The Sniffer

Nora Young and Cathi Bond

Listen to writer/broadcasters Nora Young and Cathi Bond as they freak over the future. They can't believe it. Neither will you.

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520 episodes
Updated Mar 10, 2024

Episodes520

Newest first

Jan 16, 2017 · 10 min
Your Own Smart Home Robotic Assistants
In this podcast, Cathi Bond takes a look at the story coming out of the recent CES extravaganza, and the dominant role played by Amazon Echo in building a smart home hub (see, for example, CNET's writeup. Nora Young talks about cute home robots (via Technology Review). There's Kuri, which can control things in your house, but can also roam around and check on different parts of your home when you're not there. Or consider Lynx, which is integrated with Amazon Echo. It's starting to look like the
Jan 1, 2017 · 7 min
Cool, Sustainable Buildings and Uncanny Valley Update
In this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about architect Vincent Callebaut's cool, sustainable, luxury condo project. Will this be the way of the future for condos that aren't on the luxury end too? See more of Callebaut's projects here. Nora Young talks about new research suggesting just how good - and fast - humans are at visually distinguishing reality from unreal images. What does this mean for virtual reality design, as well as the design of robots?
Dec 18, 2016 · 11 min
High Cost of Fast Fashion and Cool Gift Guide
In this podcast, Nora Young talks about this Motherboard story on the environmental cost of "fast fashion". Cathi Bond picks out some of her favourite Christmas gifts from Gizmodo's gift guide for the hermit on your list. Nora's favourite is one she also saw at Technology Review: Cozmo the cutie robot! Happy Holidays!
Dec 6, 2016 · 10 min
Building Better Chatbots and Customized Diets
On this podcast, Nora Young mentions research out of Carnegie Mellon into creating chatbots that can respond to humans with more emotional intelligence, picking up on our subtle social cues (via Technology Review). You might want to check out this interview with Jerry Kaplan on her show, Spark. Cathi Bond talks about Habit, a startup that aims to create custom meal plans based on your nutritional profile, including things like vitamin levels and blood sugar (via Fast Company)
Nov 21, 2016 · 9 min
Racism in the sharing economy and smart jacket for VIP access
On this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about this study on racism and sexism with ride-hailing services Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel (via Jalopnik). Is this something you have experienced? Nora Young talks about the Rochambeau Bright BMBR smart jacket, which comes loaded with digital "tags" that give the wearer VIP access (via Read Write). It ties into several trends, including products that incorporate 'experiences'.
Oct 24, 2016 · 9 min
AI learns from Google Books, and TubeChat combats loneliness
This time around, Cathi Bond talks about a Google AI project. The AI was trained on 11,000 genre fiction novels in order to chat more naturally. Cool, but the hitch is that some authors are ticked off that their fiction is being used as training data, and they're not being compensated (via The Guardian) Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions the Tube Chat project, where London commuters were urged to talk to strangers on the Tube. A lot of hilarious riffing on Londoners' famous reserve followed (via Cit
Oct 11, 2016 · 10 min
Food Trends: Robotic Pizza and Reputation Economy for Diners
On this podcast, Nora Young talks about Seven Rooms (via Fortune), an online reservation service that also stores data about diners and club-goers. Is the reputation economy coming to the hospitality sector? It reminds Nora a bit of Super Sad True Love Story. Meanwhile Cathi Bond talks about Zume, a roboticized pizza system that aims to complete the cooking in the delivery truck, solving the problem of "dwell time" and soggy pizza crust (via New Atlas). Cool innovation or harbinger of Wall-E?
Sep 26, 2016 · 13 min
The Future of Skyscrapers and New Tool for Managing Info Overload
On this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about recent awards for futuristic skyscraper concepts, handed out by Evolo architecture magazine. The winning design was, literally, a "hole in the ground" but other designs include The Hive, a drone-docking tower, and a super tall data centre (via New Atlas). Cathi and Nora chat about the near future of skyscrapers. Nora Young looks at Explain to Me, a tool that scans and summarizes web-based articles so you can decide whether it's worth your time to read the
Sep 5, 2016 · 11 min
Mobile Payments for Unbanked People and High End Grow Your Own
On the podcast this time, Nora Young talks about India's plan for a Unified Payment Interface, or UPI. The idea is to connect Indians who are currently "unbanked" with a mobile payments system, using phones and their national biometric-based ID system (via Mashable). Cathi Bond gets why they're doing it, but still thinks it sounds creepy and Big Brother-ish. What do you think? Meanwhile, Cathi looks at Grobo, a very cool, design-forward, internet-enabled system for growing your own plants, whate
Jul 30, 2016 · 11 min
How to Brainstorm and Mind-Bending Internet Art
In this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about Continuum Infinitum, a supercool continuous video loop (via Gizmodo). Watch the video here. She also mentions Snarg. Cathi and Nora talk internet art. What do you think defines it? Nora mentions Grocery Trip, and the work of Darius Kazemi. Meanwhile, Nora Young talks about this Fast Company article by Veronique Lafargue on how the folks at Google brainstorm. Some of it is familiar (eg, don't shoot down ideas), but some is really new: in particular, don't f
