Is The World F*cked?
Welcome to "Is The World F*cked?" - a weekly raw and irreverent look at the future... starting today! We look at where the world's going in technology, economics, social policies and lots of other crazy sh*t!
We get real about where we could be going if we got our act together, what scares the hell out of us, and what makes our heads spin.
Your hosts are Dr Bruce McCabe, The Global Futurist, and Bruce's mate, "PJ" Jones, one of the original digital marketers in this world. We kick around the big issues everyone's thinking about but might hesitate to raise in polite company, while keeping it real and having some fun. Because, without the laughs, what's the point? And then we try to decide in the end, is the world f*cked, or not?
You can check out our "day jobs" at www.brucemccabe.com and www.alexim.com.au respectively, although this podcast was never meant for our clients (we're scared to death they'll find it). This podcast is for YOU - if you're thinking about the big stuff - and whether the world is f*cked, or not!
Episodes
45 episodes
#45 - Death by Selfie
Is narcissism on the rise? Are we all in danger if losing our souls behind a cloud of selfies and avocado-on-toast pics and ‘look at me’ TikTok dance videos? Yep, it’s only one of the biggest questions of our time, and today your fearless and d...
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48:44
#44 - Blowing Up Hydrogen - Part 2
H2, what is it good for? After calling out the scam-artists and greenwashers and setting a match to just about every hydrogen project on the planet based on the sky-high energy-input requirements and appalling economics, we’re putting on our ni...
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39:23
#43 - Blowing Up Hydrogen - Part 1
Hydrogen projects are everywhere and hey, they’re green, right? Water at the tailpipe? No CO2 emissions? And Toyota has bet BIG so it’s gotta be good. What’s not to like? Turns out, plenty … Your loveable rogues are kicking off 2024 with a ...
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32:59
#42 - Do BMW Drivers Share Their Bananas?
In this episode, we tackle the deepest of questions: "Are all BMW drivers assholes?” and needless to say, it’s all downhill from there! After performing an irreverent dissection of driver behaviour and car brands with sordid mark...
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23:21
#41 - Jurassic Park: Should We or Shouldn’t We?
Jurassic Park. It’s one of our all-time favorite movies. De-extinction, baby! Who wouldn’t want to watch a T-Rex chomping down on a goat … and, er, eyeing us through an upside-down car window ... Okay, okay, maybe not! Um, PJ, how a...
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27:03
#40 - A One Shot Cure For Cholesterol
In this episode, we're diving into the world of cholesterol and, spoiler alert, it's a pretty big deal... especially if you have high LDL numbers despite training your arse off and running for miles (as per guess who - we heard you PJ :).
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38:53
#39 - What's Life Like in the Amazon Algorithm
Dr Bruce recently had the good fortune of venturing into the world of Amazon Fulfilment Centres - and what he found is insane. As he walked through the unmanned doors, it hit him – he'd just stepped into the pulsating heart o...
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40:02
#38 - Wired Differently: Dr. Bruce's Amish Encounter
Let's get rid of our phones. Our cars. Our laptops. Our kids? Today we're unpacking a unique experience—Dr Bruce's visit to the Amish community in the USA a few weeks ago. Bruce brings his first-hand experience amon...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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43:55
#37 - Psychopathic AI
Ready for some darkness? All this year, senate committees and billionaires and scientists have been wrangling the question, ‘Is AI an existential threat to humanity?’ Yes, really. Dr Bruce and PJ wade into the arguments, for and against. So, ho...
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40:50
#36 - Suffocating In The Plastisphere
How to tackle plastic pollution? Can we? We rip into the plastic polluters spewing their packaging across our landscapes and into our rivers and growing the monumental garbage-islands that are already blanketing our oceans. What can we do to st...
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40:13
#35 - Charge Stations. Who Needs ’Em?
Solar roadways anyone? So with all these EVs around, how can we charge them without relying on heavy dirty energy production? Well, we thought we'd find out by exploring the weird, whacky, and wonderful ways of charging vehicles....
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42:27
#34 - The EV is Dead! Long Live The EV!
Just when you thought you understood electric vehicles, along comes a company re-inventing them from the ground up! So now the question is: what do you do with your old redundant EV? Well, we're not sure. However, w...
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42:00
#33 - Pet Psychiatry and AI - Now That’s Depressing!
What's that Rover? There's danger over that fence? Are you sure? Ohhhh, you mean you FEEL like there's danger over there. OK - no problem my beautiful fur baby. I'll grab my AI co-pilot so we can talk that through (and your puppy-hood), then...
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49:29
#32 - You’ll Get a Charge Out Of This
Wait - have you got a charger? I need a charger? Is there a powerpoint here somewhere? I need a powerpoint. Can I move this table? Can those people move aside? I think there's one behind there is all. I need that charger. I need it NOW!<...
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46:12
#31 - How Would You Like Your Cultured Cells Tonight Madam?
The meat market (no not those old bars you hung out in - we mean the actual meat market) is on the move - are we F'ed or not? And we go beyond just plant-based alternatives - this gets bloody! We’ve covered the massive global foo...
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43:24
#30 - This is Bigger Than Quantum Computing!
Computing power that we all use is about to change forever - and you heard it here first. The next generation of computer chips is on the way - and they are not as we know it... they're Neuromorphic! Neuro-what? Neuromorphic! Bio-inspired! M...
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33:10
#29 - The Sharemarket is Rigged! Pick Why!
Bet that got your attention! If you day trade - or anything like it - you HAVE to listen to this episode - whether your financial advisor likes it or not. Oh yeah, because to hell with all that energy stuff we've been discussing for a while,...
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54:54
#28 - We Reckon This One Saves The World (Part 2)
It's the second half of our Fusion love-fest. Having taken you on a tour of the International Thermonuclear Power Plant (ITER) in France, this time we’re flying you across the Atlantic to ogle yet another power plant under construction in De...
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41:39
# 27 - We Reckon This One Saves The World!
Too much promise? Well... you listen and be the judge. We think firing up a human-made STAR right here on planet Earth is a great idea... BOLD, AUDACIOUS, MASSIVE, POWERFUL........... and SAFE. Yep... don't believe it - take a li...
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1:00:40
#26 - In the End... Can Nuclear Save Us?
After our Oppenheimer chinwag we thought we’d better talk about the ‘other’ nuke: nuclear power plants, that is. Fission, baby! Atom-splitting for energy! It comes up constantly as a solution to climate change. It’s baseload, it ...
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56:42
#25 - Oppenheimer and the Nukes. So are we?
Time for an ITWF field trip so we scraped together all our podcast earnings and bought two tickets to “Oppenheimer,” and while we suck as movie reviewers we more than make up for it in enthusiasm! After which we segue into some l...
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1:14:28
#24 - Now Every Microphone Is a Lie Detector
Welcome to the future, where hidden cameras capture your iris dilation and heartbeat and face flushes and breathing, and software listens to the stress patterns in your voice, all for the purpose of deciding whether or not you are telling th...
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44:56
#23 - Can the Trees Save Us?
The hottest July (2023) in 120,000 years seems like a good time for a status check on emissions. We couldn't let it go... even the most skeptical out there would have to be interested in this result. OK - so July 2023 broke all h...
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52:52