25 episodes

Freakier than Freakonomics. More funny than Planet Money.

Join futurist author and innovation maharishi Steve Faktor for provocative predictions and prescriptions for a world drowning in Avengers, but starved for meaning…and laughter. The show features ferocious, funny monologues on how tech, economics and culture will shape our future – and what it'll take to succeed in it. Spectacular guests like Larry King, comedian Jim Jefferies, Governor Jesse Ventura, Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, Megachurch Pastor AR Bernard and many more. Come explore the deep, dark, hilarious underbelly of The McFuture - from healthcare to media to virtualized lives.



Sign up at SteveFaktor.com for member exclusives, occasional updates from Steve & videos.

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TOPICS: Economics, Innovation, Comedy, Culture, Technology, Futurism, Happiness, Purpose, Philosophy, Political Humor, Politics, Psychology, Healthcare, Media, Social Media, Religion, Self-Help, Self-Improvement, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Parody, Talk Radio, Talk Shows, Culture of Technology, Belief, Humor, Political Satire, Ideas, Strategy, News

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FOR THOSE WHO LIKE: Joe Rogan, Jon Stewart, Scott Galloway, Tim Dillon, Michael Malice, Patrick Bet-David (Valuetainment), Andrew Schulz, Dan Carlin, Ryan Long, Louis CK, Mike Rowe, Megyn Kelly, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Seth Godin, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, John Oliver, Tim Ferriss, Tyler Cowen, James Altucher, Bari Weiss, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Eric Weinstein, Bret Weinstein, Ricky Gervais, James Lindsay, George Orwell, Adam Carolla, Ben Shapiro, Stephen Colbert, Malcolm Gladwell, Penn Jillette, Bill Burr, Tony Robbins, Dennis Prager, Bryan Callen, Thomas Friedman, Pete Holmes, Dick Masterson, Niall Ferguson, Ezra Klein, Nate Silver, Jordan Harbinger, Bridget Phetasy, Whitney Cummings, Steven Crowder (Louder with Crowder), Kyle Dunnigan, Kurt Metzger, Jack Murphy Live, Anthony Cumia, Andrew Santino, Crystal Ball, Saagar Enjeti, Ian Bremmer, Dave Rubin, Dave Portnoy, Matt Yglesias, Barry Ritholtz, Yannis Pappas, Glenn Loury, Yuval Noah Harari, Jason Whitlock

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FOR FANS OF: Freakonomics, Planet Money, Hidden Brain, Armchair Expert, TED, Reason, The Hill, The Economist, The Atlantic, Forbes, Politico, New Yorker, NPR, Pivot, The New York Times, Psychology Today, Financial Times, Vanity Fair, Evonomics, Wait But Why, Harvard Business Review (HBR), FiveThirtyEight, The Future of Everything, Marginal Revolution, Ben Thompson at Stratechery, Crazy/Genius with Derek Thompson

The McFuture with Steve Faktor Steve Faktor | SteveFaktor.com

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 25 Ratings

Freakier than Freakonomics. More funny than Planet Money.

Join futurist author and innovation maharishi Steve Faktor for provocative predictions and prescriptions for a world drowning in Avengers, but starved for meaning…and laughter. The show features ferocious, funny monologues on how tech, economics and culture will shape our future – and what it'll take to succeed in it. Spectacular guests like Larry King, comedian Jim Jefferies, Governor Jesse Ventura, Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen, Megachurch Pastor AR Bernard and many more. Come explore the deep, dark, hilarious underbelly of The McFuture - from healthcare to media to virtualized lives.



Sign up at SteveFaktor.com for member exclusives, occasional updates from Steve & videos.

>>>>

TOPICS: Economics, Innovation, Comedy, Culture, Technology, Futurism, Happiness, Purpose, Philosophy, Political Humor, Politics, Psychology, Healthcare, Media, Social Media, Religion, Self-Help, Self-Improvement, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Parody, Talk Radio, Talk Shows, Culture of Technology, Belief, Humor, Political Satire, Ideas, Strategy, News

