By Greg Heist and Ben Smithee
The podcast currently has 38 episodes available.
Will we recognize The American Dream of the future? And how do our increasingly diverse notions of America, success, individualism and community impact how The American Dream lives on in the lives of our children and grandchildren?
In part 2 of our interview, Brian David Johnson shares his personal stories of talking to thousands of Americans about The American Dream. They're important because they bring into sharp focus the way we are collectively looking at our future and the direction we want our society to take. Additionally, Brian shares some thought-provoking perspectives on the role of parents and our school system in fostering imagination and curiosity in our children.
Ben talks about Google's latest attempts to ensure carefully crafted advertising doesn't find itself juxtaposed against inappropriate content for his buzz worthy hot topic. And for the latest installment of "What the Heck is That!?!" Greg and Ben share a simple way of understanding DDoS attacks.
In this episode:
Brian David Johnson on Twitter
Google's plan to root out hateful videos and win back advertisers with artificial intelligence (Mashable)
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher! Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback! And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
When we think of The American Dream, we often think about owning a home with a white picket fence. But, as we'll find in this episode, The American Dream is far more than that, encompassing our collective notions of America as the place where people have the freedom and mobility to make their individual dreams a reality.
And, while this represents the The American Dream of the past, as we'll learn from our guest Brian David Johnson (Futurist in Residence at Arizona State University's Center for Science & Imagination and former Chief Futurist of Intel), the The American Dream's future will likely be evolved and shaped in ways we cannot fully imagine today.
In part 1 of our interview, Brian talks about how a drive to Las Vegas with his father inspired his curiosity about The American Dream and has led him to meet with thousands of Americans in his quest to understand the forces shaping its future.
For Greg's buzz worthy hot topic, he shares a crazy architectural design that will suspend a skyscraper from an asteroid (yes, you read that right) and we launch a new segment called "What the Heck is That?!?!" and give a very simple explanation of the concept of Net Neutrality.
In this episode:
Brian David Johnson on Twitter
That really IS a high rise: Sci-fi plan to hang a wandering skyscraper from asteroid orbiting Earth is unveiled (Daily Mail UK)
A Super-Simple Way to Understand the Net Neutrality Debate (New York Times)
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
Welcome back to Part II of our most rockin' interview to date!!
In Episode 036, Greg & Ben continue our conversation with Mike Latcha (General Manager & Music Director), Kerry Smith (Assistant General Manager) and Eddie Baranek (Instructor) from School of Rock in Rochester, Michigan.
In Part II, we chat about the role School of Rock plays in the lives of students and the power of community, commitment and passion in creating great performances and in developing musicians. We also hear Mike, Kerry and Eddie discuss how being a leader and teacher at School of Rock has shaped them, as well.
We also have a lively conversation (and perhaps preview of a coming episode!) about how important teaching the history of rock is...and how that education is helping to shape this new generation of rockers.
And, as we did in EP035, we use a live performance from School of Rock Rochester to transition and end our episode. Because, at the end of the day, School of Rock is ultimately about the kids and the music they create together...
For their buzz worthy hot topics, Ben shares Levi's new bluetooth connected clothing and Greg talks about how virtual and mixed reality is being used to teach students complex topics.
In this episode:
Musical Interludes: "Sympathy for the Devil" - Performed by students from School of Rock Rochester Rolling Stones Band, January 2017
School of Rock (Website)
School of Rock Rochester (Facebook)
Rock School Documentary (Wikipedia)
The Sights (Eddie Baranek's band)
What everyone's been buzzing about at SXSW (Mashable)
Move over tablets. This could be the future of learning (FastCoDesign)
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
We've seen the future of music education, and it totally rocks!!
In Episode 035 of The Future STIR, Greg & Ben sit down with Mike Latcha (General Manager & Music Director), Kerry Smith (Assistant General Manager) and Eddie Baranek (Instructor) from School of Rock in Rochester, Michigan.
In Part I of this wide-ranging interview, we learn about the origins of School of Rock's music education model and why it offers a modern alternative to traditional approaches to teaching music. We also chat about the current state of public music education and why it makes private programs like School of Rock more important to to the future of arts education than ever.
Beyond that, we discuss how Teddy Roosevelt can inspire music students, why Randy Newman sees creating--and finishing--a solid body of work is so important and the powerful role School of Rock plays in shaping kids' lives in ways far beyond the music.
