The Futurists

Peter Hinsson is a best selling author and industry strategist focused on leadership and change management during turbulent times. His n ewest book is “The Uncertainty Principle”, arriving at the precise moment when business leaders must confront both massive geopolitical turmoil and runaway technological change. Don't miss this lively discussion about the trends and management strategies that will shape the enterprise of the future.

What happens when we pass the point of technological change so profound that we can no longer predict or comprehend the future? Pay attention because it's coming soon. For decades, futurists have theorized that the compound impact of converging, accelerating technologies will result in a singularity: that liminal moment when society is irreversibly transformed. This week David S Rose, New York City's greatest angel investor and a prolific entrepreneur, joins The Futurists to share his perspectives about the experience of living through the knee of exponential change. Brace yourself.  

This week Brett and Rob take a check on the latest in AI news diving into the growing requirements for AI infrastructure, and the advances being made in Agentic-AI. We dive into Anthropic and Open AI's latest announcements including the $6.5Bn acquisition by Open AI of Jony Ive's revenue-less and customer-less startup, and we look at investments in the UAE in the world's largest AI data center.

Doug Shapiro, one of the leading analysts of trends in the media and entertainment industry, explains how Hollywood now faces a second phase of digital transformation. First, the Internet unbundled media distribution, and now AI is reshaping the creative process. No one will be spared: impact will be felt by major media companies, independents and the full range of professionals from screenwriters to directors, cast and crew.  Shaprio provides a summary of the changes that occurred in the past 20 years and his bold forecast of the AI-defined future that will lead to infinite content.  Topics covered in this episode: how the definition of quality is shifting;  how value is migrating to new control points in the media supply chain;  how YouTube and TikTok paved the way for GenAI; the demise of middlemen; the fragmentation of attention; the extreme power law of popularity;  the rise of new gatekeepers. 

Colin Megill joins the Futurists to describe a new model for finding consensus in a time of political chaos and intense partisan division. He is the inventor of Pol.is, a powerful open-source platform for coordinating the feedback, opinions, and preferences of large dispersed groups. Polis has been successfully deployed by governments in Asia and Europe to find pockets of agreement amid partisan rancor.  If you crave an alternative to political division and polarization, don't miss this interview.

In this week's episode of THE FUTURISTS, host Brett King sits down one on one with Dave Birch to talk about the future of AI based payments, money and the concepts around Agentic AI such as KYA (Know-your-Agent instead of KYC Know Your Customer) or how we'll tell if specific agents have the authority to make payments, etc. And we get into the utility problem of money in a highly autonomous world. This is future of money, identity and payments all wrapped into one with two of the most future thinking people in the finance space today. 

This week, frequent guest and friend of The Futurists, Ross Dawson, takes over the hosting chair to speak with Joanna Lepore about Foresight and Vision(s) of the Future. Ross, founder of AHT Group (Advanced Human Technologies Group) and the futures think tank Future Exploration Network, introduces us to Joanna Lepore. In 2024, Joanna founded and now co-leads Foresight Inside Group (FIG), an invite-only network for corporate futurists. Previously, she established and led Foresight at McDonald's global HQ and Mars Wrigley, helping to push the strategies of some of the world's best-known brands into the future. Motivated by the power of diverse perspectives, she also created and hosts Looking Outside, a podcast to share those perspectives. This episode is packed with powerful and practical insights into the future, offering inspiration on how to seize today's opportunities and drive change in a transforming world. 

In this week's show Brett and Rob discuss why the Administration were happy to bring the world's markets to the brink of global recession and why it's happening now? Is this a massive, economy scale Pump and Dump or is it an existential threat of China surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest economy? Will these tariffs put any dent in China's meteoric rise? Let's find out.

Lauren Ducrey is a poet who developed an authentic persona for Google's automated assistant in France, Senegal and other Francophone nations. In the process she discovered insights about the intersection of art, linguistics, and human cognition in the age of AI.  She tells the Futurists about artistic integrity, what humans can do that machines cannot, and the benefits of collaborative creativity in the enterprise. 

This week on The Futurists retired-NASA astronaut and pilot of the Space Shuttle, is a former F14 fighter pilot, a test pilot, an engineer, and a veteran of four space flights. Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the year long mission to the ISS. In October 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space, the single longest space mission by an American astronaut at that time. Host Brett King gets into what he misses about life on station and what Mars crews are likely to face when they land on Mars, along with why we should go to Mars. This is one of our best episodes yet!

