What Would They Think?

Jonathan Millard

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History
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What Would They Think explores the gap between the world that was imagined and the one we’re actually living in. Through ironic, often uncomfortable comparisons, it brings the voices of the past into today’s headlines—technology, culture, power, and belief—and asks how they would interpret the systems, behaviors, and contradictions that define modern life. The result is less explanation, more confrontation.

2 days ago

What Would Henry The VIII Think About Brexit?

What would Henry VIII think of a world where a thin free-trade deal is considered a triumph, and a border down the Irish Sea is the price you pay to make your own laws? He invented modern English sovereignty from a royal court he inherited in 1509, after an unexpected childhood where he was trained for the Church. He launched the Act in Restraint of Appeals in 1533 and the Act of Supremacy in 1534 — Cromwell called the realm an Empire, answerable to God alone. He built his empire on execution: statutes instead of diplomacy, Westminster instead of Rome, the axe instead of the petition. Before you leave the continent, he said, take the monasteries with you. So we just took a slogan. This episode puts the high priestess of restraint in front of the blind box. From the Act of Supremacy to the big red bus — from sovereignty defined by what you build to sovereignty defined by what you campaign on. He has opinions. On the referendum as a slot machine in nationalism. On a multi-billion-pound economy accessorized with a three-word catchphrase. On a generation collecting red lines when he gave them a state. The mother of elegance meets the era of the gremlin. Turns out, both involved a man, a breakaway, and a tribunal — only one of them knew how to govern. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

14 min
19 May

What Would Coco Chanel Think About Labubus?

What would Coco Chanel think of a world where a hundred million plush monsters were sold last year, and a forty-thousand-dollar Birkin is considered naked without a fourteen-dollar gremlin clipped to its strap? She invented the modern luxury brand from a Paris hat shop she opened in 1910, after a convent childhood where the nuns taught her to sew. She launched No. 5 in 1921 and the little black dress in 1926 — Vogue called the dress a Ford, a uniform. She built her empire on subtraction: jersey instead of silk, black instead of color, the camellia instead of the diamond. Before you leave the house, she said, take one thing off. So we clipped one back on. This episode puts the high priestess of restraint in front of the blind box. From the 2.55 to the toothy-grinned plush — from luxury defined by what you take off to luxury defined by what you clip on. She has opinions. On the blind box as a slot machine in pastel. On a forty-thousand-dollar handbag accessorized with a fourteen-dollar gremlin. On a generation collecting fashion when she gave them style. The mother of elegance meets the era of the gremlin. Turns out, both involved a woman, a handbag, and a logo — only one of them knew when to stop. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

13 min
12 May

What Would Frida Kahlo Think About Selfies?

What would Frida Kahlo think of a world where ninety million self-portraits are produced daily, and a teenage girl can generate more images of her own face in a Saturday afternoon than Frida painted in twenty-eight years? She invented the modern public self-portrait, painted from a bed her mother had fitted with a mirror after a streetcar handrail went through her body in 1925. She produced fifty-five self-portraits in her lifetime — roughly forty percent of her work. She wore Tehuana dress as a deliberate brand and accentuated her unibrow on purpose. She painted her surgical corset, her miscarriage, and her broken spine. So we handed her a smartphone. This episode puts the patron saint of female self-portraiture in front of the Snapchat filter. From oil on Masonite to Bold Glamour — from a self-portrait that took six months to one that takes six seconds. She has opinions. On the algorithmic narrowing of the jaw. On a generation that paints itself constantly and cannot say why. On filters that conceal the face rather than reveal it. The painter of pain meets the era of smoothing. Turns out, both involved a woman, a mirror, and an audience — only one of them knew why. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

11 min
5 May

What Would Nostradamus Think About QAnon?

What would Nostradamus think of a movement that took his entire playbook — cryptic clues, decoded breadcrumbs, an apocalypse always one Tuesday away — and ran it on 4chan? He wrote his quatrains in a Provençal stone room while the Inquisition watched for heresy and plague kept killing his neighbors. He buried his meaning in mangled Latin and shuffled syntax because vagueness was survival, not branding. Catherine de' Medici summoned him to court. Henri II died on a jousting splinter four years after he seemed to predict it. Prophecy wasn't content. It was a craft — and a hedge. So we dropped him on an imageboard. This episode puts the old astrologer of Salon-de-Provence in front of the Q drops — three years of leading questions, all-caps slogans, and a Storm that never arrives. He has opinions. On the bakers decoding breadcrumbs in real time. On "Trust the Plan" as a literary form. On what it means to write prophecy when no Inquisition is coming for you and the audience finishes the verse before you've put down the pen. The man who gave himself two thousand years of runway meets the prophet who gave himself a week. Turns out, the apocalypse isn't the only thing on a deadline. Dead seers. Modern feeds. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

15 min
28 Apr

What Would Andy Warhol Think About The Hawk Tuah Girl?

