The season finale is here! Episode 10 wraps up with some special guests to help us check in on the latest goings-on among all the hot topics we covered in Season 1. Cliffhangers abound... What's next with NDC, loyalty program changes, regulatory trends, and all things AI? Luxury and Zillennials, venture capital funding (or lack thereof?) and the fu…

This week we continue our deep dive into what we know so far about AI, and how it’s being used, being disruptive, being overestimated and perhaps underestimated across the travel ecosystem. In our last episode we spoke to two startup founders who have incorporated AI into their applications to get the perspective of the early-stage company and how …

It’s been a little over a year now since ChatGPT burst on the scene like a cannonball into a pool, soaking us all. The initial waves have settled down, giving us a chance to see what kind of ideas and applications are making the best use of this fascinating technology. And while AI isn’t exactly new, the democratized access to it that ChatGPT intro…

The way we travel has evolved pretty dramatically since the pandemic. The traditional “Dream/Plan/Book/Go/Share/Repeat” lifecycle has essentially been replatformed as a result of macro trends like the shift to remote work, multiple rounds of stimmie checks, a growing loneliness epidemic, and an acute appreciation for authenticity and sustainability…

The loyalty program as we know it was pioneered by American Airlines over 30 years ago. A lot has changed since then. As travel has become commoditized in many areas, suppliers and retailers have become more innovative and creative about attracting, retaining, and rewarding customers. While customers have become savvier about maximizing and sometim…

To paraphrase Lenin (Vladimir, not John), “there are decades where nothing happens, and then there is NDC”. For those of us who have worked in travel tech for more than a few years, it may feel like decades are suddenly happening in months, if not weeks. And it’s not just technology innovations like NDC and AI that are shaking things up. The pandem…

The luxury travel segment has always been about high-touch service and premium experiences. In a rapidly changing post-pandemic world where AI turns the service model upside down, over-the-top experiences collide with sustainability concerns, and a renewed appreciation for authentic engagement fosters an even more fragmented landscape of travel pro…

When it comes to sexy startup ideas, the travel sector usually ranks at the head of the class. Nearly everyone travels, and thus can relate to the pain points that stem from the challenges inherent in an industry driven by legacy tech platforms, fragmented data, and unsophisticated business models. It’s an industry desperate for disruption. Even so…

Destination marketing is one of the biggest forces powering the travel industry that we rarely talk about. It’s the Goliath economic influencer hiding in plain sight, using its invisible hand to directly and indirectly guide the way we think about where to travel, how to travel, and what we do once when we get there. And it’s an industry in tremend…

Guest Mark Farrell joins the pod to talk about balancing the need for innovation against the need for regulatory guardrails to keep us safe and ensure fair competition. Mark is uniquely qualified to weigh in on this topic given his role as Managing Director at Thayer Ventures, a leading VC firm focused on the travel, transportation and hospitality …

The gadget that saved a refugee in the middle of the Aegean Sea, how an agent uses technology to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico, and how a journalist in exile broadcasts the news with WhatsApp. Listen, decode, and decide: Can technology crossing borders save us?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A proposal to bioengineer shorter humans with cat eyes, a decades-old idea for a totally new kind of power, a battery made from trash and Bill Nye the Science Guy tries to get us in gear. Listen, decode, and decide: Can world-building save us?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

The man who collected too much data, cyborgs who want to make their body-hardware mainstream, robots that rebuild your hairline and a conversation with Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge aka LeVar Burton. Listen, decode, and decide: Can the augmented self save us?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A therapist who creates virtual reality experiences for people with dangerous disorders, a grandmother who uses a headset to escape her surroundings and Ernest Cline on virtual reality in fact and fiction. Listen, decode, and decide: Can alternate realities save us?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A toddler who saved her mother’s life with Siri, a man whose mysterious ailment opened up a world of voice recognition technology and a dating service that wants to scan the faces of all your exes. Listen, decode, and decide: Can recognition software save us?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

How targeted ads for a pair of men’s sandals broke up one relationship, the researchers trying to keep data tracking honest, and the casualties of ad blockers. Listen, decode, and decide: Is data tracking evil?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

How people-rating app Peeple drew rage and put its co-founders in danger, how a 16-year-old embraced identity through virality, and the funny video that threatened to put its makers into crushing debt. Listen, decode, and decide: Is going viral evil?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A guy who thinks machines can prevent crime, another who thinks machines could destroy humanity and a machine-learning algorithm outsmarted by squirrels. Listen, decode and decide: Is the decisive machine evil?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A software update that almost brought down the International Space Station with astronauts inside, updating software inside your body, and the days when even geeks dreaded installing new programs. Listen, decode, and decide: Is the software update evil?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter

A couple is forced onto the dark web to buy life-saving medicine; Ben buys a drug scale; and a researcher who says the dark web might make the illegal drug trade safer. Listen, decode, and decide: Is the dark web evil?بقلم Marketplace / Ben Johnson and Clare Toeniskoetter