April 28, 2019
It is finally spring in Indiana! It did snow yesterday, but still...there is no denying it is a great time to be outside listening to podcasts.
SOMETHING NEW
SOMETHING NEW
Companies have endeavored to capture a corner of emerging markets for as long as there have been companines. A prescient move to commodify has often rewarded the business savvy with financial success, and occasionally with the hard-to-attain accolade of reshaping society. Much less common is that these earth-shaking innovators pause to think through the negative ripple effects that might emanate from a nobly conceived idea. But it’s 2019, and as the world spins madly on at a rapidly accelerating clip we need some kind of contemplative device for vetting new products before they hit the marketplace. Cue Should This Exist?, a new podcast produced in collaboration from Wait What? and Quartz.
The premise is a winning one right out the gate: each episode, host Caterina Fake guides an entrepreneur through a gauntlet of judges who pose questions about how this product might be possibly be misused. Fake, who founded the photo hosting site Flickr, is now a partner at the venture capital firm Yes VC, and her structured narration provides a good amount of context before the guest is grilled by the panel. For the first batch of episodes this group of experts is comprised of writer/activist/comedian Barathunde Thurston, editor in chief/co-CEO of Quartz Kevin Delaney, and therapist/author/podcaster Esther Perel. The social conscience, interpersonal acuity, and rigorous fact-checking ability of this trio would make for a pretty killer VC firm, but the questions they conjure up would likely be out of place at a funding round presentation. Nevertheless, it makes for a lot better listening than something like “will it make gobs and gobs of money?” The brilliant sound design and original music also help keep a playful tone, buoying some fairly heavy hypotheticals with a sense of wondrous optimism.
Most of the featured products thus far encompass a technology you may be vaguely aware of that has not yet crossed into household notoriety. This may be fairly obvious, but all the spokespeople are game to consider the ethical implications of their product spilling out into the world. Which, actually, can lead to the show dragging a bit into the overwhelmingly agreeable conceit that “it is complicated.” This might be a product of Fake failing to push more provocative questions from the panel, but that doesn’t really gel with the lighter nature of the show. A more cut-throat approach would betray the schtick of the show NOT being interested in business plans. Regardless, I would like to see Fake inject her experience into the conversation. There is a very relevant aside where Fake compares her experience with Creative Commons and Flickr to the inherent pitfalls of open-source technology (“3DR: When Your Invention Becomes a Weapon”), but I’d have liked to see more of this throughout all episodes. To be fair, this may be due to Fake’s relative absence of struggling with ethical quandaries relating to shipping a product. Maybe that was even some of the impetus for helming this show as the host takes on her new role as a potential investor, in which case I would say “Cool.”
The aforementioned installment “3DR: When Your Invention Becomes a Weapon” comes in a little differently, covering Chris Anderson and his project DIY Drones - an open-source drone community. Rather than wondering about what might be someday, this takes a look at how the technology has already had a sinister impact (Should This Persist? would be a great name for a spinoff podcast, BTW). Maybe it has to do with Anderson’s personality, but this episode felt a lot more combative relative to the rest of the Should This Exist? library. There is more at stake; none of the other featured guests had to speak to the already realized danger of their products being co-opted by terrorists. Anderson was a great antagonist, questioning the idea of whether technologists in the 21st century should inherently be ethicists and regulators while creating a new technology. It might be harder to land a guest with stronger opinions, but I think seeking out products that are already widely used would solve for this fairly quickly.
All that said, the episodes do make for great thought exercises rooted pretty deeply in reality. After all, the products presented do in fact exist, so the intellectual leg work is geared toward determining how this thing would shape the world if it proliferated. We need this kind of thoughtful approach in our world that is changing faster than we can adapt to it - to say nothing of our ability to form a holistic understanding of what we’re becoming. This show toes the line of balancing skepticism with eagerness to unveil the potential good of a product.
