FUTR.tv Podcast

Hosted by FUTR.tv

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Episodes

189

Latest episode

Jul 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

FUTR.tv is a weekly interview podcast talking with the innovators who are building the future, focusing on technology, sustainability and social responsibility

Listen to episodes

60 recent

July 3, 202651 min

A Former Spy Chief on How AI Really Manipulates You

Send us Fan Mail Anthony Vinci — the first CTO of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a member of the team behind Project Maven — joins Chris Brandt to talk about how AI and China are rewriting the rules of espionage. We get into why the most powerful manipulation isn't lies but facts, how "LLM grooming" poisons the AI you rely on, the shift from being in the loop to on the loop, and why Vinci argues every citizen now needs to think like an intelligence officer. Plus: his company Vico, which forecasts geopolitical and economic events to help people make better decisions. Anthony's book, The Fourth Intelligence Revolution, is a Financial Times best book of the year — well worth a read: https://amzn.to/4fgJRD7 Guest links: Vico: https://vico.io Anthony Vinci: https://anthonyvinci.com Book (The Fourth Intelligence Revolution): https://amzn.to/4fgJRD7 Referenced in this episode: Zero Day Clock: https://zerodayclock.com/ 00:00 — The best way to manipulate you is with facts 00:32 — Welcome & who is Anthony Vinci 01:20 — Why he wrote The Fourth Intelligence Revolution 03:51 — Why espionage is now in your living room 05:31 — 2016, Facebook, and hacking an election 09:00 — AI vs. Facebook: targeting you as an individual 09:40 — LLM grooming and the Pravda network 10:34 — Disinformation vs. misinformation 13:02 — Why AI manipulation is subtle 14:57 — We've been lying to each other forever 16:20 — Training everyone to think like a spy 18:51 — The cybersecurity parallel 22:41 — RSA, agentic attacks, and AI in security 24:57 — Mythos, zero-days, and weaponized exploits 30:00 — Should powerful models be released in stages? 32:20 — When one person has more power than a nation 36:54 — The morality question for AI founders 39:11 — Surveillance vs. thought control 40:34 — Could we ever elect an AI president? 41:16 — In the loop vs. on the loop 44:22 — Why competitive pressure removes humans from the loop 45:39 — What Vico does 48:39 — Intelligence as war prevention 51:14 — Where to find Anthony & Vico Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

April 13, 2026Episode 18448 min

Your AI Looks 80% Done. It's Actually 20%. Here's Why!

Send us Fan Mail Your AI looks 80% done. In reality, it's 20% done, and the last mile is a cliff. Greg Whalen, CTO of Prove AI, breaks down why CTOs are getting blindsided by AI, why vibe coding creates a false sense of progress, and what most teams are missing when it comes to AI telemetry and observability. Greg has led engineering at global scale as CTO of ZendIt, GM for Amazon WorkMail at AWS, and was an AI researcher at Columbia's NLP group. Now he's building Prove AI to help enterprises move from "mostly working" to production-grade AI systems. We dig into: why AI isn't just another tool in the toolbox, the morning coffee debugging nightmare, how agents exploit other agents for restricted data, why thumbs up/down tells you nothing about outcomes, the vibe coder vs. super principal divide, why CTOs need to "get back in the ring," and why being a first mover beats waiting for convergence that isn't coming. Prove AI → https://proveai.com Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

February 17, 2026Episode 18358 min

Moped Gangs Are Back - And They're Electric!

