The RobinsonHewitt Pod: The Next Era of Tech

Long before we had maps, algorithms, or AI, we relied on our ability to read patterns, notice subtle signs, and make sense of an uncertain world by trusting our own internal knowing. It wasn't intuition without evidence, but it was perception.

In an age where information is infinite, answers are instant, and everyone has an opinion, the real challenge is no longer finding more knowledge. It's learning how to trust yourself enough to know what's right for you and what you're building.

In this episode, we explore the art of perception and why we've gradually...

Drawing on anthropology, technology, and contemporary examples including Anna Wintour's transition at Vogue and Jacinda Ardern's time as Prime Minister of New Zealand, let's unpack why the future of leadership may depend less on having all the answers and more on our capacity to navigate ambiguity, build trust, and hold increasing complexity.

Inside the episode:

Can your body hold your idea? Because in the next era of founders and leadership, the biggest limitation may not be access to knowledge, tools, or technology. It may be our capacity to actually carry what we are creating.

We are living in a moment where visibility has never been more available. Anyone can publish, build, share, and bring an idea into the world. And yet, brilliant people are holding themselves back.

Today, we take a look at this from an anthropological perspective. Human beings evolved to survive within tribes, where standing out, being misunderstood...

Since the dawn of time, humans have had this compulsion to tell stories and to be entertained.

From the mechanical cranes of ancient Greek theatre to Shakespeare's Globe. From the projected screen at the cinema to the screen in our pockets, every new technological breakthrough has changed how we tell stories, but never why we tell them.

In today's episode, we explore what the future of movies, film, and entertainment might actually look like as artificial intelligence knocks on the doors of creative industries.

We unpack Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Pixar's philosophy on...

The future of homes is more than simply a design problem. It’s also a problem about belonging. And the technology we’re building into our homes today will either help us solve it or make it harder to see.

How we live our lives is also changing. More people are renting longer, living alone, or aging without nearby family. The single-family home on a quarter-acre section is no longer the default, and the housing systems built around it are struggling to catch up.

Smart home technology is starting to fill this gap, but the ques...

Is Ambient AI the next evolution of artificial intelligence? Instead of existing simply as a chatbot or app, ambient AI becomes an invisible layer of intelligence embedded throughout our physical world, powering homes, cities, infrastructure, energy systems, and everyday life without needing to be consciously activated.

We always note that the most transformative technologies in history have been the ones that eventually stop being noticeable and become part of our daily lives.

Ambient AI is on that same trajectory, and the decisions shaping how it works, who controls it, and what it knows about you...

We may be standing at the beginning of a second electricity revolution, but this time, the grid won't just move power; it will begin to think, respond, and adapt.

This is important because every major shift in human civilisation has been tied to a new relationship with energy. And what’s unfolding is a move away from centralised systems towards distributed, intelligent networks.

Today, we explore what that redesign actually looks like and why it changes more than just how we generate electricity. The future of technology depends on the future of energy and power sy...

Today, we introduce the builder and the visionary as the co-founders of the future. Two halves of complementary intelligence learning how to build together, by blending empathy and logic.

Sparked by Disclosure Day, we take a look at how these collaborations work beneath the surface, not as a single voice, but as a layered system of perception, translation, and meaning-making.

We take a look at historical figures such as Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage to Spielberg and John Williams, as the same pattern keeps repeating. One person sees what could exist, and the other turns...

We have more health data than any generation in history, yet feeling well has never felt more complicated. Wearables, AI diagnostics, biohacking, and precision medicine are transforming how we understand the body, but not necessarily how we experience it.

Health technology and devices are reshaping what we know about our bodies, while older understandings of the nervous system, trauma, and the natural world still remind us that no dataset can ever capture the full picture.

This week, we explore the future of personal health and what it genuinely means to feel well in an era...

Food is becoming one of the most rapidly shifting systems in the world. Prices are rising, global supply chains are restructuring, new weight-loss medications like Ozempic are changing what people buy, and food technologies like hydroponics, regenerative agriculture, and blockchain traceability are reshaping how food is grown, moved, and trusted.

Today, let's explore the future of food systems, not just from a technology perspective, but from a human one to look at why food prices have surged, how supply chains are moving from global efficiency toward regional resilience, and what emerging food technologies actually mean...

Water is often described as a resource problem or a water crisis. But when you trace how water actually moves through modern life, it becomes clear it is also a management problem; one that connects water sustainability, energy systems, food production, cities, health, and migration.

In this episode, we explore the future of water, water sustainability, and how emerging technology is changing the way we measure, manage, and govern water infrastructure.

So rather than treating water as an isolated issue, let's look at how it sits inside the broader systems that shape modern civilisation, and...

Imagine an education system designed around how humans actually learn, where curiosity is the starting point and lifelong learning is encouraged to be the default, not the exception. We are in an era where the skills we learn will shift multiple times within a single lifetime, yet many of us were trained within a system built for a very different mindset toward learning.

