The Sniffer

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

On this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about this study on racism and sexism with ride-hailing services Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel (via Jalopnik). Is this something you have experienced? Nora Young talks about the Rochambeau Bright BMBR smart jacket, which comes loaded with digital "tags" that give the wearer VIP access (via Read Write). It ties into several trends, including products that incorporate 'experiences'.

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

This time around, Cathi Bond talks about a Google AI project. The AI was trained on 11,000 genre fiction novels in order to chat more naturally. Cool, but the hitch is that some authors are ticked off that their fiction is being used as training data, and they're not being compensated (via The Guardian) Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions the Tube Chat project, where London commuters were urged to talk to strangers on the Tube. A lot of hilarious riffing on Londoners' famous reserve followed (via CityLab).

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

On this podcast, Nora Young talks about Seven Rooms (via Fortune), an online reservation service that also stores data about diners and club-goers. Is the reputation economy coming to the hospitality sector? It reminds Nora a bit of Super Sad True Love Story. Meanwhile Cathi Bond talks about Zume, a roboticized pizza system that aims to complete the cooking in the delivery truck, solving the problem of "dwell time" and soggy pizza crust (via New Atlas). Cool innovation or harbinger of Wall-E?

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

On this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about recent awards for futuristic skyscraper concepts, handed out by Evolo architecture magazine. The winning design was, literally, a "hole in the ground" but other designs include The Hive, a drone-docking tower, and a super tall data centre (via New Atlas). Cathi and Nora chat about the near future of skyscrapers. Nora Young looks at Explain to Me, a tool that scans and summarizes web-based articles so you can decide whether it's worth your time to read the whole thing (via Lifehacker). Is it a handy helper, or a sign that we're spending way too much time online?

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

On the podcast this time, Nora Young talks about India's plan for a Unified Payment Interface, or UPI. The idea is to connect Indians who are currently "unbanked" with a mobile payments system, using phones and their national biometric-based ID system (via Mashable). Cathi Bond gets why they're doing it, but still thinks it sounds creepy and Big Brother-ish. What do you think? Meanwhile, Cathi looks at Grobo, a very cool, design-forward, internet-enabled system for growing your own plants, whatever those plants may be!