Ted and Charlie open with a quieter AI news week, giving them room to dig into XR hardware, including hands-on impressions of two new smart glasses, a Norway story on camera glasses restrictions, the shutdown of the XR Association, backlash over Meta’s Muse app, and a tour through AI’s fast-moving film scene.

Charles Melcher, founder of the Future of Storytelling summit and author of the book of the same name, joins to talk about two decades spent studying how people want to experience stories. Charles explains why he thinks VR never quite broke through for mainstream audiences, walks through his theory of the “actience,” his term for audiences who now expect to participate rather than just watch, and makes the case that AI’s biggest opportunity in entertainment isn’t visual effects but deeply personalized, responsive storytelling. The conversation wraps with a tour through some of the best immersive entertainment happening right now, from the Sphere and ABBA Voyage to Meow Wolf and Vegas’s underground escape-room scene.

Key Moments:

[00:39] Hands-on impressions of Samsung’s Aura vs. Snap’s Specs

[03:29] The ergonomics problem still holding back smart glasses

[06:39] Norway’s new restrictions on camera glasses

[08:26] The XR Association shuts down

[10:00] Meta’s Muse app and the backlash over its user dossiers

[11:47] A tour through the fast-moving world of AI filmmaking

[18:00] Charles Melcher joins — the origin of Future of Storytelling

[24:15] Why VR never had its mainstream moment

[39:00] Charles’s concept of the “actience”

[42:33] A tour of the Sphere, ABBA Voyage, and Meow Wolf

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Audience Is Dead. Meet the ‘Actience'. ft. Charles Melcher, Author of "The Future of Storytelling"

The AI XR Podcast.

Audience Is Dead. Meet the ‘Actience'. ft. Charles Melcher, Author of "The Future of Storytelling"