Evan Ratliff: Our Future with Voice Agents

Episode 139I spoke with Evan Ratliff about:* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast, where he creates an AI voice clone of himself and sets it loose. * The end of the Longform Podcast and his thoughts on the state of journalism. Enjoy!Evan is an award-winning investigative journalist, bestselling author, podcast host, and entrepreneur. He’s the author of the The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord; the writer and host of the hit podcasts Shell Game and Persona: The French Deception; and the cofounder of The Atavist Magazine, Pop-Up Magazine, and the Longform Podcast. As a writer, he’s a two-time National Magazine Award finalist. As an editor and producer, he’s a two-time Emmy nominee and National Magazine Award winner.Find me on Twitter for updates on new episodes, and reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions. Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on TwitterOutline:* (00:00) Intro* (01:05) Evan’s ambitious and risky projects* (04:45) Wearing different personas as a journalist* (08:31) Boundaries and acceptability in using voice agents* (11:42) Impacts on other people* (13:12) “The kids these days” — how will new technologies impact younger people?* (17:12) Evan’s approach to children’s technology use* (20:05) Techno-solutionism and improvements in medicine, childcare* (24:15) Evan’s perspective on simulations of people* (27:05) On motivations for building tech startups* (30:42) Evan’s outlook for Shell Game’s impact and motivations for his work* (36:05) How Evan decided to write for a career* (40:02) How voice agents might impact our conversations* (43:52) Evan’s experience with Longform and podcasting* (47:15) Perspectives on doing good interviews* (52:11) Mimicking and inspiration, developing style* (57:15) Writers and their motivations, the state of longform journalism* (1:06:15) The internet and writing* (1:09:41) On the ending of Longform* (1:19:48) OutroLinks:* Evan’s homepage and Twitter* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast* Longform Podcast Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe