Launched in February 2023, The History of the Future podcast is based in the Trinity Long Room Hub and is hosted by entrepreneur Mark Little and historian Elspeth Payne. The podcast has been gaining traction with audiences for its unique approach to what comes next, asking questions like how do we prepare for a future in which the only certainty is exponential change? Can we move fast without breaking things? Can we transform panic and fear into resolve and resilience?
Exploring creativity, language, identity, expression, and emotion and how they play out over history, the podcast takes its cue from significant future challenges we are facing around democracy, media, and technology but looks to the Arts and Humanities for new critical perspectives.
This novel approach has now been recognised by the Irish Podcast Awards which has shortlisted the History of the Future podcast in three categories: best branded podcast, best factual podcast, and best new podcast.
Celebrating excellence in Ireland’s Podcast Industry, The History of the Future podcast has been shortlisted alongside high-profile shows like ‘The Blindboy Podcast’, ‘Basically...with Stefanie Preissner’, ‘As I Remember It: Bertie Ahern & The Good Friday Agreement’, and ‘In the News’.
Earlier this year the podcast also attracted media attention with features in the Irish Times (‘How do we gauge how big a mess we’re in? Turn to a historian’), Pat Kenny’s Newstalk show, Brendan O’Connor’s RTE Radio 1 programme, and on Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder.
The History of the Future is a documentary-style podcast which has featured a wide array of guests across its inaugural six-part series, including Sophia Smith Galer, Ian Robertson, Jennifer Edmond, Karlin Lillington, Eve Ng, Jacob Mchangama, Adrian Bingham, Leon Diop, Bernice Murphy, Bruce Shapiro, Claire Wardle, and Julian Baggini.
On Thursday the 28th of September as part of Trinity’s Arts and Humanities Festival, the Democracy Forum’s Ellie Payne and Mark Little will join AI Musicologist Martin Clancy to discuss AI and Music, a ‘The History of the Future’ conversation.
Season 2 of The History of the Future podcast will be launched in 2024. For updates follow @TLRHDemForum on Twitter.