>>>>

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE: Joe Rogan, Jon Stewart, Scott Galloway, Tim Dillon, Michael Malice, Patrick Bet-David (Valuetainment), Andrew Schulz, Dan Carlin, Ryan Long, Louis CK, Mike Rowe, Megyn Kelly, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Seth Godin, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, John Oliver, Tim Ferriss, Tyler Cowen, James Altucher, Bari Weiss, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Eric Weinstein, Bret Weinstein, Ricky Gervais, James Lindsay, George Orwell, Adam Carolla, Ben Shapiro, Stephen Colbert, Malcolm Gladwell, Penn Jillette, Bill Burr, Tony Robbins, Dennis Prager, Bryan Callen, Thomas Friedman, Pete Holmes, Dick Masterson, Niall Ferguson, Ezra Klein, Nate Silver, Jordan Harbinger, Bridget Phetasy, Whitney Cummings, Steven Crowder (Louder with Crowder), Kyle Dunnigan, Kurt Metzger, Jack Murphy Live, Anthony Cumia, Andrew Santino, Crystal Ball, Saagar Enjeti, Ian Bremmer, Dave Rubin, Dave Portnoy, Matt Yglesias, Barry Ritholtz, Yannis Pappas, Glenn Loury, Yuval Noah Harari, Jason Whitlock

>>>>

FOR FANS OF: Freakonomics, Planet Money, Hidden Brain, Armchair Expert, TED, Reason, The Hill, The Economist, The Atlantic, Forbes, Politico, New Yorker, NPR, Pivot, The New York Times, Psychology Today, Financial Times, Vanity Fair, Evonomics, Wait But Why, Harvard Business Review (HBR), FiveThirtyEight, The Future of Everything, Marginal Revolution, Ben Thompson at Stratechery, Crazy/Genius with Derek Thompson

    Is Google rAIcist? | The McFuture Podcast

    Is Google rAIcist? | The McFuture Podcast

    https://youtu.be/X8losQxpgEA

















    What does the Google Gemini AI debacle reveal about the company, the future of AI, and ourselves? I think you'll really enjoy this episode.









    * 00:00 Secret Internal Google Gemini Product Demo







    * 01:31 How To Build The Amos & Andy of Tech







    * 09:09 Why This Is Bigger then Bud Light & How Google Can Fix It







    * 18:54 AI Disintermediation







    * 20:35 Elon Musk's Congressional AI







    * 22:36 The Competitor Opportunity







    * 23:42 The Regulation We Need







    * 28:53 Why Europe & Asia Must Wake Up







    * 31:25 De-Googling Myself







    * 32:57 How To To Really Build An Inclusive World







    * 36:52 Drowning in Denial







    * 39:49 There Are TWO Movements







    * 42:27 Bonus: Woke Conservatives









    If you enjoy this, please support the show on Patreon & get tons of member exclusives! Brand new member-only episode goes up shortly!







    Also please give a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. Really helps with visibility.







    Share & subscribe on: YouTube, iTunes,  Spotify,  Google,  Stitcher,  TuneIn, RSS

    • 44 min
    Are We The Baddies? My Putin-Tucker Revelations

    Are We The Baddies? My Putin-Tucker Revelations

    https://youtu.be/s7sOL0-Br98

















    As a US immigrant from Soviet Ukraine, watching  Tucker Carlson interview Vladimir Putin was a surreal clash of worlds. My impressions of the two men, the Ukraine-Russia War, The West, and America's future were...unexpected. I think you'll love this deep, bittersweet, and sometimes funny episode.







    IN THIS EPISODE:









    * 00:00:05 The Navalny Prelude







    * 00:01:55 Curb Your Anti-Tuckerism, Media







    * 00:03:41 Russian Man vs American Boy







    * 00:09:43 Professor Putin's Ukrainian History 101







    * 00:14:04 A Strange Clash of Capitalist vs Socialist Knowledge







    * 00:17:08 Are We The Baddies? (Part 1)







    * 00:22:35 A Utopia Without the "Severe Disease" of War?







    * 00:26:46 Poking Russia, Sabotaging Ukraine







    * 00:34:23 "De-Nazification" & Strange Bedfellows







    * 00:38:40 American Tourists







    * 00:41:14 Are We The Baddies? (Part 2 - Resisting Sunrise)







    * 00:46:16 Do US Leaders Matter?







    * 00:47:52 Rethinking Americanism, Militarism & The West







    * 00:51:37 Outtake: Sweet, Sexy Skepticism









    If you enjoy this, please support the show on Patreon & get tons of member exclusives! Brand new member-only episode goes up shortly!







    Also please give a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. Really helps with visibility.







    Share & subscribe on: YouTube, iTunes,  Spotify,  Google,  Stitcher,  TuneIn, RSS

    • 52 min
    Decolonized, Demoralized, Dehumanized: The Lost Israel-Palestine Narratives [The McFuture Podcast]

    Decolonized, Demoralized, Dehumanized: The Lost Israel-Palestine Narratives [The McFuture Podcast]

    https://youtu.be/mgOHTkhJwXA

















    Notice how quickly we went from “We’re just criticizing Israel’s policies!” to celebrating executions of Jews and bombing synagogues. Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack not only exposed Israel’s fragility, but a global network of antisemitism in academia, media, and our very own friendships. The veil has been lifted. We’re in a Roger Waters wet dream, where he can finally slay Jews and stop milking 50-year-old songs. This episode takes on many of the lost narratives the media won’t dare touch, including:









    * 00:00:00 Why The Deafening Silence, "Friends" and Neighbors?







