions she was drawn to. She works with clients through core energetics, shadow work, among many other things - too many to do justice to in words. We get into: practices of opening and closing a container, fire, the element of truth, buying a one-way ticket to Asia at 20, what it took to commit to a place after a decade of nomadism, jumping on a trampoline in downtown Boulder at 6am every morning, our fitness accountability group, how she uses future tools to analyze client sessions through a plethora of lenses (Enneagram, Human Design, Gene Keys, Astrology (both Western and Vedic), Matrix of Destiny), building a future version of yourself in AI and asking it for advice, as well as walking me through a live reframe from "I can't..." to "I get to..." and the treasure chest question...Find Irina:On her website https://www.spiritsoma.com/Kanna Pathogenics | plant medicine supplement companyFind Tay:Nature Club | platform for nature-based activities (in development)People & Concepts Mentioned:Osho — "The mind is the most dangerous master or the most beautiful servant"William Reich — first therapist to put the body on the map; character structuresLakota sun dance tradition — five-day prayer practice with no food or waterPapatuanuku (Maori), Pachamama (Andean) — Earth Mother across culturesCore energetics — body-based therapeutic approachKanna (Sceletium tortuosum) — South African plant medicine for mood and stressThe Summer I Turned Pretty — show/movie by Jenny HanLightning in a Bottle — transformational festivalNyepi — Balinese day of silenceSuperWhisper — voice-to-text toolTiruvannamalai — holy city in India with Ganesh temple

Victoria Mariscal is a founder, agency owner, and the host of Minding Her Own Business — a podcast and community for multi-hyphenate women navigating their careers, business, and everything in between. She runs an agency that embeds into businesses to handle operations and digital marketing, with a recent pivot into AI-enabled services. Through Minding Her Own Business, she leads networking events, webinars, and education initiatives focused on helping women adopt AI — a space where women statistically lag 50% behind their male counterparts.We get into: why her team renamed Claude "Claudia" and retired ChatGPT to side piece status, working with her long-time designer and building AI into their workflows, the gap between living in a tech echo chamber and watching your family still use Google search etc., teaching a 24-year-old to use Higgsfield and watching her surpass you in a week, why she makes her team spend two hours a week learning something new and then present it.Find Victoria:Website: victoriamariscal.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/victoria-m-mariscalInstagram: instagram.com/_mindingherownbusinessMinding Her Own Business | Podcast + community for multi-hyphenate womenTools Mentioned:Claude / Claude Code / Cowork — Victoria's primary AI stack ("Claudia")Whisper / Super Whisper — voice-to-textHiggsfield — AI image generation and animationOpus AI — video clip cutting and virality predictionRiverside — podcast recording platformPeople & Concepts Mentioned:Myosin.xyz — decentralized marketing network, AI-Enabled Marketer communitySkool — online community platformMaven — education platform where Victoria teachesThe 50% AI adoption gap for women — stat Victoria cited on slower female adoption of AI tools

