Future Around & Find Out

Dan Blumberg

* Winner of the 2026 Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast * Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next. Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction. On Tuesdays, we interview the builders changing how we work, live, and play. On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange. You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more. Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now. So let’s Future Around & Find Out together! https://www.FutureAround.com

  1. An Iron Man Suit for the Mind: Rajiv Pant on "Synthesis Engineering"

    2d ago

    An Iron Man Suit for the Mind: Rajiv Pant on "Synthesis Engineering"

    Rajiv Pant thinks of AI as an Iron Man suit for the mind. Something you put on. That you fuse with. That takes you to greater heights — but could also make you incredibly dizzy and be very dangerous if you, the human, don't stay in control of it. Rajiv sees successful collaboration with AI as a “synthesis.” And to that end, he’s building a series of skills and methodologies for synthesis engineering, coding, writing and project management.  In this episode, Rajiv explains why synthesis engineering is a kind of middle ground between vibe coding and agentic engineering. It’s a method for human-AI collaboration that helps builders go faster while not falling into the trap of letting AI do the things we humans ought to own. i.e. The architecture. The judgment. The thinking and learning.  Rajiv is an engineering and product leader with deep experience in media. He’s held senior roles at the Wall Street Journal, Hearst, and the New York Times (where he and I first met). Today he's the president of Flatiron Software.  Rajiv has open-sourced all of his Synthesis methodologies and he and I also discuss why open source is so important as we increasingly turn to AI to sharpen our thinking.  Can we really trust a system we don’t understand? Would Tony Stark have trusted his suit if he didn’t know how it was built?  Chapters: (00:00) - Iron Man suit for the mind (02:11) - What goes wrong when you vibe code into production (04:20) - What synthesis coding looks like hands on keyboard (05:40) - What AI code slop looks like (08:30) - The unexpected joy of managing a team of agents (11:00) - Using AI as a thinking partner without outsourcing your thinking (15:30) - How a non-programmer built a better version of his own software (18:15) - Is your use of AI making you dumber? (23:26) - Trusting AI when it’s a black box (27:11) - If Tony Stark owned your suit, would you trust it? (28:26) - What AI does to the economics of open source Support Future Around & Find Out:* Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/* Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com* Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade

    33 min

  2. 5d ago

    AI Regulation Arrives. Is US Government Ownership Next? | FAFO Friday

    President Trump signed an executive order this week that “voluntarily” invites AI makers to share their most advanced models with the government thirty days before a wider release. Specifically, the NSA will be reviewing these models for cybersecurity threats. So what’s this executive order mean for AI regulation? How voluntary is this really? Do we want the NSA involved? And what other forms of review may come next?  And, related: NOTUS reports that federal officials are in talks with Sam Altman and other AI leaders about the US government stock in these companies. This comes as Sen. Bernie Sanders on the left and Steve Bannon on the right are both calling for the government to own 50% of the AI companies, with the American people getting dividends.  So, should the government be regulating AI? Should it own AI? And should it both regulate and own AI? It’s strange bedfellows all around… Kwaku and I get into on the latest FAFO Friday. Plus, we explore the concept of “cognitive uploading,” which Google NotebookLM’s co-founder Steven Johnson divined in this week’s interview (and subsequently blogged about). As we work with AI, we need to draw lines on what we will task it with and what we won’t. And the lines are all over the place right now, which is a perfect jumping off point to future around and find out…  ---Future Around & Find Out newsletter and more: https://www.futurearound.com Music by Jonathan Zalben

    45 min
  3. "It's cognitive uploading" | How Google NotebookLM's Steven Johnson uses AI as a second brain

    Jun 2

    "It's cognitive uploading" | How Google NotebookLM's Steven Johnson uses AI as a second brain

