There are A LOT of tech company branded podcasts, so it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. Not to mention that technology is a tough topic to tackle in a high-production podcast given how fast the space is moving. I like the approach Setapp took in Ahead of Its Time, their podcast with partner Pacific Content and hosted by Julia Furlan, which makes the focus the under the radar stories of individuals who played surprising roles in the development of major technologies.

Ahead of Its Time

I started with their very timely facial recognition episode. AI especially has a high degree of difficulty to present in a podcast, since today’s innovations may be stale in a matter of weeks. This was a good way to take the listener back to origins of AI, and build out from the background of an obscure but important protagonist. The show has been dark since the end of its first season in Oct’22, but I think it has the potential to be an enduring entry in the tech branded podcast category.