For their buzz worthy hot topics, Greg highlights the rise of "virtual chilling" by Gen Z via platforms like HouseParty, Fam and Kik and Ben marvels at the way FourSquare has played the long game and turned their locational intelligence into the backbone of so many social platforms.
In this episode:
Musical Interludes: "Gimme Shelter" - Performed by students from School of Rock Rochester Rolling Stones Band, January 2017
Music Education in Public Schools Gets a Passing Grade (NPR)
Music Education in Crisis (NEMC)
School of Rock (Website)
School of Rock Rochester (Facebook)
Rock School Documentary (Wikipedia)
For Generation Z, Live Chilling Replaces Hanging Out in Person (WSJ)
Foursquare is Launching an Analytics Platform to Help Retailers Understand Foot Traffic (TechCrunch)
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Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
It's Round 3 of The Future STIR Quick Hits BONANZA series!
Join us this week as Ben and Greg ring the bell on Round 3 of quick hits and talk rapid-fire about today's most buzz-worthy news topics. It's a BONANZA of talk about Jay Z, iPhone 8 rumors, Snapchat and Norwegian troll-squashing...making it a must-listen episode of The Future STIR!
In this episode:
Jay Z launches a venture capital fund to back startups (Engadget)
Apple to bring augmented reality to iPhone 8: Analyst (ValueWalk)
Snap tumbles 12% on day three of trading (TechCrunch)
Norway 'ant-troll' site makes you read before commenting (Yahoo! News)
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Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
Is "less" truly "more"? Can greater happiness and fulfillment in life be found in rejecting consumerism and stripping away unnecessary belongings, simplifying our lifestyle and freeing ourselves from the "rat race"?
Increasing numbers of people are answering "yes" to these questions and embracing a philosophy and lifestyle known as minimalism. They're downsizing their homes, donating their unused possessions and tuning out the drumbeat of marketing messages that tell consumers that true happiness lies in the latest gadget, a bigger home and a trendy new vehicle.
In this episode, Greg & Ben dig into Minimalism, exploring the roots of a trend that is exploding in popularity. In doing so, their conversation spawns some powerful personal epiphanies and new commitments to embracing a more minimalist mindset for themselves.
For their buzz-worthy hot topics, Ben talks about temporary tattoos that turn people into wearables and Greg discusses Disney's prototype room that allows you to charge your device wirelessly in a "safe, ubiquitous manner." Allegedly. ;)
Links and Articles:
10 Reasons Why Minimalism is Growing (Becoming Minimalist)
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (MinimalismFilm.com)
What is the Tiny House Movement? (TheTinyLife.com)
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo (Amazon)
MIT's DuoSkin turns temporary tattoos into on-skin wearables (TechCrunch)
Disney Research Builds Prototype Living Room with "Safe, Ubiquitous Wireless Power" (MacRumors)
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Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
Will the Internet be destroyed by trolls?
Far from the cute trolls seen recently in theaters, Internet trolling has gone from mild online confrontation to real-life harassment, threats and cruelty. Ben & Greg delve into the history of trolling and chart the evolution (or de-evolution) of trolls and the techniques they use and the ways trolls organize online to weaponize attacks on their targets.
It's a serious conversation and one that touches on the fields of psychology, sociology, technology, social media and politics, to name a few...and we try to weave this various elements together to paint a picture of the implications of troll culture on our ability to exercise free speech on the web.
And definitely check out the discussion about whether or not the U.S. now has a Troll-In-Chief.
For their buzz worthy topics, Greg talks about a new hotel in Dubai that allows each floor to rotate its view 360 degrees (Ben is skeptical on that one), and Ben talks about a new Nike campaign aimed at empowering and inspiring women in the Middle East.
Links and Articles:
Malwebolence - The World of Web Trolling (New York Times)
How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet (TIME)
Why the Trolls Will Always Win (Wired)
The Troll Hunters (MIT Technology Review)
#IAmAWitness Animated Video on Bullying Prevention (Ad Council)
Rotating Dubai Skyscraper Where YOU Decide the View (Daily Mail UK)
Nike Uses Twitter to Promote Women's Sports in the Middle East (Mashable)
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
Welcome back to our epic interview with Lenny Murphy, Senior Partner of strategic consultancy Gen2 Advisors and Editor-in-Chief of the GreenBook Blog and GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report.
Picking up on the theme of the future of consumer intelligence, Lenny shares his perspectives on what technologies have the greatest disruptive potential from the perspective of society and the consumer intelligence. He also shares his thoughts about the ways in which passive biometric data streams will change the landscape of entertainment and the ways we consume content.
