Laurie Segal, former technology correspondent for CNN and CBS News 60 minutes The streaming spin-off says that despite the plethora of technology coverage we encounter every day, the field isn’t being covered the way it should be.
So she decided to start a new media company to solve that problem.
Segal will start a company called Mostly Human, which will produce original podcasts and shows and work with creators to tell stories about how technology is changing the world.
It was “born out of a bit of frustration,” Segal says. hollywood reporter. “I’ve spent my career covering technology and what’s next at lightning speed, and trying to focus on its impact on humans.
“And I think that’s a really interesting thing right now in media and technology. There’s less trust in traditional media institutions now that the world of creators is exploding, but the loudest voices aren’t necessarily the most trusted,” she added. “At the same time, there is an education gap in artificial intelligence, and that gap is widening, and we really need cultural literacy around AI.”
Segal launches Mostly Human with a bang. The company’s first product is a new podcast in partnership with iHeartMedia, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be this week’s guest. Segal, who has covered Altman for more than a decade, said they discussed Sola’s closure (his first interview since the move) and the fight between the Department of Defense and OpenAI competitor Anthropic.
“But what I think is important is that we go even deeper,” she says. “I have this idea for the podcast. One of the things I’m most proud of is the ability for the episodes to talk to each other. To be able to access Silicon Valley and be a direct bridge between the people who live in the real world and the people who are building the future.”
But the podcast is just the beginning, and Segal and her co-founder Mark Winehouse said they have many other projects in development, with the strategy of developing short-form video content that will be distributed on the platforms where people watch that type of content (you guessed it), and connecting it to long-form series and documentaries that can be distributed on streaming platforms. Segal said it is “actively in development with multiple streamers.”
“One of the things that came out of Laurie’s frustration with the process and the slow-moving nature of traditional media was how can you really break important stories and hide drugs inside candy,” Winehouse says. “Our core focus is therefore to produce short-form series to support our broader feature-length documentaries.”
One of the ideas Segal cites as central to his thesis is the concept of true crime centered around deepfakes, which uniquely connects the genre that people know and enjoy to the world of technology.
“We need to bridge these worlds, and this is important for everyone to know, we can create a really interesting movement that people can be a part of,” she says, pointing to the real-world impact deepfakes are having on schools today. “It’s going to get more people talking about this.”
This also includes a creator element, with Mostly Human helping creators develop their own programming and distributing content through their own channels.
“Many of the people we’re talking about aren’t necessarily the loudest voices in the room, but they are important cultural voices when it comes to Mostly Human’s mission of being able to cover technology through a human lens, help shape culture, and give people a seat at the table, with the idea of collective impact,” she says.
And at a time when tech giants seem to be gambling with humanity’s future, this idea of having a seat at the table could not make more sense. 2026 feels like a similar moment for Segal, who built a career covering technology just as the iPhone was transforming the way we consume media.
“There’s a high-stakes poker game going on in Silicon Valley, and sometimes it feels like we don’t have a seat at the table,” Segal says. “In the age of AI, I think being able to build not just my own voice, but the voices of others who represent cultural literacy, is incredibly timely, and I think there is opportunity in the chaos.
“I think we’re in a moment of disruption again, where there’s a lot of opportunity in both technology and media to get these stories out there, and that gives us a little bit more agency,” she added.
