Late Dialogues - Podcast
When: since 2025 (ongoing)
Where: La Concorde NYC
Role: Creator, Host, Producer
A studio where heritage learns to speak in the present tense
The Late Dialogues is my ongoing experiment in generative fiction and cultural R&D. In each episode, I convene “Later Characters” — reconstructed, evolved versions of historical figures — for a 30-minute, roundtable conversation about the urgencies of now. They are not the originals; they are what those minds might have become after reading the 20th and 21st centuries. I host and moderate as David: a calm, inquisitive presence who frames questions, holds tension, and lets ideas find their cadence.
This is not cosplay or pastiche. It is a living inquiry — a way to test today’s questions against the long arc of thought, and to let the past surprise us with something new.
Why this matters
Culture is a dialogue across time. Brands, institutions, and cities all carry archives, myths, and founders’ intentions. The Late Dialogues turns that dormant heritage into an active intelligence — a renewable source of story, strategy, and meaning that can meet the zeitgeist without pandering to it.
Innovative & thoughtful: rigorous research, precise voice design, and careful moderation create conversations that feel both believable and genuinely new.
Regenerating heritage: we translate archives into living characters and usable narratives, so legacy becomes a creative engine rather than a museum label.
Blending with the zeitgeist: episodes engage the questions audiences are truly asking — from AI and justice to identity, climate, sport, and style — with nuance and poetry.
How it works
Character Reconstruction
We build Later Character profiles: core beliefs that remain, ideas they’ve revised, modern influences, imagined works written “after death,” and a detailed voice map (accent, cadence, rhetorical habits).
Roundtable Design
We design a 3–5-movement arc seeded by the characters’ own tensions and affinities. The host introduction and transitions are scripted with care; the dialogue itself is allowed to breathe.
Production
We produce podcast-ready scripts, then record and edit with premium voice talent or AI-assisted voices when appropriate. Each episode is finished with a private Production Appendix for casting, pronunciation, and tone.
Activation
We adapt the material into campaign narratives, leadership keynotes, museum or brand-experience pieces, editorial essays, and short-form social vignettes.
For brands & cultural institutions
Later Brand Characters extend the method to your world: a founder, a patron, a product icon, a house code, even a city spirit — reimagined for 2025 and placed in dialogue with peers, critics, or contemporary voices. The result is respectful, provocative storytelling that renews meaning and opens creative pathways.
Use cases
Anniversaries & house codes: regenerate heritage as a forward brief
Executive offsites: scenario dialogues to pressure-test strategy
Product launches: story platforms with depth (beyond slogans)
Cultural programs: museum salons, university series, civic forums
Content systems: podcasts, films, essays, social teasers, activations
Outcomes
A signature narrative you can return to, not a one-off campaign
Rich, ownable IP that scales across channels and years
Earned attention rooted in substance — not just spectacle
Principles
Careful with the past: fidelity to sources, clarity that these are speculative continuations — never fake quotes.
Curiosity over certainty: we design for tension, not tidy answers.
Human in the loop: research, writing, performance, and editorial judgment remain central; AI is a craft tool, not an end.
Beauty matters: language, pacing, and sound design are part of the argument.
Formats
Podcast series and live recordings
Private leadership salons and strategy workshops
Exhibition talks and cultural partnerships
Short-form video teasers and editorial essays
Invitation
If you steward a legacy — a brand, a collection, a school, a city — and want it to converse with the present rather than merely reference the past, let’s build a Late Dialogue for you. We’ll bring your heritage to the table, seat it beside today’s questions, and let something unexpected — and true — arrive.