In this week’s podcast episode, let's explore where our education systems came from, what they were originally designed to produce, and what they may need to become in the next era.

Most cities were shaped around production, movement, and efficiency rather than human experience. So why does it feel like we’re only now beginning to seriously ask what cities are actually for, especially with all the technology we have at our fingertips?

Let’s trace the evolution of cities from Haussmann’s redesign of Paris, to Singapore’s garden city vision, to the rise of the 20-minute neighbourhood. Across very different contexts, a consistent pattern emerges: the cities that work best are the ones where a deliberate choice has been made to centre human wellbeing in their design...

Most conversations about digital transformation and the future of technology focus on the systems and the technology itself. The conversation that gets skipped is about the person carrying the idea, and what it actually takes to bring something new into the world at this particular moment in history... The Founders.

Drawing on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey and the patterns Alison has observed and researched across hundreds of tech founders over the years, this episode maps the five stages every founder moves through before an idea becomes real.

The human depth required to do this work...

AI is transforming the future of work faster than most people are prepared for, and the real crisis may not be about jobs at all. It may be about self-knowledge, and what you actually have to offer when the job description stops being the point.

In this anthropology of technology episode, we explore AI and the rise of a skills-based economy. Drawing on the Neolithic Revolution, Doughnut Economics, and the movie Her, let's reframe the future of work as an invitation and how to navigate what comes next.

RobinsonHewitt Consulting: Transforming the traditional...

What if the real crisis in our financial system isn't a hack, a crash, or a currency war, but the erosion of the social contract that money was built on?

In today’s anthropology of technology episode, we explore the harder question of not just how money works, but what it actually is, and whether the system we've inherited and are building upon will serve us in the next era.

From Marcel Mauss's gift economies to the Bitcoin whitepaper, we trace the long human history of value and exchange. Then we look forward to what de...

The next era of humanity is opening the door to the stars, but what does that mean for our home planet, and for what it means to be human?

In this anthropology of technology episode, we reflect on the lessons emerging from recent space missions to ask a deeper question of “how do we extend our gratitude to Earth as we begin to look beyond it?”

Four astronauts travelled a quarter of a million miles from Earth and returned not speaking first about the science, but about the feeling of being human out there. What does...

As we face a global fuel crisis, what does it mean for the future of transportation?

In this anthropology of technology episode, we break down the global fuel crisis and the shift that’s happening underneath our transport systems. And we think it’s time to start thinking about how humans will move in the next era.

Using historical examples, like Henry Ford and the rise of mass production, we explore how transportation has always evolved and why we always look towards infrastructure to inject into our economies in times of hardship.

<...

In this episode of the RobinsonHewitt Pod, we unpack a new operating system for growth that embraces cycles, uncertainty, and the reality that not everything unfolds in a straight line.

We’re entering a world where traditional approaches to strategy and project management no longer hold. The pace is faster, the path is less predictable, and linear ways of building no longer reflect how things actually evolve.

Using our “Crawl, Walk, Run” framework, we explore how we're taking our own big, future-facing goals and how we're turning them into grounded, sustainable action, without burning out or for...

Big ideas and new innovations are everywhere. But the real challenge isn’t having the idea, it’s having the capacity to actually hold what you create.

In this week’s pod, we go deeper into the “Crawl, Walk, Run” strategy as a way to move from having ideas and goals that can feel out of reach, and into something real and that works with your nervous system.

Let’s talk about access to tools, belief systems, and why even a small amount of faith the size of a mustard seed is often enough to get started.

Welcome to an anthropology of technology session with RobinsonHewitt, hosted by Alison Mackie.

Today, we're thinking about how the future of fashion is being reshaped by smart textiles, adaptive materials, and responsive clothing. From programmable garments to sustainable design, this episode explores how technology, identity, and culture intersect in the next era of fashion.

⭐ Blog Post: 'Designing the next layer: Where fashion meets technology': https://robinsonhewitt.com/articles/designing-the-next-layer-where-fashion-meets-technology

To mark International Women’s Day, our founder, Alison Mackie, turns the microphone on herself and answers 21 questions about her unconventional journey into the emerging tech world.

From humanities to tech futurism, today is a reflection on curiosity, career twists, and why shaping the future of technology needs more diverse voices.

Welcome to an anthropology of technology session with RobinsonHewitt, hosted by Alison Mackie.

Today, we’re looking at the iceberg Anthropic has revealed, remembering that what’s visible is only a fraction of the challenges ahead in the emerging tech world. We’ll explore how public participation, ethical governance, and deliberate decision-making can help steer AI safely through these waters.

A link to our previous webinar that is mentioned on the potential of AGI and consciousness: • If we're serious about ethical AGI, here's...

Welcome to an anthropology of technology webinar, hosted by RobinsonHewitt Consulting.

Today, we're opening the door to the idea of "what if" when it comes to sentient and conscious AI. We'll think about it from an anthropological perspective to help reframe the strategy, governance, and next steps for this rapidly evolving world.