Went into the show because I heard Rose Eveleth was in it and I'm a fan of the podcast Flashforward podcast, which is an intelligent show with deep and thoughtful analysis about possible futures and does an excellent job of talking to experts on the issues.
The show is not like that. It's trying to be more accessible to a wider audience. It winds up being mostly techno-optimistic fluff, with every so often a teeny bit of more nuanced commentary from an expert like Rose Eveleth. I wanted much more of the latter and way less of the former.
I get they're trying to make this really accessible to a wide audience through random-people-on-the-street commentaries and the like. I found myself wanting more depth, and I was dismayed at how many minutes of every episode are spent breathlessly showcasing random tech startups. It felt more like long-form advertisements than documentary journalism.
Flashforward fans: don't get your hopes up. For every minute of an STS-type scholar trying to invite a smarter conversation, there are five minutes of hyping up random tech CEOs advertising their latest startup.
The show is not like that. It's trying to be more accessible to a wider audience. It winds up being mostly techno-optimistic fluff, with every so often a teeny bit of more nuanced commentary from an expert like Rose Eveleth. I wanted much more of the latter and way less of the former.
I get they're trying to make this really accessible to a wide audience through random-people-on-the-street commentaries and the like. I found myself wanting more depth, and I was dismayed at how many minutes of every episode are spent breathlessly showcasing random tech startups. It felt more like long-form advertisements than documentary journalism.
Flashforward fans: don't get your hopes up. For every minute of an STS-type scholar trying to invite a smarter conversation, there are five minutes of hyping up random tech CEOs advertising their latest startup.