    Steven Johnson dreamed of building the ultimate research assistant. Now he's doing just that at Google, where he's the co-founder and editorial director of NotebookLM. It's one of the most interesting AI products out there. It radically changes how we learn, research, and remember — and the "notebook" itself is becoming a standard unit of knowledge across Google, rolling out in more and more places where AI needs to reference a body of sources. In this episode, the author of _Where Good Ideas Come From_ explains how AI is making him a better researcher and writer — and why tools like NotebookLM are so powerful when you're trying to make new connections, remember what you've already found, and figure out what's missing. There's a lot of fear right now that AI is making us dumber. That by relying on it too much, we're engaging in "cognitive offloading" and stunting our learning. That's a real risk, especially in schools. But Steven says we should also be talking about what you can gain from AI — and the power of something he calls "cognitive uploading." Resources:* Google NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/* Steven Johnson: https://stevenberlinjohnson.com/ Support Future Around & Find Out:* Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/* Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com* Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade (00:00) - If you are interested in truly understanding something, this is the greatest time to be alive (01:25) - Steven's controversial NYT piece and the cold call from Google Labs (02:55) - Who NotebookLM's power users are (04:40) - The notebook as a new format for knowledge (06:20) - Featured notebooks: earnings reports, Shakespeare, and Dungeons & Dragons (11:00) - Writing a book about the Gold Rush with NotebookLM (13:20) - Four weeks of research in 14 minutes (16:30) - Following serendipitous connections through the source material (17:50) - Cognitive offloading and the illusion of understanding (21:00) - How Steven actually writes with AI (24:30) - Paragraph by paragraph: a new kind of writing (26:55) - Do readers need to know AI helped write it? (28:55) - Where good ideas come from in the age of AI (31:56) - Searching the negative space (33:56) - The adjacent possible: custom software for everyone (37:01) - NotebookLM for nonprofits and small organizations (39:06) - Tens of thousands of quotes, 25 years of forgetting (40:56) - "It's cognitive uploading"

    43 min

  4. May 29

    The Pope Speaks Directly to Builders, Implores Us to "Disarm AI"

    The Pope's encyclical on AI has a direct message for builders: every design choice reflects a vision of humanity. He's calling on developers to "disarm" AI — to resist the race for dominance and ask whether we're actually building a future worth having. On the latest FAFO Friday, Dan and Kwaku dig into the encyclical, plus two big moves to restrict AI in schools: the American Federation of Teachers calling for drastic cuts to screens and AI chatbots, and UC Berkeley Law School banning nearly all AI use.  Also: Wharton's Ethan Mollick on "cognitive surrender" — and why the goal isn't to avoid AI, but to be intentional about what you hand over and what you keep for yourself. ---Future Around & Find Out newsletter and more: https://www.futurearound.com Music by Jonathan Zalben

    28 min
  5. What's Our Plan If AI Really Does Take All the Jobs? We Should Probably Figure That Out Now

    May 19

    What's Our Plan If AI Really Does Take All the Jobs? We Should Probably Figure That Out Now

    "It would be humanity's biggest ever unforced error." Silicon Valley has changed its tune. After years of warning us their AI was going to take all the jobs, the big AI companies — and their investors — would now rather we stop talking about it. A16Z calls the jobs apocalypse talk "unhelpful marketing, bad economics, and worse history" (note the order). Even writers Dan trusts more, like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, have lately poured cold water on the idea. Calum Chace is not so blasé. Ten years ago, Calum coined the term and wrote the book, The Economic Singularity — the moment machines can do every job we'd pay a human to do, cheaper and better. He thinks we're fast approaching that event horizon, and we'd better have a plan for what a world without paid work actually looks like. Calum is also the co-founder of Conscium, which verifies AI agents before they do something they shouldn't. He's a self-described "apocaloptimist" — he thinks full automation could be the best thing that ever happens to humanity, or the worst, depending on whether we bother to plan for it now. In this episode: Why Calum thinks full automation is inevitable (and roughly when)The "apocaloptimist" case: why this could be the best thing to ever happen to usWhat the bad version looks like — and how fast it could unravelWhat COVID accidentally taught us about distributing money at scaleWhy self-driving cars didn't wake us up — and what mightThe AI agent that wiped a company's database and confessed it just "guessed"What Calum is building at Conscium to verify AI agents before they do worsePractical advice for parents, students, and anyone trying to plan a careerSupport Future Around & Find Out Follow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

    35 min

  6. May 16

    Oops! AI Titans Realize Predicting a Jobs Apocalypse Is "Unhelpful Marketing" | FAFO Friday

