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SpudCells: Have Scientists Built Life From Scratch?
Episode 93
A synthetic cell that feeds, grows, divides — and happens to look like a potato. This week Sean and Andrew open the summer season with SpudCell, a la…
2 months ago
AI as Critical Infrastructure: Inside the Anthropic Fable Export Ban
Episode 92
What happens when a government switches off an AI? In this Summer Vibes edition, Sean and Andrew finally dig into the saga they've been watching unfo…
2 months, 1 week ago
Summer Reading List Part 2: Sci-Fi, Spy Fiction & Analog Treasures
Episode 91
The summer reading list concludes — and takes some wonderfully unexpected turns. In part two of their annual tradition, Sean and Andrew trade the cyb…
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Summer Reading List 2026: The Books That Inspired Our Imagination (Part 1)
Episode 90
Summer in Tempe is hot, and so is the case for putting down your phone and picking up a book you actually own. In Part 1 of our annual Summer Reading…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
WEF Top 10 Emerging Technologies 2026: A Futures Breakdown
Episode 89
Every year, the World Economic Forum releases its Top 10 Emerging Technologies list — and this year, Andrew shares his front-row history with it: he …
2 months, 4 weeks ago
AI Jobs, Liquid Software & Human Flourishing with Jeff Abbott
Episode 88
School's out, the studio's packed into boxes, and Modem Futura is officially on summer roadshow — broadcasting from Andrew's home studio with returni…
3 months ago
Synthetic Cells, Mirror Life, and the Future of Engineered Biology — with Emma Frow
Episode 87
What do we actually mean when we say we've made life in a lab? In this episode, Sean and Andrew welcome back ASU's Emma Frow — a researcher working a…
3 months, 1 week ago
Alien Minds, Time Travelers, and Consciousness Backups: A Futures Thought Experiment
Episode 86
We're back for another round of Futures Improv — the segment where an AI-generated scenario lands on the table and we improvise our way through what …
3 months, 2 weeks ago
Project Hail Mary, Dead Civilizations, and the Trouble with Feel-Good Endings
Episode 85
A timed episode (they gave themselves 35 minutes — barely made it) becomes an excuse for two arguments stitched together. First, Sean and Andrew fina…
3 months, 3 weeks ago
School's Out for Summer: AI, Vibe Coding, and What Teaching Still Requires
Episode 84
What happens when the semester ends and you finally have a moment to look back at what just happened? In this episode, Sean and Andrew sit down for a…
4 months ago