Technology strategist Shelly Palmer returns to The Futurists to demystify abstruse concepts of quantum computing in practical terms with his characteristically sharp insights about artificial intelligence. Shelly explains: why code and content will be free;  why quantum encryption won't create jobs for humans; what happens when Moore's law compounds with Metcalfe's and Cooper's Laws; why we can bank on the proliferation of good ideas; and how to separate hype from reality in the realm of Big Tech research.  

Cory Doctorow has a unique ability to peel away the polished veneer of familiar social and economic structures to expose their inner workings. Sometimes what he reveals is ugly, sometimes delightful, but it's always fascinating. A committed activist, journalist and book author, Cory takes the Futurists on his opinionated tour of today's tech and pop culture landscape. 

In this week's episode we interview author, AI theorist and researcher David Shapiro. Shapiro is part philosopher, part theorist with a fair bit of practical wisdom thrown in. With a hit YouTube channel Shapiro travels  the globe as a speaker and advisor musing on the longer-term impacts of AI, technology and human adaptability. In this deep conversation with host Brett King, we delve into the ways in which advanced AI might completely transform our way of life, including economics, politics and what it means to be human itself. This is not one you'll want to miss.

Is AI good or bad for artists? Contrary to conventional wisdom, Bay Raitt believes that artificial intelligence confers immense power on artists. A prolific artist across film, games, print and other media, Bay speaks from deep experience. He tells The Futurists what he has learned by embracing AI in every aspect of his artists pursuits. According to Bay, AI must be embraced by creative people in every walk of life to reach its full potential. 

Marc Buckley returns to The Futurists with Brett King talking his return to Davos with Alohas Regenerative Futures in his role as a resident futurist with the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub and World Economic Forum advising on global sustainable development goals. Buckley maintains we can build a better future if we are clear about our goals and visions of the future, and that a regenerative future is very possible with the tech that is available today. When Marc speaks about this you get a clear sense of urgency, and he talks about the impact of ongoing extreme weather events like the LA wildfires also.

Is DeepSeek a massive disruption of the AI landscape? Or just another entrant in a brutal contest between Big Tech and feisty startups? In this episode, Brett and Rob examine the advent of DeepSeek R1 from all angles:  China's rising AI prowess, the new Cold War, the myth of American exceptionalism, protectionism and export controls, the power of open source software, the winners and losers, and some surprising insights about the massive 17% drop in Nvidia's market cap. 

While the 2025 wildfires still burn, a special eyewitness account from Rob, located deep in the fire zone in Los Angeles. He and Brett discuss the economic, environmental and psychological toll of one of the nation's worst natural disasters.  Also, the looming instance crisis and the challenge of measuring the true economic toll of ecological disaster and inaction by Congress. 

As we head into Davos at the end of the month, we are bringing in world class futurists that will be participating at the World Economic Forum. This week we have an Artist turned Futurist,  Dina Baenninger, who debates the need for real  artistry, creativity and modeling in scenario planning  and how it's not just all about strategic thinking and trending. Dina is heading to Davos to apply this level of creativity personally. 

In this week's episodes Brian Solis, Brett King and Rob Tercek get together to brainstorm and model the possible big advances and macro changes that are likely to come in 2025. From Trump's first year back, to the broader market changes and climate impact issues. This is what happens when you let three futurists out after dark to talk about short-term futures

Donna Dupont is the Chief Strategist at Purple Compass. She is a deep expert in designing foresight and forecasting scenarios for defense, national security, policing, public safety and public health for government agencies clients in Europe and North America. In this episode, she provides practical advice, based on her experience, for how to contend with increasing volatility in society, geopolitics, the environment and economics.  

In this episode Fabrice Grinda joins host Brett Kong to talk about his tech investing is changing and how angel investors make bets in a radically changing environment. How soon will AI impact? What about smart glasses, how soon will they be mainstream? A wide ranging discussion on tech investments and the players behind them Brett KingBestselling Author, Founder, Radio Host  www.thefuturists.comwww.brettking.com

This week on The Futurists, a cross-over episode with Breaking Banks as host Brett King takes us to Shanghai for a riveting discussion with Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei's Global Financial Services competency. In this eye-opening episode, they uncover how China is shaping the future with AI—not as a mere tool for profit, but as core infrastructure driving the world's fastest-growing economy. Discover why GenFi LLMs (Generational Financial Language Models) don't exist yet—and what's holding AI like ChatGPT back from transforming banking as we know it. Explore how China's unique approach to technology infrastructure is setting them apart from the rest, helping them to create a Smart Economy of the Future. Tune in for a conversation that could redefine the future of global finance and AI!