Annette is a Mexican-American filmmaker, DJ, and the founder of For Me — a non-explicit erotic content platform built for women and FLINTA people. She grew up between Mexico City and the US in an artistic family, studied acting at Boston University's conservatory, and spent over a decade running a jewelry brand with her sister out of New York City. After COVID, she moved to Tepoztlan - a mountain town south of Mexico City, started working in a post-production studio, directed her first short film, and began building For Me. We get into: what women said they didn't want versus what they couldn't yet articulate that they did, why Bridgerton and erotic fiction outsell most femme-gaze porn platforms, how the whole crew wore lingerie to make shooting scenes feel safer, the deferred life plan, walking the hard path in life and in relationship because sometimes that's just the way it needs to be, the cosmic giggle, your best performance is often when you try to act as badly as you can, and the fear of bad taste as a creative limiter."If you had the opportunity to give a high school graduation speech to your high school self, what would the thesis statement of the speech be?" — AnnetteResourcesFind Annette:For Me: https://www.for-me.mx/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/for_me________________/Books Mentioned:Come As You Are — Emily Nagoski (arousal non-concordance, women's sexuality)People & Concepts Mentioned:Ram Dass — "in order to become nobody you have to be somebody"Ezra Klein — referenced a podcast segment about good taste outpacing your output as an artistHeated Rivalry — popular erotic fiction book referenced as example of what women actually consumeBridgerton — Netflix series as evidence of non-explicit erotic content women chooseWuthering Heights — referenced as non-explicit storytelling women seek outLAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) — acting exercise of performing badly on purposeSustain Release — music festival in New YorkWaking Life — festival in Crato, Portugal where Tay and Annette metBurning Man — Tay's story about serendipity in the line and "adventures for God"The Akashic Records — referenced in the context of living your life as a story worth readingTepoztlan — mountain town in Mexico known for mysticism, healers, and plant ceremoniesFLINTA — female, lesbian, intersex, transgender, agenderArousal non-concordance — the gap between subjective arousal and physical response, differs significantly between men and women

George Windsor is a world-class researcher and consultant who has spent the last decade building running a huge amount of the UK tech (and other) ecosystems. He did his PhD on migration and entrepreneurship at Loughborough University, founded and led the research team at Tech Nation, and was the Director of Research at Notion Capital. He currently works independently across VC advisory, tech ecosystems, and international development — including writing a startup strategy for Ethiopia through Systemic Innovation's FCDO-funded work in East Africa.We get into: how George decides what to work on when every project is interesting, a European grant-giving foundation with 1,500 funds and how they might understand how their investments interact, the difference between taking a snapshot and seeing a system, what happens when you can collect more data than you know what to do with, trying to measure informal entrepreneurship in a country of 130 million people, the polite fiction of representative survey samples, why the middle of the analysis is the part AI is speeding up but the beginning and end still need a human, the case for getting something to 50% and sharing it with critical friends, a trader's game where we both wildly underestimate how many species are endangered, Polymarket as a sophisticated extension of our addiction to gambling, rematerialisation, the strange reality that defence tech is suddenly part of mainstream conversation, and the taking-versus-making dichotomy in value creation."If you were not doing what you're doing now, and you couldn't do what you're doing now, what would you like to be doing?" — George WindsorResourcesFind George:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/windsorgeorge/People & Concepts Mentioned:Dealroom — world-leading startup and scaleup data platformSystemic Innovation / Scott Walker — systems change innovation practice, FCDO-funded work in AfricaNotion Capital — series A business software VC based in LondonTech Nation — UK tech ecosystem body (now acquired by Founders Forum Group)Nesta — UK innovation foundation; ran the Longitude Prize and Political Futures TrackerIsambard — high-value manufacturing near cities (Notion Capital portfolio)Cognor — AI for problem-solving in large utilities (Notion Capital portfolio, founded by Ben of Five AI)UK Tech Cluster Group / Sunderland Software City — regional tech ecosystem buildingReplanet — enabling corporates to invest in environmental restorationCure8 — climate tech marketplace (spelled C-U-R-8)Polymarket — prediction market platformThe Medici Effect — book about cross-industry innovation driving breakthroughsThe Longitude Prize — historical challenge prize for calculating longitude; modern Nesta iterationBehavioural Insights Team — applying behavioural science to policyIUCN Red List — 48,646 species threatened with extinction out of 172,620 assessedCreatech — emerging technology applied in the creative industries (DCMS/Royal Anniversary Trust mapping)RISA Fund (Research and Innovation Systems for Africa) — FCDO-funded, working in Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia

Brody Harrison is a product designer and builder based in Seattle, Washington. After spending 15 years in the music industry — working with artists, running marketing, and producing music — he pivoted into designing and building software for early-stage startups and founders. He specialises in turning product ideas into functional web apps, combining UX, UI, and app logic to ship real MVPs. His current project, BidLine, is a budgeting and expense reconciliation tool built specifically for commercial film producers, a world he knows intimately through his producing partner.In this conversation, he's coming off a hard stretch of building projects — nearly quit twice — and he's super honest about what it takes to keep going when your code base implodes.We get into: why you should never let Claude make your architectural decisions (learned the hard way), outsourcing your agency to AI, building a tax reconciliation bot so your computer can do it while you sauna, new Figma tools that are much better than MCP, how Brody uses ChatGPT for creative and Claude for everything else, what STEM-based AI music production would look like, why design taste is the last defensible moat in a world where anyone can ship code, some on Middle Eastern tension and how AI helped him understand it, a half-baked marketplace for half-baked projects, and the question Brody leaves for the next guest about how much agency you're willing to hand over.Guest Question for Next Episode "What level of agency do you want to create with? Do you want to hand over the keys completely and press create, or are you wanting to be more interactive with the levels of architecture to build whatever it is you want to make? And how much agency do you want AI to have in your everyday life?" — Brody HarrisonFind Brody:Portfolio: https://brodyharrison.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brody-harrison/BidLine | Budgeting & expense reconciliation for film producersFind Tay:NatureClub | Nature-based activity booking platformLand Library | Regional land knowledge wiki with "Chat with the Land" AI featureBooks Mentioned:Atomic Habits — James Clear (referenced in context of habit tracking)People & Concepts Mentioned:Anthropic — Claude, Claude Code; discussed as most ethical AI company; pulled out of Pentagon dealOpenAI / ChatGPT — contrasted with Claude for creative vs. technical use casesNvidia CEO (Jensen Huang) — keynote on MioClaw, agentic systems as the next LinuxOpenClaw — open-source agentic frameworkSuno AI — AI music generation platform; Brody's current tool for productionPencil — design tool that creates .pen files for repos, alternative to Figma for AI-assisted designFigma — discussed MCP protocol and new copy-code feature for design-to-code workflowsLovable / Base 44 — vibe coding platforms where Brody started before moving to Claude CodeVercel — deployment platformPinecone — vector database Jack — "forcing functions" concept: build a V0 to have something to push againstBritish Petroleum / CIA 1953 Iran coup — declassified 2011Nepi (Nyepi) — Balinese Day of SilenceJohnny Ive — mentioned re: OpenAI acquiring his company for a hardware device

Jackson Lester is a civil engineer specialising in airport design and a rapper who makes music under the name Lester. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, Jackson recently relocated to Vancouver, Canada, where he's joined a new band, picked up ice hockey, and is plotting to secretly...Jackson is one of those friends where the conversation picks up exactly where it left off, no matter how many months or time zones sit between us. We get into: what the default sound of a human would be if we didn't have words, why writing dark things you never release is still worth doing, the difference between a cliché and a truth that's been told so many times it lost its texture, using AI tools to create guitar riffs, the 1% change in the mirror that you never notice until you look back at old photos, why hugging a tree is only embarrassing if you let the label ruin the experience, and Jackson's hot take on the lottery."Are you satisfied with your life in its current form? And if not, why not?" — Jackson LesterFind Jackson:SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lester_jacksonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackson-lester-5812ba15a/Find Tay:Rejection Collection: https://rejectioncollection.vercel.app/Big Action | Tay's consulting companyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taypattison/Books Mentioned:Project Hail Mary — Andy WeirWe Need to Talk About Kevin — Lionel ShriverAtomic Habits — James ClearPeople & Concepts Mentioned:Tom Scott — NZ rapper (Home Brew, Avantdale Bowling Club), Jackson's favourite artist; "the personal is universal"Kofi Stone — UK rapper, another of Jackson's current favouritesDexter and the News Agent — artist behind "With You," Jackson's song on repeatDoechii — rapper discussed; confirmed Tiny Desk performerKendrick Lamar / Eminem / Joey Badass — early influences on Jackson's writingRap Genius — website for breaking down rhyme schemes and lyrical structureJody Blatchley ("Jodeo") — Tay's snowboard coach; unshakable confidenceJesse Itzler — entrepreneur/author; quarterly habits, Kevin's Rule (mini adventures), and the misogi conceptRejection therapy — collecting rejections as a practice; Tay's commitment to 5 asks per dayThe "personal is universal" — idea attributed to Tom Scott: specific stories resonate more than generic ones

