Oct 27, 202656 min
When Tesla's redesigned Roadster crawled up an inverted ramp, clung there upside down, and then flipped itself back onto its wheels on bursts of compressed air, it invited two very different reactions: awe at the...
About this Podcast:
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.
Pitch Analysis
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
50%
Guest openness
Selective
82/100
Required Score
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What is Modem Futura about?
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.
What has Modem Futura covered recently?
Recent episodes include "Tesla's SpaceX-Powered Roadster: Flying Cars, Play, and the Future of Innovation" (27 October 2026, 56 minutes), "AI Can Build the Syllabus, Not the Journey: Course Design in the Age of AI" (20 October 2026, 67 minutes), and "Megatrends 2026 Explained: The 11 Forces Shaping our Futures" (13 October 2026, 69 minutes).
How often does Modem Futura publish?
Modem Futura publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 50 minutes.
How hard is it to get booked on Modem Futura?
Booking probability for Modem Futura is 50%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Modem Futura requires a Pod Score of 82 or higher. Modem Futura's contact route on record: verified email.
Who should pitch Modem Futura?
The strongest fits for Modem Futura are Scientific Research & Development. Modem Futura has a science audience.
About the host
Modem Futura is a science podcast.
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Recent episodes
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Oct 20, 20261h 7mWhat happens when you ask a frontier AI model to do something a spreadsheet could finish in five minutes? Two years and 110 episodes into Modem Futura, Sean Leahy found out by asking AI to add up the show's total...
Oct 13, 20261h 9mEvery few years, the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies steps back from the noise of the news cycle to ask a slower question: which forces are actually reshaping the conditions we all live inside? Its newly...
- Oct 6, 202659 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...
Episode #104
Future-Proofing the University: AI and the Future of Higher Education with Bryan Penprase
Sep 29, 20261h 4mWhat 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...
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Sep 22, 202659 minIt 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...
Sep 15, 202640 minSean 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...
Sep 8, 202650 minWhat 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...
Sep 1, 20261h 1mIt'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...
Aug 25, 202649 minSomething is hiding in your words — and not even you can't 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...
Aug 18, 20261h 9mWhen 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...
Aug 11, 20261h 3mWhat happens to your voice when a machine can write faster than you can think? This week, Sean and Andrew take on one of the most personal questions in the AI conversation: not whether artificial intelligence will...
Aug 4, 202636 minWhat happens when a humanoid robot pulls up a chair in a high school classroom (or rather its torso is bolted to the table)? In this episode, Sean and Andrew dig into the story of Sally — an AI-powered humanoid robot...
Jul 28, 202650 minWhat happens when the hypothetical stops being hypothetical? This week, Sean and Andrew dig into the story that dominated the summer AI headlines: an advanced OpenAI model, sequestered in a sandbox for safety testing...
Jul 24, 202625 minWhat can a summer of television tell us about the futures we're imagining? In this lighter conclusion to our Summer Vibes edition, Sean and Andrew step out of the laboratory and into the living room for a tour through...
Jul 21, 202632 minA synthetic cell that feeds, grows, divides — and happens to look like a potato. This week Sean and Andrew open the summer season with SpudCell, a lab-built cell recently unveiled by Kate Adamala's group at the...
Jul 14, 202655 minWhat happens when a government switches off an AI? In this Summer Vibes edition, Sean and Andrew finally dig into the saga they've been watching unfold for weeks: Anthropic's Fable, the most capable AI model yet...
Jul 7, 202630 minThe summer reading list concludes — and takes some wonderfully unexpected turns. In part two of their annual tradition, Sean and Andrew trade the cyberpunk canon of part one for a stack that ranges from Terry...
Jun 30, 202634 minSummer in Tempe is hot, and so is the case for putting down your phone and picking up a book you actually own. In Part 1 of our annual Summer Reading List, Sean and Andrew trade the doorstop novels, dog-eared...
- Jun 30, 202634 minS0
<p>Summer in Tempe is hot, and so is the case for putting down your phone and picking up a book you actually own. In Part 1 of our annual Summer Reading List, Sean and Andrew trade the doorstop novels, dog-eared...
Recent guests
Recent guests on Modem Futura. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
A
Andrew Maynard
Physicist and professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University
J
Jaron Lanier
computer scientist and AI expert, Microsoft Research
D
Dr. Punya Mishra
Associate Dean of Scholarship & Innovation and Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership & Innovation, Arizona State University
S
Sean Leahy
National Aerial Survey Specialist, Full Spectrum Ice Sculptures
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