Brett and Rob unpack the result of the 2024 US national election. President-elect Donald Trump has announced candidates for his next Administration. The verdict? His picks are a clown car of unqualified candidates who intend to dismantle the apparatus of the federal government of the United States. What might this wrecking ball achieve…or destroy? Who benefits from the chaos?  Join us for a lively future-focused discussion about geopolitics, BRICs, global trade, technology, isolationism, the viability of NATO, the fate of small nations. Plus, the immense power of billionaires who have stepped forward to demand their share of the spoils. And one wildcard: will Donald Trump be the instrument of humanity's survival?  Absurd?.  But if the Trump Administration green-lights a SpaceX mission to Mars, there's a non-zero probability that Elon Musk's long term plan for human colonization of another planet might actually occur. 

In this week's show Bestselling Author Michael J Casey, the chairman of DAIS (Decentralized AI Society), senior advisor on MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency initiative, and previous Chair of Consensus at CoinDesk, joins Brett to talk the reality of decentralized and open source AI. The intersection of DeFi and DeAI appears to be a logical path if not for the hundreds of billions being invested in big tech efforts to create AGI. Is it possible to really make AI less centralized and still deliver the promise of a highly automated world? You'll need to tune in to find out!

Humanity's largest and most complex invention is the global supply chain.  More than 2 millions companies in 118 nations participate in the supply chain via GS1, the non-profit organization that manages data standards for global trade.  Melanie Hilton of GS1 US is one of the world's leading experts on innovation in the supply chain. She joins the Futurists to discuss the deployment of artificial intelligence, robotics, big data and digital transformation in retail, shipping, container ports, and manufacturing in every corner of the planet.

This week we have an extraordinary show. Chief Tashka Yawanawa, of the Yawanawa tribe in the heart of the Acre River region in the Amazon rainforest joins Brett King to talk the effects of climate change and deforestation happening today in the world's largest rainforest. The Yawanawa tribe are custodians of over 400 Hectares of Amazonian land and we get to hear first hand. If you have any doubt in your mind that climate change is impacting the planet, this is one you must listen to with an open mind. 

In this week's show we interview Neal Baer, M.D. an award-winning showrunner, television writer/producer, physician, author and a public health advocate and expert. Apart from ER, also worked on Designated Survivor, snd Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Today he is the Co-Director of the M.S. in Media, Medicine, and Health Program, at Harvard Medical School. We discuss his new book The Promise and Perils of CRISPR and get into where the tech is at and where it will take us, and the ways we might navigate ethical mindfields. We get sci-fi too - Join us!

Monika Beilskyte is a futures researcher and designer currently based in South Africa by way of Lithuania. She conveys to Brett and Rob her vision for a radically inclusive and more hopeful future. As Monika's frames it, her Protopian concept of the future presents a distinct alternative to the utopian -vs- dystopian binary that prevails in science fiction and popular culture. Monika draws on the Bantu-origin concept of Ubuntu to characterize her approach to future scenario planning, and she relates it to a wide range of current issues through the lens of equality, fairness and empathy.

This week The Futurists examine the much-ballyhooed claims that extreme weather events are growing more intense and more frequent. Surprise! It's not what you think. Brett and Rob unpack the economic impact of extreme weather, the growing perception of risk, and the political gridlock that thwarts practical proactive measures. Topics include: FEMA, Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene, how the insurance companies cope with the increase in damages and losses, and the broader societal and political impact of extreme weather events.

In this week's episode of The Futurists, David Orban joins Brett King in the hosting chair and we get to talk Quantum with Roberto Siagri, a theoretical physcist working on putting quantum processors in orbit. We talk about the advances in photonic quantum multi-dimensional cubits (yes you heard that right), the likelihood of Q-Day (Quantum Day), and of course, what secrets of the universe quantum just might unlock. We discuss Roberto's new startup Rotonium, working on exactly these questions. What happens when a physicist becomes a futurist engineer? Let's find out.

