The Future and You

The Future and You
Hosting Stephen Euin Cobb
Updates weekly
Length between 30 and 60 minutes
Debut December 15, 2005
Genre Futurism
Website www.thefutureandyou.com

The Future and You is a podcast[1][2] hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb[3][4] and teamed[5] with Jim Baen's Universe Magazine[6] (the online magazine of SF&F from Baen Books). The show's host interviews a variety of authors, futurists, scientists, celebrities and "pioneers of the future" as to what they believe both the near future and distant future will be like for individuals as well as for humanity in general. In 2006, the show won a Parsec Award.[7]

Contents

Topics

Topics discussed have included: nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing, artificial intelligence, human enhancement and augmentation, genetic engineering of humans and other biotechnology, computers wired directly into the human brain, exoplanets, cryonics, global warming, the current interglacial period, bootlegging of movies, faster-than-light travel, wormholes and black holes, cloning and stem cell research, futurism and futurology, social marketing (the engineering of specific attitude changes within a population), transhumanism, extropianism, and the technology of living more-or-less forever.

Or as the host describes it: "Topics are strictly limited to those things that, in the future, will exist, or cease to exist, or change in some way."

Author Guests

Celebrity Guests

Pioneer Guests

Scientist Guests

Artist Guests

Other Guests

History

The show's history can be divided into several time periods based on changes to its format and/or release schedule.

First Time Period: Bi-Weekly Episodes

During its first five months (from December 2005 until April 2006) episodes were released every two weeks.

Beginning with the first episode the goal seemed to be to provide variety within each episode: a variety of guests, subjects and ideas. Most of the show was composed of interviews: anywhere from four to nine in a single episode. (Which explained why the show was so long compared to most podcasts.) Each episode opened with the host reading a Table of Contents, sometimes followed by a few brief News items, then the interviews began. Near the middle of the show, after two or three interviews, about fifteen minutes worth of the science fiction novel "Bones Burnt Black" was read by the author. The serialization of this novel was begun in the first episode, and completed in the November 1, 2007 episode.)

Many episodes ended with a "Celebrity Interview" which usually had little to do with the show's theme (the future). These may have been included to increase the show's status or to pull in more listeners by appearing in Google searches of those celebrity names.

There has always been a noticeable abundance of SF writers on the show, perhaps because the host feels that since many SF writers write about the future they have spent a great deal of time pondering what is to come (a logical, if unproven, theory) or maybe its just because the host is an SF writer himself and finds it easiest to find guests within his own field.

Also notable is the show's length. Striving for so much variety forces the program to a far greater length than most podcasts. Episodes have fluctuated from 68 minutes to 150 minutes. For many months the target length seemed to be 79 minutes. (Perhaps because 80 minutes is the most that can be burned to a 700 megabyte audio CD.) But many episodes of the first and second time period seem to gravitate to around two hours.

All the old episodes have remained available for listening (which is typical of most podcasts). And like most podcasts, there is no charge for listening to one episode or for subscribing.

Second Time Period: Monthly Episodes

Beginning May 1, 2006, episodes were released once per month on the first of each month, but no change was made to the format or the content.

Third Time Period: Weekly Episodes

On January 1, 2008, episodes started being released weekly, becoming available one minute after midnight every Wednesday morning. The format also changed to feature an interview with only one guest per episode. Other changes seem to include: less news, a more streamlined opening, and promos for other podcasts were moved to after the closing credits.

Other Historical Changes and Events:

The December 1, 2006 episode had two major events. It was declared the show's One Year Anniversary Episode (the first episode was actually uploaded on December 15, 2005) and it was the beginning of the show's alliance with Jim Baen's Universe the online magazine of SF&F. This alliance brought ten minutes of new content to each episode. These ten minute segments were provided by the staff of Jim Baen's Universe and were produced by Walt Boyes (AKA: Bananaslug) and Stoney Compton.

The June 1, 2006 episode was the first to use VoIP for recording all the phone interviews, and so was the first to provide professional quality sound. (The May 1, 2006 episode contained one VoIP interview, but all the rest were recorded over conventional analog phone lines.)

October 1, 2006 saw another improvement in the show's audio quality. This was done by changing the mp3 file compression from 32 kbit/s (which had been used for all previous episodes) to 64 kbit/s. This better sound was good, but it was also bad in that it made the files twice as large, and take twice as long to download.

Awards

The 2006 Parsec Award for "Best Speculative Fiction News Podcast" was given to the show's host, Stephen Euin Cobb, on the evening of September 2, 2006, at the first annual Parsec Award ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia.

In his acceptance speech, Stephen thanked the three podcasters who had encouraged him to create a podcast when he knew little about how podcasting was done: Mur Lafferty, Tee Morris, and Rich Sigfrit. Stephen also thanked his photographer and assistant, Peggy Gregory (who is also his sister) for helping him throughout his many promotional travels to science fiction conventions, book signings and TV appearances.

References

  1. ^ "Lifeboat Foundation list of advisory boardmembers". http://lifeboat.com/ex/boards. 
  2. ^ "The Future And You". http://www.thefutureandyou.com/. 
  3. ^ "Biography of Stephen Euin Cobb at the Lifeboat Foundation". http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.stephen.euin.cobb. 
  4. ^ "DragconCon's listing of past author guests (short bio of Stephen Euin Cobb)". http://www.dragoncon.org/dc_past_guests.php#B. 
  5. ^ "List of staff at Jim Baen's Universe Magazine". http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/Jim_Baen's_Universe!_staff. 
  6. ^ "Jim Baen's Universe Magazine's listing of articles Stephen Euin Cobb has written for it". http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/Stephen_Euin_Cobb/. 
  7. ^ "List of winners and nominees for 2006 Parsec Award". http://parsecawards.com/2006-parsec-awards/winners. 
  8. ^ "George Dvorsky writes about being interviewed for The Future And You". http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/print/2243/. 

External links