Send us Fan Mail Tim Seward built a 65 MPH electric moped in his garage to one-up his buddies. People wouldn't stop asking where to buy it. So he started Onyx Motors, raised almost a million bucks on Indiegogo in 3 hours… then sold the company for $1. When his successor died unexpectedly, Tim came back to rebuild from scratch. This is that story. The RCR 80V is a 91-volt electric motorbike that hits 65–75 MPH, goes 130 miles on a charge, runs Apple CarPlay, and costs about 75 cents to charge at home. It's built on a metal tube frame with swappable aluminum panels — designed from day one to be customized, modded, and made your own. Think less iPhone, more Lego kit. Tim breaks down the moped gang culture that started it all, why Americans are 20 years behind the rest of the world on two-wheeled transport, what he learned designing scooters at Bird, and why Gen Z might never buy a car. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Cold Open 0:00 – Intro: Who is Tim Seward? 0:01 – Why Build Something That Lasts? 0:03 – Moped Army & Moped Mondays 0:05 – Moped Culture: US vs. the World 0:07 – The Scooter Armageddon (Bird & South by Southwest) 0:09 – Working at Bird & the Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle 0:11 – Red Lights & "It's Not For Sale" 0:13 – The Indiegogo Campaign ($920K in Hours) 0:15 – Selling Onyx for $1 0:18 – Losing James & Resurrecting the Brand 0:21 – Starting a Company Twice 0:22 – The RCR 80V: Size, Speed & Power 0:25 – Regulations & Licensing 0:26 – Metal vs. Plastic: Design Philosophy 0:28 – Built to Customize (Not Lock Down) 0:31 – CarPlay, Navigation & Built-In Tech 0:33 – Mounting Points, Mods & Steady Garage 0:36 – Swappable Panels & Custom Builds 0:40 – Favorite Mods: Back to the Future Build 0:43 – The $245B Electric Vehicle Market 0:46 – Gen Z Doesn't Want Cars 0:49 – Park It on the Sidewalk (or Your Desk) 0:52 – Speed Modes & Motorcycle Registration 0:54 – What's Next for Onyx Motors 0:56 – Where to Buy + Outro LINKS Onyx Motors → https://onyxmotors.com Onyx on Instagram → https://instagram.com/onyxmotors Steady Garage (aftermarket accessories) → https://steadygarage.com Onyx Garage (custom builds gallery) → https://onyxmotors.com/pages/garage Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

September 29, 2025Episode 18242 min

SpaceX Vet's Transformer Vehicle: Road to Rail Instantly

Send us Fan Mail Most people see train tracks and think "obstacle." Kevin Damoa sees the ultimate highway hack. After six years in the Army doing rail operations and stints at SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, he's realizing something crazy: America has 140,000 miles of rail that's basically empty while our highways are parking lots. So he's building a vehicle that doesn't care. Road congested? Jump on the rail. Train coming? Hop off and take the service road. Bad track ahead? The vehicle's sensors catch it, and you route around. It carries full shipping containers (60,000 pounds) and runs on whatever fuel you've got handy. Here's the thing: moving freight by rail costs 70% less than trucking, but nobody uses it because you need cranes, multiple vehicles, and weeks of waiting. Damoa's vehicles are eliminating all of that. Drive straight from a ship to the rail, ride to your city, drive off to the warehouse. Done. In this episode, the Glīd CEO breaks down why investors just oversubscribed his funding round, how this technology could transform shipping in developing nations, and why he calls logistics "special forces for regular people." Plus, the wild story of testing these beasts at an abandoned Kansas munitions depot. More at https://FUTR.tv Audio version at https://futr.buzzsprout.com Learn about Glīd: https://glidrail.com/ Book mentioned: The Box by Marc Levinson: https://amzn.to/46u8Rm4 Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

September 16, 2025Episode 1811 hr 8 min

AI Patents Itself: The Invention Machine Is Here

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you feed an AI its own code and ask it to improve itself? It invents something better, writes a patent for it, and files it. In 8 minutes. Dr. Marcus Weller did exactly that with Deep Invent, and the result made him realize his life had just changed. We're talking about an AI platform that analyzes patterns across all human innovation to create new inventions. Real ones. With actual patents. A 7-year-old used it to co-invent a system for removing microplastics from water. An Amazon robotics director quit his job after the system showed him an AR speed-reading invention he couldn't stop thinking about. Marcus breaks down how Deep Invent works - scraping global scientific literature, patents, and market data in real-time to find the "white space" where innovation hasn't happened yet. Then it generates clusters of patentable inventions in those gaps. We dig into the difference between AI hallucination and imagination, why cross-disciplinary insights matter, what "recursive evolutionary inference" means, and whether we're looking at steps toward superintelligence. Plus Marcus shares his grandmother's story about the resistance to electricity in homes - a reminder that every transformative technology faces the "this is too weird" phase. Deep Invent: https://deepinvent.ai Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

July 21, 2025Episode 1807 min

What the heck is going on with FUTR.tv?

