Visionary

Wondercast Studio
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Meet Visionary—the podcast that goes beyond the headlines to explore the ideas shaping tomorrow. From AI breakthroughs to the future of work, from smarter cities to stronger cyber-security, host Georgina Godwin sits down with bold thinkers and industry leaders to ask: How can innovation create a better world for us all? Big challenges. Clear solutions. Optimism for the future. From London’s home of innovation, Here East. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 1d ago ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Michael Caine's lost cult classic

    There are cult films, and then there are films that seem almost to disappear. For this special edition of Visionary, part of our Future Vision summer series, we unearth a conversation with the late Mike Hodges, the director who gave British cinema Get Carter, to revisit its stranger, more playful follow-up: Pulp. Hodges tells Benjamin Wilson how the 1972 film grew out of his fascination with B-movies, postwar Italy, political extremism and the strange scandals of the paparazzi age, before taking shape with an extraordinary cast led by Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney. But at the heart of the conversation is Lizabeth Scott. One of film noir’s most distinctive stars, Scott had largely retreated from the screen when Hodges persuaded her to return for what would become her final film appearance. He recalls their delicate first meetings, her anxieties about returning to the camera and the moment she decided to take the role – before dismissing some of the rumours that have followed her performance ever since. A rare encounter with a great British filmmaker, looking back at a forgotten Hollywood star and one of the most curious films of his career. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Michael Caine's lost cult classic

  2. Aug 13 ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Backrooms proves anyone can make movies

    Hollywood once had the studios, the money and the tools. Not anymore. AI is making visual effects cheaper, professional kit is increasingly accessible and filmmaking is spreading far beyond Los Angeles. Meanwhile, a new generation of directors is honing its craft on YouTube and Instagram rather than working its way through the studio system. So who gets to make a movie now? Does Hollywood still matter? And could the next great director already be building an audience online? From Backrooms to blockbusters made across London, Glasgow and Sydney, Benjamin Wilson reports on the technology, talent and new production hubs reshaping how films are made — and who gets to make them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Backrooms proves anyone can make movies

  3. Aug 6 ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Sirāt and the art of the apocalypse

    What does the end of civilisation look like when you strip away the Hollywood spectacle? In this episode of Future Vision, our special series exploring the future of creativity and filmmaking, film journalist Caspar Salmon examines Sirāt — Oliver Laxe’s haunting vision of a world coming apart at the seams, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2025. Set among ravers travelling through the deserts of North Africa as war unfolds somewhere beyond the horizon, Sirāt approaches the apocalypse at an unusually human scale. There are no collapsing skyscrapers or armies of extras. Instead, Laxe draws on non-professional actors, documentary-style filmmaking, an unforgiving landscape and a story deliberately untethered from conventional geopolitics. From its echoes of Mad Max: Fury Road to the remarkable performance of Sergi López, Caspar explores how Sirāt blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality — and how its small-scale, independent approach creates a depiction of societal collapse that feels all the more immediate, elemental and unsettling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Sirāt and the art of the apocalypse

  4. Jul 29 ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Inventing the cartoon

    Hand-drawn animation changed cinema forever. Long before CGI and artificial intelligence transformed the screen, pioneers like Max Fleischer proved that imagination, craftsmanship and technical invention could create entire worlds from pencil and paper. In this special edition of Visionary's Future Vision series, Jane Fleischer Reid, granddaughter of the legendary animator, reflects on the extraordinary legacy of the Fleischer Studios – the creative force behind Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and some of the most inventive cartoons ever made. She tells the story of Max Fleischer's restless curiosity, the invention of the rotoscope, the studio's surreal artistic style, and the painstaking restoration of more than 100 classic films from original archive materials. As digital tools make image creation easier than ever, Fleischer's work feels even more relevant. In an era of AI-generated content, audiences are rediscovering the value of artistry you can feel in every frame. The imperfections, ingenuity and unmistakably human touch of handcrafted animation are becoming a premium once again – reminding us that the future of entertainment may depend as much on preserving creative craft as inventing new technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Inventing the cartoon

