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Description
Flash Forward is a show about possible (and not so possible) future scenarios. What would the warranty on a sex robot look like? How would diplomacy work if we couldn’t lie? Could there ever be a fecal transplant black market? (Complicated, it wouldn’t, and yes, respectively, in case you’re curious.) Hosted and produced by award winning science journalist Rose Eveleth, each episode combines audio drama and journalism to go deep on potential tomorrows, and uncovers what those futures might really be like. The future is going to be weird, so let's get ready for it together.
185 Episodes
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What happens when women no longer have to physically bear children? Who wins? Who loses? Who takes artificial wombs to a far away planet to create a colony of super-beings?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What would happen if the Earth suddenly had a second moon? This week, we work through the impact an additional satellite would have on our planet, from tides, to the night sky, to the potential destruction of Earth. Oh also there are space pirates.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1This week’s future is a social experiment. What if Earth had a robotic overlord who decided to ban all weapons? All fights would have to be hand to hand. Would there be less death that way? Less casualties? What counts as a weapon anyway? Listen to the episode to find out!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week on Meanwhile in the Future we step onto the field and talk about contact sports. What would it take to create a future in which the most dangerous sports die out? What are those sports to begin with? What does a world without football look like?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Over the past 85 years, antibiotics have been miracle drugs. They’ve kept infections at bay and opened up a world of medical possibilities: organ transplants, heart surgery, chemotherapy. But they’re not going to work forever. The age antibiotic resistance is coming. So what does a world without these drugs look like?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If there was a drug that meant you never had to sleep again, would you take it? Would those who didn’t need to sleep have special advantages over those who did? All that and a side of zombies, in this week’s episode.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you’re reading this, you have access to the Internet. But what would happen if the Internet suddenly went away? And what would it take to make that happen?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We often think of stars as twinkling, harmless little points of light that fill our night sky with majesty. But stars can be dangerous too. When they come to the end of their lifespan, some stars explode fantastically as supernovae. So what would happen if one of those giant explosions happened nearby?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We all want to be our best selves. But what if you could add almost anything to your body and mind? A camera here, an exoskeleton there. This is the world that some biohackers imagine—one in which humans can extend their abilities beyond the limits biology has set for us. But what does that world look like?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Need to get from New York to Paris? Or San Diego? Chances are you’re not taking a car or a bus or a boat to go there. Instead, you’d hop on a plane. But aside from hurting your wallet, commercial flights also hurt the planet, contributing to the continuous input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that is in turn contributing to climate change. So what if we stopped flights? What would happen?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What would happen if a company put up so many wind turbines that they actually changed the climate on Earth? I know this sounds totally crazy, but I swear to you this is something that scientists have actually looked into. So naturally, I talked to one of those scientists.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Your face is one of your most valuable possessions. But what happens when facial recognition is so good that any company can grab an image of your face while you’re walking down the street, and link it to everything from your social media profiles, to your credit score, to your workplace?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If the Earth, somehow, stopped rotating around the sun, it would have exactly 64 1/2 days before it crashed into the fireball at the center of our solar system. Here's what would happen during those last 64 1/2 days.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What if “life in prison” could mean 100 or 200 or 400 years? Does that change the way that sentences are dolled out? What happens when a person gets out of prison?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does the world look like when everybody with a smart phone also has a drone?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What would happen if we rounded up all the critically endangered animals and plants and put them in armored zoos?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When you were a kid and stole your friends’ toys, your parent probably asked you this angry hypothetical: “How do you think that made them feel?” But what if you actually could feel what another person is feeling? This week, we travel to a future where humans have invented an empathy machine.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Humans spend a lot of time and energy wondering if there’s anybody else out there. But what if we got unequivocal evidence that there was? In this week’s future, a probe that is extremely similar to the Voyager probes that we sent out in the 1970’s shows up in our galaxy.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 2006, scientists described the world's first invisibility cloak. But there was a catch. It only worked in two dimensions, and on microwaves. But to what if scientists and engineers could created a true invisibility cloak?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When it comes to climate change, there are a lot of researchers already thinking about how to equip crops and food animals with genes to help them withstand heat and parched conditions. But what about genetically engineering humans to try to slow our constant carbon contributions?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi, I really liked this episode and I just read that opossums have a lower body temperature, do you think they are more succeptible to fungal infections?
I would like this cast much better if the sound was more even. If I turn sound up loud enough to hear the beginning, the rest hurts my ears.
Interesting topic and an ok episode overall. But an incredibly underwhelming ending. I would expect Flash Forward to push the guests to provide more in depth statements than just 'dismantle, defund and expect more'. Those are legitimate proposals but the guests used them as buzzwords and nothing of substance accompanied them.
In "One Child to Rule them All" why not just say the preference for boys is sexist? It is. there's no point in trying to be culturally sensitive when the culture itself is sexist. Woman up.
mind blowing
These episode did more to support keeping the voting age at 18 than lowering it. At least for me.
oh rose, you have no clue just how weird and stressful 2020 is
a science fiction novelist is an expert?
Love the info and how it is presented (flash forward first then explanation)
I actually like the theme tune played backwards! thanks for sharing. 🙂
really great show! I loved this episode, especially the focus on disabled people. i had to laugh out loud in the intro.
I love this podcast
Awesome job Roseai!! I'm really enjoying this mini season format where you follow thread awhile :) Ferrock sounds like a fantastic idea! The flexural strength and durability should have widespread applicability in flatwork (non-structural slabs). I'm curious about what the limit to scaling up is??
Amazing podcast, I love it!
not good audio quality with weird voice.
this is my favorite podcast
this podcast appeared in my subscribed list without mt consent and so i guess its spam. don't listen.
edr 4th
Nothing wrong with sharing fake texts about a fake future. It's all conjecture and doesn't mean you have to believe it or buy into it. But, you know, under the right circumstances, many outcomes are possible. Not probable, but possible.
this one's a waste of time: two non-religious ppl discussing a fake religious text.