Send us Fan Mail Exciting Updates: New Projects, Podcasts, and More | FUTR.tv In this episode of FUTR.tv, I provide an update on my latest activities and projects. Due to a new day job and the launch of two new podcasts with mission.org, IT Visionaries and The Fleet, as well as "What the FUTR" for FUTRconnect, FUTR.tv episodes have been less frequent. Here are the exciting details about my work with mission.org and FUTRconnect. Stay tuned for new, upcoming FUTR.tv content. Mission.org IT Visionaries: https://www.youtube.com/@itvisionaries The Fleet: https://mission.org/the-fleet/ FUTRconnect: https://futrconnect.io FUTRconnect Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@futr_connect Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

June 9, 2025Episode 17937 min

The Art of Business and the Power of Community: 25 Years of Threadless With Founder Jake Nickell

Send us Fan Mail Today we have a very special guest on. He founded a company at the dawn of the internet age, and it is still going strong, celebrating its 25 anniversary. So we are going to talk with him about his journey, so stay tuned. Hey everybody, this is Chris Brandt here with another FUTR podcast. I have with me Jake Nickell, he and Jacob DeHart started Threadless in 2000 in Jake's apartment as a T-shirt design competition that has now grown into an online community of artists where designs are created by and chosen by an online community. It was a 2006 Wired article about Threadless that coined the term crowdsourcing. So we are going to talk with Jake about how Threadless has evolved and how the Internet has changed the world over the last 25 years. Welcome Jake Threadless: https://threadless.com/ Artist Shops: https://www.threadless.com/artist-shops/ Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

April 21, 2025Episode 17839 min

Major League Pickleball: Behind the Scenes with Texas Ranchers Owner Evan Floersch

Send us Fan Mail What sport attracts celebrities like Lebron James and Lil Wayne? Why that would be the fastest growing sport in America of course. Hey everybody, this is Chris Brandt here with another FUTR podcast. Today we have with us Evan Floersch, Co-Owner and CEO of the Major League Pickleball team the Texas Ranchers. So we are going to get an inside look at a new and emerging sports league and see how you too could be a team owner, and find out what's in store for this exciting new sport! Welcome Evan https://ranchers.com/ Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

March 24, 2025Episode 17740 min

Dirt, Fun, and High-Tech: Dust Moto's Game-Changing Electric Dirtbikes

Send us Fan Mail Today we are going to be focusing on technology that really makes life fun, so stay tuned. Hey everybody, this is Chris Brandt here with another FUTR podcast. We have with us Colin Godby, CEO & Founder at Dust Moto . Dust Moto is building the electric dirt bike the industry wants, and needs. They are now taking limited pre-orders fir their Hightail, A lightweight, powerful, and effortlessly intuitive electric dirtbike built right here in the U.S.A. So we are going to talk with Colin about what inspires him and what makes the Hightail so much fun. Welcome Colin Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

March 17, 2025Episode 17635 min

The Awe and Excitement of Oilstainlab's New HF11 Supercar Brings the Joy Back to Driving

Send us Fan Mail When you mix beauty, engineering and and pure excitement into something that just makes you say, "Hell Yes!", you get a supercar that will blow your mind. Oilstainlab's HF11 is a car built for drivers. Today we have with us Nitkita Bridan. In 2019, he and his brother Ilya formed Oilstainlabs, to begin producing a one of a kind supercar. The HF11 is a 650hp, 2000 lbs, vehicle that is the perfect mix of heritage, cutting-edge technology, precision engineering, and pure anarchy. With an interchangeable internal combustion or EV powerplant, the HF-11 is being honed to be the ultimate street legal vehicle. Only 25 limited edition cars will be available worldwide with 11 going to discriminating buyers as part of an exclusive “Maniac” package. So let's talk with Nikita about how they engineered all the excitement into this vehicle. Welcome Nikita. Click Here to Subscribe : FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers. Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.