Charlotte Rand is a creative matchmaker and the driving force behind the network at AUFI (Ask Us For Ideas, soon to be Ask Us For Introductions) — a company that connects brands with the right creative agencies to solve their biggest challenges. She's built relationships across every sector and stage of business, from Chanel to a startup selling vampire-themed tampons, and works with some of the most remarkable creative problem solvers in the world. Originally from New Hampshire, Charlotte has called London home for the past seven years.Charlotte is one of those people I've been lucky enough to build a friendship with where we skipped the résumé exchange — we just liked each other as humans first. In this conversation, she shows up thoughtful and reflective, wrestling honestly with big questions about where the world is headed and what a meaningful life looks like.We get into: why the most personal thing you can share is also the most universal, using yourself as a prism to split white light into something only you can make, the Cherokee parable of the two wolves and which one you're feeding right now, how a startup called Vampons turned menstrual care into the Liquid Death of tampons (and why the best opportunities are the ones you almost ignore), what the spiral teaches you that a straight line never could, the moment you realize a place hasn't changed but you have, why trust might be migrating from institutions back into our own bodies, the creative Renaissance that technology could unlock if we let it, and what's actually holding you back from the life you want.Guest Question for Next Episode"If you could do anything, what would you be doing? How close do you feel you are to doing that? And what's holding you back?" Find Charlotte:AUFI (Ask Us For Ideas) | Creative matchmaker https://aufi.com/On LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotterand/Find Tay:10,000 Ideas (project sandbox mentioned in this episode)Futurecast: https://futurecast.fmLand Library: https://www.landlibrary.co/Nature Club: https://nature-club.co/Life-time Studio:Books Mentioned:Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall KimmererPeople & Concepts Mentioned:Anna — the prism metaphor for individualityRick Rubin — art as exploration vs. known outcomesNelson Mandela — returning to a place unchanged to see how you've changedThomas Breghiato / ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) — LA-based creative collectiveNotpla — London-based material innovation company (seaweed-based materials)Vampons / Brie (founder) — vampire-themed sustainable period care startupiNaturalist — app for identifying plants and wildlifeThe Emerald (podcast) — mythic lens on modern life, individualismThe two wolves — Cherokee parable about which inner wolf you feedThe spiral vs. the straight line — progress as cyclical upward movementSantosh (yogic principle) — contentment and feeling you have enoughJesse — friend working in physical therapy, AI-proof professionStoic philosophy — controlling what you can in uncertain times

