The Sniffer

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'.

On this podcast, Nora Young talks about a possible future of health tracking technologies, based on this Wired article about Fitbit's recent moves. Cathi Bond talks about the potential power of art and design to address species diversity. Read Gizmodo's description of the Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial exhibit here.

On this podcast, Nora Young talks about a possible future of health tracking technologies, based on this Wired article about Fitbit's recent moves.

Cathi Bond talks about the potential power of art and design to address species diversity. Read Gizmodo's description of the Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial exhibit here.

We kick off the new season of The Sniffer with a machine learning twofer for you. Cathi Bond talks about this New York Times look at the workers who label the data that machine learning is trained on, in particular, in a medical context.  Nora Young talks about machine learning hype and this article on how to spot "AI Hype". She also mentions this Atlantic article by the excellent tech writer Sidney Fussell.

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, Cathi Bond talks about subscription fee creep, where inch by inch your monthly subscriptions are piling up. Here's Gizmodo's interesting take. How about you? Do you find the number of services you're subscribed to creeping up? Meanwhile, Nora Young talks about this lovely and helpful post over at Legal Nomads. It's a curated 10 week introduction to meditation, that gives you a taste of a number of mainstream meditation approaches, so you can see what works for you. And, are you having a bad day? Could you use a little sweetness in your life? Check out these Swiss cat ladders over at Core 77!

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

Hope you're having a good summer! This time, Nora Young talks about this Technology Review article on advances in machine learning in tech hubs in Africa, such as Accra and Nairobi.  Cathi Bond has some summer fun for you! Tesla came out with this limited edition, super stylish surfboard (via New Atlas). And, looking for a little, um, calm water fun? How about this? The Wheeebo disc that lets you glide, slowly, along the water.

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 this project by celebrated Canadian architect, Moshe Safdie (you can read more about it in this release). Nora Young raises this article in The Verge on the use of AI in the design of Hollywood film. Over the summer, we'll be releasing new episodes once a month, and then back to a proper bi-weekly schedule after Labour Day. Have a great summer!