Near Future Laboratory Podcast
by Julian Bleecker
The Near Future Laboratory Podcast is conversations at the vanguard of design, technology, futures, and culture, hosted by Julian Bleecker — founder of the Near Future Laboratory.https://nearfuturelaboratory.comhttps://julianbleecker.comSupport this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Episodes
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N°105 - Small Stuff with Ian Bogost
In this episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, I talk with my old friend Ian Bogost about his new book, “The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life” — a funny (like..I laughed out loud) , generous, and quietly radical invitation to recover the sensory enchantment of everyday...
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N°104 - Marina Zurkow & Sarah Rothberg
The podcast is back from hiatus with a fun one! Episode 104 is a conversation with Sarah Rothberg and my dear old friend and collaborator Marina Zurkow about More&More, their speculative card-deck and worldbuilding framework for making strange, useful futures with other people. We talk about why...
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N°062 - Structure vs. Imagination with Andy Polaine
Andy Polaine is a designer, educator, writer and podcast guy. He hosts the wonderful 'Power of Ten' podcast. Andy is known for his work as a service designer, innovation consultant and professional executive coach. Don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at...
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N°103 - Tom Guarriello The Meaning of Branded Objects
Please support the podcast on Patreon! Thank you to all of my paid subscribers! My friend Tom Guarriello joins me to unpack a deceptively simple question—why do some things matter more than others? How is it that “brands” are rarely just products. Tom describes how they’re meaning-machines…
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N°102 - The Art of Possible with Dave Gray
Here we are — where imagination becomes strategy and art is the engine of innovation. This is a rebroadcast of my conversation in Episode 54 with my friend Dave Gray - artist, visual thinker, and founder of the School of the Possible - in which we explore how drawing and creativity can unlock new...
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N°101 - Kirby Ferguson Infinite Remix
Here is the link to the video we discuss: https://youtu.be/9pLCIoBZzd4 You'll want to watch that first — I mistakenly said I would include it but I don't want to rug Kirby's Youtube channel! This is a special an curious episode of the podcast — a broadcast from my weekly Office Hours where…
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N°100 - N O R M A L S Futures Are Boring
Please support the podcast over on Patreon. https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory We don’t suffer from a lack of imagination about the future. We suffer from too much of the same imagination. Every deck, every keynote, every speculative prototype—still echoing the same tropes: chrome cities,...
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N°099 - Outgoing
Outgoing is Brett Gui Xin and Del Hardin Hoyle, they are a creative design team based in Brooklyn. In this chat we discuss their participation in some recent design fairs which gave them a chance to take a break and reflect back on a busy stretch of work. Their media are various: sculptural...
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N°098 - NORMALS
Visit Normals In my book ‘It’s time to imagine harder’, my hypothesis was that bringing the creative consciousness back to work is a clear path to unlocking the unexpected and unanticipated. A way to sense into and feel for the unseen. The creative consciousness - which has a proclivity or…
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N°097 - Jarrett Fuller Going Home
The Intersection of Imagination, Science Fiction, Strategy and Creativity. we wandered into something I keep circling back to: the idea that strategy is a kind of science fiction. Not in the “space battles and robots” sense, but in the deeper way that science fiction gives us permission to…
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N°096 - Tobias Revell Stories To Imagine Alternate Futures
In which Tobias and I converse about the release of the book 'Practices of Future Casting', the importance of events that gather thought leaders to spur creativity and career development in design and futures thinking, the compilation and production of the book, the value of speculative writing…
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N°095 - Phil Balagtas Is Making Futures Work
Phil Balagtas' book "Making Futures Work" is a comprehensive map of the work of futuring. https://www.philbalagtas.com/ Learn how to get started with Futures Thinking. With this practical guide, Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative and the global Speculative Futures network,...
