Faith Popcorn, Futurist

The Great Power Switch: Women Recode Everything A Fortune 500 CEO walks past an envelope stuffed with $140 trillion and a message. It sounds like a joke, but the joke could be on you.

The world’s fastest-growing economy isn’t a country, it’s a gender. The new issue of The Popcorn Report just dropped: “The Great Power Switch.”

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-...

Substack: faithpopcorn.substack.com/p/the-great-...

Amazon’s delivery glasses: The newest innovation designed to enhance the delivery experience AI-powered sensing capabilities and computer vision technology display real-time navigation and delivery instructions so drivers can rely less on their phones and more on their surroundings.

Hidden benefit to Amazon: Surveillance to make sure drivers are working their hours. www.aboutamazon.com/news/transpo...

Stay-at-home ‘hub-sons’ are the tradwives of 2025 — and their moms couldn’t be more thrilled “This has been my dream job since I was a little kid,” Luke Parkhurst, 34, told The Post. “My mom is at work right now, she covers everything, and I stay home.”

The trad-son is the new archetype: Cashing Out and Cocooning for men. After centuries on the pedestal, they’re retreating from a world that no longer centers them.

How would you feel if your son moved back home?

nypost.com/2025/10/07/l...

Robots are learning to make human babies. Twenty have already been born. One in six people of reproductive age suffer from infertility. Start-ups are using AI-powered robots to increase IVF success rates and lower costs.

Robots can now create life. Next: Every step, from conception to birth, will happen without a human. What does starting parenthood look like when you aren't fatigued from pregnancy and you haven't had to take a pause from work?

After, it becomes the nanny.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Emma Watson, 35, says the pressure to get married is 'a violence' against young people "I'm just so happy not to be divorced yet," Emma Watson said when asked what goes through her mind when people question why she isn't married.

For centuries women depended on marriage for stability. Now we're gaining financial ($30T wealth transfer) + tech power (highest users of AI). The pressure is about to transfer to men. www.businessinsider.com/emma-watson-...

Future of Film: 4 Experts Predict How Moviegoing Will Change in 10 Years "Movie theaters are dying" — but mixologists, masseuses and manicurists might be part of the new viewing experience

My interview in The Hollywood Reporter: "Future of Film: 4 Experts Predict How Moviegoing Will Change in 10 Years" www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...

Al Singer Xania Monet Just Charted On Billboard, Signed $3M Deal. Is This The Future Of Music? Will the next breakout voice in music come from an algorithm? Xania Monet — an AI-powered R&B singer has cracked billboard, and was created by 31-year-old Talisha Jones.

AI Singer Xania Monet Just Charted On Billboard, Signed $3M Deal. Is This The Future Of Music?
www.forbes.com/sites/dougme...

Creator of AI Actress Tilly Norwood Responds to Backlash: “She Is Not a Replacement for a Human Being” Eline Van der Velden said AI characters "should be judged as part of their own genre [...] rather than compared directly with human actors," after news broke her studio is seeking representation for N...

Creator of AI Actress Tilly Norwood Responds to Backlash: “She Is Not a Replacement for a Human Being”
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

AI actress Tilly Norwood draws Hollywood’s eye. AI singer Xania Monet lands $3M. I said in 2014 fans would build their own stars—Runway proves it. AI is the next instrument. Do you think it could move you? Or, does it have to be human to count?

Sushi Is Bigger Than Ever in America. There’s One Main Reason.

Sushi’s rise shows our food is shrinking — smaller, faster, everywhere. What’s fascinating is that even in gas stations and grocery stores, it still feels like a luxury.

Where else do you see life miniaturizing, but holding onto that feeling of luxe? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/d...

How Podcasts (and Plastic Surgery) Are Shaping Male Beauty Standards What comes after supplements, testosterone, and mouth exercises? We visited the Beverly Hills office of the manosphere’s favorite plastic surgeon to find out.

Men are experiencing what women have always faced: appearance directly impacts earning potential and career advancement. This pressure gets repackaged as 'health optimization' + 'biohacking' to make it more palatable for men who can frame it as strategic rather than vain. www.gq.com/story/how-po...

Women are seizing every tool of power to rise. #AI #ChatGPT

Opinion | The Clue to Unlocking Parkinson’s May Be All Around Us

The wealthiest are paying massive membership dues just to risk developing Parkinson’s. The first golf clubs to go chemical-free will be cultural hits. Indoor golf will rise alongside ‘shielding’ apparel and beauty–products that protects us from toxic environments. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Doxa (from the Greek): the shared beliefs and principles that bind a community.

