
Near Future Laboratory Podcast
The Near Future Laboratory Podcast is conversations at the vanguard of design, technology, futures, and culture, hosted by Julian Bleecker — founder of the Near Future Laboratory.
https://nearfuturelaboratory.com
https://julianbleecker.com
Support this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Latest episodes

Apr 30, 2023 • 1h 25min
N°067 - Tucker Viemeister (The Last Industrial Designer)
Tucker Viemeister is an American industrial designer, and founder of Viemeister Industries in New York City.
Please consider supporting this podcast and joining us here at Near Future Laboratory by getting behind all of this over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory

Apr 18, 2023 • 52min
N°066 - Your Daily Design Fiction Exercise Regimen
My special guest Dré Labre, proprietor over at https://www.designfictiondaily.com/ discusses how he has been training for the Imagine Harder marathon later this year, and how he uses the new 2023 Work Kit of Design Fiction, which drops in a limited release on April 20th 2023!
https://www.designfictiondaily.com
https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/the-work-kit-of-design-fiction-2023-mj-edition
Support the podcast over on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — every Patron gets a legit invite to the Near Future Laboratory Discord!
Thank you for your listening!
- Julian

Apr 3, 2023 • 54min
N°065 - A Magazine from the Autonomous Future, A Design Fiction Project Debrief
How does Design Fiction do the work of reporting on the future? Most futures reports are heavily analytic, styled to be read analytically and interpreted as data. Very seldom if at all is there any point of entry to create a sense of the future as something the report has come from. And this is important because the artifact itself — the report — provides little opportunity to experience the future as it could possibly be.
This is where Design Fiction provides an opportunity for teams and organizations that are working towards a future to gain a more full spectrum sense of possible futures that can tie directly in to their day-to-day work.
This is how Design Fiction has always functioned. From the seminal TBD Catalog (10th Anniversary Edition coming soon!) to IKEA Catalog and the scores of other Design Fiction projects the Near Future Laboratory has done for commercial clients over the years. Design Fiction brings the future to you, rather than simply projecting into it.
In this episode Patrick Pittman and I discuss a recent client project where we created a Magazine from the Future, in this case we took our client to the autonomous vehicle future, took a look around, found a trade magazine for autonomous vehicle enthusiasts, and brought it back. It's full of context.
Visit https://magazinefromthefuture.com to find out more and schedule a call to get more details.
Also, consider supporting the podcast and the Near Future Laboratory Discord community over at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Thank you for listening!
- Julian
https://tbdcatalog.com
https://ikea.nearfuturelaboratory.com/
https://magazinefromthefuture.com
https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory

Mar 20, 2023 • 35min
N°064 - From Collectors to Creators: A Design Fiction Debrief with Thomas Euyang
This is a Episode 64 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, a Design Fiction Debrief with Thomas Euyang, where we breakdown his Design Fiction project 'From Collectors to Creators'.
From Collectors to Creators is a design fiction where our relationship with clothing, especially footwear is fundamentally different. Using found footage from cobblers and sneaker redesigners, a documentary offers a glimpse into an alternative world where the importance of newness is replaced with heritage, disposability with repairability, and mass production with craft.
Please support the podcast over on Patreon. Every patron gets an invitation to the Near Future Laboratory Discord, which is really where all the action is happening!
https://euyang.info/Future-of-Cobbling
https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory

Feb 20, 2023 • 48min
N°063 - Imagining the Future of the Imagination Academy with Will Richardson
Will Richardson is a life-long educator and co-founder along with Homa Tavangar of The Big Questions Institute, was was created to help educators use 'fearless inquiry' to make sense of the complex moment and uncertainty felt around the future. In this episode we focus specifically on the ebook he and his co-founder recently created called 'One Foot In The Future' containing new frameworks, tools, and lenses to help educators imagine what comes next.
https://bigquestions.institute/
https://bigquestions.institute/onefootebook/
Please consider supporting the podcast over on Patreon at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support goes a long way towards keeping these episodes going, largely by signaling to me that you find value in what's being discussed in here. Support is pretty easy, and generally affordable — there are two tiers at the moment: $8/month ($2 per week!) or $25 for those who can afford more. Every patron gets an invitation to the Near Future Laboratory Discord, where the magic seems to happen daily!
Thanks!
Julian

Jan 30, 2023 • 43min
N°061 - The Machines Make The Spoons with Simone & Matteo
Simone Rebaudengo and Matteo Loglio are founders of the fun, eclectic, speculative design studio OiO. We had a fun chat about their latest conjuring, 'Spawns' where they taught a machine to make spoons, and then manufactured them in one of the oldest silverware factories in Italy.
https://oio.studio/
https://oio.store
http://www.simonerebaudengo.com/
https://matlo.me/
If you want to find out more about the Near Future Laboratory join our email list: https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter.
And don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Oh, also? Please rate and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts. That stuff really does help!
Thank you!
Julian

Jan 2, 2023 • 39min
N°060 - ChatGPT Futures, a Digest of General Seminar S03 E26
This is a digest of General Seminar S03 E26 where we traveled into the ChatGPT future, had a look around, and brought back some Design Fiction artifacts. General Seminar is the platform I created for sense-making against the beautiful confusion of all the new 'futuristic' things we confront seemingly every day. So in General Seminar we take on these topics, with none of the hubris that one puts on to try and 'predict' the future, and wander around to see what we see and reflect on the way the world is becoming. I've boiled down 90 minutes to about 35 to give you a sense of some corners of the conversation.
If you want to find out more about General Seminar and all the other things going on over at the Near Future Laboratory join our email list: https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter.
And don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Oh, also? Please rate and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts. That stuff really does help!
Thank you!
Julian
https://www.generalseminar.com/season-03-episode-26
https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter

Dec 29, 2022 • 1h 10min
N°059 - The Year In The Rear View
Got together with Nicolas Nova (who was sitting on his living room sofa in Geneva) and Zach Hyman (who was sitting in a hotel lobby in Singapore) to reflect on what we think of when we think of 2022.
Please support the podcast over on Patreon at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts! It really does help!
Pick up your copy of The Manual of Design Fiction over at http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
And get one of the last remaining Work Kits of Design Fiction over at https://nearfuturelaboratory.myshopify.com/products/the-work-kit-of-design-fiction-2023-product-design-work-kit

Dec 13, 2022 • 55min
N°058 - We Are Hypercollaborative with Toby Barnes
Toby Barnes (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobybarnes/) is a design strategist with a range of experiences and interests, including at AKQA, Nike, and now Amazon. Toby and I have been longing for a revival of the kinds of creative community experiences, gatherings, retreats, and workshops that flourished around the turn of the century, and that is what motivates the conversations we've been having over the last several months, including looking at the Near Future Laboratory community as an experiment in Hypercollaboration.
Please support the Podcast by either becoming a Patron (https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory) and rating and writing a review of the podcast over here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/near-future-laboratory-podcast/id1546452193
Want to know more? Have a listen, and get in touch: https://linktr.ee/bleeckerj
-Julian

Dec 7, 2022 • 1h 8min
N°057 - Design Fiction with Domus Academy & Speculative Futures Milan
Thank you to Gabriele Ferri, the staff and students who participated from Domus Academy and Speculative Futures Milan, especially Silvio Cioni for organizing.
You can support this podcast at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — your support is very much appreciated!
Also, you can purchase your copy of the first printing of The Manual of Design Fiction here: http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
Please subscribe, rate the podcast, and write a review! It all really helps!
Thank you!
https://www.domusacademy.com/
https://twitter.com/Futures_Milan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cioni/
https://www.gabrieleferri.com/