Now, Near & the Future

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Machines quietly passed the Turing Test. There was no parade. We went back to answering email.

Rio Longacre thinks that's the best news we've had in years, and he'll tell you why. He's a Partner at Credera, Omnicom's global transformation consultancy, where he runs AdTech. He co-founded the media company Signal & Noise with Brett House, and their podcast just passed 100 episodes. Before all that he was a broke freelance journalist in Paris and then a 25-year-old media buyer closing deals by fax.

Quinn Harrington and Naila Mir take him somewhere the panel circuit never does. What really happens in the two milliseconds before an ad hits your screen, and why only 39 cents of every dollar reaches the people who made the thing you're reading. Why AI agents are already negotiating ad deals with each other, and what breaks when haggling costs nothing. Whether your assistant should be allowed to book your flight, and what happens the day an airline starts advertising to it instead of you.

Then Rio says the quiet part out loud about Super Bowl ads. Everybody got so afraid of making a bad one that they stopped making good ones.

He closes on the one thing AI still can't do. It can write a brilliant argument for your opinion. It cannot have the opinion.

CHAPTERS 00:00 The machines passed and nobody noticed 02:10 Why Rio calls that good news 04:45 Around the Room: a $225 pedicab, Dr. Eisenstein, and Weezer with a 13-year-old 11:37 Meet Rio Longacre 14:46 Paris, broke, and writing for a living before advertising 19:45 The two milliseconds before you see an ad 28:38 Why he and Brett built Signal & Noise instead of pitching one more panel 35:40 Agents buying from agents, and the 39 cents problem 41:41 Your assistant is shopping. Who is the ad for? 49:34 Across the Pond: crying at John Lewis, cringing at the Super Bowl 56:20 Agencies are cockroaches, and that's a compliment 59:42 What a 25-year-old should learn right now 1:02:32 Taste, beige output, and the test machines keep failing 1:08:17 The Wrap: read more, make more

WATCH & LISTEN YouTube: @nownearfuture Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music: search Now, Near & the Future Web: https://nownearfuture.com

FIND RIO LinkedIn: search Rio Longacre Signal & Noise: https://www.signalandnoise.ai Signal & Noise podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Credera: https://www.credera.com X: @RioLongacre

FIND US Quinn Harrington, Harrington Design Company: https://hdco.co | [email protected] | @hdco Naila Mir, P3 Connect UK: https://www.p3connect.co.uk Follow the show: @nownearfuture on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok

If this one got you thinking, send it to the person in your life who still thinks an ad is just an ad.

#NowNearFuture #RioLongacre #AIinAdvertising #AdTech #AgenticAI #Marketing #SignalAndNoise #BrandStrategy

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Killer or clueless? Colin Dingelstad asked himself the same thing. At 28, with almost no fight experience, he decided to chase an MMA world title. His first session with former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez was a three-hour test to find out if the whole idea was delusional. He nearly passed out. He didn't quit.

Now he's skipping the amateurs for a pro boxing debut against someone who's trained since childhood. He's filming all of it for a documentary series called IMPOSSIBLE, and he's paying for it himself.

Quinn brings her own story from the wrestling room at Brandon High School, home of the longest winning streak in American high school sports. Naila asks the questions her MMA-fan husband wanted answered. We asked what happens to the film if he loses. His answer might surprise you.

Watch and decide for yourself.

CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome 1:22 A lot of starts, not much mastery 5:58 Why fighting, and why now 7:46 A pro fight in seven weeks 8:43 The first month in the gym 10:30 Quinn's Brandon wrestling room 13:03 Ricco's three-hour test 14:53 What a legendary coach does differently 19:08 Around the Room 26:57 Introducing Colin 30:03 How IMPOSSIBLE gets made 39:20 What happens if he loses 43:21 "Get a job" 44:04 Across the Pond: a fight fan's questions 56:14 The future 1:02:47 Is it worth it? 1:03:05 The first move

Follow Colin's journey: impossibledocumentary.com

Now, Near, and the Future is hosted by Quinn Harrington (HDco) and Naila Mir (P3 Connect UK). Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube. nownearfuture.com | @nownearfuture

#MMA #StartingOver #Mastery #Documentary #Podcast #NowNearFuture

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Two ADDYs. A Gold Award. Summa cum laude. And right now, working retail at a stationery shop while the design industry figures out what to do with her.

This week, Quinn and Naila sit with Madeleine Glassford — a December 2025 BFA graduate from Flagler College — in the gap between what design school rewards and what hiring actually selects for. We talk about why beautifully designed resumes are getting killed by ATS software before a human ever sees them, what it actually means to have range in a market that wants specialists, and what Quinn honestly thinks when she sees a portfolio this multidisciplinary land on her desk.

