FuturePod: Recent Episodes
FuturePod
The Futures and Foresight community comprises a remarkable and diverse group of individuals who span, academic, commercial and social interests.
Donna Dupont who is a former policy advisor and emergency manager who now applies foresight to strengthen decision-making and she returns to the Pod for a catchup chat.
The next instalment in our Letters to the Future Series. Our guest is Maya van Leemput.
Dr Derek Woodgate returns to the Pod after 3 plus years to talk about his new book, The Augmented Learner
A conversation with Samista Jugwanth who is an engineer and technical director at Zutari in South Africa
A conversation with Erik Overland about his paper, Sustainability and Futures, Moving Beyond the Natural and Artificial
A conversation with Patricia Lustig and Gill Ringland about their new book, The Possibility Wheel
A conversation with Shermon Cruz and Katindi Sivi about a new futures community being established, the Global South Futures Community.
Our first episode in a different style of podcast that we are calling ‘Letters to the Future’, with our inaugural guest, Marcus Bussey.
Peter’s guest today is Trish Lavery who is an academic and policy expert working with the School of Cybernetics, Australian National University. Her work places human behaviour at the centre of strategy, futures, and strategic foresight.
Riel Miller returns for his sixth FuturePod appearance and another deep dive into matters Futures and Foresight related.
Peter chats with Elissa Farrow and Jeanne Hoffman about the Oceania Futures and Foresight Symposium 3-4 April 2025 they are organising in Meanjin (Brisbane).
Paulo Carvalho is an Educator, Innovator and Entrepreneur who has thought deeply about the disruptions and opportunities provided by Generative AI and who has just published a report on how he believes Generative AI will disrupt Foresight.
Doris Viljoen is the Director of the Institute of Futures Research at the Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa and she explains why she has the coolest job in the world and about our responsibility to do good work that grows our field
Alexis is a Design and Foresight Strategist in Toronto and Peter chats to her about the psychology of meeting our future self and how we can build a better relationship with that self plus also make the future more vivid by colouring the future in with thoughts and experiences. Like the experience of engaging with Nature.
In this episode, Amanda speaks with Rose Genele about how we can navigate the ethics of using Artificial Intelligence. Rose is a transformative leader and AI ethics advocate committed to creating ethical, resilient companies and technologies, and the host of the What Are We Going To Do With All This Future podcast.
WAWGTDWATF podcast: https://rosegenele.com/wawgtdwatf-podcast/
Contact Rose: https://rosegenele.com/contact/
Peter talks to Dana Klisanin who is a psychologist, and futurist. She is the founder of ReWilding: Lab and pioneer of ReWilding Leadership™, an innovative approach that reconnects leaders with the wisdom of the natural world to foster creativity, resilience, and sustainability.
Roger Spitz returns for a chat about his new book Disrupt with Impact. Roger is a Foresight advisor, venture capitalist, an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum's Global Foresight Network, the President of Techistential and he also chairs the Disruptive Futures Institute
A chat with Gareth Priday who is lead Foresight practitioner at Action Foresight and a director at Living Labs Innovation Network and Ethical Fields. His interests are many but his passion is how people think about the future and how, as professionals, we can best work with that.
A chat with Ross Dawson who is a futurist, keynote speaker, podcaster, strategy advisor, author, and entrepreneur about his journey into the field, how he supports organisations trying to use Foresight and his optimism about our ability to amplify cognition.
James Balzer is a policy analyst in the New South Wales Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. He was recently admitted into the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Fellowship supported by the School of International Futures.
To mark our 200th episode of FuturePod we have assembled the whole FuturePod team, who are interviewed by a special guest host, Dr Stuart Candy.
Patrick Hoverstadt is a Director and Consultant at Fractal Consulting and the author of The Fractal Organisation and Patterns of Strategy. Patrick is a viable system model (VSM) expert and we cover his deep views on systems thinking.
A return conversation with Frank Spencer that covers a lot and specifically the new book Natural Foresight
A conversation with Aminata Mansaray, a Strategic Foresight practitioner in Sierra Leone about how she is changing communities and lives using Strategic Foresight.
A conversation with Michael Lawrence and Megan Shipman who are from the Cascade Institute which is a Canadian research centre at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia about Polycrisis and the community they are supporting to understanding, mitigating and managing it.
Rob Roe returns to FuturePod to discuss his latest venture in the world of managing change. A bookcast that distils the best of the books on change that Rob has found through his extensive reading.
John Smart, the CEO of Foresight U, joins us to chat about his book ‘An Introduction to Foresight’. Among many things he expands on his three mottos for investing in foresight and doing good work sustainably.
