Episode 21: Dr. Schon + the Foo Fighters, your Bits + Blocks Byte and Andreas Antonopoulos

IDEO Futures

• Episode: Episode 21: Dr. Schon + the Foo Fighters, your Bits + Blocks Byte and Andreas Antonopoulos
• Website: IDEO Futures
• Feed URL: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:104583542/sounds.rss
• Duration: 00:25:56
• Published: 2015-08-12 22:49

A lot has happened since we last met during Episode No. 20! The Bits + Blocks Lab at Harvard had its finale at the end of July, IDEO U shipped its second course, and we've been working on a lot of soon-to-be-announced Futures things, too. Plus, during one of our July visits to Boston, the last dregs of 2015 Winter snow officially melted. Closure is a wonderful thing, no? 21! It's such an evocative number. If visions of casinos and gambling are floating through your head right now, keep on going with it. This podcast — as with all 20 of those which came before it — is such a big gamble on so many fronts for both you the listener, and for us, the podders: will we ever find the "Perfect 10" VDTBOM? Will an interview guest finally walk out on us after one too many Bitcoin-related questions? Will Joe ever not wear shorts? Should we publish a book about the Bitcoin Diet? Might our pod sound quality ever approach that of NPR? Actually, on that last front, in celebration of our XXI milestone, with this episode we mark the debut of our super phat new microphone arrangement. Enhanced for your listening pleasure. We think you'll agree that it's a big step forward over our last ten pods, certainly over our first ten. Who knows, maybe Ice Cube will get wind of our sound quality and want to join us for an episode or two? We're game. Speaking of the wearing of short pants, Episode 21 is also a celebration of Bartholomew Jojo Simpson, also know as "Bart". But, you ask, "what's the connection between Bart and Bitcoin?". Listen and ye shall be enlightened. Someone with a much more self-evident tie to Bitcoin is Andreas M. Antonopoulos, who joins us for an interview here in Episode 21. It was a true honor to have Andreas speak to our design entrepreneurs as part of our Bits + Blocks Lab, and we took some time with him afterward to go even deeper into the world of Bitcoin and the blockchain. We'll be posting our full interview with Andreas in a separate podcast, so in this one you'll hear some highlights along with commentary from Bart, we mean, Joe. Andreas wrote the book on Bitcoin, and we heartily recommend adding it to your library. It's a keeper. By the way, can we mention how much we love skeuomorphism as a design topic? But wait, Bitcoin lovers, there's more! At the risk of morphing into the "Today in Bitcoin" podcast (if we haven't already), Pod 21 also features another installation of our "Bits + Blocks Byte" series. Super interesting stuff coming out of Cambridge (Our Fair City), Massachusetts, as always. To round out our score to 21, let's talk Foo Fighters. We're lucky to count among our colleagues Ian Schon. By day he's an ingenious engineer working out of IDEO Boston. By night he's a meticulous designer of inventive horology. His father is Dr. Lew C. Schon, who happens to hang out with the Foo Fighters. Was there ever a better ode to creative confidence than this (https://youtu.be/mmbSka35F7I)? Dr. Schon, you are indeed a total badass.