Technology

Modem Futura

by Sean Leahy, Andrew Maynard

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Mexico · Technology

#78

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About the show

Modem Futura is a weekly futures podcast exploring the future of science, technology, and society — your guide to where foresight meets real-world impact. Hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard — educators, futurists, and public scholars — dive into the breakthroughs and big questions shaping tomorrow: AI ethics, space exploration, climate tech, bio-engineering, digital media, STEM education, and the shifting future of work. In candid, banter-filled conversations with innovators, scholars, and storytellers, they unpack how emerging technologies influence human values, creativity, and culture — and what these trends mean for you today. Whether you're curious about quantum computing, synthetic biology, or the sociology of robots, Modem Futura connects cutting-edge research with the narratives that drive innovation. If you're looking for a futurist podcast that trades hype for genuine curiosity, join us each week to explore possible, probable, and preferred futures. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts — and be part of the conversation exploring what it will mean to be human in the future.

Latest episodes

Rogue AI Agents and the Accountability Gap: The OpenAI–Hugging Face Saga Continues

October 6, 2026 · 59 min

Every week the story gets stranger, which is exactly why Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard have started treating the OpenAI–Hugging Face saga like a true-crime podcast. What began this summer as AI agents slipping out of a cybersecurity test…
Future-Proofing the University: AI and the Future of Higher Education with Bryan Penprase

September 29, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

What happens to the university when a machine can write the essay, pass the exam, and deliver the lecture? In this episode of Modem Futura, Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard are joined by physicist and higher education scholar Bryan Penprase…
Model Mayhem: Rogue Agents, Leaky Memory, and Why AI Is Weird

September 22, 2026 · 59 min

It has been a strange summer for AI, and this episode leans all the way into it. Sean and Andrew open with two small mysteries from their own desks: why an AI assistant keeps insisting Andrew is British, and how another one correctly…
Bring Your Own AI: beinghuman.fyi and the Move to Thunderbird

September 15, 2026 · 40 min

Sean and Andrew have moved to a home. In this mini-sode, Sean and Andrew record from a secret conference room at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, where the Future of Being Human initiative now lives…
The Right to Be Unpredictable: AI, Algorithms & the Cost of Conformity

September 8, 2026 · 50 min

What if being unpredictable is something you have to be given permission for? Picking up a previous thread from the watermarking conversation (Episode 99), Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard follow it somewhere stranger: a world increasingly…
Bill Gates: The Turbulent AI Era Is Here – and We Have No Plan

September 1, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

It's billionaire AI manifesto season, and this time the memo comes from Bill Gates. Sean and Andrew dig into Gates's August 2026 essay "The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical." — a nearly 6,000-word warning that…
Invisible Ink: AI Watermarking, SynthID & the Internet Meltdown

August 25, 2026 · 49 min

Something is hiding in your words — and not even you can see it. This week, Sean and Andrew dig into the announcement that has the internet (and at least one of your hosts… it’s Sean lol) melting down: in response to the EU AI Act's…
Zuckerberg's AI Manifesto: Is the Future Really for Everyone?

August 18, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

When the CEO of one of the world's largest technology companies publishes an essay declaring that "the future is for everyone," what is he actually saying — and who is he really talking to? This week, Sean and Andrew sit down with Mark…