The Femme Futurists Society Podcast

Learning Innovation: Elizabeth Strickler, Georgia State University

As the Founding Director of the Creative Industries Blockchain Lab and Director of Media Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University, Elizabeth is helping shape the future of media innovation, teaching students how to harness the power of technology, digital transformation, and the metaverse to tell immersive stories and launch successful businesses.

Architecting The Future (ft. Ila Colombo, DEOND)

Co-Founded by Ila Colombo and her partner, world-renowned product designer Ross Lovegrove, DEOND, an AI & 3DPA practice in Dubai, are revolutionizing what’s possible in design and architecture by combining technology with human expertise and creativity to craft cutting-edge, innovative environments and advanced designs that are not only functional and beautiful, but also sustainable and responsibly tech-driven.

The Bioplastics Revolution (ft. Kritika Tyagi, erthos)

“By 2050 there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish”. That headline and more were what spurred Nuha Siddiqui & Kritika Tyagi to tackle what they saw as a massive opportunity: to reimagine the building blocks of plastic by pioneering new regenerative biomaterials that are now revolutionizing the plastics industry. 
This is not a new story - other companies have attempted sustainable materials to rival their conventional counterparts - however, erthos stands out for having made mind-blowing strides forward as a beacon of innovation and progress in an extremely short amount of time. Using proprietary ML/AI technology along with their team & expertise, they’ve managed to:
exponentially change the trajectory of sustainable materials
develop industry-wide, rapidly scalable design solutions that cut time to market by 5x compared to conventional plastics
commit to the relentless pursuit of cutting-edge materials and renewable and regenerative resources that put the planet first 
At some point we’ll stop talking about the fact that they’ve accomplished all of this at the age of 28 yrs-old but it really is such an extraordinary achievement that it has to be said!! So we hope you’ll share, like, comment and celebrate this incredible leap forward along with us. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Assembling Tomorrow with Carissa Carter.

Episode #39. Design is not just about products and things; it applies to systems, to life, it is human. As Carissa Carter, Stanford d-school Academic Director says, “if you care about what you put out there into the world you are a designer. Everyone has the capacity to create positive change”. 
A former geo-scientist, Carissa teaches courses on the intersection of data and design for multiple sectors including climate change, emerging tech, and her work on designing with machine learning and blockchain has earned multiple design awards. 
Her just launched second book — co-authored with creative director Scott Doorley and titled: Assembling Tomorrow: a guide to designing a thriving future — is a thoughtful read (whether you consider yourself a designer or not), that offers us all a path to both “mend the mistakes of our past and shape our future for the better”. Bonus: it weaves in many speculative short stories and the most beautifully crafted illustrations.
Tune in to hear Carissa delve into: 
… the forces changing the design world
… how everything breaks but it’s what we learn from the cracks that matters
… the importance of intuition
… how there are no absolutes and embracing the in-between is key to building better
We hope it inspires you as much as it inspired us 🙌🏻
Love what you hear? Please consider sharing, liking, commenting and subscribing to our podcast.
 
👩‍⚕️Learn more about Carissa Carter here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissalcarter/
📖 Learn more about Carissa’s book here: https://dschool.stanford.edu/book-collections/assembling-tomorrow
👩🏻‍💻 Our Website: www.FemmeFuturists.com
 
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY

Protopian World Building (ft. Monika Bielskyte)

Most of us are likely very familiar with the ideas of dystopia and utopia as framing for what the future might look like, but Monika Bielskyte would submit they are still two sides of the same coin. Instead, she wants us to consider the in-between space that embodies all of the living world and consciousness—nature and human—where a different narrative takes place; a Protopian future that embodies livable & inclusive visions and is ever evolving.
As a positive world builder, speculative designer and futurist, Monika has traveled and engaged with unfolding futures in more than 100+ countries - having left her homeland that no longer exists to explore the world that does. 
Being blessed (and cursed) with what she describes as “pathological curiosity”, her fascinating journey spans academia (CCA, CSM, Lund to name a few), to Hollywood (helping world-build the vision for Wakanda & working with directors like Ridley Scott), to time in Silicon Valley, where she experienced and witnessed dysfunctional and exploitative behaviors over and over again and realized the huge knowledge gaps among those shaping our current futures. 
Believing that there is a better way, she founded Protopia Futures, a platform for showcasing how transcultural, interdisciplinary and life-centric design approaches alongside disability and neurodivergence inclusion, can help us design a better world for most of humanity, and foster regenerative economies of the future. 
Monika is not only fascinating, but in spending time with her you quickly realize that her vision of a Protopian future is one we all need; and in our case, want. 
Love what you hear? Please consider sharing, liking, commenting and subscribing to our podcast.
👩‍⚕️Learn more about Monika: https://za.linkedin.com/in/monikabielskyte👩🏻‍💻 Our Website: www.FemmeFuturists.com
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY
 

A More Human Internet (ft. Mary Camacho)

Everything we do digitally is controlled or facilitated by third parties who then aggregate and monetize our data and interactions without any benefit to us. How then, do we build something that gives the person using it complete control? How do we create a more human internet?
 
Mary Camacho is CEO for Holo + Holochain, championing the integration and adoption of innovative peer-to-peer application infrastructure to facilitate truly independent communication that transforms how we interact digitally. Think of it as a blockchain alternative, only spectacularly better across the board; for energy consumption, for business applications and for the humans using it.
 
