In this bonus episode, the hosts explore Google’s experimental Notebook LM, an AI‑powered note‑taking tool that can generate plausible audio conversations from a single web link. They share a 9‑minute AI‑generated dialogue created from Tracey Follows’s Future Made website, using it as a case study to ask whether such synthetic audio can pass for a human podcast and how trustworthy it is. The conversation then pivots to a deep dive on Future Made – a futures‑consulting firm that offers horizon‑scanning, trends analysis, and personal‑future services. The hosts highlight Tracey Follows’s background (UN work, Forbes 50 female futurists), her book The Future of You, and several podcast episodes that tackle language loss, meeting a future self via AI, facial‑recognition surveillance, and brain‑data privacy. Throughout, they stress the subtle ways technology reshapes relationships, identity, agency, and resilience, urging listeners to become active participants in shaping the future rather than passive passengers.
Chapters
You know, it's funny, you mentioned flying cars and robot butlers earlier, and it got me thinking, like, are those really the things we should be worried about?
Right.
Or is it something, I don't know, something weirder, like how technology is changing us?
Yeah, it's like, what's it doing to our relationships, to our sense of self? And that's really where Tracey's work gets interesting. Okay. It's less about the cool gadgets, the flashy stuff, and more about the subtle ways, the ways you don't even see that tech is changing what it means to be human.
That's an excerpt from an AI-generated conversation derived from one simple website link. You can listen to the whole thing in a minute. But this is Google's Notebook LM, an AI-powered note-taking and research assistant that was announced by Google in 2023. But over the past week, it's been blowing people's minds as many of us have been creating conversations that sound like podcasts as an output from the sources that we've fed into it. Still in experimental phase, recently Google made it possible to create an audio overview, and with one tap, you can now generate a public link to share with others what is basically a plausible discussion about your source or sources. If you follow the link in the show notes, you can have a go yourself. But for now, here's a 9 or 10 minute conversation generated by the system when I input just my own website for Future Made, the futures business I run. Is the output my new CV? Is it a speaker bio? Or is it the future of podcasts? If you listen on, you'll hear that the automated discussion about this podcast series and some of the episodes we've aired in the past is pretty accurate. Well, for an automated audio overview anyway. I could maybe quibble with a couple of statements. I make no claims about the claims within the automated discussion. I just wanted to put it out here to say that this conversational application is all in keeping with the predictions that I've been making about the technology of the self. This machine conversation, which sounds pretty lifelike to me, has been created merely using a website link, and the system is accessing all the content I have on it, including this podcast. So have a listen, let me know what you think. Would you listen to these voices and think it's a human conversation or not? Would you trust this kind of output? Things really are beginning to get very interesting.
Ever feel like you're just drowning in all the changes happening these days, like trying to drink from a fire hose?
Yeah, I know the feeling.
Well, on today's deep dive, we're all about getting ahead of the curve instead of just reacting to whatever's thrown at us, you know?
Right.
So we're diving into Future Made.
Interesting choice.
They're a company that seems to have made a business out of seeing the future.
Yeah, more like understanding the future, I'd say.
Okay, so maybe not a crystal ball exactly.
Yeah, but close.
But they do offer something called horizon scanning.
It's kind of like, imagine a superpowered research team, but they're constantly looking for emerging trends before they're on everyone's radar.
So they're looking ahead, way ahead.
Exactly. Those potential disruptions.
Okay, so it is like having a crystal ball, but it's all backed by actual data.
That's the key.
I like it. Data-driven crystal ball-gazing.
You could say that.
But it's not just about spotting what's coming next, right? They also talk about trends analysis.
That's the hard part.
Which, honestly, sounds like it could be a whole college course.
Because we live in a world that's just saturated with information, right?
Yeah, totally.
So, trends analysis is about cutting through all of that noise. It's identifying the patterns and forces, the for things that'll actually reshape things.
For things that really have staying power.
Yeah, the things that'll actually, like, reshape industries, societies even.
Okay, so they're helping businesses figure out this constantly changing world.
Right, exactly.
But here's what I find super interesting. They've got this whole section dedicated to personal futures.