Meredith Bowden and Dave Godden host a community called Complex Mess that supports people who are looking for new and different ways to engage with complex messes. They explain how to Coddiwomple is to travel purposefully toward an as-yet-unknown destination.
A guest conversation between Kristin Alford, Maggie Greyson and Elizabeth Merritt starts from the question about how Museums of the Future create agency and Hope and what can be gleaned from that for general Foresight application
Jay Gary returns for a chat and we discuss leadership development, institutional support, practice development and how his faith is foundational to his work and purpose
A conversation with Rodney Frederickson who is a design futurist, abstract artist, storyteller, philosopher, game designer, martial artist and an occasional poet about his case for somatic futures.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Petranka Malcheva about their double award for the project embedding long-term thinking in Welsh government and Laurie Smith and the work of NESTA and Prospect magazine around a Minister for the Future hypothetical.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Petranka Malcheva about their double award for the project embedding long-term thinking in Welsh government and Laurie Smith and the work of NESTA and Prospect magazine around a Minister for the Future hypothetical.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from the team from the Center for Engaged Foresight in the Philippines and their game, Dreams and Disruptions and the Teach the Future gang and their incredible project - World Futures Day, Young Voices.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Clarice Garcia and her toolkit called values Driven Transitions for Fashion’s Imagined Futures and Steven Lichty and his work in Kenya breaking the cycle of Intergenerational trauma.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Mikko Dufva from the amazing SITRA and their work with Weak Signals and how they make them ‘real’ and Valery Wichman and their work in the Cook Islands to shape a hundred year vision anchored in collective wellbeing.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Petra Hurtado and her work integrating Foresight into the planning field and Mike Jackson and his venture, Preempt, an AI Foresight platform
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Estefania Simon-Sasyk and the folks at Transform and their work with the Mycelium network to transform food systems and Elizabeth Merritt and her work assisting Museums use futures tools to help the repatriation of cultural artifacts.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Randy Lubin and Mike Masnick and their award winning game, Futurecast, developed for the UN Global Pulse to help fragile democracies and Alex de las Heras whose documentary essay set in different locations in the Andean region exploring future time, memory and decolonisation.
We are delighted to continue our new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Luna Mrozik Gawler, an artist, writer and scholar based in Melbourne, Australia and their award-winning work on Interspecies Surrogacy and Jennifer Williams and Matjaz Vidmar and their Utopia Labs experimental futures process.
Interviewed by: Peter Hayward with Maggie Greyson and John Sweeney
We are delighted to start a new podcast series based on the Winners and honorable mentions from the APF 2023 IF Awards. Today we hear from Cecilia Tham , from Futurity Systems in Barcelona, Spain and their award winning work onthe Plantiverse and Bronwyn Williams and the Gen Z Innovations Tour for corporate leaders developed by the team from Flux Trends in South Africa.
A return conversation with Dr David Lindsay-Wright who is a Futurist, Educator and Filmmaker about his latest venture. A communities view of their preferred futures(s) for Brisbane, Australia and that approach to futures work as compared to expert or decision-makers driven futures work.
A conversation with Thea Snow, Director of the Centre for Public Impact Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Thea works in exploring ways to engage government and other changemakers to reimagine what government could be.
A conversation with Patrick van der Duin who is a researcher, consultant and educator in Foresight and Innovation Management about how Foresight drives Innovation and Innovation drives Foresight, and that they are two sides of the same coin.
Randy Lubin is an award-winning foresight games designer, discussing how he brings these two disciplines together and how other games-curious futures practitioners can learn to bring games into their practice.
Adam Drake is the founder of Balanced Choice, which works with movement, theater, and sharing stories to encourage positive behavioral change. Adam’s work is grounded in foresight tools and principles.
Christopher Jones returns for a chat on all things Post Normal and Trans Normal. Chris is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Post Normal Policy and Future Studies and Executive Director at the Trans Normal Institute.
The Shameless Collective won the award for the Best Masters group work in 2023. They discuss their work on the Future of Sex and Intimacy.
Tracey Follows is back to put the big questions of identity to FuturePod.
Interviewed by: Peter Hayward
Richard Slaughter is back for a chat to discuss the latest target of his forensic critical thinking skills, the careless innovation of Big IT.
Riel Miller and Maree Conway discuss how we find and promote the crack in thinking so that people can open towards complexity and uncertainty and help them think differently to find emerging futures?
A conversation with Trish Mwenda who was recognized as the best Masters Student work 2023 by the Association of Professional Futurists
A conversation with Tina Auer and Tim Boykett from the art collective, Times Up. We discuss what they learned and wrote about in their book called Futures Brought to Life - we are not futurists. Our discussion ranges over ideas like the Art of Hosting, Imagination as a muscle, Caring for the Future Futures is a Verb.
