Podcast: Fast Forward

The second podcast I listened to this week for our assignment was the latest episode of Flash Forward, titled “The Witch Who CameFrom Mars.” This podcast generally takes some kind of situation and discusses it as how and why it may happen in the future. The show does seasons of episodes and the hostess (Rose) takes a break in between. This particular episode was special in that it was the last of the second season of episodes. (Eveleth, 2016)

It took a couple tries, but in order to produce this episode, she took all of the scenes (41) she’s had on the show, as well as large parts of scripts from the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The War of the Worlds and had them put into an AI. This AI is programmed to write short stories basically out of the information you give it – the 5-minute result was voice acted by people and included into the episode. (Eveleth, 2016)

It was quite interesting that the AI actually put something together that most of the time made sense – for a far out story that is. She had a few guest clips and they dissected and discussed how this story may have come to be and why things happened the way they did, from scientific and mathematical information as it may relate in the future. (Eveleth, 2016)

Rose takes suggestions from the public on future scenarios to discuss, and throws in fun references for listeners to catch during the show. Those who find them have a chance to win some goodies!

I hadn’t heard of this podcast prior to this assignment, but this episode interested me enough that I may check out a number of the past episodes. I’ll definitely be adding this one to my list of shows to track, and look forward to seeing what happens in November when season three begins!

Eveleth, R. (2016). Flash Forward | Every week a new future. Retrieved from http://www.flashforwardpod.com/

Eveleth, R. (2016). Episode 20: The Witch Who Came From Mars. Retrieved from http://www.flashforwardpod.com/2016/09/05/episode-20-something-martian-witch-way-comes/