Mistopian
Mistopian Podcast
1 Creator
1 Creator
Welcome to Mistopian, the podcast that evaluates the past’s wildly-inaccurate predictions about the future that we now live in. Join our hosts, Alex and Patrick, as they navigate the turbulent waters of history and explore the bold predictions great minds of the past made about our future. Whether it’s as optimistic as flying cars or gloomy as Big Brother, Mistopian is sure to not only get to the bottom of why these predictions were hits or misses, but also investigate why these predictions were made so confidently in the first place.
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Top 10 Mistopian Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Mistopian episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Mistopian for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Mistopian episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
08/15/23 • 57 min
Patrick takes Alex on a trip through history, as we look at the Mayan Long Count calendar and why some people thought the world would end in 2012. We discuss who the Maya are, how their various calendars work, and how the 2012 "doomsday" myth morphed over the years. Both Alex and Patrick express, frankly, rage at trying to pin down exactly what some New Age leaders were trying to say would happen in 2012. We've got blood rituals, we've got universal telepathy, we've got the poles flipping.
Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny.
Links:
- Matthew Restall & Amara Solari: 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse
- Robert K. Sitler: The 2012 Phenomenon
- Michael Coe: The Maya
- Frank Waters: Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth World of Culture
- The McKenna Brothers: The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching
- José Argüelles and the Harmonic Convergence
- Late Night Radio and the 2012 Phenomenon
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06/06/23 • 51 min
Alex teases Patrick with a tantalizing glimpse into the future: what if we only had to work 15 hours a week? That’s what famed British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted back in 1930 in an overly-optimistic essay he wrote entitled “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.” This week we talk Patrick’s dream jobs (he has 2!), how keeping up with the Joneses is keeping us in the office, and America’s exhausting infatuation with “hustle culture.”
Theme Song is Satellites by Swenny.
Links
- Four-day week: Which countries have embraced it and how’s it going so far?
- Whatever happened to Keynes' 15-hour working week?
- We're making the wrong argument for a four-day workweek
- What the 15-Hour Work Week Prophets Failed to Account for
- Who Was John Maynard Keynes & What Is Keynesian Economics?
- Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
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07/05/23 • 44 min
Journalists everywhere mark the change in the calendar by churning out some predictions for the new year that they think no one will look back on 12 months later. But they didn't count on Mistopian, the podcast that also needs to churn out content! Alex and Patrick look back at 9 predictions made at the beginning of 2021 about the year 2022 and evaluate just how right and/or wrong they were.
Links
- 22 predictions for 2022 and Why This is Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point Year
- Brian Sullivan: Here are five major predictions for 2022
- This is what people around the world predict will happen in 2022
- CNET - 5 ways the world will change in 2022: CNET's predictions for the year ahead
- 10 media execs, under the cloak of anonymity, predict 2022′s industry-shaking events
- Here Are 22 Random (And Bold?) Sports Predictions For 2022
- "Mystic veg" psychic who correctly "foresaw" Brexit, Prince Philip's death makes predictions for 2022
- Will There Be a War Over Ukraine? 13 Putin Watchers Weigh In
- Oops! The Worst Political Predictions of 2022
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08/29/23 • 46 min
It's part two of our look back at the hysteria surrounding the Mayan Long Count calendar. This time we take a deep dive into a relatively early History Channel special that looks deep into Maya prophecies and determines that the ancient people were desparately trying to tell us about the future of...the United States? We briefly discuss the 2012 film, Divorce Court, and in the end we sadly dip back into some New Age predictions.
It's highly suggested you listen to Pt. 1 first, at least to make sense of all of the calendar stuff.
Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny.
Links:
- Matthew Restall & Amara Solari: 2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse
- Robert K. Sitler: The 2012 Phenomenon
- History Channel - Decoding The Past - Mayan Doomsday Prophecy (2007)
- NASA: Beyond 2012: Why the World Didn't End
- Mayan apocalypse: Argentina closes mountain over mass suicide risk
- Was Mayan calendar tied to murder-suicide in Dorchester County?
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05/09/23 • 57 min
Alex shows Patrick what men’s fashion would have been like for the 21st century if industrial designer Gilbert Rohde had gotten his wish. The 1939 World’s Fair issue of Vogue magazine was full of arresting and alluring fashion predictions for the future, though none were as intriguing as the banishment of the suit in what Rohde called a “Great Revolt” by men. It’s jumpsuit onesies, plexiglass pockets, and halo antennae in this week’s exploration of futuristic fashion–and trust us, this one works best if you catch a glimpse of the design while you listen.
Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny.
Links
- Gilbert Rohde’s Design for the 21st Century Man
- Vogue Feb. 1, 1939 Archive
- 99 Years of the Jumpsuit
- Fashions for the Future
- How the Power Suit Lost Its Power
- Beryllium - Wikipedia
- Hair Removal
- Beards and Status in Tudor Times
- Gilbert Rohde - Industrial Designers Society of America
- In The Year 2000: Fashion Predictions from 1939
- Avery Kendall’s Instagram
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09/12/23 • 61 min
Patrick and Alex welcome their friends and hosts of the Unprofessional Development podcast, Tudisco and Mealey, to use their expertise as educators to evaluate predictions from the past about what teaching would be like in the future. We evaluate a series of predictions from 1900, 1927, 1931, and 1958. This conversation has far more focus on pneumatic tubes, eugenics, Mad Max, and ICBMs than you might expect.
Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny.
Links:
- The Unprofessional Development Podcast
- Mealey's Twitter and Instagram
- Ladies Home Journal Article: What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years
- Procrustes, or the Future of English Education
- The Educational Impacts of the Eugenics Movement
- The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing
- Closer Than We Think: 40 Visions Of The Future World According To Arthur Radebaugh
- School of the Future from 1967 Short: 1999 AD
- Simon Ramo: A New Technique of Education
- Simon Ramo’s Patent for the Method and apparatus for interactive, computer-based, automatically adaptable learning
- The History of the Future of Education
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Bonus Episode: AI Predictions
Mistopian
10/31/23 • 41 min
Patrick and Alex record a time capsule episode, documenting current predictions about the future of AI. Only time will tell if they come true. This episode features talking to animals, putting lawyers out of work, and childrens' (yeah, definitely childrens') toys.
Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny.
Links
- Lifehacker: This Article Was Written by AI
- Misinformation Is About to Get So Much Worse
- US government wants AI that can ID text's author
- Reuters: Will ChatGPT make lawyers obsolete? (Hint: be afraid)
- AZDNET: AI might enable us to talk to animals soon. Here's how
- Godfather of AI tells '60 Minutes' he fears the technology could one day take over humanity
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says AI could bring a 31⁄2-day workweek
- Whistleblower Frances Haugen sounds alarm on rise of artificial intelligence
- Harvard Business Review: New Technologies Arrive in Clusters. What Does That Mean for AI?
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06/20/23 • 40 min
Patrick takes Alex on a journey through the rock opera and alternate reality game, Year Zero, from Nine Inch Nails. We look at the history of the concept album, read Reznor's lyrics, then get out a white board and some red string to untangle the mysteries about Parapen, Diagra, the Church of Plano, and The Presence.
All apologies to the people of Cleveland, OH.
Theme Song is Satellites by Swenny.
Links
- Wired Interview : Trent Reznor on Year Zero, Planting Clues, and What's Ludicrous About Being a Musician Today
- 42 Entertainment's Website/Campaign Recap
- Fan Archive of the Year Zero Campaign
- Open Resistence Meeting Concert Footaged
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05/23/23 • 46 min
Patrick pitches to Alex a tale of baseball uniform predictions as they analyze the 1998 and 1999 Turn Ahead the Clock promotions. In this episode we untuck our shirts, turn our caps backwards, and spray our cleats silver as we look back at what baseball thought the unis of the future might look like. This episode is decidedly NOT sponsored by Century 21, Nike, Kroger, or Crypto.com.
Theme Song is Satellites by Swenny.
Links:
- Slideshow We Used In This Episode
- An Oral History of “Turn Ahead the Clock,” MLB's Unfortunate Foray Into the Future of Uniforms
- 7/11/90 White Sox Turn Back The Clock Day
- Mercury Mets inside story | MLB.com
- Remembering "Turn Ahead the Clock Night" with the Royals and Mariners
- Uni Watch's Friday Flashback - Baseball turns ahead the clock in 1999 - ESPN
- Athletics vs Angels (6-26-1999)
- ANA@BAL: Ripken homers on 'Turn Ahead the Clock' day
- In 1999, baseball imagined the world of 2021, and it looked weird. The ‘Turn Ahead the Clock’ promo, revisited - The Athletic
- What MLB teams will have uniform ad patches in 2023?
- Marketing and Sponsorship: Long history of home-plate ad opportunities makes jersey patches just the next layer for MLB sponsors
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04/25/23 • 41 min
Alex surprises Patrick with the long history of the flying car. Spoilers: they’ve been around a lot longer than people think. Though flying cars have been on every future-dreamer’s wishlist for decades, actually getting air-ready automobiles ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. This episode is all about absurd designs, Slovakian regulations, and DIY aerospace engineering.
Theme Song is Satellites by Swenny.
Links:
- How Flying Cars Will Work
- Flying Cars Are Finally Coming: Here Are 3 That Will Hit the Skies Soon
- 'Freedom cities' and flying cars: Donald Trump unveils latest proposal
- Flying car - Wikipedia
- The Jetsons - Wikipedia
- The Surprisingly Long History Of Real Flying Cars
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FAQ
How many episodes does Mistopian have?
Mistopian currently has 16 episodes available.
What topics does Mistopian cover?
The podcast is about Culture, Futurism, Society & Culture, Society, History, Future, Humor, Podcasts, Sci Fi and Science.
What is the most popular episode on Mistopian?
The episode title 'Harmonic Convergence: The 2012 Phenomenon Pt. 1' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Mistopian?
The average episode length on Mistopian is 51 minutes.
How often are episodes of Mistopian released?
Episodes of Mistopian are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Mistopian?
The first episode of Mistopian was released on Apr 18, 2023.
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