Episodes

  • Introducing: Offsite Adventures
    Apr 17 2024

    From the team behind Should This Exist?, we're happy to share the first episode of Offsite Adventures, our newest show uncovering the gems, magical moments, and unique learnings in iconic business travel destinations.

    Three minutes before midnight in Times Square, one of the most trafficked commercial centers in the world momentarily transforms into a vibrant digital art installation, providing a refreshing pause for locals and tourists alike. It’s called the Midnight Moment, and you won’t believe how something so unexpected came together. In this episode, Janet digs into the history of this unique collaboration between the advertising and arts communities before experiencing it herself with innovative, boundary-breaking artist Shahzia Sikander.

    Offsite Adventures is a Masters of Scale Production presented in alliance with Capital One Business.

    Special thanks to Jean Cooney and Times Squares Arts and artists featured as part of the Midnight Moment episode:

    Artist: Shahzia Sikander | Title: Reckoning | Video by Tatyana Tenenbaum

    Artist: Nora Maité Nieves | Title: Eyes of the Sea | Video by Tatyana Tenenbaum

    Artist: LuYang | Title: DOKU: Digital Reincarnation | Video by Phatt Features

    Special thanks to composer Du Yun for music featured in this episode.

    See this story come to life in our video series on YouTube. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpUrWKdCjE

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    21 mins
  • Introducing: Ingenious with Caterina Fake
    Sep 26 2023

    Renowned creator, entrepreneur and pioneer Caterina Fake brings together some of the most brilliant and visionary figures of our time, many of them friends and colleagues, for deep discussions about inspiration, humanity, technology, and the future of the world. With Ingenious, she explores the sources of inspiration and the hopes fueling luminaries working on the cutting edge of creativity, art, entrepreneurship, and technology. Shaping the outcome of global conflicts, climate change, education, and other forces acting upon the future, Caterina poses essential questions about where we are headed and how our ingenuity can solve some of the world’s thorniest problems.

    You can listen to Ingenious here https://link.chtbl.com/ingenious_ste

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    3 mins
  • Introducing Spark & Fire Season 2
    Nov 21 2022

    If you love Should This Exist?, we have exciting news to share: From the same company behind our show, the podcast Spark + Fire is back for Season 2! Spark + Fire explores what really happens on the road to creative success. In their own words, creative icons share the moments of inspiration and setback, the collaborations and the pivots, the breakthroughs and the dead ends along the hero's journey to bring something new into the world. Regardless of your own field, there are endless discoveries in each story that could transform the way you approach your practice of creative thinking and innovating.

    Stories from comedian Patton Oswalt, "Wicked" composer Stephen Schwartz, actor and producer Joseph Gordon-Levitt, best-selling author Ann Patchett, "Frozen" composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Pixar director Domee Shi, and many more.

    Subscribe at sparkandfire.com or your favorite podcast platform.

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    3 mins
  • Can we trip our way to better mental health?
    Dec 23 2020

    You’d be forgiven for being surprised if your doctor wrote you a prescription for ecstasy, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, or LSD. But a recent resurgence in psychedelic research shows that a number of mental health conditions can be treated directly and effectively with potent psychoactive drugs. Dr. Dave Nichols has been studying the chemistry of these drugs for over 40 years, and he’s convinced of their therapeutic potential — and aware of the dangers of abuse. After a long psychedelic winter, are we ready to welcome these drugs back into the psychiatric fold?

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    33 mins
  • Nuclear power in a six-pack
    Dec 16 2020

    When you think of nuclear power, what do you envision? For many people, the answer is Chernobyl or Fukushima: massive meltdowns that turned vast areas into radioactive wastelands. But those were meltdowns — and without meltdowns, nuclear power could be a valuable source of clean energy. Dr. Jose Reyes, the co-founder of NuScale, has designed a small, modular reactor that, he claims, cannot melt down. A six-pack of these reactors could power a good-size city, and though that power comes at a higher price than natural gas or renewables, the cost might be offset by the gains in climate goals. Bottom line: How safe is safe enough for nuclear power?

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    34 mins
  • Cloud brightening for climate fever
    Dec 9 2020

    Kelly Wanser is a climate activist who wants to use a strategy called cloud brightening to fight climate change, using a naturally occurring process to bounce rays from the sun back out to space. She and others have described it compellingly as “emergency medicine for the earth’s climate fever,” and suggest it could buy us more time to implement policies addressing the root causes of climate change. But climate change is a planetary problem – so who gets to decide what countries or groups are allowed to take the risk of geoengineering to fix it? How can one country pursue a risky mitigation strategy if neighboring countries would be the most adversely affected if things went wrong?

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    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    34 mins
  • The promise of a bioartificial kidney
    Dec 2 2020

    UCSF bioengineer Shuvo Roy and his team have created the world’s first bionic kidney. The coffee-cup-sized device includes a silicon nanotechnology filter to cleanse the blood, while living kidney cells grown in a bioreactor perform the other functions of a natural kidney. A bioartificial kidney could save kidney patients from being stuck on a dialysis machine for life – or dying while waiting for a rare transplant. But is the promise of such a life-changing device enough to convince investors to bring such a thing to market? We talk through the ethics of artificial organs. 

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    34 mins
  • A world without our devices
    Nov 25 2020

    Could you, would you, go one full hour without your phone? The average American spends one-third of their waking hours on a smartphone; we’ve been told our devices make life better, faster, and easier. What happens when we choose to live without them – or when we are forced to? In this episode, we’ll talk to media studies professor Douglas Rushkoff, get the down low from a U.S. senator who sat in a “digitally sequestered” hearing for three weeks (guess which one) – and travel to the WiFi-free town of Green Bank, West Virginia, to find out exactly what happens when we unplug.

    Listen to Douglas Rushkoff’s podcast Team Human: http://teamhuman.fm

    Get Douglas’ book Team Human: https://rushkoff.com/books/team-human-book

    Find more resources about this episode at shouldthisexist.com

    Subscribe to our excellent newsletter at http://eepurl.com/gnZTf9


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    34 mins