  5. Jul 22 ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Gattaca and the age of optimisation

    Gattaca imagined a world where every aspect of human potential could be measured, optimised and ranked. Nearly 30 years later, that future feels uncomfortably familiar. In this narrated exploration, writer Caspar Salmon revisits Andrew Niccol's 1997 science-fiction classic to ask whether Gattaca was really about genetics — or whether it foresaw today's culture of relentless self-improvement, biohacking, productivity and optimisation. As AI, genetic testing and performance-enhancing technologies become part of everyday life, the film's central question feels more relevant than ever: what happens when the pursuit of perfection becomes society's defining value? Future Vision is Visionary's special summer series focussing on the future of cinema and what it tells us about the direction of our real world. Brought to you by Here East, London's home of innovation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Gattaca and the age of optimisation

  6. Jul 15 ·  Bonus

    Future Vision: Helen Slater on Supergirl

    We're pausing our usual format over the summer to bring you Future Vision — a special series exploring the changing film and television industry. Over the coming weeks, we'll examine everything from visual effects and production design to the rise of the creator economy. We begin with Supergirl. Not the version currently in cinemas, but the original 1984 film that first brought Superman's cousin to the big screen. Helen Slater was just eighteen when she landed the title role, fresh out of drama school. She was flown to Pinewood Studios to train in trampolining, sword fighting and horse riding before joining a cast that included Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole and Peter Cook. Recorded before the release of the 2026 reboot, Slater reflects on a film that has since become a cult classic. She recalls the technical challenge of its ambitious flying sequences, the script rewrites that reshaped the production and the experience of carrying a major studio franchise at such a young age. She also offers a candid assessment of why Supergirl failed to match the success of its Superman predecessors, and what that says about Hollywood's long struggle to build enduring female-led superhero franchises. With the new Supergirl also filmed in the UK, the conversation offers a timely perspective on how blockbuster filmmaking has evolved — and on the pressures that still accompany launching a superhero franchise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Future Vision: Helen Slater on Supergirl

  7. Jul 8

    Why space design changed

    For centuries, buildings were designed with a single purpose in mind. Theatres staged plays, factories manufactured goods and railway stations moved passengers. Many have since found new lives through adaptation, but today's most successful spaces are increasingly conceived to do far more from the outset. Georgina Godwin speaks with Alex Wills, co-founder of Interval, about why flexibility has become one of architecture's most valuable assets. Drawing on a career spanning live events, immersive technology and spatial design, Wills argues that the next generation of buildings will succeed not because they can be repurposed decades later, but because they are designed from day one to accommodate changing audiences, technologies and uses. From the engineering behind the Las Vegas Sphere to the evolving campuses of Canary Wharf, 180 Strand and Here East, the conversation explores how developers are rethinking the relationship between space and experience. For Wills, the most important question is no longer what a building looks like, but how it will be used – not just on opening night, but for years to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Why space design changed

  8. Jul 1

    Jeremy Hunt's message to tech leaders

    Britain has three of the world's top ten universities and the third largest tech sector outside America and China. So why does it often feel like we're stuck? Jeremy Hunt left office after bringing inflation down and steering the economy out of recession. Now, with a new book and a new Prime Minister about to enter Downing Street, he has some blunt things to say about what it will take to finally unlock the country's potential — and what happens if the moment is wasted. In this episode, presented in partnership with CapX the Centre for Policy Studies, Marc Sidwell speaks with the former Chancellor about his book Can We Be Rich Again?, which sets out both a diagnosis of Britain's economic inertia and a prescription for breaking it. Hunt is direct about the central challenge facing Andy Burnham: welfare reform is the defining test, and ducking it — as Keir Starmer discovered — doesn't make the problem go away, it simply hands a veto to the backbenches. He argues that political capital drains away like an egg timer, and that the only leaders who leave office proud are those who act boldly in their first weeks, not their last. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Jeremy Hunt's message to tech leaders
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5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Meet Visionary—the podcast that goes beyond the headlines to explore the ideas shaping tomorrow. From AI breakthroughs to the future of work, from smarter cities to stronger cyber-security, host Georgina Godwin sits down with bold thinkers and industry leaders to ask: How can innovation create a better world for us all? Big challenges. Clear solutions. Optimism for the future. From London’s home of innovation, Here East. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Wondercast Studio
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    64
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Wondercast Studio
  • Show Website
    Visionary