Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast
Somewhere on Earth: The Global Tech Podcast is a weekly podcast that looks at technology and how it impacts our daily lives. We tell the untold tech stories from Somewhere on Earth. We don’t do new toys and gadgets, but look at new trends, new tech and new ways we use that tech in our everyday lives. We discuss how the ever evolving digital world is changing our culture and our societies, but we don’t shy away from the news of the day, looking at the tech behind the top stories affecting our world. Find a story + Make it News = Change the World.
Episodes
WhatsApp voice notes are revolutionizing English learning in Brazil
Forget expensive apps - Storm Education is teaching English via WhatsApp voice notes, memes, and chats, targeting Brazil’s 95% non-English speaking population. Founder Marcos Almirante reveals how his startup scaled to 100,000+ students entirely within WhatsApp—and why traditional language apps should be worried.
Cabo Verde’s offline EdTech breakthrough: Educati...
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June 10, 2025 • 34 mins
Wisdomia: Chat with Da Vinci & Ada Lovelace in 3D
Imagine learning calculus from Ada Lovelace or art theory from Leonardo da Vinci—digitally resurrected in 3D AI avatars. That’s the vision behind Wisdomia, the first Web3.0 edutainment marketplace blending gamified learning with immersive history. Founder Dinis Guarda joins us to explain how users interact with AI versions of geniuses, explore 3D-rendered wonders like the Temple o...
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June 3, 2025 • 32 mins
Brazil’s UNESP transforms its IT infrastructure to compete globally
Imagine a university shackled by slow, outdated tech - now picture it rivalling global giants in connectivity and innovation. That’s exactly what happened when São Paulo State University (UNESP) teamed up with Brazilian IT powerhouse RoostEdge to completely overhaul its IT infrastructure across 34 campuses in just 18 months; swapping clunky legacy systems for a li...
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May 27, 2025 • 25 mins
Scaling Solar Access Across Brazil
magine accessing affordable solar power with just a few clicks - no rooftop panels, no upfront costs, just clean energy delivered through smart, decentralized infrastructure. That’s the vision transforming communities across Brazil, where millions are still priced out of the energy transition. Leading this project is Pedro Somma, CEO of Luz Energia. He explains how the company is building a digi...
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May 20, 2025 • 34 mins
The Disturbing Reality of AI-Generated AbuseA new study reveals nearly 35,000 publicly downloadable AI models capable of generating deepfake pornography—often targeting women and celebrities. These "model variants" can be tweaked to create millions of non-consensual intimate images, fuelling a growing crisis in digital exploitation. Researchers identified 35,000 deepfake model variants in public repositories, with each model being ...
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May 13, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of Somewhere on Earth, we dive into groundbreaking tech
innovations with a purpose. Join us as we speak with Eduardo Peixoto, CEO of Brazil’s CESAR Innovation Hub, about cutting-edge projects like a smart lipstick prototype and a real-time sign language translator — game-changing tools designed to empower people with disabilities. We also explore inclusive tech initiatives shaping accessibility in Latin America. Pl...
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May 6, 2025 • 35 mins
#ownyourdata with Brittany Kaiser
Whistle blower and data activist Brittany Kaiser, whose story is told in the Netflix documentary “The Great Hack”, joins Gareth and Ania on stage at Web Summit Rio. She talks about her latest initiative that will allow Brazilians to get paid for sharing their data.
RoostEdge – new SOEP sponsor
CEO of RoostEdge Eliezer Silveira Filho is on stage to tell us about how RoostEdge is connecting tec...
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April 29, 2025 • 29 mins
From Algorithm to Action: How AI & Automation are Redefining Business
In this episode, we dive into the booming technology scene in Brazil — now the 5th largest digital economy in the world. With over 260 million active mobile phones (more than there are people in Brazil!) and major investments in digital transformation, Brazil is rapidly becoming a global tech powerhouse. We’re joined by Alexandre Conceição, Strategic Business Ex...
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April 22, 2025 • 37 mins
Love, Lies & Digital Crime: The Global Web of Romance Scams
In this episode, we uncover the dark side of the internet where romance scams flourish across major technology platforms—and the heartbreaking consequences they leave in their wake. Victims are deceived by online personas, only to find themselves emotionally betrayed and financially devastated. But the story doesn’t stop there. Freelance journalist Emily Fishbein takes us ...