We also talk about the ways in which the ways corporations (and increasingly, consumers) are creating a new vision for creating a virtuous circle of connection between brands and their customers. In so doing, Lenny discusses ways in which this new way of creating and exchanging value will create a new way of thinking about creating a truly reciprocal relationship between corporations and their customers, to the benefit of both.
We also discuss how the shifting technological landscape will alter the landscape of what the consumer insights space will look like in the future...and how small businesses and startups can best capitalize on free and low-cost tools for doing quantitative and qualitative research and harvesting insights using them.
Lenny closes our conversation with some thoughts about the most significant changes that have the potential to create change in the world during 2017.
We couldn't be happier to have had Lenny join us on The Future STIR, and we hope you've enjoyed our conversation with him.
For their buzz worthy hot topics, Ben looks into the world of 2050 and references the technologies that we already use every day that are a core part of what life will be like 30+ years in the future. Greg gets his Apple geek on, speculating on what the 10th anniversary iPhone 8 will be like...and whether it will ultimately live up to the hype.
Links and Articles:
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Lenny Murphy on Twitter and at GreenBook, Gen2 Advisors, Insight Innovation Exchange.
The Future is Now (Mashable)
iPhone 8 could arrive EARLY amid reports Apple with start production in June (Mirror UK)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Amazon)
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
What does the future of consumer intelligence look like? When trying to find compelling answers to that question, Greg & Ben called on our friend and industry colleague, Lenny Murphy to help us explore this subject.
As Senior Partner of strategic consultancy Gen2 Advisors and Editor-in-Chief of the GreenBook Blog and GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report, 2 of the most widely read and influential publications in the global insights industry, Lenny has the pulse of corporations, key industry players and start-ups.
In Part I of our conversation, Lenny, Ben & Greg survey the current state of consumer insights and explore some fundamental questions about consumers sharing their insights via traditional research methods versus leveraging social channels to provide feedback to companies, friends and acquaintances. Lenny also shares his perspectives on why we're increasingly shifting beyond insights into the era of foresights and predictive intelligence.
Listen in to hear a wide-ranging conversation in which Lenny references the prescience of Asimov, his love of sweet tea and why the future lies in the power of harnessing data to simultaneously create insights and real value for consumers.
Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of our interview with Lenny in Episode 031!
For their buzz worthy hot topics, Greg questions whether social platforms are declining in popularity with advertisers and Ben applauds the guerrilla-marketing brilliance of Cards Against Humanity's brilliant Super Bowl ad spoof.
Links and Articles:
Subscribe to The Future STIR on iTunes, Overcast or your favorite podcast app or find us on Stitcher!
Lenny Murphy on Twitter and at GreenBook, Gen2 Advisors, Insight Innovation Exchange.
Is the hashtag over? Researchers reveal Super Bowl advertisers have abandoned them (and Facebook and Twitter) for URLs (DailyMail UK)
Here's why a 30-second clip of a potato makes for a very bad Super Bowl ad (Mashable)
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
Is the world of brick and mortar retail in a death spiral? Or, is it on the verge of a renaissance? This week, Ben & Greg survey the retail landscape and dig into why there is increasingly a world of "haves" and "have nots" in the modern mall. Beyond this, they explore whether the health (or lack thereof) of malls are ultimately a reflection of the ability of retailers to create experiences that engage customers and make it worth their time.
Is there a retail renaissance in the offing that transforms the experience of simply driving transactions into something more powerful, meaningful and engaging? Are retailers going to successfully innovate their business models to make shopping an efficient, frictionless process? Listen in and gain some new perspectives on potential answers to these important questions.
In addition, listen in to Greg talking about how much time human beings would be around in the event of a zombie apocalypse and Ben profess his love of McDonald's and their pending release of 10,000 bottles of their coveted Secret Sauce.
Articles and Links:
Mall Owners Rush to Get Out of the Mall Business (Wall Street Journal)
On Solid Ground: Brick & Mortar is the Foundation of Multi-Channel Retailing (A.T. Kearney)
Zombie apocalypse would wipe out humankind in 100 days (Telegraph UK)
Hold onto your Big Mac, the special sauce is comin' home (Mashable)
Comments on today's episode? Suggestions for future topics? Send us your feedback!
And, please take a moment to give us a rating and quick review on iTunes!!
The podcast currently has 38 episodes available.