    * 00:14:55 Donny Deutsch & The Silence of Corporations







    * 00:18:14 The Socialist Macro-Aggressors







    * 00:22:32 Larry Summers & The Ivy League Terror Cells







    * 00:29:56 Three Drivers of Malignant College Leftism







    * 00:32:45 (1) Decolonization







    * 00:38:44 (2) Intersectionality







    * 00:41:43 (3) Demoralization & The KGB







    * 00:47:55 Media Complicity







    * 00:51:32 Jonathan Rosenthal on Moral Equivalency







    * 00:52:45 Dumb & Dahmer: Hamas's Mission (Golda Meir, Sam Harris, Casey Neistat & Ami Horowitz)







    * 01:01:11 Jared Kushner on The Perils of Negotiating with Palestine







    * 01:07:03 Reluctant Conquerors & Noble Victims







    * 01:11:10 What to do with Terror Sympathizers?







    * 01:14:42 Democratic Cleansing







    * 01:16:35 About Colonialism... (featuring Ike Saul)







    * 01:25:27 The Iran Hack







    * 01:33:26 How America Made Iran







    * 01:34:43 How Israel Made Hamas







    * 01:37:52 The Problem With Weaponizing Extremism







    * 01:43:50 Israel's Three Options







    * 01:49:07 More Guns!!







    * 01:50:01 The Shocking Power of X (Twitter) & Corruption of Corporate Media







    * 01:54:20 Conspiracies & Reruns

















    If you enjoy this, please support the show on Patreon & get tons of member exclusives! 







    Also please give a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. Really helps with visibility.







    Share & subscribe on: YouTube, iTunes,  Spotify,  Google,  Stitcher,  TuneIn, RSS

    • 1 hr 56 min
    10 Radical Ideas To Reanimate The CNN Zombie & Reinvent TV News

    10 Radical Ideas To Reanimate The CNN Zombie & Reinvent TV News

    CNN just fired it's CEO Chris Licht, who overhauled the network, fired a bunch of people, but failed to revive its rotting corpse. In 2018's Trump Save The Media, I warned about corporate television's temporary Trump Bump, then laid out 12 new rules for the future of media (1 & 2), and business strategies to save it. Those held up way better than CNN. So here's how I'd approach re-imagining the Corporate News Network and dying TV news model.







    Let's face it, network news is dead, especially:









    * in its current format







    * with the current talent pool







    * among young people







    * at current levels of corporate media distrust









    Sure, The Trump Circus is coming to town and the Presidential campaign might give TV news one last Zombie Bump, but at best, it's a stay of execution. No stale insider, clinging to big offices and fumes of network prestige, can save a model whose best shows are trounced by podcasts of mid-level comedians.







    So what now?







    The first step is acceptance. News must accept its death and use its waning brand and financial capital to make offers that can't be refused to podcasters, podcast networks, YouTubers, and other talent who've developed large, trusted audiences. Then give them time and resources to build something new.







    This means hiring an unconventional leader with a flair for entertainment, instinct for what audiences want, vision, and integrity. This won't come from a stale insider, but from someone ready to bring these qualities to the news category — and think differently. Could be someone like Tom Segura, a comedian with a sharp business mind, who's built a podcasting monolith at YMH Studios, who regularly performs to massive international audiences in both English and Spanish. Or, Mr. Beast who's a YouTube prodigy, with an encyclopedic understanding of media, platforms, and audiences.







    To have any chance of innovating, here are 10 principles CNN should consider embracing:







    1) Accept platform ubiquity and agnosticism. Be everywhere people stream — podcasts, YouTube, Rumble, Twitter, Substack, Patreon, etc.







    2) Find ways to monetize everywhere you are through sponsorships, events, or whatever is native to those platforms.







    3) Be transparent about your sponsorships, potential conflicts of interest, and post your contract terms publicly. Maybe even automate ad buys, based on journalistic principles. Make your ad business work like open source code on GitHub - editable and reviewable by anyone. Wikipedia is another model to consider (and build on). Done right, this could be a trust game-changer.







    4) Surrender the impulse for corporate content policing, backslapping deals, status games, and political agendas. One way to do that is replace the current opaque system of truth vs. lies with a community fact check system, like Twitter. And address all criticisms on air. But not defensively. Invite your critics on for real dialogue.







    5) Make everything interactive. Let fans to nominate guests, choose which ones they want to return, submit questions, and participate in live events where they ask questions the hosts might not.

