Laurie Segall, the previous expertise correspondent for NCS and a CBS News’ 60 Minutes streaming spinoff, says that regardless of the glut of tech protection that we encounter every and every single day, the sector isn’t being lined the best way it ought to.
So she determined to create a brand new media firm to strive and remedy that drawback.
Segall is launching an organization referred to as Mostly Human, which is able to produce authentic podcasts and programming, and work with creators to inform the tales about how expertise is altering our world.
It was “born a bit out of frustration,” Segall tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve spent my profession masking tech and what’s coming subsequent, type of at lightning velocity, and making an attempt to have a look at the human impression of that.
“And then at this moment in media and in technology, I think it’s really interesting, you have a decline in the trust of traditional media institutions at a time when the creator world is blowing up, but the loudest voices aren’t necessarily the most credible,” she provides. “And at the same time, you have an education gap around artificial intelligence, and it’s widening, and we really need cultural literacy around AI.”
Segall is launching Mostly Human with a bang. The firm’s first product is a brand new podcast, in partnership with iHeartMedia, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman set to be this week’s visitor. Segall, who has lined Altman for greater than a decade, says that they mentioned Sora’s shuttering (it’s his first interview because the transfer) in addition to the battle between the Pentagon and OpenAI competitor Anthropic.
“But what I think is important is that we also go go much deeper,” she says. “I have this idea with the podcast. One of the things I’m most proud of is the ability for the episodes to speak to each other, for me to take my access in Silicon Valley and be able to be a direct line between people who live in the real world and folks who are building the future.”
But the podcast is simply the beginning, Segall and her co-founder Marc Weinhouse say that they’re in growth on plenty of different initiatives, with a method of growing short-form video content material that can reside on the platforms the place folks watch that sort of content material (you possibly can in all probability guess which of them), connecting to longer-form collection and documentaries that may reside on streaming platforms. Segall says they’re in “active development with multiple streamers.”
“One of the things kind of born out of Laurie’s frustration with the process and the slow moving nature of traditional media, is, how do we truly break through with the important stories and hide the medicine in the candy,” Weinhouse says. “And so a core focus for us is doing short form series to support broader long form documentaries.”
One of these concepts that Segall cites as core to that thesis is a real crime idea centered round deepfakes, taking a style that folks know and take pleasure in, and connecting it to the world of expertise in a singular method.
“We need to bridge these worlds, this is important for you to know about, but we can create a really entertaining movement that allows people to participate,” she says, noting the real-world impression deepfakes are having in colleges in the present day. “We’re going to get more people talking about this.”
That may also embody the creator component, with Mostly Human serving to creators develop their very own programming, whereas additionally syndicating content material by means of their very own channels.
“A lot of the folks we’re talking to are not necessarily the loudest voices in the room, but they’re important cultural voices when it comes to the mission of Mostly Human, which is covering technology through the human lens, with this idea of collective impact, helping shape culture, being able to give people a seat at the table,” she says.
And that concept, of getting a seat on the desk, might by no means be extra related at a time the place tech titans appear to be playing with the way forward for humanity. For Segall, who cast a profession masking tech proper because the iPhone was remodeling how we consumed media, 2026 appears like the same second in time.
“It feels sometimes like Silicon Valley is playing this high stakes game of poker, and we don’t have a seat at the table,” Segall says. “I believe having the ability to construct out voices, not simply my very own, however different voices that symbolize cultural literacy in an age of AI feels extremely well timed, and I believe there’s a possibility within the chaos.
“I think we’re in another moment of chaos, and there’s there’s a lot of opportunity both in technology and in media, to get these narratives out that that gives us a little bit more agency,” she provides.