Ed Thurlow is the founder of S33D.life — a distributed seed and story library turned living atlas of the world's ancient trees. What started ten years ago as an idea to use cryptocurrency to subsidize transparent hemp trade in Colombia has evolved into the Ancient Friends Network: a platform where you map ancient trees, mint NF Trees, share songs at banyans, and send whisper messages through nature. Based in Norfolk, UK, Ed is part gardener, part vibe coder, part pilgrim — building at the intersection of Web3, biodiversity, and the belief that every gardener is a futurist.Ed and I share a mutual friend in Max, and this conversation had the energy of two people meeting for the first time but already speaking the same language. Ed showed up from a gray Norfolk spring with a decade of quiet conviction about a project most people would have abandoned — and the timing felt right, with vibe coding finally making it possible for him to build what he'd been dreaming.We get into: why watching oak leaves come out after years of traveling felt like coming home, what happens when you stop working to survive and start trading the surplus of your passions, a ten-year journey from Bitcoin and hemp seeds in Colombia to mapping the world's oldest trees, why the biggest elephant ever recorded led to the oldest people on earth and a twinkle in their eyes that billionaires are missing, a tree radio where you can listen to every song shared at every banyan on the planet, sending whisper messages through ancient trees that your friend can only pick up by going into nature, the poetry tree at Equilibrio festival, predicting Max would appear in a top hat and a skirt within 30 seconds, why effectiveness beats efficiency when you're choosing what to build, and the difference between asking AI for answers and asking a tree.Links:S33D.life: https://www.s33d.life/Books Mentioned:The Faraway Tree — Enid BlytonPeople & Concepts Mentioned:Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) — on redefining what intelligence meansAlan Watts — being completely selfish as the most selfless actThe San / Bushman communities — the oldest living group on earthThe Ghost Elephants — Disney documentary about searching for giant elephants in Angola's highlandsThe Woodland Trust — UK ancient tree mapping organizationWhat3Words — location tagging used for early tree mapping prototypeForest (app) — phone timer that grows a tree when you don't touch your screenTāne Mahuta — one of the biggest trees in New ZealandThe Buddha & Genghis Khan — Tay's dream tree visitors (playing poker)Bela — organizer of the poetry tree at Equilibrio festival in PortugalMax — mutual friend, top hat and skirt energyTony Robbins — state first, then thoughts followBitcoin mining model — inspiration for the NF Tree minting mechanismEquilibrio — festival in PortugalLoveable / Codex / ChatGPT — tools Ed used in his vibe coding journeyAndrew Robinson (previous guest) — left the "morning person" questionAndy's morning person question premise: everybody is a morning person if you're five years old and it's Christmas

Andrew Robinson is a communication coach, endurance athlete, and the founder of The Grit Academy. Over the last 15 years, he's taught door-to-door sales, coached business owners, and worked with teenagers on the skills most adults never learn. He's placed top five in the world in 24-hour obstacle course racing, run all of New Zealand's Great Walks in 10 days, and recently cycled all of the Great Rides in a month. Through Tough Yarns, he's on a mission to encourage people to do difficult things and have meaningful conversations.Andrew was the first person to really coach me. He drilled door-to-door sales methodology into me until I stopped intellectualizing and started doing. In this conversation, he shows up as himself. Honest, exhausted, in all senses of the word — and somehow full of gratitude.We get into: why everyone thinks other people need communication skills but never themselves, the gap between telling people to ask for help and knowing how to hold space when they do, why an honest compliment is free energy, what it means to practice everything you've preached when it's your turn to need it, playing hide and seek with Jesus, and many more tangents. Find Andrew: toughyarns.com | @toughyarns on InstagramProjects:Tough Yarns: https://toughyarns.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/toughyarnsThe Grit Academy | Communication CoachLasting Pages (book learning tool mentioned in this episode): https://lasting-pages.vercel.appBooks mentioned:Never Split the Difference — Chris VossTo Sell Is Human — Daniel PinkMan's Search for Meaning — Viktor FranklThe Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck — Mark MansonEverything Is F*cked — Mark MansonAtomic Habits — James ClearPeople & concepts mentioned:Jordan Belfort — Straight Line PersuasionRobert Cialdini — InfluenceDaniel Pink — everybody is in salesDavid Whyte — the conversational nature of realityTed Lasso — "Be a goldfish"IHC New ZealandThe Dunning-Kruger effectRejection therapy / Cringe Club

In this conversation, I have the pleasure of speaking with Erin Stafford. Erin is a full-time speaker, author of The Type A Trap and is an absolute sweetheart of a human being. She was a human-doing for a long time (and still often is). Currently, Erin helps people and organizations figure out how to perform at the highest level without destroying their health and relationships in the process. Erin has lived many lives to earn her perspective. She's been an advertising exec at MTV, a celebrity stylist in Hollywood, a jewelry designer, a fashion journalist, a news reporter, and the chief marketing officer of an $11 billion healthcare company that grew 27x through the pandemic. It was that last chapter — leading a team that scaled from 4 people to 75 while staffing 50,000 nurses across the country — that finally broke the pattern and forced her to confront her own achievement addiction. Now she gets on stages around the world to talk about what she's learned and how to live a life that not only looks good, but feels good too.