Plus: Australian coastal and Aboriginal-inspired design making its way into American feeds, Pakistan's truck art tradition, and what Madeleine wants her career to look like in ten years — spoiler, she's not waiting for someone to hand it to her.

Guest: Madeleine Glassford | madeleineglassford.com | @madeleine.glassford on Instagram and LinkedIn

Chapters
0:00 Welcome + Opening Question
3:00 Around the Room
8:00 Guest Introduction
8:30 NOW — The Resume That Should Have Worked
21:49 NEAR — What Are We Actually Hiring For
40:32 Across the Pond — Design Without a Passport
47:22 FUTURE — The Industry Catches Up (Or Doesn't)
52:15 The Quinntessential Close
54:23 The Wrap

Find us at nownearfuture.com | @nownearfuture
Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Amazon Music · YouTube

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What happens when a married couple turns a question asked in the back row of a movie theater into a 10-year film festival — and then one of them ends up running the city's film office?

In this episode, Quinn sits down with Adam and Monique Madrid, the creative partnership behind the LOL JAX Film Festival and the Jacksonville 48 Hour Film Project. Adam is the Film Production Coordinator for the City of Jacksonville Film & Television Office and director behind the upcoming feature Let Me Be Corey. Monique is the Festival Director of LOL JAX — now in its 10th year — and the recent Cultural Council Small Business of the Year. Together, they represented Jacksonville on the international stage at Filmapalooza in Lisbon, Portugal.

Quinn gets a little selfish in this one. She has spent 25 years producing work for global brands in cities she doesn't live in — and she wants to know how a company like hers finally plugs into its own hometown.

What we get into:

• How the City of Jacksonville Film Office actually works — incentives, permitting, crew connections, and what makes filming here a genuinely smart business decision
• The $50K Jacksonville shoot vs. the $200K quote from LA — and why more brands should be paying attention
• Building LOL JAX from a Sun-Ray Cinema back row idea to a 10-installment institution
• How Adam and Monique divide creative, logistics, and marriage — and why compartmentalization might be the best relationship advice we've ever accidentally recorded
• The 48 Hour Film Project: why you should register a team, and what happens when you put yourself in a bunker for 48 hours with sleep deprivation and a surprise genre
• AI in film production: the 48HFP has banned generative AI — and why the global filmmaking community agrees
• Why Atlanta credits say "Georgia" and not "Atlanta" — and what that means for Jacksonville's future
• Cobra Kai filmed here. Malibu is actually Jacksonville Beach. Travis Hunter is insisting productions stay here. The city is moving.
• Adam's dream: bring Hollywood back to Jacksonville, where it started with Norman Studios. Not someday. Now.

The quote Adam ends with — borrowed from Jacksonville poet Oddrod — might be the best closer we've had on this show: "Our losses carry wins."

Connect with Adam & Monique:

• LOL JAX Film Festival: loljax.com
• 48 Hour Film Project Jacksonville: 48hourfilm.com/Jacksonville
• City of Jacksonville Film & Television Office: coj.net
• Let Me Be Corey — coming soon

Find Now, Near & the Future:

• Website: nownearfuture.com
• Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Amazon Music · YouTube
• Follow: @nownearfuture

TIMESTAMPS (from transcript — confirm against final export)

• 00:00 — Welcome & opening
• 02:00 — Around the Room: Tiger Lily social, Naila's change management cert, Adam's missing movies, Monique's intentional summer
• 07:15 — Guest introductions: Adam Madrid & Monique Madrid
• 11:00 — NOW: How the City Film Office actually works — incentives, permitting, crew
• 15:00 — Florida vs. Georgia: why the state incentive gap matters
• 20:00 — The LOL JAX origin story: one question, one back row, one sold-out screening
• 28:00 — How they built the 48 Hour Film Project in Jacksonville
• 30:30 — Running it as a married couple: lanes, compartmentalization, and the conflict-of-interest conversation
• 35:00 — NEAR: AI in film — what's real, what's noise, and why 48HFP banned generative AI
• 39:00 — Quinn's AI video experiment: $10K budget, Nielsen, and the character named Colette
• 43:00 — Across the Pond: Why London and Atlanta are winning productions (it's incentives, not glamour)
• 45:00 — Cobra Kai filmed Jacksonville Beach as Malibu — and Travis Hunter is demanding productions stay here
• 48:00 — FUTURE: Bringing Hollywood back — Jacksonville had it once with Norman Studios
• 52:00 — Quinn's EverBank shoot: $50K in Jax vs. $200K quotes from LA
• 55:00 — Mayor Donna Deegan and the political will to build a film city
• 58:00 — The wrap + Adam's closing quote from Oddrod: "Our losses carry wins"

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What does it actually take to feed 97,000 people a day, every single day? This week, we sit down with Jackie Culver, CFRE, Vice President of Philanthropy at Feeding Northeast Florida — the largest, fastest-growing food bank in the entire Feeding America network — to find out what's really happening behind the warehouse doors.

