PopTech Audio: PopCasts

The creator of FOUND magazine digs up some of his best finds, ranging from unusual “To do” lists to surprising flyers and discarded notes.

Jonathan Harris is redefining the idea of what it means to tell a story. Take a ride through an arctic whale hunt and plunge headfirst into the feelings Harris finds running rampant in cyberspace as he describes what he calls “storytelling platforms.”

In this busy, hectic world, speed often trumps quality of life. Best-selling author and Slow Movement purveyor Carl Honoré urges us to slow down and alter our culture of speed and its negative effect on our happiness.

Why haven’t we rallied our collective power to solve global warning? Join best-selling author Dan Gilbert as he explores our capricious reaction to different threats—from tooth decay to anthrax to climate change.

Equal parts artist, writer and joke teller, Jessica Hagy describes her work as “a little project that helps me make fun of some things and sense of others.” Watch how the creator of the wildly popular blog, Indexed, injects humanity, humor and a modern sensibility into her medium—the 3 × 5-inch index card.

Most of us wouldn’t see anything remarkable about a cell phone battery, a dishwasher switch and the light from a crosswalk signal. But Sheila Kennedy reveals how the combination of these common items can create something groundbreaking: portable, durable, reliable lighting for the third world.

Toy designer Caleb Chung—famous for creating 1998’s hot toy of the year, “Furby” — provides a playful peak into his wild creative process. He reveals that his recipe for success is to blend the uniquely human qualities of artistry and empathy with the science of technology.

Provocateur Daniel Pink has built a career on his keen insights into business, technology and the economy. Engaging, enlightening and funny, the best-selling author heralds a new job market—one that devalues the logical and rule-based in favor of the artistic, empathic and inventive.

Dr. Louann Brizendine, founder of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic and author of the bestselling book, The Female Brain, tells us why the brain is not a unisex organ. She offers compelling insight into how these differences explain distinct emotional and behavioral patterns between genders.

What can we glean about underlying thought structures from the way we ask someone to “pass the guacamole”? Preeminent psychologist and best-selling author Steven Pinker examines how the words we use, from swears to simple requests at the dinner table, reflect how we think.

A machine that builds itself? Adrian Bowyer, leading researcher at the University of Bath, shows us that this seemingly fantastic idea is not far from becoming reality. The self-replicating rapid prototyper, or “RepRap,” could have dramatic effects on people in developing countries.

From his extensive experiences working with the poor of the developing world, Paul Polak has learned a lot about effective market-based approaches to alleviating poverty. He argues that in order to be successful, solutions must be simple, inexpensive, easy to reproduce, and most important, respond to the expressed needs of the people they are meant to benefit.

The co-founder of Kiva.org, the first peer-to-peer microloan website, demonstrates how the Internet can facilitate meaningful, positive connections between lenders and entrepreneurs in the developing world and even help us all become microfinanciers.

Christian Nold thinks we should pay more attention to how our environment shapes our emotional and physiological states. His work with Bio Mapping—which measures people’s responses to their environment and connects those feelings to their physical location—suggests that a map of emotional landscapes represents a powerful tool for analyzing the relationship between place and broader social issues.

Artist Chris Jordan brings the enormous scale of our mass consumption into high-resolution. He shares Running the Numbers, composite photographs of discarded cell phones, computers, aluminum cans and other modern detritus, urging us to consider the consequences of our consumer culture while insisting that each of us has the power to make a difference.