Episode 6.17 In the Ops Room with Palmer Luckey

In this live interview with Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey – joined by Anduril Chief Engineer Shane Arnott – we look at the future of defense, geopolitics, and Australia’s future in a transformed Indo-Pacific region. Have we shifted toward a defense-driven future? Recorded at the ArtHouse Hotel, Sydney, 18 August 2022. (Photo credit: Mr Snow)

Episode 6.12 Horizon Report FY2023: The Stars Align for an Energy Transition

Caught between an energy crisis and a climate crisis, the Lucky Country has stumbled upon a unique opportunity to solve both problems with one solution – a complete electrification of our homes, saving us money while saving the planet. The amazing Saul Griffith outlines his plan to electrify Austinmer, NSW – and reveals a blueprint for Australia’s future.

Saul Griffith’s new book The Big Switch: Australia’s Electric Future is a must-read. Get it here.

If you’re an aspiring energy geek (like myself), you’ll be interested in Spark Club – a monthly get-together of like-minded people working hard on Australia’s energy transition. Learn more here

Episode 6.02 – 2022 Predictions: I’m a Futurist, not a psychic!

At the start of 2021 I made four big predictions for the year about digital currencies, the transition to a sustainable economy, geopolitics and social media. How did I score? (Hint: I got to grade myself.)

SUSTAIN #6: What three changes can we make to effortlessly lower our carbon emissions?

We worry that doing ‘the right thing’ for the climate will be hard yards. Three simple, easy changes show us how much we can do – and how empowered we already are to fix this problem.

Here’s the New York Times reporting on the rains in Greenland.

A recent survey of 16-25 year olds reveals the majority feel ‘doomed’ because of climate change.

Our World in Data visualises an ugly truth: Australians emit more carbon per person than almost everyone else.

What to do?

CHOICE shows you how to identify and switch over to a renewable electricity generator. Switching to a renewable electricity generator does more to lower your carbon emissions than any other single act. Let’s do this!

SUSTAIN #5: Can we radically reduce the emissions created growing our food?

Growing the meat we eat produces a lot of Australia’s carbon emissions. The four innovations explored in this episode – Rob Kinley’s amazing seaweed, George Peppou’s vat-grown meats, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin’s vertical farms, and Nick Hazell’s plant-based ‘meats’ – show us a path toward an agriculture that can be radically more efficient.

The Users’ Guide to the Future #3 – Can we fight bushfires with cool burns?

Life in the bush can be beautiful – and dangerous. Can a simple examination of our homes make them safer in bushfires? How can we ‘read’ the bush – and heal it – to avoid catastrophic bushfires?

We speak with Indigenous land and fire expert Victor Steffenson about what we don’t know about the bush – and should. Architect Ian Weir then walks us through some simple steps to make a home in the bush more resistant to bushfire.

Victor Steffenson is the author of Fire Country, about the Indigenous land management practices explored in this episode.

Victor is part of the Firesticks Alliance, an organisation working to educate Australians on how to live within and heal the bush.

Ian Weir specialises in the architecture of bushfire-resistant homes and properties.

Dr. Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick is a Senior Research Associate at the Climate Change Resarch Centre at UNSW.

Episode 4.04 FAKE MEAT IS VERY REAL

Now that we can make “meat” from plants that people prefer to animals – what will we choose to eat?  v2Food’s ‘Rebel’ Whopper charts that journey – from soybean to burger patty – via a lot of science, a blind taste test, and an ignored email.

Our cast of characters:

Jack Cowin is the self-made billionaire founder of Hungry Jacks;

Phil Morle is a General Partner in Main Sequence Ventures, the CSIRO-backed venture capital fund;

Nick Hazell is the CEO of v2Food;

Skye Anderson is the head of product development at v2Food – and knows more about the Whopper’s patty than any other person in Australia!

Episode 4.01 – INFECTED BY BIG BROTHER

For a century, public health officials have contained pandemics by tracing outbreaks. COVIDsafe promises to do this – can we trust it?

How does contact tracking work? And did host Mark Pesce almost accidentally invent Bluetooth contact tracking during some experimenting back in 2005?

Dr. Genevieve Bell offers insights into the history of contact tracing – and how old ideas about sickness can be baked into the newest of our technologies.

Dr. Bell recently wrote a long and clear article on this topic for TECHNOLOGY REVIEW.

Toward the end of 2005, Mark Pesce did some ‘pinging’ of Bluetooth devices from his mobiles, and learned that a lot of other Bluetooth mobiles would answer his pings. He wrote it up in a paper:

The following year, working with artist John Tonkin, they created ‘Bluestates‘ – using Bluetooth contact tracking to generate ‘social graphs’ – maps of who associated with who – for ISEA 2006 in San Jose California. It got a fair bit of attention at the time, including a review in The New York Times. Here’s a short movie of how John Tonkin visualised the contact tracking data Mark Pesce gathered:

THE NEXT BILLION CARS Episode 4: The Next Billion Kilometers

Transformations in autonomy & electrification give automobile designers a new palette of possibilities – does our experience of driving change?

Drew Smith talks to BMW design legend Chris Bangle about what it took to design the REDSPACE urban car for the Chinese market. And here’s a video where he’s talking at the Art Center College for Design in Pasadena (Chris’s alma mater, and the school that graduates most of the world’s top car designers):

Mark and Sally sat down at the North American International Auto Show for a long interview with recently-retired Ford design legend Elizabeth Baron, about what it took to combine the real and virtual design processes into a seamless whole.

Elizabeth Baron, in the podcast suite at the Detroit Foundation Hotel, January 2019

Finally, Sally learns about the design possibilities created by autonomous vehicles from Luciano Nakamura, one of the founders of Australian startup AEV Robotics.

AEV Robotics rethinks design around urban use cases…