What You'll Discover:

• Why Feeding Northeast Florida isn't a place you'd ever go to get food — and what "food rescue" actually means when chicken, damaged packaging, and surplus zucchini are on the line
• The ALICE population: who's really walking through the doors of a food pantry, and why it's rarely who you'd expect
• How a single Dollar General shooting turned into a masterclass in advocacy, dignity, and listening to a grieving community
• Why being poor is expensive — and how a 24-hour rent grace period can cascade into a $500 problem
• The Blue Apron-style meal kits, community teaching garden, and disaster-relief kitchen already reshaping what "food bank" means in Northeast Florida

The Moment That Hits Different: Just one day before this recording, Feeding Northeast Florida's CEO Susan King announced her retirement after 12 years building the organization from the ground up — including a pandemic-era effort that turned cruise ship donations and a shuttered golf tournament's catering into 650,000 prepared meals for senior housing. Jackie's tribute to her in the Future segment is the kind of moment you don't plan for in a run sheet.

Global Perspective: Co-host Naila Mir brings her own fundraising experience across the UK and Pakistan into the conversation, comparing Feeding Northeast Florida's model to the UK's First Love Foundation and unpacking why solving hunger always seems to circle back to housing, healthcare, and the price of being poor.

Jackie also gets real about the philanthropy side of the work — how to keep donors engaged when their giving capacity changes year to year, and why "time, talent, and treasure" all carry equal weight when an entire family ends up volunteering for the cause.

Connect with Jackie Culver & Feeding Northeast Florida:

• Website: feedingnefl.org (donate, volunteer, or find food near you)
• LinkedIn: Jackie Culver
• Social: @feedingnortheastflorida

Find Now, Near, and the Future:

• Website: nownearfuture.com
• Instagram/LinkedIn: @nownearfuture
• Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube

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When Survivor premiered in 2000, Tom Shelly's episodes pulled 30 million viewers. Today, six million would be a hit. In this episode, the Emmy-winning showrunner takes us inside 25 years of building — and watching — the form that taught a generation to perform identity for a camera.

Tom Shelly was one of the original, pioneering producers on Survivor. He won a Primetime Emmy, earned five more nominations, and ran the show as EP and showrunner for eight seasons. He launched Dating in the Dark for ABC, Love in the Wild for NBC, Coupled for Fox, and Relationshipped for Facebook Watch. Through his company Steele Mill Productions, he's now developing scripted features with CBS Studios and A24 — including a Brownie Wise biopic starring Sandra Bullock and a Ronnie Spector biopic with Zendaya.

Hosts Quinn Harrington and Naila Mir take Tom through the full arc — from his start at America's Most Wanted, through Survivor's no-social-media early seasons, the dating-show era, the AI reckoning sweeping production today, and his pivot to telling scripted stories about women whose brands outlived them.

🎙️ CHAPTERS
00:00  Cold open and welcome
00:43  Around the Room — rainy London, Pride Month in Jacksonville, Encino
03:15  NOW: Why Tom is pivoting from unscripted to scripted features
09:30  The Brownie Wise and Tupperware story
15:50  Cinema verite — letting people create their own drama
21:35  Tom Shelly: the official introduction
22:32  NEAR: Survivor 2000, the iPhone 2007, and how casting had to change
26:42  From reality TV fame to social media fame
31:48  AI in production, voice cloning, and the SAG-AFTRA reckoning
39:41  Editing reality TV down to the frame
42:01  ACROSS THE POND — duty of care and the UK reality TV reckoning
53:02  The A24 model and why small studios are saving the business
59:58  FUTURE: 30 million viewers then, 6 million is a hit now
1:02:13  Where to find Tom's work

✨ ABOUT THE SHOW
Now, Near, and the Future is a podcast about brand, business, and culture — exploring what's happening now, what's coming next, and what it all means in the long run. Hosted by Quinn Harrington (CEO, Harrington Design Co.) and Naila Mir (Founder, P3 Connect UK).

🌐 nownearfuture.com
📸 Instagram @nownearfuture
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If today's conversation moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave us a rating. It genuinely helps.

#TomShelly #Survivor #RealityTV #Showrunner #A24 #PodcastInterview #NowNearAndTheFuture #BeyondSurvivor

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Pull back the curtain. In this special behind-the-scenes episode, Quinn Harrington joins Naila Mir in a London recording studio — for the very first time — to talk about how Now, Near & the Future actually gets made.

With Yannis and Naz from P3 Connect UK and Rachel from HDco around the table, this one covers all of it: the origin story (a 2013 Nielsen video shoot and a 2023 LinkedIn DM), how they find and book guests, what episode prep really looks like, the full post-production workflow from Riverside to YouTube, and the surprisingly vulnerable answers to one question — "What's one thing nobody warned you about?"