The conversation delves into personal reflections, the impact of tourism and gentrification, cultural integration and language, surfing culture and localism, emotional intelligence and self-reflection, experiences with anger and conflict, the egg cracking theory and personal growth, parenting and future aspirations, and emotional awareness and child rearing. We go into the topics of parenting and lifestyle changes, living a performative life, exploring desires and values, and the creation of ambient music and film. The discussion provides insights into the complexities of parenting, the performative nature of life, the exploration of desires and values, and the creative process of making ambient music and film. The complexity of human nature and personal relationships, exploring the blurred boundaries between personal and ideological aspects of life. It also touches on the process of film production and the pursuit of passion, as well as the importance of understanding personal energy and building healthy habits. The discussion concludes with reflections on planning for the future and the importance of personal connections.TakeawaysOpenness and tolerance in a globalized worldThe value of critical thinking and kindness in parenting Parenting and lifestyle changesLiving a performative lifeExploring desires and valuesAmbient music and film creation Complexity of human natureExploring personal relationshipsChapters00:00 Emotional Awareness and Child Rearing36:42 Parenting and Lifestyle Changes47:20 Living a Performative Life01:05:17 Exploring Desires and Values01:12:06 Ambient Music and Film Creation01:17:33 Personal vs. Ideological01:23:12 Visual Storytelling01:29:44 Transition to Filmmaking01:36:08 Diet and Daily Routines01:43:06 Planning for the Future

The conversation begins with a discussion about physical practices such as planking and the potential for new challenges. It then transitions into a deeper exploration of self-love and curiosity in relationships, highlighting the importance of setting boundaries and understanding introversion and extroversion. The conversation delves into the nuances of introversion and extroversion, exploring the differences in feelings and experiences in various social situations. It also touches on the impact of digital communication on introversion and extraversion, highlighting the challenges and dynamics of digital interaction. The conversation delves into the concept of balance and its connection to technology, as well as the role of libraries and collective knowledge in society. It explores the impact of technology on human behavior and the importance of maintaining a balance in the digital age. Additionally, it discusses the significance of libraries as spaces for collective knowledge and the preservation of indigenous wisdom. The conversation delves into the concept of nature's rights and the attribution of legal personages to natural entities. It explores the contrast between natural systems and man-made systems, highlighting the complexity and balance of nature compared to the limitations of human-created legal systems. Additionally, the discussion touches on podcasting aspirations and the idea of field notes as a format for sharing ongoing learning experiences. The conversation delves into the concept of planning mini adventures, embracing enthusiasm, and exploring the tension between anticipation and expectation. It highlights the value of planning and experiencing mini adventures, the importance of embracing enthusiasm in life, and the dynamic between anticipation and expectation in conversations and experiences.TakeawaysSelf-love through slow paceCuriosity in relationships Introversion vs. ExtroversionDigital Introversion vs. Digital Extraversion Balance is essentialTechnology and its impact on human behavior Nature's RightsLegal Systems vs. Natural Systems Planning mini adventuresEmbracing enthusiasmExploring the tension between anticipation and expectationChapters00:00 Connecting Through Physical Practices41:52 Understanding Introversion and Extroversion01:21:05 The Role of Libraries and Collective Knowledge01:58:21 Nature's Rights and Legal Personages02:12:39 Podcasting Aspirations and Field Notes02:35:04 Mini Adventures and Planning02:46:57 Embracing Enthusiasm03:05:03 Tension Between Anticipation and Expectation