Internet of Senses Podcast

Join Sight and Emerging Tech Expert Samantha Wolfe as she interviews Marianna Obrist, Professor of Multisensory Interfaces at University College London. In this interview, they discuss the intersection of the five senses and how this impacts Marianna's ventures.
Marianna Obrist is Professor of Multisensory Interfaces at University College London (UCL), where she pioneers research on touch, taste, and smell in human-computer interaction (HCI), with applications in virtual reality, healthcare, and wellbeing. Some of her recent projects include the EPSRC/NIHR Smell Care initiative on digital smell training, the EU FET Touchless.AI project on social interaction through contactless touch, and the UKRI Textile Circularity Centre on immersive textile experiences. Marianna is also co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Hynt Labs Limited, a spin-out developing digital scent technologies for personalised sleep solutions. She has authored over 100 publications in leading journals and conferences and co-wrote Multisensory Experiences: Where the Senses Meet Technology (Oxford University Press).

Join Hearing Expert Tyler Heaton as he interviews Miles Spencer. In this interview, they discuss Miles' long history of entrepreneurship and his current venture integrating AI with historical sound archives. 
Miles Spencer is a curious Pittsburgh native who has asked a lot of questions—and followed them a long way from home. For more than 30 years, he has mentored tech founders, discovering along the way that guiding ambitious entrepreneurs isn’t all that different from raising his own kids, whom he has been parenting for 11 years.
His career spans the creation of more than 1,100 jobs through founding, financing, building, and exiting three digital media companies. Before that, he served as a Venture Principal at Capital Express (register.com), hosted MoneyHunt on PBS before the era of Shark Tank, and once led over 1,500 people across 14 miles of open sea by kayak. He also trekked 1,100 miles through the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria—an expedition chronicled in A Line in the Sand, which went on to become an Amazon bestseller in the Middle East.
Following a pandemic-era reset, Miles is now actively investing and directly managing teams across digital media, entertainment, and consumer products. Outside of work, he can often be found painting watercolors with his daughter or playing rugby with his son.
And, as his friends often note, his distinctive brand of English sometimes requires translation—but it’s all part of the adventure.

Join Sight and  Emerging Tech Expert Samantha Wolfe as she interviews Dr. Andy Hines, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program. In this interview, they discuss the past, present, and future of innovation and how it connects to higher education. 
Dr. Andy Hines is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight. His 30+ years of professional futurist experience includes a decade’s experience working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt,
Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His most recent book (just released) is Imagining After Capitalism. Other books are The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society. His dissertation was “The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations.” He was Founding Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Join Sight and  Emerging Tech Expert Samantha Wolfe as she interviews Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies. In this interview, they discuss how to predict the future, Sohail's classes in future studies, and how they connect to Samantha's teachings at NYU. 
Sohail Inayatullah, a political scientist and futurist, is the UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies at the Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity. Malaysia. He is also Professor at Tamkang University, Tamsui and Associate, Melbourne Business School, the University of Melbourne. Previously, he was adjunct professor at the Centre for Policing, Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is listed in the top two percent of the world's scientists as measured by the highest impact of citations.

Join Smell Expert Sofia Ehrich as she interviews Nezka Pfeifer, Museum Curator at the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum. In this interview, they discuss Nezka's research in olfaction to support her exhibits, her work in curation and the community she has found in the Smell field.  
Nezka Pfeifer is an interdisciplinary museum curator who develops botanically-themed exhibitions at the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, a world-renowned research and horticultural organization. She focuses on projects where botany, culture, and art are intertwined through exhibition narratives and multicultural experiences.