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April 15, 2025 • 33 mins
Lifestyle and mental health - Nigerian startups empowering choice through tech
Buying electronic toys that speak your language or even a doll that looks like the proud owner is easy – that is if you’re white and speak English. It’s much harder to buy other ‘lifestyle’ products, for example, a child’s plate with Arabic writing on it, or a doll wearing a hiyab. Oyindamola Kazeem, realized this when she herself had children so she se...
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April 8, 2025 • 31 mins
Kenya has a blood deficit and it’s especially urgent in places like the northwestern region of Turkana, where malaria, anaemia and violence are rife, driving up the demand for blood transfusions. The Ministry of Health is now planning to roll out technology to modernise blood transfusion services, extending the shelf life of blood and being able to automate the entire process.
The most detailed computer model of the brain ever bui...
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April 1, 2025 • 36 mins
This week we have an AI-free show – instead we’re going to tell you about the latest tech in food packaging. Metalchemy is a startup that has created a biodegradable material designed to enhance the freshness of your food. Although this may not seem particularly groundbreaking, it is important to note that the material in question is at the cutting edge of nanotechnology.
This represents advanced chemical engineering, using silver ...
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March 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Restoring US Government websites since Trump came to power
Since January 20th this year there has been a significant reduction of content on US government websites, following directives from the Trump administration to eliminate extensive data and resources, particularly those related to health equity, equity, diversity, and inclusion, or any other topics the administration considers excessively "woke." In response, groups of volu...
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March 18, 2025 • 32 mins
Agritech in Uzbekistan: helping small-scale farmers recover from communist farming methods
Uzbekistan is tackling the many problems it faces in farming and agriculture with the help of technology. During its time as part of the Soviet Union, the country was forced to grow cotton which led to major environmental problems. The country has 5.5 million smallholders, many of whom are women. A new digital platform called Growz is creatin...
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March 11, 2025 • 26 mins
Myanmar tops the charts for the most internet shutdowns in 2024
India stands as a global leader in various sectors - technology, innovation, space exploration, and education in science and engineering. However, it has also consistently ranked first in internet shutdowns for six consecutive years. From 2016 to 2023, there were a total of 771 recorded incidents. According to the Freedom Law Centre India, a digital rights organizat...
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March 4, 2025 • 35 mins
The first African-born Arab woman to go into Space
Sara Sabry, is an engineer, citizen astronaut, and entrepreneur of Egyptian-Lebanese descent. In 2022, she made history by becoming the first Egyptian to journey into space during the Blue Origin NS-22 mission, as well as the first woman of African descent and Arab heritage to achieve this milestone. Additionally, she is the founder and CEO of the Deep Space Initiative, a non-profi...
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February 25, 2025 • 32 mins
Are teachers keeping up with their pupils when it comes to AI in the classroom?
A recent survey in the United States showed that more than 70% of students report using AI for their school assignments, even in the face of institutional restrictions on tools like ChatGPT. This finding comes from a study conducted by The Harker School, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. The data shows that pup...
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February 18, 2025 • 35 mins
AI can now sell your intentions – marketing your decisions before you make them
Machine learning is on the verge of commercialising your decisions even before you make them. New research shows that we are moving away from an attention economy to an intention economy as machine learning models, which can already imitate the way we write or talk, can now map previous activity onto future actions. Writing in the Harvard Data Science R...
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February 11, 2025 • 38 mins
Is Arabic another language that goes unchecked online?
A few weeks ago we reported on the almost impossible task of monitoring Kiswahili content online. This situation exposes millions of people to harmful and abusive content while the major social media companies continue to profit. In another report by the Centre for Democracy and Technology, similar conclusions have been drawn about Maghrebi Arabic – a language spoken by about 1...
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February 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Is AI going to replace your job?
Is artificial intelligence a threat to your employment? If your profession involves machine learning or chatbot development, the outlook appears promising but for translators and some writing roles it’s not. Those are the findings of a study recently published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation. Researchers analysed over three million job postings from a global freelancing pl...
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