A conversation with Maggie Greyson, John Sweeney and Lisa Guiliani about the upcoming APF IF Awards.
A conversation with Kelly Kornet Weber who is a member of the Strategic Foresight team at Autodesk, based in Canada. We discuss her journey into the field, the differences working as an external consultant compared to being an in-house futurist. And we delve into what collaboration really means.
Alex Quicho joins Amanda Reeves to discuss the value of arts and poetics in futures work, viewing the world through the lens of tropical futures, and finding windows into the future that invite action and movement.
A return interview with Richard Yonck where he surveys what he calls the Wild West of AI Futures including digital assistants, job losses, human hybrid working, ethics and social media.
A return interview with Rowena Morrow to hear about her work with Adaptive Cultures and the challenge of assisting organisations evolving their culture to better match their environmental complexity.
An interview with Norbert Kołos is the managing partner and co-founder of 4CF, a strategic foresight consultancy with nearly two decades of experience in complex foresight projects, that is based in Poland.
A return interview with the French Futurist, Fabienne Goux-Baudiment which covers our emerging social evolution, Meritory Foresight, the new VUCA, artificial intelligence and gaming.
Our guests today are Helga Veigl and Martin Calnan talk about the upcoming 50th Anniversary conference for the World Futures Studies Federation which is being held in Paris on 25 & 26 October 2023
Our guest is Zan Chandler who is an Adjunct Professor at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada and is also Foresight analyst & educator. She is a Board Member at the Association of Professional Futurists. A member of Global Foresight Advisory Council for TFSX.
Zan helps clients, learners and mentees to understand the nature and implications of change and discover ways thrive in the face of complexity and he/she is preoccupied by many questions: how do we do this work in ways that centre the marginalized and responds compassionately to those who live with trauma?
Nikolas Badminton FRSA is a global futurist speaker that mentors top executives and the highest levels of government to explore desirable futures, anticipate unforeseen risks, and strengthen strategic planning.
Maggie Greyson MDes is an award-winning professional futurist and the CEO of Futures Present. This boutique agency helps people make decisions in times of extreme uncertainty using design and futures thinking practices.
Maya Van Leemput is Senior Researcher for the Research Center Open Time | Applied Futures Research at Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and the Arts, where she also teaches Strategic Futures Orientation. Van Leemput is the UNESCO Chairholder Images of the Futures and Co-creation for the Open Time team.
How can newly minted futures and foresight folk make their mark and attract the right work?
What does it take to assemble an informal group of independent thinkers to collaborate at the frontier of change?
Today’s guest is Venkatesh Rao - writer, consultant, and Yak Herder at the Yak Collective.
To go further into Venkat's back catalogue, I have 3 book recommendations:
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Tempo explores timing, tactics, and strategy in narrative-driven decision-making
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The Gervais Principle is a internet cult classic using The Office to explore organisational dynamics, and a fantastically entertaining read
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The Art of Gig - a 2 volume philosophical guide to the modern gig economy for independent consultants.
Links from today's show
Yak Collective: https://www.yakcollective.org/
The Art of Gig: https://artofgig.com/
Tempo: https://amzn.asia/d/77AlQ1x
The Gervais Principle: https://amzn.asia/d/0JDGd54
https://venkateshrao.com/
Support FuturePod: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=12821399
A conversation with Dr. Stefan Bergheim. Stefan strengthens Futures Literacy in politics, business, academia, and civil society with events and processes on topics ranging from innovation via mobility and democracy to quality of life. He was an advisor to the German government’s national wellbeing strategy and led the processes “Positive Futures - Forum for Frankfurt” and “Quality of life in the digital age” and is a member of the UNESCO Futures Literacy Network.
A conversation with Sohail Inayatullah and Dada Shambushivananda remembering Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (Baba). They discuss who he was, what he meant to them each and what his legacy is and hope was for an exploitation free future. And they go a bit deeper into the Sarkar Game.
A conversation with Associate Professor Jawn Lim. A design futurist at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He holds an Advance Certificate in Management, Innovation & Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Design from Harvard University.
A returning chat with Victor Motti, Director of the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF), and founder of a new Think Tank in Washington DC, the Alternative Planetary Futures Institute.
WFSF is a UNESCO and UN consultative partner and global NGO with members in over 60 countries.
Colin Russo is the Managing Director of Engaging Futures and he has extensive experience in running Community consultation in a range of organisations.
Dr. Ciela Hartanov joins us to talk about work - what it means, how we do it, and how we create a more humane futures of work.
Dr. Ciela Hartanov was part of the founding team of The Google School for Leaders and Head of Next Practice Innovation and Strategy at Google, where she developed projects designed to shape the future of leadership and work. She currently runs humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that helps companies, executives, and teams make sense of the forces shaping the future and prepare strategically.