What would Andy Warhol think of a world where a few seconds of raw street bravado can launch a global business empire, and a southern factory worker becomes an accidental trademark before she creates a single piece of content? He predicted the democratization of fame, where everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. He mass-produced icons like soup cans in his aluminum Silver Factory. He believed that "good business is the best art". He elevated consumer products into icons. So we handed him a smartphone. This episode puts the Pope of Pop Art in front of Haliey Welch, the "Hawk Tuah Girl". From curated celebrity to algorithmic virality — from meticulously engineered stars to immediate, monetizable memes. He has opinions. On the acceleration of fifteen minutes of fame into fifteen seconds. On a pop landscape where the surface is literal. The machine-minded prophet meets the ultimate accidental trademark. Turns out, both made art from American excess.Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

12 min
21 Apr

What Would Karl Marx Think About Burning Man?

What would Karl Marx think of a week-long festival where hedge fund managers pay working-class staff to pitch their tents, cook their meals, and clean their composting toilets — and call the whole thing a gift economy? He wrote Das Kapital in a freezing London flat while his children went hungry. He took money from a factory heir to finish a book predicting factory heirs would be overthrown. He called the commodity a hieroglyph — a thing that hides the labor inside it. Revolution wasn't an aesthetic. It was a diagnosis. So we dropped him in the Black Rock Desert. This episode puts the old man of Trier on the playa — seven days of radical self-reliance catered by hired staff, a gift economy enforced at the ticket booth, and a temporary autonomous zone where the autonomy is sponsored by Silicon Valley. He has opinions. On the spectacle. On the turnkey camps. On what it means to abolish exchange value in a place where even the dust seems to be monetized. The prophet of class struggle meets the festival that thinks it escaped class. Turns out, the Man isn't the only thing burning. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

12 min
14 Apr

What Would Jane Austen Think About Dating Apps?

She mapped the entire social universe of a country drawing room — who sat where, who glanced at whom, who was worth £5,000 a year and who merely thought they were. She understood that marriage was economics dressed in muslin. That wit was armour. That a well-timed silence could end a man. She did all of this without leaving the house. So we handed her a smartphone. This episode puts Jane Austen in front of dating apps — infinite scroll, curated selfies, algorithmic compatibility scores, and the most efficient marriage market in human history. She has thoughts. On the bios that reveal everything while saying nothing. On the men who lead with their salary and the women who pretend not to notice. On whether swiping right is meaningfully different from accepting a dance at the Netherfield ball. She invented the romantic comedy. She diagnosed the con of romantic love before most people admitted it was a con. She watched women trade their autonomy for security and wrote five novels about whether there was any other option. There is now. Allegedly. The question is whether choice at scale is liberation or just a bigger room full of the same Wickhams. Austen suspects the latter. She is, as always, taking notes. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI.What Would They Think?

15 min
7 Apr

What Would Marie Curie Think About TikTok Science Videos?

What would Marie Curie think of a platform where teenagers mix chemicals in their kitchens for likes, and a bad science claim can reach ten million people before a single expert weighs in? She stirred cauldrons of uranium ore by hand in a leaky shed. She refused to patent radium because knowledge belonged to everyone. She kept a glowing vial of her own discovery on her bedside table. Science wasn't a career. It was a calling. So we handed her a smartphone. This episode puts Madame Curie in front of TikTok science — sixty seconds at a time, no peer review, no safety protocols, and more curiosity than the world has ever seen in one place. She has opinions. On the wonder. On the misinformation. On what it means to democratize knowledge when the most dangerous thing in your lab is the algorithm. The anti-influencer meets the attention economy. Turns out, one of them glows. Dead pioneers. Modern platforms. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

9 min
31 Mar

What Would Pablo Escobar Think About The Cybertruck?