Jerome Glenn is the CEO and co-founder of the Millennium Project, a global consortium of hundreds of experts in 70 nations, hailing from academia, government and private sector. Each year these experts collaborate on forecasting a consensus view of future trends. Jerome shares with The Futurists a summary of insights from this year's 500-page report, The State of the Future. He describes a range of forecasting tools and techniques invented at the Rand Corporation in the 1970s and tells how they were used to generate the trends analyzed in the report. And he shares findings about General Artificial Intelligence, nuclear weapon proliferation, climate change and global temperature, and pandemics.

Andrew Hessel believes that biology is the first technology because it created all living things, including us. And it's also the most mysterious technology because we still do not understand exactly how the cells in our bodies convert molecules into new materials at room temperature. In this episode of the Futurists, Andrew explains how the science of synthetic biology enables humans to harness the phenomenal generative power of nature to accomplish incredible goals: curing cancer; devising personalized medicine; growing novel proteins; designing new materials and clean fuels. Biology is technology; synthetic biology confers the immense creative force of nature onto humans. Topics include genome sequencing, genome synthesis, how to write DNA, and the role of AI in reprogramming life. 

Michael Clark data scholar and futurist joins The Futurists this week to talk the critical misalignment of our global data infrastructure when it comes to AI and the future of the planet. He argues that data is more valuable than water, more valuable than money but can't be just an asset used by corporations, that it must be owned but each individual from cradle to grave. How? You will need to listen to find out.

This week on TF we go to the cradle of civilization with Futurist, Economist and Professor Adrian Saville. Adrian, based in South Africa, is the Founder of Boundless World, a Professor of Economics, Finance and Strategy at GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Science) and the founding director of the Centre for African Management and Markets (CAMM). We discuss how Africa's nascent economy and infrastructure gives it incredible opportunities to leapfrog the rest of the world in adapting to climate changes in particular. 

This week Brett and Robert are joined by Futurist, Founder and Author Terence Mauri as he gets ready to launch his new book, The UPside of DisrUPtion. We talk long term disruptive potential of AI, how it will impact employment, economies and corporations. But we also get into future proofing strategies for businesses and individuals alike. One thing is for sure, you're going to want to be as adaptable as possible for the future that is coming!

Journalist and media pundit Jeff Jarvis returns to The Futurists to discuss the strategies deployed by newspapers and magazines to prevent technology firms from dominating journalism. It's an uphill battle. Jeff describes the growing rift between independent journalists and big publications controlled by private equity; the role of government and new legislation; and the future of journalism in a media market shaped by artificial intelligence.  

In this week's episode we see the return of the philosopher futurist and award-winning science fiction author David Brin. We talk through the Fermi paradox, the ongoing civil war in the US, the geopolitical changes that are coming and how we get humanity to a place of real enlightenment. Brin brings his usual energy and intellect to a wide-ranging conversation that is sure to get you thinking.

In this episode, cybersecurity specialist and advisor to the DoD and former DIA cyber chief, Tyler Cohen Wood, joins us to talk about the recent Microsoft update crash and DDOS attacks. Wood takes us through emerging vectors and the cyberpunk future of our internet. If you think you're safer online, you might want to skip this one.

In this week's show we interview the legendary British science fiction author Charlie Stross. From Accelerando through to the Laundry Files we talk through how politics and social dynamics of our day tend to inform science fiction and why science fiction authors should be thought of as hi-brow entertainers rather than particularly gifted seers of the future. And yet, we get into why sci-fi authors tend to be fairly good at forecasting too. 

What will happen in the US Presidential election? It's no exaggeration to say that the fate of the republic hangs in the balance as the United States heads to the national election in November. A series of historic incidents in the month of July 2024 has completely upset the dynamics of the contest: an attempted assassination, a surprise vice president pick and President Biden's decision to withdraw from the race. This week the Futurists discuss the global consequences of these unprecedented dynamics and speculate about what might happen if Donald Trump returns to the White House, or if he is thwarted by Kamala Harris.

Monica Anderson returns to the Futurists to share a radical concept: future AI models based on Darwinism.  The "AI epistemologist” shares provocative opinions about where the current crop of generative AI systems went wrong, and why generative AI is computationally expensive and energy intensive, and why scaling AI with hardware will not achieve general intelligence. Instead she offers a radical alternative: a design for machine intelligence that is inspired by biology, and in particular by the Darwinian process of selection. Topics include: why generative AI is not a plagiarism machine; syntax versus semantics and why AI needs both;  there is only one algorithm for creativity; and how to construct an AI that consumes a million times less energy. 