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N°094 - Troy Campbell Scientific Mind, Artistic Heart
Please become a paid supporter over on Patreon. Your support helps keep the Podcast going and gets you membership in the Near Future Laboratory community on Discord. A conversation with Troy Campbell who describes his journey from graduate school to becoming a professor and the Chief Scientist at...
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N°093 - Gary Hustwit Why Does A Film Have To Be The Same Everytime
This is Episode N°093 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast , a conversation with filmmaker/director Gary Hustwit, the creative punk mind behind documentaries Rams, Helvetica and Objectified. We dive into his journey in independent filmmaking, his DIY ethos, and his bold ideas about storytelling…
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N°092 - The Future of Work Is Not ‘Work from Home’
Read More 👉🏽 https://detroit.imaginesharder.com Can you imagine your idea of the future of work, beyond Zoom calls from the beach? What is the Onboarding Guide for the Future of Work? What is the Resumé from the Future of Work? What does the equivalent of the ‘org chart’ look like? Want to…
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N°091 - Imagine As Hard As Philip K. Dick with Tobias Revell
Tobias and I have a tidy morning/evening conversation that revolves around the impact of Philip K. Dick's science fiction, particularly how his imaginative devices influence modern technological narratives. We talk about the ways he refers to and anticipates AI and other artifacts, of course...
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N°090 - Kyle Ng / Brain Dead / Fashion For Futuring
Near Future Laboratory Podcast Episode 90: Exploring Creative Worlds with Kyle Ng Support the podcast on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory Join us at Detroit Imagines Harder: https://detroit.imaginesharder.com $55 Gets You 4 Design Fiction Books (Plus Electronic Sheep Training...
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N°089 - Silvio Lorusso Design & Disillusion
In Episode 089 I get into an in-depth conversation with guest Silvio Lorusso, a designer, artist, and writer based in Lisbon. Our discussion centers around the complex relationship between design, disillusionment, and the evolving role of design in society, as Silvio has articulated in his recent...
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N°088 - Dave Gray School of the Possible
A discussion with Dave Gray about our experiences creating communities that foster human connection, imagination, and possibility. We share our own approaches to building new kinds of ways of organizing human potential where people can explore ideas and practice creatively. "What if school was a...
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N°087 - Taryn O'Neil & Tamara Krinsky
Taryn O'Neil and Tamara Krinsky are the creative force behind Scirens, a creative team working at the intersection of science & storytelling, creative entertainment that encourages curiosity and imaginative thinking to shape a new vision for a rapidly changing world. They recently produced the...
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N°086 - What's for Breakfast In An AI Future Part 2
This is a digest of the 3PM session of General Seminar Season 05 Episode 01 where we discuss possible futures in which AI is as normal, ordinary, and everyday as wheels on luggage and televisions we talk to. General Seminar is Near Future Laboratory's platform for sense-making in which we…
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N°085 - What's for Breakfast In An AI Future Part 1
This is a digest of the 10AM session of General Seminar Season 05 Episode 01 where we discuss possible futures in which AI is as normal, ordinary, and everyday as wheels on luggage and televisions we talk to. General Seminar is Near Future Laboratory's platform for sense-making in which we…
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N°084 - EMERGENCY BROADCAST! THRILLING WONDER STORIES
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather 'round for an electrifying journey through the cerebral and speculative realm of "Thrilling Wonder Stories." Listen as we regale you with a tale of imagination, innovation, and intellectual wonder. Our narrative unfolds through a dazzling array of...
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N°083 - Ruth Guerra's Got Social Media Game
In this episode, I chat with the fun, creative, thoughtful Ruth Guerra, a design researcher with a knack for amplifying the questions about design, creativity, research and futures through a wonderful social media presence. We dive into her journey from a theater undergrad to mastering future...