What would the world's most notorious drug lord make of a bulletproof truck built for the apocalypse? Pablo Escobar understood vehicles the way most people understand weapons — as extensions of will, fear, and survival. He armored his Mercedes, raced Porsches, moved cocaine through jungle roads in Toyota Land Cruisers, and kept a bombed-out limo on display at his estate as a trophy. Cars weren't transportation. They were statements. So we handed him the keys to a Tesla Cybertruck. This episode puts El Patrón behind the wheel of Silicon Valley's most polarizing machine — a stainless-steel polygon that promises to be bulletproof, self-driving, apocalypse-ready, and somehow legal. Escobar has thoughts. On the armor. On the silence. On Elon Musk. On what it means to build an empire when the most dangerous thing you own is a Twitter account. Two men who refused to be told what was possible. One era defined by blood and fire. One defined by data and memes. The Cybertruck is where they meet. Dead kingpins. Modern machines. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

14 min
25 Mar

What Would William Shakespeare Think About Emojis?

What would the greatest writer in the English language think of a world where people have stopped using words? What Would They Think? is a fully AI-generated podcast that pairs history's greatest minds with the strangest corners of modern life. Each episode, one long-dead thinker walks straight into the 21st century and we ask: what would they actually make of it? This episode: Shakespeare meets emojis. The man who gave us more words than anyone in the history of the language — who coined "lonely," "bedroom," "eyeball," and roughly 1,700 others — confronts a communication system built entirely on pictures. A 16th-century playwright who wrote for the groundlings and the court in the same breath meets a culture that expresses grief, desire, irony, and lunch in a single yellow circle. It's a more honest collision than it seems. Shakespeare wrote for performance, not the page. He understood that meaning lives in gesture, in timing, in the gap between what's said and what's meant. Emojis operate in exactly that space. Whether he'd see them as a natural evolution of the thing he loved — or as proof that civilization has finally given up — turns out to be a genuinely open question. The production will grow. The format will evolve. We're building this in public, with AI, and we're committed to the journey. Dead philosophers. Modern problems. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

12 min
25 Mar

What Would Albert Einstein Think About Memes?

What would Albert Einstein make of a world where his face is everywhere — and almost none of the quotes are his? What Would They Think? is a fully AI-generated podcast that pairs history's greatest minds with the strangest corners of modern life. Each episode, one long-dead thinker walks straight into the 21st century and we ask: what would they actually make of it? This episode: Einstein meets memes. Not just the ones with his face on them — though there are many, and most are wrong — but the whole ecosystem. The dopamine loops, the remix culture, the way a single image can circle the globe before breakfast. The man who explained the universe with thought experiments meets a culture that explains itself in reaction GIFs. It's a collision that goes deeper than it looks. Einstein spent his life trying to make complex ideas simple without making them stupid. Memes do the same thing — sometimes brilliantly, usually not. He was famously wary of his own celebrity, baffled by how a physicist became a cultural mascot. He had no idea what was coming. The production will grow. The format will evolve. We're building this in public, with AI, and we're committed to the journey. Dead philosophers. Modern problems. Fully AI. What Would They Think?

13 min
25 Mar

What Would Steve Jobs Think About This Podcast?

What would Steve Jobs think of a podcast that uses AI to resurrect history's greatest minds? Turns out, he'd have notes. What Would They Think? is a fully AI-generated show that pairs history's most iconic figures with the strangest corners of modern life — and asks what they'd actually make of it all. Each episode, one long-dead thinker, rebel, or visionary walks straight into the 21st century: its obsessions, its absurdities, its contradictions. The collision is the point. We launch with the man who helped put podcasts in our pockets in the first place. Steve Jobs — designer, storyteller, perfectionist, and the guy who once said he wished he could ask Aristotle about AI — gets to weigh in on the very medium he helped build. And, in a twist he might have appreciated, on us. This is a show about history as a lens, not a lecture. It's smart without being academic, funny without being cheap, and built entirely with the AI tools it's interrogating. The production will grow. The format will evolve. We're at the beginning of something, and we know it. Dead philosophers. Modern problems. Fully AI. What Would They Think? *Updated March 26

9 min

12 Episodes

What Would They Think explores the gap between the world that was imagined and the one we’re actually living in. Through ironic, often uncomfortable comparisons, it brings the voices of the past into today’s headlines—technology, culture, power, and belief—and asks how they would interpret the systems, behaviors, and contradictions that define modern life. The result is less explanation, more confrontation.

Creator

Jonathan Millard
Years Active

2k
Episodes

12
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Jonathan Millard
Show Website

What Would They Think?