Podcast
‘Memories’ is an open window into the life of Francisco Pinto Balsemão and a guided tour of his path and work. Based on the book of the same name published by Porto Editora, it had the special participation of Clara de Sousa in reading the chapters. Reproduced in four seasons, the podcast will last a total of 24 episodes. The first part comes out next Thursday, January 23
Always ahead of your time, Francisco Pinto Balsemão entrusted the cloning of his voice to tell the story of his long and memorable life in the first personusing technology supported by Artificial Intelligence. Launched in 2021 by Porto Editora, the work ‘Memórias’ by Francisco Pinto Balsemão sold more than 17 thousand copies and will now be released in 2025 in podcast format, fully following the work as it was published in book form.
The founder of EXPRESSO and SIC recorded the reading of some pages of the book with his own voice. Then, the innovation agency Instinct took advantage of the excerpt and generated the voice of Francisco Pinto Balsemão to read the entire 1000 pages of the work. Accompanying Francisco Pinto Balsemão was journalist Clara de Sousa, who voices all the titles and subtitles of the work.
The podcast version, which has the support of Volkswagen and Porto Editora, is composed of 24 episodes. The first one comes out next Thursday, January 23rd, and from then on, all listeners will have access to new episodes every week on Friday.
“I used what could be called my natural intelligence to write the more than 1000 pages of my memoir. I thought that, to read them for this new podcast, I could and should count on the help of artificial intelligence. It was a challenge that I readily accepted. I am passionate about new technologies, about learning new things, even at my pleasant age of 87 years old. I enthusiastically embraced this proposal and I am proud that EXPRESSO and the IMPRESA group are pioneers in an innovative project, based on artificial intelligence”, says Francisco Pinto Balsemão.
This is Francisco Pinto Balsemão’s third podcast on Expresso. The debut took place in 2023, with . On the occasion of the newspaper’s 50th anniversary, Balsemão interviewed 50 notable personalities from the most diverse sectors of society, including António Guterres, António Costa, Ramos Horta, Ricardo Araújo Pereira, Paula Amorim, Vasco de Mello, António Horta Osório, Joana Vasconcelos , António Damásio, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, among others. The top 10 most listened to was: Ricardo Araújo Pereira, Francisco Pinto Balsemão (interviewed by João Vieira Pereira, director of EXPRESSO), Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Daniel Oliveira, António Horta-Osório, Rita Blanco, José Milhazes, António Costa, Durão Barroso and Vhils.
It was followed in 2024, consisting of 12 episodes. Francisco Pinto Balsemão presented a series of debates on the current and future impact of Artificial Intelligence in different areas of our life in society. From geopolitics to national security, from medicine to teaching, from art to religion, how technology is shaping the 21st century.
‘Memories’ is an open window into the life of Francisco Pinto Balsemão and a guided tour of his path and work. With this transformation from a book to audio format with the support of AI, the founder of Expresso and SIC once again pushes the frontiers of innovation and pioneering in social communication.
Edited by the innovation agency Instinct, the ‘Memórias’ podcast featured sound design by João Luís Amorim, coordination by Mónica Balsemão and Joana Beleza, direction by João Vieira Pereira.