The premise is a winning one right out the gate: each episode, host Caterina Fake guides an entrepreneur through a gauntlet of judges who pose questions about how this product might be possibly be misused. Fake, who founded the photo hosting site Flickr, is now a partner at the venture capital firm Yes VC, and her structured narration provides a good amount of context before the guest is grilled by the panel. For the first batch of episodes this group of experts is comprised of writer/activist/comedian Barathunde Thurston, editor in chief/co-CEO of Quartz Kevin Delaney, and therapist/author/podcaster Esther Perel. The social conscience, interpersonal acuity, and rigorous fact-checking ability of this trio would make for a pretty killer VC firm, but the questions they conjure up would likely be out of place at a funding round presentation. Nevertheless, it makes for a lot better listening than something like “will it make gobs and gobs of money?” The brilliant sound design and original music also help keep a playful tone, buoying some fairly heavy hypotheticals with a sense of wondrous optimism.
Most of the featured products thus far encompass a technology you may be vaguely aware of that has not yet crossed into household notoriety. This may be fairly obvious, but all the spokespeople are game to consider the ethical implications of their product spilling out into the world. Which, actually, can lead to the show dragging a bit into the overwhelmingly agreeable conceit that “it is complicated.” This might be a product of Fake failing to push more provocative questions from the panel, but that doesn’t really gel with the lighter nature of the show. A more cut-throat approach would betray the schtick of the show NOT being interested in business plans. Regardless, I would like to see Fake inject her experience into the conversation. There is a very relevant aside where Fake compares her experience with Creative Commons and Flickr to the inherent pitfalls of open-source technology (“3DR: When Your Invention Becomes a Weapon”), but I’d have liked to see more of this throughout all episodes. To be fair, this may be due to Fake’s relative absence of struggling with ethical quandaries relating to shipping a product. Maybe that was even some of the impetus for helming this show as the host takes on her new role as a potential investor, in which case I would say “Cool.”
The aforementioned installment “3DR: When Your Invention Becomes a Weapon” comes in a little differently, covering Chris Anderson and his project DIY Drones - an open-source drone community. Rather than wondering about what might be someday, this takes a look at how the technology has already had a sinister impact (Should This Persist? would be a great name for a spinoff podcast, BTW). Maybe it has to do with Anderson’s personality, but this episode felt a lot more combative relative to the rest of the Should This Exist? library. There is more at stake; none of the other featured guests had to speak to the already realized danger of their products being co-opted by terrorists. Anderson was a great antagonist, questioning the idea of whether technologists in the 21st century should inherently be ethicists and regulators while creating a new technology. It might be harder to land a guest with stronger opinions, but I think seeking out products that are already widely used would solve for this fairly quickly.
All that said, the episodes do make for great thought exercises rooted pretty deeply in reality. After all, the products presented do in fact exist, so the intellectual leg work is geared toward determining how this thing would shape the world if it proliferated. We need this kind of thoughtful approach in our world that is changing faster than we can adapt to it - to say nothing of our ability to form a holistic understanding of what we’re becoming. This show toes the line of balancing skepticism with eagerness to unveil the potential good of a product.
From: Wait What?/Quartz
Recommended for: The tech-skeptic with a conscience.
Drop Schedule: Seasonal:Weekly, Wednesday
Average episode length: 35 minutes
Rating: Gotta Have It
THE LIST
Once again, Cracked takes some oft-overlooked subject matter and shines a light. Mussolini was really bad. Like, Hitler LOOKED UP TO HIM bad. And surprise surprise, this is history that doesn't sit idly by as the amber encases it into speculative wonder.
It breaks the mold of the show slightly (since this focuses on a well-established entity as opposed to a relatively new one), but Wired editor turned drone-mogul Chris Anderson made this one sparkle.
Are we really this petty to only feel satisfied relative to the misfortune of our peers?! Apparently. Thus, no one is ever happy. Most curiously in this episode, people support policy they don’t vote for.
Carpe futura! It's an excellent motto, but one that is impossible to expect everyone to chase. Besides, if that's your creed, you're probably going to miss out on the weirdness of prom.
HONORABLE MENTION
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