{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Feadae836-c208-4a25-b2f0-826fdad14f42","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Season 8, Ep. 8: Futurestates (Part 2)","description":"On this week\u2019s Saturday School, we\u2019re continuing our exploration of Asian American sci-fi with a second episode on Futurestates, a groundbreaking sci-fi short film series spearheaded by Karim Ahmad that ran from 2010 to 2014 on public television and online.\n\nBefore Black Mirror was another anthology series set in the future, Futurestates gave directors \u2013 including many notable Asian American filmmakers - opportunities to tell unique stories that imagined the future. Last week, we looked at Greg Pak\u2019s short films, and this week, we delve into Tanuj Chopra\u2019s shorts \u201cPia\u201d and \u201cTeacher in a Box,\u201d and J.P. Chan\u2019s \u201cDigital Antiquities.\u201d\n\n\u201cPia\u201d takes place in a futuristic San Francisco where robots are named Pia \u2013 and played by Pia Shah. \u201cTeacher in a Box\u201d explores a relationship between a teacher (Rebecca Hazlewood) and a student (Sarika Sanyal) who mostly converse through virtual reality but find reasons to connect in the real world. And \u201cDigital Antiquities,\u201d starring Jo Mei and Corey Hawkins, takes place in a future where CDs are antiquated and a man finds the only store that can help him decode the data his mom left for him after she died. \nWatching these shorts ten years later, many aspects of these stories seem uncannily similar to our current reality.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/a27dc3da-e7dd-445d-9001-e5001bd43afa/artworks-o4xqmgxhvpoemjsv-icapyq-t3000x3000.jpg"}