    • 16 min
    What We’re Forbidden To Say About Aging, Immigration & Wakanda | The McFuture Podcast

    What We’re Forbidden To Say About Aging, Immigration & Wakanda | The McFuture Podcast

    https://youtu.be/dLnwnF7tXv4

















    HUGE episode. The ONE TREND that will decide the future of humanity and the balance of power in the next 50 years—is buried deep inside a conspiracy theory whose name we dare not speak. Every untouchable subject gets touched — a lot. Plus, a huge surprise ending, fit for Aristocrats. And killer bonus outtakes. It's all here. Sit back and enjoy.







    EPISODE CONTENTS:









    * 00:00 Intro/Why "The Great Repla...Substitution Theory" Matters







    * 04:52 A Bried History of Hate; Worst Hannukkah, Ever!







    * 06:41 Analyzing "Replacement" straight from the source: Renaud Camus







    * 14:52 A HUGE Realization! 'Replacement' is Exactly Like........







    * 18:12 SHAME







    * 22:24 Camus Blind Spots







    * 23:13 The Problem With Aging







    * 28:58 The Real Replacement Is FAILING, across Poland, Hungary, China, South Korea







    * 34:10 The Real Reason Birth Rates Fall is STRUCTURAL







    * 38:13 So What's A Dying Country To Do? The 4 Options







    * 39:40 The Perils & Perks of Immigration







    * 43:25 The ONE QUESTION That Decides if Immigration Succeeds or Fails







    * 44:01 The American Unicorn







    * 46:26 The Unspoken Advantage of the US







    * 49:03 How Many Americans Do We Need??







    * 51:21 8 Ways To STOP BLOWING Immigration







    * 53:42 Legitimate Fears & The Baumol Effect







    * 57:07 STOP BLOWING (Cont'd)







    * 59:28 "American Migrant Warrior"







    * 01:00:51 Blood and...WHAT??? Reality Check







    * 01:03:47 Solutions BEYOND Immigration: DeGrowth







    * 01:08:00 The Real Case For Birth Incentives







    * 01:11:37 The Gipper and I Dream of Fluidity







    * 01:14:33 HUGE SURPRISE ENDING...

    • 1 hr 27 min
    Fixing Bud Light’s Hannibal Lecter Strategy | The McFuture

    Fixing Bud Light’s Hannibal Lecter Strategy | The McFuture

    https://youtu.be/FhA5iYSNISs

















    Why the real problem with Bud Light's Dylan Mulvaney trans influencer campaign is...Hannibal Lecter. This is a good one.







    CONTENTS:









    * 00:00 Dylan is KILLING IT!







    * 00:57 The Infamous Bath Tub Ad







    * 01:42 Bud Light’s VP of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid Explains Her Strategy







    * 02:56 Bud Light's Market Is...?







    * 04:23 It's Not Belgian!







    * 05:34 Brand Cultural DNA







    * 07:32 Why Bud Light is a Public Good







    * 10:23 The Hannibal Lecter Strategy







    * 12:24 Innovation & How To Butcher a Cash Cow







    * 17:42 Corporate Genius?







    * 20:27 Disdain

















    If you enjoy this, please support the show on Patreon & get tons of member exclusives! 







    Also please give a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. Really helps with visibility.







    Share & subscribe on: YouTube, iTunes,  Spotify,  Google,  Stitcher,  TuneIn, RSS

    • 22 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
25 Ratings

25 Ratings

ThomasJ ,

Great Wedding Buddy

Steve is a great guy to sit next to a wedding. Oh, and his show is pretty good too.

Helen196721JP ,

Futurist Comedy

There are many stand up comics that do hilarious and biting current social commentary. And there are many serious commentators that insightfully discuss how the present is shaping our future. Steve Faktor is the only one I have found to combine the two. He sees the hilarious, scary, absurd ways the future is rushing towards us. very few have the lightness of touch to pull this off. If Futurama was a podcast it would be The Mcfuture.

Toad The Dry Sprocket ,

Hands Down the Most Engaging Social Commentary Podcast Out There Now

I am a firm beleiver in flattery by analogy - so here are my top 3 comparisons of my new favorite podcast host. 1) Steve Faktor is like Fareed Zakaria after he's had 7 drinks -- still brilliant but enough sauce to be unfiltered but not incoherent 2) Steve Faktor is what Joe Rogan would be if he hadn't been kicked in the head so many times --- by that, I mean provocative but able to able to speak in complete sentences 3) Steve Faktor is like Dennis Miller eating a pastrami and rye sandwich -- you can take the boy out of New York but you can't take New York out of the boy

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