Jul 17, 2016 · 7 min
Exoskeletons and Smart Tables
On this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about a soft, lightweight "exosuit" created by the Wyss Institute at Harvard, and ReWalk Robotics (via Gizmag). Unlike other experiments in exoskeletons designed for people who can't move their legs, this is a support for people with some mobility impairment. Nora mentions this segment on her show, Spark. Meanwhile, Nora Young talks about Smart Slab, a design for a 'smart' table that offers heating, cooling, and device charging. In addition to being great lookin
Jul 3, 2016 · 9 min
AI News Readers and Robots on the Sidewalk!
Nora Young talks about new research into creating an AI that can read and 'understand' a news article with greater accuracy than Google's DeepMind had previously been able to do (via New Scientist). What does it mean for the future, now that AI is getting so good at recognizing and interpreting text, images, faces, and speech? Cathi Bond continues on the artificial intelligence tip with research out of Stanford into robots that can navigate pedestrian sidewalks, where we chaotic humans can behav
Jun 19, 2016 · 9 min
"Nice" Online Communities and Data-Driven Shopping
In this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about the Adobe Experience Manager, which uses aggregated data to give retailers the inside track on what a customer might be interested in. Read more at PSFK. Nora Young talks about Imzy, a new online community (currently in private beta) that has strategies to try to make sure it is a "nice" place (via Ars Technica). Is bad behaviour something that can be solved by strategies and design, or are some people always going to be bad actors?
Jun 6, 2016 · 9 min
VR Social Networking and Smart Wearable for Asthma
This time, Nora Young talks about AltspaceVR, a new, social network using Virtual Reality. Read Motherboard's hands-on coverage here. Cathi refers back to our chat about holoportation. Cathi Bond looks at the HET Health and Environment Tracker (via Gizmag). It's a combination wristband and chest patch for people with asthma. It monitors both the wearers biometric data (including signs of wheezing) and environmental data. Smart! Thanks for listening, and we hope you'll consider rating us!
May 23, 2016 · 11 min
Micro-Influencers and Focus at School
In this podcast, Nora Young talks about this study suggesting that the more popular an "influencer" is on Instagram, the less likely her or his posts are to generate engagement such as likes or comments. It points to the potential, instead, for "micro-influencers" (via Digiday) Cathi Bond talks about the use of ADHD medication to increase focus for a generation having trouble focusing at school, thanks to the constant task-switching of digital media. She points to these tips for improved study h
May 8, 2016 · 11 min
Kindle Oasis Ereader and Uber User Experience
On today's podcast, Cathi Bond has been on the hunt for the e-reader that can trump the experience of the good old paper book. She surveys reviews of the new Amazon Oasis, and thinks it may be the killer tech for e-books - for a price. Meanwhile, Nora Young points out this terrific story The Guardian did on how Uber approached taking on the London market. Regardless of what you think about Uber, it has great lessons about how to really nail the user experience. Did you like this episode? Please
Apr 19, 2016 · 8 min
Future of Retail: Digital, Flexible, Trust-Based
This time, Nora Young and Cathi Bond are talking shopping. Cathi Bond looks at this profile of retail design company, The Science Project. It seems to take a page from user experience design to create a shopping experience that's data-driven, supported by digital, and very flexible. Nora mentions Frank and Oak's approach to offering a number of experiences in-store besides shopping. Meanwhile, Nora talks about a convenience store in the isolated Swedish town of Viken, which is unstaffed (via Spr
Apr 2, 2016 · 10 min
Virtual Reality Holoportation and Cool Urban Planning
On today's podcast, Cathi Bond talks about Microsoft Research's "holoportation" technology, that uses 3D video cameras to capture a moving image of a person in one location and send that image to a person wearing the "Hololens" headset, anywhere in the world. (via Gizmag). Check out the video below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments! Cathi also talks a bit about the legacy of Zaha Hadid, the architect who died this past week. Cathi toured her MAXXI project several years ago. Check ou
Mar 20, 2016 · 8 min
Home Monitoring Heart Rate and Stress, a Growing Medical Trend
In this podcast, Cathi Bond talks about this home ECG monitor, the mobilECG. It promises "open source electrocardiography". Nora Young talks about this Spark interview with Joe Cafazzo from the University Health Network in Toronto. Continuing the self-tracking trend, Nora talks about Neumitra, a start-up that aims to help individuals monitor their stress levels (via Kernelmag). The intriguing thing is the potential to use aggregated data to understand the stressful parts of the city.
Mar 7, 2016 · 9 min
Urban Farming and Cool Trailers
This time, Nora Young looks at the urban agriculture trend. According to a new study, the majority of people doing small scale urban agriculture (eg, rooftop market gardening) in the U.S. generate less than $10,000 in sales. This calls into question the sustainability of the urban ag trend (via City Lab). In a bit of good news, though, Modern Farmer looks at a really cool idea: mobile urban farm stands that sell fresh food near public transit, for people in "food deserts". Cathi Bond continues