Future Tense - Full Program Podcast

It’s a golden time for Antarctic research, with more and more countries taking a direct interest in the great southern continent. But suspicions abound as to the real motivations of key Antarctic players.

The future of diplomacy: Backroom manoeuvrings are giving way to public forums. And carefully laid plans can come unstuck with a single tweet.

Diplomacy is often viewed as a way of smoothing the friction points between states, but international relations are becoming increasingly assertive and highly personal.

Are the systems we’ve developed to enhance our lives now impairing our ability to distinguish between reality and falsity? Can teaching of ethics and critical thinking help lead us out of the shadowlands?

Are rituals still needed in a world mediated through digital devices? Rituals exist in our everyday life, as a way of helping us to make sense of the world.

The GIF, this little looped video, is often misunderstood as a component of modern communication. It has an important role to play in making modern digital discussion smoother.

We hear about the EU-funded project Counting as a Human Being in the Era of Computational Law. We get up-to-date on a new data trust mark for Australian researchers. And we take you back to the Quayside 'Google' project in Toronto.

More than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, but only around 2.5 percent is drinkable. In this episode we talk to various scientists engaged in making water out of thin air.

A cross between a bus and light rail promises better transport; humans are sounding more like bots online; and solar panels on roads might deliver more hype than energy.

What role has social media played in the rise of populist politics? Also, what responsibility should technology companies have in preventing the misuse of social media by political extremists?

Inclusive design isn’t just about meeting the needs of the disabled, it’s about opening-up the possibility of creating better products and services for everyone.

Smart phones have become an essential part of our lives. But are they so familiar, we sometimes underestimate their importance? The role they’ve played in helping to shape our interests and interactions?

Parts of Australia were built on mining and coal-fired power-generation. Then they lost those industries. Future Tense looks as innovative ways to move forward.

E-sports – competitive video gaming – is set to leave traditional performance sport in its wake. Whether to recognise e-sports as a real sport is not the main issue any more; the main challenge is to create working governance structures.

How do you read? And how will you be reading in the future? Writers, journalists and publishers discuss the changing digital and literary world and how it could look in the years to come.

Future Tense looks at the seemingly lost art of listening - listening, not just hearing! And what being responsive can mean in the modern world.

It is time to put aside the novelty aspect of unmanned aerial vehicles and start designing domestic drones that are fit for purpose. But how do you regulate a technology that has so many different uses and such varying capacities?

The world of classical music is changing. Some are predicting the demise of orchestral events. Others see opportunity in social media and a new sense of engagement between the audience and musicians.

A massive data project is underway in Europe. It aims to create a kind of “Google map of the past” – making the minutia of history as accessible as today's social media. Also, the results of a study  into geo-engineering and agriculture; and a new construction method for building bridges.

Across the western world populations are ageing. And that means what we eat needs to change in order to give us the best possible future.