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Last Week from the Near Future N°009 - Weeks 51-52/2023
Some things that happened at the Near Future Laboratory the last weeks of 2023 including a day trip to SFO using a travel voucher that was going to expire at the end of the year, meeting with the NFL gang for an awesome lunch and chat, hanging with Will Carey from https://formation.eco to…
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N°082 - Shashwath Santosh and The Innovation Crisis
Episode 082 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast with Julian Bleecker in conversation with Shashwatch Santosh. Home Page Instagram Please support this work and join the Near Future Laboratory Discord through Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory You can also support the work by…
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Last Week from the Near Future N°008 - Week 50/2023
1. Postcards from some possible futures, sent to me by Elliot P. Montgomery 2. A Magazine from the Future in which autonomous vehicles are about as normal, ordinary, and everyday as television remote controls, wheels on luggage, and laptop sleeves. 3. Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, our pulp...
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N°081 - Randy Plemel is Expedition Works
Randy Plemel is a design and innovation consultant specializing in solving hard and complex problems for people in elegant, and hopefully simpler ways. Randy has worked with a wide range of organizations in the public sector on democracy promotion, and the private sector on who their customer…
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Last Week from the Near Future N°007 - Week 49/2023
Here it is. Another episode of 'Last Week from the Near Future'. This is Episode 007, for Week 49 of 2023. Please support the Near Future Laboratory Podcast and get access to our awesomely vibrant Near Future Laboratory Discord community over on Patreon. Here's what I covered. PDPal: A 20-Year...
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Last Week from the Near Future N°006 - Week 48/2023
Here it is. Another episode of 'Last Week from the Near Future'. Last Week from the Near Future Laboratory - Week 48/2023 This is what I was thinking about. 1. Failure of Imagination: This concept is a common issue in organizations that struggle to envision anything beyond their current…
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MINISODE: SuperSeminar 005 Sneak Peek with Hassan Ragab
SuperSeminar 005 is our second session on Speculative Architecture and Generative AI. Here's a sneak peek with Hassan Ragab where we get some insights into how GenAI is shaping what architecture is becoming. Do you want to know more? Sign up for SuperSeminar 005 at...
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Last Week from the Near Future N°005
Episode N°005, Week Ending Nov 24, 2023 Promotion of Design Fiction for AI Policy Visualization: In this Last Week from the Near Future episode, I emphasize the importance of design fiction as a tool for visualizing and materializing the potential impacts of policies like the AI Bill of Rights. I...
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MINISODE - SuperSeminar 004 Sneak Peek with Drew Wiberg
SuperSeminar 004 is our session on practical uses for Generative AI within the enterprise. Here's a sneak peek with Drew Wiberg where we hear that he increased efficiency and productivity 40x with Generative AI, and how he used Generative AI to create the actual tooling he needed to bring about...
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N°080 - Soil Futures & Tarot Decks with Gabby Morris
Gabby Morris has soil questions — and a tarot deck to help think through those questions. Check out the Grounded Wisdom Tarot Deck on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gabbyamorris/grounded-wisdom-tarot-deck https://www.gabbymorris.co.uk/ Don't forget to support the Podcast over…
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N°079 - The Future Will Happen To You with Scott Smith and Susan Cox-Smith
Scott and Susan's new book, Future Cultures, focuses on integrating futures thinking into existing organizational contexts rather than forcing entirely new practices. They emphasize understanding and mapping current networks, language, and processes first and identifying and cultivating diverse...
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N°078 - Circular Economy Futures, a Digest of General Seminar S04E04
This episode is a Digest from General Seminar S04E04 where we went into some Circular Economy Futures and found a bunch of stuff to help us more tangibly imagine what these futures could feel like. https://generalseminar.com
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N°077 - Gemma Jones & School of Critical Design
A conversation with Gemma Jones from School of Critical Design. Check out the Near Future Laboratory's latest drop - 'Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' - the definitive handbook for understanding the psyche, motivations, desires, fears, and existential quandaries of machine & artificially...