This week Ross Dawson and Brett King sit down for an unscripted conversation about AI, Energy markets, climate survivability and resilience, mass migration, collaborative intelligence, advanced healthcare and other great topics for a futurists conversation to end out the week. Ross Dawson is one of Asia's top ranked futurists and advises companies and governments around future-proofing and AI readiness. The future is closer than you think. Bio - https://rossdawson.com

This week we call upon renowned media personality and thought leader Tariq Qureishy. Based between London and Dubai, Tariq has recently helmed a project known as “Voices of the Future”. A chronicling of 110 of the world's best future thinkers, analysts and researchers and their thoughts about humanity can adapt to the incredible changes being thrust upon society. He tells us why he's MAD - dedicated to “Making a difference” - and why thinking about the future is a core skill in today and tomorrow's world  Bio - https://tariq.tv/

The global supply chain is the most complicated thing that humanity has invented with more than 1 million companies in 209 nations trading 90% of manufactured goods via maritime transport. Now, thanks to climate change, extreme weather events and geo-political strife, it's growing geometrically more complex. Brett King and Rob Tercek discuss the implications for domestic politics, employment and innovation. 

David Wood and Calum Chace lead the London Futurists, a group that promotes radical scenarios for the future. In this episode they explain how expectations about the future have evolved in the UK during the past 15 years under Tory leadership, and they identify the trends that will shape the next 15 years.  Brett King and Rob Tercek draw comparisons to economic and political trends in the US, Australia and other regions. Topics include populism, geopolitical conflict, immigration, and the pervasive influence of emerging technology on society. 

The future is complicated!  Brett King and Rob Tercek trace the trajectory of several major economic, political, and technology trends, including:  the rising cost of home ownership, price-fixing scams that crank up apartment rent, the rising cost of insurance due to climate change, the dramatic increase in populist movements, the politics of resentment in democracies worldwide, and the advent of  quantum computing.  At the point where these trends intersect, the world becomes more complicated and interesting. It's not all gloom and doom. Brett and Rob talk about opportunities and the expanding cone of possibility, too. 

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. In this episode, Rob Tercek shares tools and techniques for team-based collaboration to create innovations that can change the world.  He knows his stuff.  Rob designed and launched digital platforms for games and video that are used by hundreds of millions of people today. In this special edition of the Futurists, Rob shares an easy and fun methodology for inventing new products and services used by dozens of major corporations to shape the future.

Looking to the future, a startup from Iceland innovates to address the opioid epidemic. In today's episode of The Futurists, guest host JP Nicols, co-host of The Futurists' sister podcast Breaking Banks, spotlights a healthtech innovator that he met on a recent trip to Iceland that is doing something to address a growing problem. Dr. Kjartan Thorsson, Prescriby, Co-Founder, acted on concerns noted as an orthopedic doctor -- he was regularly prescribing 30 to 50 opioid prescriptions a week. Rule of thumb, one in 10 patients go on to develop some level of addiction. Rather than contribute to the problem, he and two others decided to do something about it and developed the first data-driven treatment management platform for addictive medication.  In use in Iceland, professionals in the healthcare community are working to provide safer treatments of addictive medicines across the continuum of care. Entrepreneurs and futurists building a better world of tomorrow.

In this weeks episode Brett King is in London talking the future with renowned OG futurist JP Rangaswami. JP was the Chief Scientist for Salesforce and the Chief Data Officer for Deutsche Bank, way back before that was a thing. In this interview he talks about the philosophy of the future that is redrawn by AI and technology. A great discussion from a great learned mind and a modern philosopher. Bio - https://confusedofcalcutta.com/about-me/

In this special edition of the Futurists, media expert Peter Csathy debates with Rob about copyright and generative AI. It's a preview of their upcoming live debate at the Streaming Media summit in New York. Peter and Rob discuss the major issues in copyright, the most contentious lawsuits, and the most relevant precedents. If you are interested in the future of gen AI for storytelling and entertainment, this episode is essential. Topics include: copyright lawsuits brought by the New York Times, Getty Images and artists; how recent rulings on fair use may affect these cases; the evolving definition of “copying” in the digital domain; why some precedents will matter more than others; why Big Tech is in hot water; and how copyright is a tax on future innovation.