Plus: US vs. UK podcast culture, the future of interactive and immersive audio, and final advice for anyone thinking about starting their own show.

Recorded live at Coco Studios, Bermondsey, London. Pepper is in Singapore. She's fine.

🌐 nownearfuture.com | @nownearfuture on Instagram & LinkedIn 🎧 Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Amazon Music · YouTube

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Brett House has spent 25 years watching products fail — not because they were bad, but because the organizations launching them weren't ready. As a VP at Nielsen and product strategist at some of the most important measurement and intelligence companies in the industry, he kept seeing the same gap. So he built something to close it.

High Signals is a GTM launch readiness company. Signal & Noise is his new media company. And Brett is currently mid-launch on both — which he openly admits gives his readiness diagnostics a certain poetic credibility.

Quinn and Brett go back to the Nielsen days, when HDco helped launch one of the industry's first precision audience platforms. This episode picks up that thread and runs it straight into AI, agentic workflows, quantum computing, and the question every founder eventually has to answer: what are you actually building toward?

Genuine, fast, and surprisingly funny. With a cameo from Naila's baby and a detour through London food culture that nobody regretted.

Find Brett at hisignals.com and signalandnoise.ai, or connect on LinkedIn.
Subscribe, share, and visit nownearfuture.com.

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When Marsha Faulkner agreed to serve as President of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art's Florida Chapter, she thought she was stewarding a thriving organization. Instead, she discovered she'd be rebuilding it from the ground up—while continuing to run her interior design firm, Studio M.

In this episode, Marsha shares what it's like to implement an organization's first-ever budget, transition from a single-city chapter to a statewide network spanning 7+ locations, and hire two new staff positions while maintaining programming excellence. She reveals the "ham sandwich" problem—eight years of valuable recorded content sitting unused while seeking sustainable revenue—and how she's building systems to unlock that archive.

We explore how classical design principles apply to climate-resilient coastal architecture in Florida, the unexpected synergies between running a design firm and leading a nonprofit, and why materials science and traditional aesthetics aren't at odds. Marsha also discusses the transatlantic differences in approaching classical design, from sourcing craftspeople to preservation attitudes, and shares her vision for ICAA as a potential international craft knowledge network.

The conversation gets personal as Marsha reflects on discovering her own capacity—learning she can do far more than she thought possible through focus, delegation, and time management. She credits Navy SEAL David Goggins' philosophy: when you think you're at your breaking point, you're probably not.

Whether you're leading an organization through unexpected challenges, balancing multiple professional roles, or thinking about how timeless design principles address modern problems, this episode offers both practical wisdom and inspiration.

Guest: Marsha Faulkner, Principal of Studio M Interior Design & President, ICAA Florida Chapter

Find Marsha:

Studio M Interior Design: www.StudioMInteriorDesign.net
ICAA Florida: www.ICAAFL.org
Instagram: @StudioMInteriorDesign, @MarshaFaulkner, @ICAAFloridaChapter


Now, Near, and the Future examines business, culture, and innovation through three temporal lenses—NOW (current state), NEAR (3-5 years), and FUTURE (15-20 years). Hosted by Quinn Harrington (Jacksonville) and Naila Mir (London), the podcast features leaders navigating transformation across industries.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or YouTube. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn @nownearfuture or visit nownearfuture.com.

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Kenny Juskowiak: The Emerging Brand Revolution
What happens when startups get the same powerful data tools that used to be reserved for Fortune 500 companies? Kenny Juskowiak, Head of North America Marketing at NielsenIQ, joins Quinn and Naila to explore how the entire CPG landscape is being reshaped—one scrappy brand at a time.
In this episode, we dive into the democratization of data and discover why Kenny believes AI will have a disproportionate advantage for small brands rather than making big companies more powerful. From founders creating products in their garages to solve problems they couldn't find on shelves, to the rise of social commerce and shoppable ads, this conversation reveals how passion-driven brands are challenging century-old giants.
Key Topics:

Why NielsenIQ created an entirely separate division for emerging brands
How AI is transforming product development (spoiler: salt and vinegar donuts might be in your future)
The difference between US and European startup cultures in CPG
Why retail is fragmenting into discovery, fulfillment, and transaction—and what that means for brands
The future of grocery shopping: Will physical stores disappear by 2040?

Whether you're an emerging brand founder, a CPG industry professional, or simply curious about the future of how we discover and buy products, this episode offers insider insights from someone working at the frontier of consumer data.
Connect with Kenny Juskowiak:
LinkedIn: Kenny Juskowiak
Website: NielsenIQ.com

Where to Listen & Watch
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Website: nownearfuture.com
Instagram: @nownearfuture
LinkedIn: @nownearfuture
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