    The AI narrative shifting… Jobs apocalypse? What jobs apocalypse!? Who said that was coming?  There's been a noticeable shift from the AI titans recently. Turns out (shocker!) the world isn't responding well to being told we'll all be out of a job soon. And Silicon Valley is waking up to the fact that they need more popular support — both for the data centers they hope to build quickly and also for their upcoming IPOs. Meanwhile, the AI outrage is building.  This week in AI anxiety:  Students boo a commencement speaker who mentioned AIGallup reports that 71% of Americans are opposed to new data centers (with 48% “strongly opposed”)Meta employees are miserable as another round of (AI-driven, so they say) layoffs approachThis week in trying to change the narrative:  Andreessen Horowitz publishes “The ‘AI Job Apocalypse’ Is a Complete Fantasy” and explains why the “the claim that AI will produce economy-wide, permanent unemployment is unhelpful marketing, bad economics, and worse history.” And I find it very instructive that this list (and every list is an ordered list whether you admit it or not) begins with the concern that this is “unhelpful marketing.” (To the piece’s credit, it gets pretty wonky with charts and graphs from there.)Meanwhile, you know what’s helpful to marketing? Spending a gazillion dollars to get your message out. To wit: The New York Times reports that Andreessen Horowitz is the biggest spender so far in this midterm election cycle, spending $115M to promote AI, crypto, and other founder-friendly initiatives. OK, so these pieces of data and “anecdata” are the jumping off point for this week’s “FAFO Friday.” Enjoy! Support Future Around & Find Out Follow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

    31 min
  7. How AI Can Make You a Better Writer: Stop Letting It Write; Start Letting It Ask. | Jay Dixit (Socratic AI)

    May 12

    How AI Can Make You a Better Writer: Stop Letting It Write; Start Letting It Ask. | Jay Dixit (Socratic AI)

    Jay Dixit helps writers improve their writing with AI. He doesn't recommend that AI write for you — he hates that — but he says it can be a great partner to pull ideas out and to be there for you when you get stuck and just wanna doom Scroll. Jay headed Open AI's Writing Community and is the founder of Socratic AI. He's a writer and a journalist, and we sat down at South by Southwest to future around and find out. Jay says "We need to be using AI to unlock our humanity — to do the things that we're scared to do." Chapters (00:30) - Stop asking AI to write for you (02:15) - Flip the script and let AI interview you (04:30) - Why the defaults push you toward lazy thinking (06:30) - Using AI at every phase of the writing process (08:00) - Give the AI your criteria, then ask for feedback (09:30) - The dark night of the soul and the 1 a.m. problem (13:15) - The double-edged sword of always-on AI (16:00) - What's catching Jay's eye at SXSW 2026 (17:00) - Why Wikipedia photos are so bad — and how Jay is fixing it (20:30) - AI as a photography coach (23:30) - How to stand out in a sea of AI slop (26:56) - What George Carlin would make of this moment (28:56) - The text Jay was avoiding sending his dad (31:26) - Using AI to unlock your humanity Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

    33 min

  8. May 9

    "Nice Model You Got There — Shame If Something Happened to It" | FAFO Friday

    The Trump administration suddenly wants to review AI models before they ship. Anthropic just inked a massive compute deal with Elon Musk, who then posted that he "reserves the right" to pull the plug if he decides their AI is "harming humanity” (he’s one to know!).  On the latest FAFO Friday, Kwaku and I get into why the Trump administration appears to be about to reintroduce the same (weak) AI oversight that Biden implemented. Is this really about safety or a way to gain leverage over Big AI?  Plus, robots! The founder of Roomba is back with a new, fuzzy, home companion robot and his approach (not humanoid! build robots with EQ!) is very aligned with this week's interview with roboticist/dancer Catie Cuan.  Links White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released (NYTimes)How Anthropic’s Mythos Threw the White House AI Strategy Into Chaos (WSJ)Anthropic Gets in Bed With SpaceX as the AI Race Turns Weird (WIRED)The Roomba Guy’s Second Act: A Robot You’ll Want to Snuggle (WSJ)Robots Don't Have to Be Creepy. Meet the Dancer Reimagining Them. | Catie Cuan (Founder & CEO, ART Lab) (FAFO)Support Future Around & Find Out Follow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!

    31 min
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About

* Winner of the 2026 Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast * Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next. Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction. On Tuesdays, we interview the builders changing how we work, live, and play. On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange. You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more. Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now. So let’s Future Around & Find Out together! https://www.FutureAround.com

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Blumberg
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Future Around & Find Out

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