That's what sets Futurmate apart.
It's like, what does the future hold? For me, for you, not just for some big corporation.
Yeah. They're not just focused on like the macro level. They get that these global shifts, all this stuff we've been talking about, it ultimately affects us in our own lives. Yeah. Our careers, relationships, even our sense of self.
Wow. And speaking of understanding the individual, that brings us to the person at the helm of Future Made, Tracey Follows.
The CEO.
And she is not your average CEO. This is someone who's hanging out with the United Nations one minute and then judging some big creative award the next.
It's true.
She's amazing.
And Forbes seems to agree with that. They named her one of the top 50 female futurists in the world.
Yeah, she's seriously impressive.
Which is a real— I mean, that's quite the accomplishment.
Absolutely.
But you know what really caught my eye was her book.
The Future of You.
The Future of You, yeah. And it's not your typical business strategy book. No, not at all. She dives into some seriously deep questions like, what does it even mean to be human in this rapidly changing, totally digital age? It's like, how do we hold on to ourselves when everything around us is constantly shifting?
That's the core question she's grappling with in her work. And it's something that resonates with a lot of people, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Because it's one thing to talk about flying cars and robot butlers and all that futuristic stuff. Sure. But the real question is, what happens to us? In that future? How do we prepare for that? And I don't just mean technologically, I mean emotionally, psychologically, maybe even spiritually, you know?
Yeah. And that's where FutureMaid's focus on resilience comes in because it's not just about like predicting the future, right? It's about being able to adapt, to learn, and to thrive even when everything feels uncertain.
It's like that— there's that quote by Rustin Smith.
Oh, I know him.
You know him?
Yeah. Well, I mean, not personally.
Okay, sure, go ahead.
But he's chair of the Tesco Pension Fund, and he said this great thing about FutureMade.
Okay.
They help you navigate those, you know, those moments where you're like, wait, that's possible? Which, let's be honest, seems to be happening more and more these days.
All the time. Yeah, I totally agree. You know, it's funny, you mentioned flying cars and robot butlers earlier, and it got me thinking like, are those really the things we should be worried about?
Right.
Or is it something, I don't know, something weirder, like how technology is changing us?
Yeah, it's like, what's it doing to our relationships, to our sense of self? And that's really where Tracey's work gets interesting.
Okay.
It's less about the cool gadgets, the flashy stuff, and more about the subtle ways, the ways you don't even see that tech is changing what it means to be human.
I like that. And she explores this in her podcast, The Future of You, which I have to say, I listened to a few episodes and whoa.
Yeah.
It's like every few minutes there's something that makes you stop and go, wait, what did they just say?
She's got a real knack for that, taking these really complex ideas and making them feel real.
Yeah.
And relevant, and sometimes, you know, a little bit creepy.
A little bit, yeah. So, okay. Episode 34, she talks about language loss.
Mm.
And you might think, okay, sure, that's sad. Languages are dying out. What's that got to do with me?
Right, exactly.
But then she brings up this vault in the Arctic.
No way. The Language Vault.
Yeah. Have you heard of this?
No.
Yeah, it's incredible.
It's a real place, a fortress for words.
It's literally designed to preserve languages that are dying out.
Like a real-life click clack from Lolita, battle angel. But it makes you think, right? In a world of, like, AI translate and emojis replacing words, what happens to, like, the beauty of language?
It's like, are we losing something?
Yeah. Are we losing something by making everything so, like, simplified?
It's a good question. It's really complex. No easy answers. But the fact that we're asking it at all shows how tech makes us rethink everything.
Okay, get ready for another wait, what moment. Episode 33, she talks about meeting your future self.
Wow.
Through AI.
Like a digital twin thing?
Yeah. Like, imagine sitting down with a version of you 20 years older. What would you even say?
It's wild.
It makes you think about free will, destiny, all that stuff.
Right. Like, if you see a future you don't like, can you change it? Mm-hmm. Or is it already decided?
Whoa.
Okay, now you're getting existential on me.
Okay, this next one is a little creepy. I'm not gonna lie.
Yeah.
