A new podcast on tech, society, and sci-fi movies
Based on the book Films from the Future, the podcast explores technology and society through the lens of 12 films
Back in the early days of the pandemic, there was a surge in creators producing free content for people looking for ways to take the edge off the lockdown.
In a moment of weakness I joined them! Thinking that people would appreciate an author reading their book, I recorded myself reading Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies cover to cover, and posted the videos on YouTube.
Big mistake — not surprisingly, very few people were interested in watching hours of me sitting in front of a computer reading into a microphone.
However, I’ve long wondered whether there’s a way to repurpose those recordings.
As a result, this week marks the beginning of a 14 week exercise in turning them into a Substack podcast. I’ll be posting new episodes each week starting this coming Friday.
One of the reasons I’ve decided to do this is that the next offering of my undergraduate course The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future starts in a few weeks, and I wanted to give students an alternative to purchasing the book — which we use extensively.
But it’s also a useful test of Substack’s podcast capabilities — something I’ve been wanting to experiment with.
I’ll be the first to admit that the recordings aren’t as slick as I’d like them to be — I’ll not be giving up the day job to become an audiobook narrator anytime soon! But revisiting the content I’m surprised at how relevant it still is — especially with current debates around the responsible development and use of AI.
I’d love your feedback on the podcast — and hope you find it interesting and useful!
Episode 1, which follows chapter 1 of the book, comes on Friday July 7.
This is great! I was wondering about the podcast capabilities as well and I think this will be a good way for me to consume the material.