SUPERFAD

Tiny houses, DNA mapping, vaping: Stuff ’s new podcast series dives into the trends surging into the nation’s consciousness. Superfad hosts Katie Kenny and Laura Walters spent a week in a waist trainer, crammed into a tiny house and vegged out for hours of TV bingeing, all in the name of research. Here, they share their thoughts on how these crazes are changing the way we live.

1. Did anything in particular inspire you to create this podcast series?

Walters: Katie and I are both avid podcast listeners. Rather than talk about it, we thought we’d charge ahead and give it a crack. Thankfully, our bosses appreciated our eagerness to experiment.

2. As you’re both journalists, what have been the biggest challenges you have each faced during the first-time podcast process?

Kenny: Is it that obvious? Yes, it was the first podcast we’ve worked on. So there were a lot of challenges. Just getting used to telling a story via audio rather than print was a big one. It’s a totally different way of planning and working.

Walters: We looked up YouTube videos with titles like: “How to make a podcast”, we spoke to other Kiwi reporters working in this space, and we listened to A LOT of podcasts.

I took us a little while to “find our voice”. We’re both used to talking, but talking to points, without a script, and sounding intelligent (hopefully), but relaxed, isn’t easy.

3. What issues/concerns have been raised by this podcast series about how new technologies are changing the way we live?

Walters: This is a recurring theme through the series. It’s the age of disruption, where people have better access to information and technology, and they are willing to use that to their advantage. It can help people live healthier, cheaper, more efficiently, or more meaningfully. And while it’s great people are keen to experiment, it seems regulators are often playing catch-up, which leaves a window where the technology moves faster than the laws set up to protect people.

Throughout history, any new advancement has brought with it complications and side-effects – whether they’re related to health, society, cultures, or privacy. I guess my advice would be: good on you for being an early adopter, but be sure to read the fine print, and know what you’re signing up for.

Kenny: Dr Kate Neas from the Genetic Health Centre, who spoke to us for our episode on DNA mapping, raised a good point when she said the technology isn’t just outpacing the knowledge of consumers, but also many health professionals.

As Walters says, society at large is always playing catch-up with technology. Now, technology is developing so rapidly we can’t ever hope to remain an expert in anything for too long. You know how it already seems hard to keep up with everything? I think, for a while at least, that will only get harder.

4. What has the project taught you about those people who are early adopters of these trends?

Kenny: All trends begin at the margins of society. Long before Bitcoin was making headlines, so-called “cypherpunks” in Silicon Valley were talking about how cryptocurrency will decentralise power and wealth. Sometimes – too often, I think – we dismiss the trajectory of change just because it seems impossible or ridiculous. And then, 20 years later, we’re marvelling at it.

I’m sure more than a few of the trends we cover in Superfad will fizzle out soon. But others, such as directto-consumer genetic tests, will only grow in popularity, forcing relevant legislation and policies to adapt.

I guess this project has reaffirmed the need to keep an open mind when it comes to new crazes. In saying that, though, at the centre of any fad there’ll always be people pushing their own agenda, so to be wary of that, too.

5. What have you learned about the power of social media? For example, a Kardashian being paid

$300,000 for one Insta post to launch waist trainers.

Walters: I don’t think we’ve learned anything new about the power of social media, but this work has