Soonish
The future is shaped by technology. But technology is shaped by us
Soonish is my monthly-ish narrative nonfiction podcast about the force that makes the present feel different from the past, and that will make the future feel different from the present—namely, technology. It’s also about the big and small choices we all make that steer technology in the directions we want (and, sometimes, don’t want). And lately it’s also about the overlap between culture, technology, and politics in a time when we’re all being challenged to define what we mean by democracy and community. In short, it’s tech journalism with a personal spin. Soonish is one of the founding shows at Hub & Spoke, a growing collective of smart, idea-driven, independent podcasts.
The Innovation Trail Audio Guide
This new audio companion to the Innovation Trail walking tour surveys 400 years of world-changing breakthroughs from Boston and Cambridge
Innovation journalist Scott Kirsner and Massachusetts historian Bob Krim joined forces in 2022 to create the Innovation Trail, a 21-stop walking tour visiting the sites of numerous scientific, technological, medical, and industrial advances from 1721 to the present. The nonprofit behind the trail offered docent-led tours as well as a self-guided version via an illustrated website and interactive map. In 2023 Scott hired me to produce an audio companion to the trail, which is now available on the Innovation Trail website and as a 22-episode podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and most other podcast players.
The Persistent Innovators
A miniseries for Innovation Answered, InnoLead’s podcast for change agents inside large organizations
I’m guest-producing and guest-hosting this four-episode miniseries asking how a few big companies have managed stay innovative over multiple decades, outfoxing the well-known “Innovator’s Dilemma” problem described in the 1990s by Harvard Business School scholar Clay Christensen. The four episodes focus, in turn, on Apple, the Walt Disney Company, the LEGO Group, and the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, gradually building up a story about the crucial balance between leadership, culture, technology, curiosity, and discipline.
Deep Tech
Exploring the ideas, people, and places featured in MIT Technology Review
I was the founding producer of this podcast made exclusively for subscribers of MIT Technology Review. The twice-monthly show takes deep dives into the compelling and important journalism captured in the pages of TR’s print magazine. Listeners have the chance to hear from cutting-edge researchers, the people whose lives are being changed by new technologies, and the reporters on the front lines of technological upheaval. Deep Tech combines high-end audio production and sound design with top-notch storytelling to give TR’s most loyal readers a look inside the first draft of the future.
The Harry Glorikian Show
Talking with healthcare and life sciences leaders about the data-driven transformation of their industries
I’ve been the behind-the-scenes producer for all ~80 episodes of this in-depth interview show hosted by healthtech investor and author Harry Glorikian, author of MoneyBall Medicine and The Future You: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You Get Healthier, Stress Less, and Live Longer. Harry is an irrepressible and energetic interviewer and has an unmatched Rolodex in the digital health business and an acute sense of how technology is changing the options available to doctors, patients, drug developers, and others. My job is to shape every episode through pre-interview research, script writing, and audio editing.
Business Lab
The podcast that helps business leaders make sense of new technologies coming out of the lab and into the marketplace.
I developed and produced this interview show from MIT Technology Review, hosted in its first season by the magazine’s CEO, Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau. The show features interviews with business leaders and innovators such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, and former IBM vice president Sophie Vandebroek.
Xconomy Voices
The world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors share their insights on what’s next in technology and the life sciences, and why their companies’ products and ideas will rule the world.
I hosted and produced this three-episode series of interviews for Xconomy, the authoritative online network for news about the high-tech economy. Guests included and former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, display pioneer and hardware designer Mary Lou Jepsen, and cybersecurity expert Christopher Ahlberg.
‘2001’ Came and Went, But the Movie’s Ideas Still Resonate
For WHYY’s The Pulse | June 21, 2017
The 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” painted a grand vision of the future — but for lots of us, the real 21st Century has been a bit of a letdown.
The MFA Plays An Artful Mind Game With Its Visitors — And They Love The 'Epiphany'
For WBUR The Artery | November 7, 2016
Warren and Lucia Prosperi’s Museum Epiphany III is art as prank, in the spirit of the famous Escher etching of a hand drawing another hand that’s drawing the first hand.
Why It’s Taking So Long to Fix the Longfellow Bridge
For WBUR Morning Edition | June 15, 2016
Fixing the historic but decrepit bridge across Boston’s Charles River turned out to be an even bigger challenge than engineers expected. A massive overhaul that began in 2013 was originally expected to wrap up by 2016, when this piece first aired. Instead the work took another two years, thanks to two big complications.