UPDATED! The Wall Street Journal Launches a Four-Part Podcast Series on the Metaverse and Second Life

The Wall Street Journal has launched a four-part podcast series called How to Build a Metaverse, with the introduction posted on September 19th, 2022:

We’re in a metaverse déjà vu moment. Companies are spending billions of dollars creating new metaverses, imagining a 3D virtual future. But there’s a metaverse that’s already been around for decades. In this world, people have started businesses, built homes and fallen in love as avatars.

In a new four-part series from The Journal, producer Annie Minoff heads back into that largely forgotten metaverse – Second Life – to tell the story of the metaverse we already have and what it can reveal about the one that’s coming.

Start listening to How to Build a Metaverse on Friday, September 23rd.

You can listen to this podcast via The Wall Street Journal website for the podcast The Journal (here’s a link to the first episode), or via your favourite podcast service, such as Apple, Spotify, or Google. I will definitely be listening in!

As I often say on this blog, Second Life is the perfect model of a mature, fully-evolved metaverse, which newer companies entering this marketplace would be wise to study, learn from, and emulate. This seems a rather appropriate time to share an image which I discovered while browsing on the r/SecondLife subreddit over on the social media website Reddit, directed towards all those newer metaverse wannabees (looking at you, Meta!):

UPDATE Sept. 27th, 2022: I listened to the first instalment of this podcast on Sunday, and I can recommend it highly! Annie Minoff interviews many different people—including former Linden Lab senior staff like Philip Rosedale and Cory Ondrejka—and it’s clear that she has immersed herself into Second Life and its culture a lot more than most reporters! I look forward to listening to future episodes of this podcast.

UPDATE Oct. 4th, 2022: The second episode has dropped, and can be found here: Avatars Behaving Badly (LOL!). Note that new episodes of this four-part podcast will be available to listen to on Fridays.


Thank you to Zella Jane for the heads-up!

Second Sam Harris Podcast on Coronavirus: A Discussion with Dr. Amesh Adalja

Sam Harris has followed up yesterday’s podcast, a coronavirus discussion with Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Yale University, with a second podcast about coronavirus.

This one, released today, is a discussion with Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.

Here is a link to today’s podcast.

Joe Rogan and Sam Harris Both Released New Episodes of Their Popular Podcasts About the Coronavirus Pandemic Today

Two major heavy hitters in the podcast world—Sam Harris and Joe Rogan—released podcasts today that focused on the global coronavirus pandemic.

Joe Rogan’s guest today was infectious diseases expert Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Osterholm dispels several myths and misconceptions about the coronavirus, and the podcast is well worth a listen!

Sam Harris interviewed Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Yale University, and they had a wide-ranging conversation about various aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, including a discussion of how Donald Trump is politicizing the public health crisis and imperiling U.S. citizens. Again, a highly recommended listen!

If you are looking for an easy, conversational entry into coronavirus, have a listen to one or both podcasts. If you only have time for one, pick the Sam Harris one, as the Joe Rogan one is longer and wanders off into other topics, such as prion diseases, probiotics, and Lyme disease.

I Am a Guest on the VR in Education Podcast with Craig Frehlich

Yesterday evening, I had an enjoyable, wide-ranging conversation with Singapore-based teacher Craig Frehlich on his VR in Education podcast, about the intersection of social VR and education. (He had discovered me via that article that Patty Marx wrote for the Dec. 9th, 2019 issue of New Yorker magazine.)

Here’s a link to the 30-minute episode if you want to have a listen.

Here’s a link to all Craig’s podcasts to date, and to his Twitter and blog. Thank you for having me on your show as a guest, Craig!