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Last Week from the Near Future E002
Last Week from the Near Future Laboratory Episode 002 The Show where we look at some highlights from, you know _ Last Week in the Near Future Laboratory Let’s Go! 1. • Daniel Schmachtenberger l An introduc... 2. https://www.futures-in-maps.com/san-t... 3. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/...…
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N°076 - Food (In)Security Design Fiction Futures
Episode 076 is a discussion with Jan Rod and Kenta Kondo from IDEO Tokyo sharing their Project Inari in which created a sushi box as Design Fiction artifact. They collectively imagined a future that considers and reflects upon sustainable harvesting and issues of food security. It is a public...
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Last Week from the Near Future Minisode E001
A new show. Last Week from the Near Future — a summary of some interesting things that came through and around the Near Future Laboratory Discord. 1. The Imagine Harder Summit (Detroit, Sept. 22/23, 2023) 2. Dave Eggers is outraged by AI on the Ingenious Podcast...
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N°075 - Artificially Artfifully Enhanced Rebroadcast
This Episode is a rebroadcast of Episode 030 with Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby, preceded and amended with various explications and questions posed to the Chesterbot container of the conversation's semantics. **Speculative Design Practice** Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby's design practice has evolved over...
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N°074 - Sascha Pohflepp
Sascha Poflepp was a German artist, collaborator, and friend. We dedicated The Manual of Design Fiction to him. It's important not to forget his contributions to creative thinking and making. In that spirit, I managed to extract the audio tape from a panel I organized at SxSW back in 2010 on the...
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N°073 - Lila Feldman Emerging Creative Consciousness
Lila Feldman is a designer based in NYC. She received her BA in 3D Design: Product + Furniture from Northumbria University and her MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design. https://lilafeldman.com/ Lila and I discussed finding purpose in creative practice and how creativity,...
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N°072 - Che-Wei Wang CW&T
If you're curious to hear about what it takes to dream into, create, build, grow, maintain an independent creative studio and practice, you'll want to listen to this conversation with Che-Wei Wang and myself. We talk about the importance of creativity and how it can be used to create meaningful...
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N°071 - Geoff Manaugh (CGI Ghosts and Defensive Grappling In Zero G)
This episode is a conversation with writer and noted architecture critic Geoff Manaugh, who has written for the The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Financial Times Magazine, New Scientist, Cabinet Magazine, The Daily Beast, Wired UK amongst many…
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N°070 - Juliana Schneider — More.Than.Human-Centered Design
Juliana Schneider is a trend researcher, futures designer and creative strategist with diverse and extensive experience in the creative industry. She helps people and businesses make sense of the world around them and build stories and strategies that inspire us to engage with the challenges of a...
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N°069 - Dr. Delfina Fantini van Ditmar — A Not Too Comfortable Future
Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a biologist, design researcher and Senior Lecturer. Her practice is concerned with ecological thinking, reflective practices, epistemological paradigms and alternative futures. https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/dr-delfina-fantini-van-ditmar/ Please support the...
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N°068 - Futures of Fashion, a Digest of General Seminar S04E01 (29)
This is a digest of General Seminar S04E01 where Drew Wiberg, Kempe Scanlan and I took about 30 folks into the Futures of Fashion had a look around, and we brought back some Design Fiction artifacts from that future to share with you! General Seminar is the platform I created for sense-making...
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N°067 - Tucker Viemeister (The Last Industrial Designer)
Tucker Viemeister is an American industrial designer, and founder of Viemeister Industries in New York City. Please consider supporting this podcast and joining us here at Near Future Laboratory by getting behind all of this over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
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N°066 - Your Daily Design Fiction Exercise Regimen
My special guest Dré Labre, proprietor over at https://www.designfictiondaily.com/ discusses how he has been training for the Imagine Harder marathon later this year, and how he uses the new 2023 Work Kit of Design Fiction, which drops in a limited release on April 20th 2023!...
About this show
The Near Future Laboratory Podcast is conversations at the vanguard of design, technology, futures, and culture, hosted by Julian Bleecker — founder of the Near Future Laboratory.https://nearfuturelaboratory.comhttps://julianbleecker.comSupport this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
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