Episode 27. It's called "Your Face Belongs to Us." Ooh, that title alone. Yeah, it's a little creepy.
It's about facial recognition, right?
Big time. And it's not just about targeted ads anymore. It's about surveillance.
Yeah.
Control.
Who has access?
Exactly. What happens when our faces, the most unique identifiable part of us, are just data points in a system?
It's both cool and creepy at the same time. You know?
Totally. Makes you want to wear a mask everywhere. And not just for, you know, the obvious reasons.
Right.
Okay, one more episode highlight.
Episode 13, "Brain Data." Okay, I haven't gotten to that one yet.
Okay, so she talks about this book, "The Battle for Your Brain." It's all about how our brainwaves, the stuff our minds are literally making, can be collected and analyzed.
Wait, seriously? That's like straight outta sci-fi.
But it's becoming real. Like, what does privacy even mean when your thoughts aren't private?
That's freaky. Good episode though.
Oh yeah, definitely worth a listen.
Yeah.
It really makes you think. Huh. All this stuff about the future.
It's a lot. Sometimes I feel like we're, I don't know, strapped to a rocket.
Yeah. And it's going at warp speed and we don't even know where we're gonna end up.
And that's, I think, where Future Made comes in. It's like, okay, things are changing fast, but how do we stay? How do we stay strong in the middle of all that?
Resilient, right?
Yeah, exactly. How do we become more resilient? Because it's easy to feel like, well, what can I do? I'm just one person.
Totally.
It's overwhelming.
It feels like all these big forces are shaping everything. Like our choices don't even really matter.
But I think that's where Tracey's work is so important. She's always pushing us to really think, you know, to question things, to talk about the kind of future we want and how to build it. And that's something we can all do. You don't have to be like a tech genius to have an opinion on the future.
Right. And she had this, I don't know if you saw this, but she had this one soundbite on her YouTube. She predicted that by, I think it was 2020, the average person would be talking more to bots than to their own partner.
Wow.
Really?
And guess what? She wasn't wrong. We're already doing it, right?
Yeah, it's true. We're interacting with AI all the time now, but it's like, are we even aware of it? That's the question, right?
Are we in control or—
or is it controlling us?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And she talked about that too, remember? Like the whole thing about smartphones disappearing.
Oh, right, right.
Replaced by smart clothes. Our clothes.
Yeah, it's like our bodies become the technology, which is kind of cool but also kind of creepy a little bit. It blurs the lines, right? Like we were talking about with facial recognition, right, right, and brain data. But this takes it even further. If your whole body is generating information, who controls that?
Who has access?
Yeah, exactly. And what are they doing with it? Those are the questions we got to be asking.
It's all connected, right? It always comes back to that control. Agency. Like, do we get a say in how technology changes us?
Or are we just going along for the ride?
Exactly.
And I think what Tracey Follows would say is, no, we are not just passengers. We have to be active in this, in shaping the future. And it starts with being aware, asking questions.
Demanding more from the people who are making this stuff.
Exactly.
It reminds me of that quote. I think it's Margaret Mead. She said, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
I love that quote.
It's powerful, right? Yeah, because it means like we're not powerless, even if it feels that way sometimes. If enough of us say, hey, this isn't okay, or we want something different, things can change.
That's what we need. More people like that who are willing to speak up, ask the tough questions.
Exactly. So to everyone listening out there, that's our challenge to you. What kind of future do you want for yourself, for everyone? Because the future isn't set in stone. It's something we build together. And that wraps up our deep dive into Future Made.
And the amazing work of Tracey Follows.
Yeah, definitely give her book a read if you're curious and want to learn more.
And the podcast. Don't forget the podcast, The Future of You.
It's mind-blowing. Until next time, everyone.
Thank you for listening to The Future of You, hosted by me, Tracey Tracey Follows. Be sure to check out the show notes for more info about the topics we covered today. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you know someone who would love this episode, please share it with them. For more on the future of identity in a digital world, visit futuremade.group/thefutureofyou. To explore the future of everything else, head over to futuremade.group. The Future of You podcast is produced by Big Tent Media.