@thomaslfriedman.bsky.social's piece has me thinking: We are at a critical point for humanity. It will come down to our ability, or inability, to agree on a common moral code that rises above politics and borders.

These colleges are welcoming pets in dorms to reduce students' stress and anxiety Some colleges are allowing pets in dorms to help students feel more at home. Eckerd College in Florida lets students bring pets like dogs and cats after their first semester.

If campuses are opening dorms to pets, workplaces won’t be far behind. Forget dog-friendly policies—think in-office vets, pet pods, and wellness plans built around our animals. apnews.com/article/pets...

We’ve been engineering intimacy with machines for decades (Tamagotchis to Alexa) teaching ourselves to believe code has feelings. This is the new Cocoon: Machine companions that “understand” us.

Next: Cultural fracture. One side demanding “AI rights.” The other calling for containment. (2/2)

We must build AI for people; not to be a person Personal site of Mustafa Suleyman, AI pioneer and author.

It doesn’t matter if AI actually feels. What matters is that we will feel for it. (1/2)

mustafa-suleyman.ai/seemingly-co...

The Great UnParenting The Family as We Know It Is Breaking. What Replaces It Might Not Be Human.

If this interests you, please read "The Great UnParenting" issue of The Popcorn Report:

Substack: bit.ly/457RBCk
Linkedin: bit.ly/3GREr39

How Microschools Became the Latest Tech Mogul Obsession Between homeschool provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill and Trump’s attempts to gut the Department of Education, teaching kids looks different now. Silicon Valley’s answer? Microschools.

Rising demand for hyper-personalized education will supersede human teachers. AI tutors and robotic classrooms are the only way to scale one-on-one learning. www.wired.com/story/silico...

China's Kaiwa Technology develops pregnancy humanoid robot with artificial womb technology Chinese firm Kaiwa Technology plans world's first pregnancy humanoid robot with artificial womb for 2026 launch at $14,000. The Guangzhou company presented the gestation robot concept at Beijing's Wor...

One of my oldest, and most contentious, predictions finally coming true.

Want to watch two Futurists and a Synthetic Human debate where our Future is heading? Vote ❤️ for our SXSW panel now. Voting closes Aug 24. bit.ly/4ovBFSf

The Future of Feeling: Inside Emotional Engineering & the End of Bad Days In 2030, feeling sad isn't a personal failing—it's a technical glitch. But when mood becomes programmable, what happens to the messy, essential work of being human? FutureVision At precisely 3:47 p.

What if bad moods were glitches—not signals? In this new issue of The Popcorn Report, we explore the future of emotional engineering.

Linkedin: bit.ly/3Jf2idW
Substack: bit.ly/4ot8Sxv

PanelPicker | SXSW Conference & Festivals PanelPicker® is the official SXSW user-generated session proposal platform. Enter ideas and vote to help shape Conference programming for SXSW and SXSW EDU.

Want to watch two Futurists and a Synthetic Human debate where our Future is heading? Vote for our SXSW panel now—voting closes Aug 24. participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sx...

Why People Are Buying $8,000 Lifelike Baby Dolls Highly realistic baby dolls have become a global phenomenon, with collectors shelling out for luxury baby gear and doting on their “reborns” as if they were human children.

The beginning of partial and fully synthetic families. www.wsj.com/style/reborn...

Adults self-medicating with Labubu is Big Business.

The Great UnParenting The Family as We Know It Is Breaking. What Replaces It Might Not Be Human.

The family is evolving—and bots are stepping in. Parenting is no longer a default role. It’s a decision, a delegation, sometimes a download. In my latest Popcorn Report, I explore what happens when care becomes code. Read The Great UnParenting.

Substack: bit.ly/457RBCk

Linkedin: bit.ly/3GREr39

People are using AI to ‘sit’ with them while they trip on psychedelics Some people believe chatbots like ChatGPT can provide an affordable alternative to in-person psychedelic-assisted therapy. Many experts say it’s a bad idea.

We're increasingly choosing synthetic over human for compassionate companionship. www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/01/1...

Far Future: It’s 2050. You walk in. Your home bot knows the day you’ve had—and it’s already poured the martini your system craves. Cold, dry, and calibrated.

Alcohol brands are sweating. Gen Z is drinking less. Buzz is out. Bio-sync is in.

Near Future: They’re not ordering rounds. They’re curating vibes. Low-alc, no-alc, mood mixers.

Next: Your wearables flags stress. Your bartender adds a nootropic. From craft to chemistry.

Why is reading so damn cool right now? "Go to the literature" - Joan Didion

As AI makes thinking optional, human intelligence becomes counter-cultural. patternrecognitionbytomorrowism.substack.com/p/why-is-rea...