9 episodes
2038 New York Magazine / Intelligencer
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- Society & Culture
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3.7 • 90 Ratings
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What will life look like in 2038? Twenty years from now is not the stuff of science fiction, but it still sounds like it: flying driverless cars, an internet cold war, a Chinese world order. Given the pace of change we are currently living through, the world really could look dramatically different from today. Remember, twenty years ago, social media and iPhones and the Tea Party did not exist, Barack Obama had just started dabbling in state politics, the Clinton administration was loosening up its oversight of something called derivatives, New Orleans was still dry and the World Trade Center was still standing. 2038, a podcast from New York Magazine and Intelligencer, will explore 8 different visions of how we can expect to live in two decades. Each episode will feature an expert in subject areas from business to technology to politics to climate science and beyond, laying out a very particular vision of where we’ll be in twenty years—and who will then defend his or her predictions in conversation with Max Read and David Wallace-Wells.Read the Vox Media Privacy Policy here.
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Kate Julian: The Future Is Sexless
Already, today, young people are having less sex and fewer partners than previous generations, though they are also watching much more porn and masturbating two to three times as often. That isn’t going to change, the Atlantic’s Kate Julian says, which means a future in which the gap between the sex lives we want and the ones we’ll actually have will yawn ever wider. Read her article here.
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Climate Change Will Destroy the Nation-State And Supercharge Capitalism
Global warming will change much more than the world’s coastlines. Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann, authors of “Climate Leviathan,” think it will bring about a new planetary sovereign, answering to no authority other than capital and climate stability. But they see other possibilities, too.
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Fake News, Bad Presidents: Our Coming 19th Century Future
Tyler Cowen thinks that in 2038, we're going back to the past. In the absence of major enemies like Nazis or Soviets, Tyler argues we'll see a return to the world of 19th-century American politics — bitter, rancorous, and dysfunctional, filled with fake news and presidents who probably shouldn't have been
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China Will Be on Mars, and America Will Be an Island
Bruno Macaes thinks that in 2038, China will run the world (and maybe the solar system) thanks to its embrace of technology and its globe-spanning "belt and road" initiative. America will be totally marginalized and the new world order will also mean a Chinese-ification of global culture and values.
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When Will Our Driverless Cars Be Here to Pick Us Up?
Missy Cummings is on the forefront of drone and driverless technology as a consultant and director of the Duke University Humans and Autonomy Laboratory. We asked her about the future of robotic-driving technology — from planes to trains to, yes, automobiles — and were a little surprised by her answer. The good news, though: Traffic will probably get better.
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In the Internet of Things, You Will Be Just a Thing, Too
Paul Ford thinks that, by 2038, computers won’t matter—because they’ll be everywhere, embedded in your clothes and constantly surveilling you and shouting at you with advertisements. Nothing will work all that well, but you won’t even notice.
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Customer Reviews
Amen on the vocal fry!
Please work on getting rid of the vocal fry - it’s really distracting and grating to the ear. Takes away from the otherwise good quality of the podcasts.
Too political
Cool subject matter but discussions come through an obvious political leaning. I prefer podcasts about the future that are a bit more neutral. Anatomy of Next, Future Perfect, and .future are better at discussing how technology will impact the future through an unbiased lens. Stay away from this one because it will either just confirm your own bias or be pretty annoying.
Clueless smart people
Actually, they talk to a lot of smart people. Unfortunately, they all reinforce the podcasters worldview, which is pessimistic in the extreme. I did get a kick out of listening to all the whining about the future, because these folks have not a clue about how the world works. Especially troubling was the climate change episode where the interviewees want the nations of the world to submit to a greater power that will fix the climate. Please. The developing countries will not roll over and live like cave-people to satisfy the hysteria of spoiled westerners who think they know what's best for everyone. The other episodes were informative about current trends but time will tell if those trends hold long enough for the future they predict to come true.