Heads up… this topic is pretty lofty but don’t be intimidated. Mary has an ability to clearly and simply describe what the next digital revolution looks like and by the end of our conversation you understand why it’s infinitely more appealing than what we have now. So the only question left to ask is, how fast can we get there?! 🤩💃🏻
 
Love what you hear? Please consider rating our podcast!
 
👩‍⚕️Learn more about Mary: https://www.holochain.org + https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryfcamacho/👩🏻‍💻 Our Website: www.FemmeFuturists.com
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY

Sustainable Housing for Earth and BEYOND (ft. Melodie Yashar)

Episode #36: What if we told you that it’s possible to 3D print a house for around $7K and in the space of 24hrs - and not only is it possible - but entire communities are being built this way? You’d think it was pretty mind-blowing, right?
That’s exactly what Melodie Yashar and her team at ICON are focused on.
Engineering and visioning sustainable built environments on and off-world (we’re talking Mars + the Moon), she’s spearheading a shift not just in how we live, but how we think about what’s possible in the way we live. In this podcast our conversation ranges across:
… self-assembling cities
… space feminism
… the inherent rights of uncolonized worlds
… how she geeks out on new material & fabrication technologies
… and the essential role tiny robots play in all of this!
Her TED talk, ”How to Build for Human Life on Mars” has been viewed over 1.4 million times.    
Love what you hear? Please consider sharing, liking, commenting and subscribing to our podcast.
👩‍⚕️Learn more about Melodie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melodieyashar/
▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/Tizk3ifMf3A
👩🏻‍💻 Our Website: www.FemmeFuturists.com
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY

From Wall-Street to Tackling BIG FOOD and Imposter Syndrome (ft. Robyn O'Brien)

Episode #35 has landed and we’re honored to introduce you to the beautiful, smart and deeply heart-centered Robyn O’Brien. Whether you know it or not, you’ve probably been impacted by her work transforming the food industry, after her life changed irrevocably when her daughter had a life-threatening reaction to food, that then turned into a movement, that then changed the entire food industry. Amazing.
 
In our conversation Robyn’s wisdom after wisdom became like a handbook from a wise friend and advisor, as we talk about everything from:
 
💃🏻 How courage is her personal mantra and the extraordinary changes that happen when you commit to being even 20% braver.
 
✨ How if you are out there driving change, fear will be riding shotgun, but fear can be an extraordinary North Star.
 
🔥 How vulnerability is a strength.
 
🙌🏻 The need to flip the script on imposter syndrome; especially because as women we are pushing against a system that was not, and is not, built for us.
 
🧡 And the massive economic advantages of the history-making transfer of $30 trillion (more than the national U.S. GDP) in wealth to women, by 2030. 
 
There is so much more we cover from being a producer on the just released documentary, Common Ground, to how she now has her sights set on the finance industry (look out!!!), so tune in and listen to get the full story… 
 
Love what you hear? Please consider sharing, liking, commenting and subscribing to our podcast.
 
▶️ Watch Us on YouTube
👩🏻‍💻 Visit Our Website at  www.FemmeFuturists.com
 
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY

Radical Maternal Care. Anytime. Anywhere. with Astercare (ft.Lailah Kara-Newton + Fifi Kara)

Welcome to Episode #34. It is 100% unacceptable that globally, black women face a nine times higher risk of maternal death than their white counterparts, regardless of wealth. And that the United States is the most dangerous and expensive high-income country for childbirth, especially for Black and Indigenous women.
 
💫 Lailah Kara Newton, an MD with a successful UK practice specializing in women’s health who experienced her own childbirth trauma, and Fifi Kara, a fulbright scholar and B2B investment entrepreneur who supported Meta's Health & Fitness team, decided to take their experiences and change that, once and for all.
 
🙌🏻 This dynamic duo put all their heart and energies into four years developing an app that provides continuous at-home monitoring for mothers pre and post-natal, 24/7 support, and accessible clinical guidance = radically better, women’s health game changer.
 
🔥 Fifi and Lailah represent a new vanguard of women who will not sit on the sidelines and wait for change. Instead, they’re doing something about it.
 
Such an honor to speak with these two trailblazers!! We invite you to listen to this amazing origin story and journey toward globally changing women’s health - and if your provider/doula/midwife/friends haven’t yet heard of them - please share. You could literally save a life. 
 
👩‍⚕️Learn more about Astercare: https://astercare.com/
▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mjunn8kEzQ
👩🏻‍💻 Our Website: www.FemmeFuturists.com
 
Music from Uppbeat: uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/transcend License code: D5M95QR3OT6UNHQY

Employing 1 Billion Farmers to Solve a Planet-Wide Problem (ft. Drea Burbank)

Episode #33: In our Femme Futurist Video Podcast series with extraordinary women, we explore how we can better develop high-tech for low resource environments to improve global health with Drea Burbank. Drea Burbank, is the CEO of Savimbo as an MD-Technologist & Serial Entrepreneur with her work ranging in things like Web3 to stem-cells.
Learn more about the Femmes at Femmefuturists.com
Learn more about Drea and Savimbo at Savimbo.com