The Sniffer

This time, Nora Young continues the conversation about living smarter in 2020 with this Fast Company article on handling stress better as a key to resiliency. She also refers to Kelly McGonigal's book The Upside of Stress.

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond talks about Bosch's upcoming smart glasses, which offer an augmented reality display that aims to be non-intrusive. Use cases include cooking with recipe instructions in front of you, instead of referring to a book, or driving directions. Cathi points out how distracting today's car dashboards are.

Happy New Year, all! Hope your year is off to a great start, and thanks so much for listening to The Sniffer. This time on the podcast, Cathi Bond and Nora Young share their resolutions for the year ahead.  Cathi has decided to try out the Wim Hof method, which combines breathing exercises and fffffreezing cold baths, with an eye to greater health and wellness. Cathi talks about her personal experiences and will report back. You can read more about the method, as well as some of the controversies, reservations, and questions some researchers have in this Discover article. See also Wikipedia's entry for a good overview. Meanwhile, Nora points out that unlike most years, 2020 has seen very few tech predictions for the year(s) ahead. She talks about this great, short article by Kara Swisher, where she builds a business case for tech innovation.

Happy New Year, all! Hope your year is off to a great start, and thanks so much for listening to The Sniffer.

This time on the podcast, Cathi Bond and Nora Young share their resolutions for the year ahead. 

Cathi has decided to try out the Wim Hof method, which combines breathing exercises and fffffreezing cold baths, with an eye to greater health and wellness. Cathi talks about her personal experiences and will report back. You can read more about the method, as well as some of the controversies, reservations, and questions some researchers have in this Discover article. See also Wikipedia's entry for a good overview.

Meanwhile, Nora points out that unlike most years, 2020 has seen very few tech predictions for the year(s) ahead. She talks about this great, short article by Kara Swisher, where she builds a business case for tech innovation.

Happy (nearly) holidays! On this podcast, Nora and Cathi look back at the decade that was. What are your picks for highlights (and lowlights) in your own life and in the culture? Leave a comment! Nora mentions this New York Times look back at the 2010s. Meanwhile, Cathi talks about Woondering, a cool pop-up on Brick Lane in London, where you can check out actual physical versions of products with crowdsourcing campaigns at Kickstarter or Indiegogo. It's wrapped up for the year, but there are plans to take it to other cities in the future. Cathi also mentions Genussee, a Flint-Michigan company that makes glasses from discarded water bottles. All the best for the season, and we'll be back for a New Year's special!

Happy (nearly) holidays!

On this podcast, Nora and Cathi look back at the decade that was. What are your picks for highlights (and lowlights) in your own life and in the culture? Leave a comment!

Nora mentions this New York Times look back at the 2010s.

Meanwhile, Cathi talks about Woondering, a cool pop-up on Brick Lane in London, where you can check out actual physical versions of products with crowdsourcing campaigns at Kickstarter or Indiegogo. It's wrapped up for the year, but there are plans to take it to other cities in the future.

Cathi also mentions Genussee, a Flint-Michigan company that makes glasses from discarded water bottles.

All the best for the season, and we'll be back for a New Year's special!

This time, Cathi Bond talks about Heliogen, which seems to have had an early stage breakthrough in using Concentrated Solar Power systems to get to temperatures of >1,000 degrees C, enough to power industrial processes, as opposed to just generating electricity. More details at New Atlas. Nora Young talks about why the spike in traffic problems may be due to our convenience economy, especially quick delivery of online ordering, and ride hailing. See this well-researched Boston Globe article.

This time, Cathi Bond talks about Heliogen, which seems to have had an early stage breakthrough in using Concentrated Solar Power systems to get to temperatures of >1,000 degrees C, enough to power industrial processes, as opposed to just generating electricity. More details at New Atlas.

Nora Young talks about why the spike in traffic problems may be due to our convenience economy, especially quick delivery of online ordering, and ride hailing. See this well-researched Boston Globe article. 

This time, Cathi Bond talks about the latest concept design for a hyperloop ultra-high speed train, brought to you by MAD Architects and HyperloopTT. Check out the images over at New Atlas.  Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions Wired's article on the Phonocut, described as an "analog vinyl lathe". It's a machine that lets you produce your own custom vinyl!

This time, Cathi Bond talks about the latest concept design for a hyperloop ultra-high speed train, brought to you by MAD Architects and HyperloopTT. Check out the images over at New Atlas. 

Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions Wired's article on the Phonocut, described as an "analog vinyl lathe". It's a machine that lets you produce your own custom vinyl!

On today's podcast, Nora Young talks about this post on dealing with digital distraction by having a clear idea of what you would do instead of being on your phone. She also mentions Nir Eyal's new book, Indistractable. Meanwhile, Cathi Bond mentions this PSFK article on a sort of 'loyalty card 2.0' approach some retailers are using. Customer loyalty earns people experiences and makes them 'part of the club'.