FUTUREPROOF.

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Fertility issues, and infertility itself, are going to be incredibly important to our collective future. Because of that, we thought it important to sit down with Andrea Syrtash. She’s the founder and editor-in-chief of pregnantish, the first media site exclusively dedicated to helping singles, couples & LGBT navigate fertility treatments and infertility. Andrea’s work (she’s a five-time author) is regularly featured on national TV shows including Good Morning America and The Today Show, and in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Women's Health magazines. And her upcoming pregnantish podcast debuts soon, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

This week we cover:

• How fertility is arguably undergoing cooler innovation than any other industry
• Why infertility and fertility treatments are going to become more important in the future
• The stigma associated with fertility issues such as miscarriages - and whether or not those stigmas are going away
• How the companies of tomorrow need to be thinking about fertility issues in order to stay relevant - both as marketers and as employers
• What type of impact can fertility have on a country’s future - taking the example of Japan, which is experiencing its sharpest drop in births in 30s years

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Today I’m really excited since I get to introduce you to Jill Schiefelbein. She’s a university faculty-turned-entrepreneur --- an award-winning business owner, author, and recovering academic. She taught business communication at Arizona State University for 11 years, analyzed terrorist documents to provide counter-terrorism messaging strategies to the military, and was a pioneer in the digital education space. Jill's latest book, Dynamic Communication: 27 Strategies to Grow, Lead, and Manage Your Business, is in bookstores around the country. 

Jill has helped clients across the board learn dynamic communication skills: from Boomers, to Millennials, to Generation Z, from Fortune 500 to non-profits - so we wanted to make sure to connect with her to figure out where work communication is going.

Some of what we cover:

• The fear of AI taking away jobs - how do you communicate about that potential arising concern?
• As automation grows, how important will it be a communicator since an AI can’t replicate?
• What are some generational communication differences in the workplace? 
• Remote work & remote meetings: what do you lose when you can’t see the person you're meeting with? How might virtual reality change this?
• What is inherent to human nature that will never change no matter how much our technology does?

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play.

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Today we’re excited to have Dallas Lawrence. He’s the Chief Communications and Brand Officer for OpenX, the programmatic advertising company. Prior to joining OpenX, Dallas served as the Chief Communications Officer for Rubicon Project, led global communications and government affairs for Mattel, and served as the chief global digital strategist for Burson-Marsteller...so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about a thing or two. 

In this episode, we covering a wide range of topics with Dallas, most notably:

• The advertising trends of tomorrow
• Today’s consumer shopping trends (OpenX recently released a fascinating report on this very topic in collaboration with The Harris Report)
• What those trends can tell us about the future of commerce
• How to stay humble to make better predictions on an ongoing basis
• How to overcome your inherent biases when trying to make reliable predictions
• Lessons learned from Donald Rumsfeld

As always, make sure to subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever else suits your fancy.

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We know we're good at making technology. But are we good at making technology that pushes humanity in the right direction?

That's the question we posed to Kate O' Neill. She's the author and speaker with an audacious goal: helping humanity prepare for an increasingly tech-driven future by guiding business and civic leaders to be both successful and respectful with human-centric data and technology, and by helping people better understand the human impact of emerging technologies. We talk to Kate about innovation - namely, what it is, and what it isn't. We also discuss whether or not all this technology we're building is actually good for us and pushing us in the right direction or not, and exactly how scared we ought to be about the rise of automation. It's a fascinating conversation, and we think you're in for a treat.

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While we talk about emerging technologies plenty on this show, we also make time to discuss things as human as deception - so I thought Abby Ellin would be the perfect person to join us. 

Abby is an author and journalist who recently wrote Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married, she writes regularly for The New York Times, and has contributed to Time, Newsweek, and The Daily Beast, among other publications. Today we discuss the nature of deception, why we lie, fake news, deepfakes, and whether or not truth is going to be harder to come by in the future. 

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Today is a special show indeed! Not only is it the first one in our spiffy new studio, but it's also with André Archimbaud, a longtime friend of Jeremy's. Andre is known as a bit of a renaissance man, but he really shines when it comes to audio. He's been around the media space his entire career, and now co-hosts the USA Today network's The Growth Lab Show, a weekly podcast by LOCALiQ.

When you want to have an insightful conversation about the future of podcasting and audio - with a few meandering turns along the way - there aren't too many people better to speak to Andre. We cover Andre's favorite podcasts, how businesses can best take advantage of podcasts, and why audio is continuing to grow as a format.

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Today we’re speaking with one of Jeremy's favorite sources…John Frankel, founding partner of FF Venture Capital, a New York-based, seed stage investment firm.. You’ll learn about how a VC has to work to become a better futurist on an ongoing basis, why an emoji is not a fad but why becoming the foursquare mayor of your local sushi place is. We also discuss how much friction a consumer will accept with any new invention, why people are so scared of technology and AI in particular, and why it’s not that easy to predict how things will look in a few years. 

As always, be sure to rate and review - all of the support from our community helps us grow!

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At the Collision conference in Toronto, Jeremy sat down with Halsey Minor, the entrepreneur and businessperson best known for starting CNET in 1992. He is currently the CEO of VR startup Live Planet and was an early believer in Salesforce - in fact, he was the second-largest shareholder when the company went public.

Halsey built CNet into a top 10 website that was a $500 million business.  about $5M of that was doing TV shows for SyFy, USA and CNBC. He had always wanted to innovate in television the same way they CNET had innovated online, so when he saw VR come along, it began to feel like it had potential to turn into something. We spoke to Halsey about his journey with VR, where he sees the medium going, and how he's been able to consistently spot trends ahead of the rest of us.

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Often we spend our entire time talking about new technology is and how they will transform society, but today we are talking about corporate social responsibility and doing good at work. What role employees expect of their companies? What will consumers expect from brands that they transact with? To answer these questions, we turned to Alain Sylvain and Frank Cooper. Alain is the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, a strategy and design consultancy that helps companies seize the reality and potential of their business, products and brands. Frank Cooper is the Global Chief Marketing Officer of BlackRock. As Global CMO, he’s responsible for shaping BlackRock's global brand and marketing strategy for institutional and retail clients. The two of them teamed up for one of the more compelling panels at Collision 2019, discussing the future of brand purpose.

Note: this conversation was recorded outside the conference center in Toronto, so you're definitely going get to hear a little bit of background noise here and there. When we weren't able to get good audio on account of the wind, we did have to make a few edits, but hopefully does won't be too distracting. Also, we started Recording after we had already begun a great discussion about whether or not words like corporate social responsibility are being appropriated, so you'll be entering the conversation about one minute in. 

As always, please make sure to rate & review us on Apple Podcasts & Stitcher. If you haven’t done so already, subscribe - you’ll be glad you did.

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After a brief hiatus, we’ve got a number of high impact shows over the next few weeks. First up is Tim Draper, who Jeremy recently sat down with at the Collision conference in Toronto. If you’re not familiar with Tim, he’s probably one of the most acclaimed VCs in the United States. He’s built his fortune by making early investments in tech startups including Skype, Twitter, and Ring, in addition to cryptocurrencies, and one of the reasons why we like to talk to VCs on FUTUREPROOF is, simply put, they’re tasked with figuring out the future on an ongoing basis. Tim discusses everything from:

• Toronto's emergence as a tech hub, 
• Why Bitcoin is huge
• Thinking ahead 
• How investors need to have a willingness to fail

As always, please make sure to rate & review us on Apple Podcasts & Stitcher. If you haven’t done so already, subscribe - you’ll be glad you did.