Ciela has been a featured speaker at a wide range of conferences from The House of Beautiful Business to the HR Leaders Forum in Australia. She has been quoted in Psychology Today and Forbes and is sought after for her thought leadership on the future of leadership and adaptable organizations. She brings a multidisciplinary view that leverages business foresight and organization development to break barriers and invent the next practices for humane, kind, and responsive workplaces.
Socials:
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/cielarose
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cielahartanov/
Website: humcollective.co
Contact: ciela@humcollective.co
Podcast on Identity: Who am I at work and who decides?
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Mina works as a futurist for a Fortune 500 corporation in Central Florida, USA. She previously worked at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard’s T.H. Chan Public School of Health on a team that produced executive education programs in sustainability innovation for senior leadership. Mina holds a master’s degree in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston.
A reinterview with Roger Spitz discussing the Disruptive Futures Institute, their new guidebook, existentialism and all points in between.
Loes is a an award-winning educator, futures consultant, UNESCO Chair on futures literacy and higher education and futures lab designer.
Sabine Winters is a philosopher working at the intersection of science and art with an interest in the 'how and why' behind theory and process.
She is the initiator of Future Based, an interdisciplinary philosophy platform exploring themes of expansion of consciousness, scientific imagination, scale, time, and things that are.
Award-winning futurist Leah Zaidi shares her top three trends that matter and her ideas on how we can build brave new worlds in anxious times.
Claire Marshall has a love for stories, technology and social good. An award-winning creative her work melds story-telling, futures thinking and experience design to hack the way our brains think about the future, so that we can take action on climate change.
In this latest podcast John Sweeney and Pete Malvicini are in conversation discussing a new UNSECO Chair in Anticipatory Governance and Sustainable Policy Making in Uzbekistan
Guests: John Sweeney and Pete Malvicini
Host: Peter Hayward
Yvette is the Managing Director of Kedge Futures. She comes from a finance and leadership background and discusses how foresight work must be used to promote more equitable futures for those who lack power and influence in the present. Leaders need both a foresight mindset and the courage to deploy it.
Epaminondas is the UNESCO Chair on Futures Research Hellas and the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Special Secretariat for Foresight at the Presidency of the Greek government
Thomas is Founder and Principal of Chermack Scenarios which offers customised scenario planning and consulting. He develops systems to provoke new insights and connect decision maker mental models to complex and uncertain environments.
Richard Eckersley is an independent researcher and writer on progress, sustainability, culture, health and wellbeing. He ranges across many fields of knowledge to develop new, common frameworks of understanding. In essence, he explores the question: Is life getting better or worse?
Cat Tully is the founder of SOIF, the School of International Futures, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2022. Before setting up SOIF, Cat worked as a strategy and policy adviser to the UK government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.She is motivated by a focus on social justice and the importance of multi-stakeholder approaches to the challenges of the 21st-century world.
Dr Cheryl Doig combines a background in education with wide experience in leadership, governance, and futures thinking. She is the Director of Think Beyond, Chair of Ako Ōtautahi Learning City Christchurch, and founder of the Ōtautahi Futures Collective.
A reinterview with Rebecca Ryan, discussing ‘doing the next right thing’ and Future generations.
A reinterview with Peter Bishop and a chance to meet two of the Teach the Futures Young Voices winners.
In this latest podcast, Alex Fergnani invites Luke van der Laan into a conversation
Guests: Alex Fergnani and Luke van der Laan
Host: Peter Hayward
Conversation Question
“Does Futures and Foresight need to be taught and researched at Universities? What could be gained if it was not?“
“Should the field abandon preferred futures? Recently, Richard Slaughter even called into question the efficacy of "alternative futures." Distinguishing between anticipation for "the future" and anticipation for "emergence" also highlights this tension. How can (and must) the futures field shift in both theory and practice to deal with this core tension? “
Robert is a former CEO with a deep appreciation of the challenges faced by senior leaders. His focus is challenging managers to think outside the known and consider alternative perspectives.
A reinterview with Frank Spencer discussing democratizing foresight, the year of free and natural foresight.
A reinterview with Rene Rohrbeck where we discuss his latest thoughts on the Corporate Foresight Maturity Model, using generational futures thinking to raise organisational foresight capability and discussing responsible corporate foresight.
Oliver tells his story of intertwining with Willis Harmon and the human potential movement and becoming a humanistic social engineer. He also explains the use of visionary time travel.
A Reinterview with Sohail Inayatullah covering covid-19, conspiracies, macrohistory, from weird to wise and the cultivation of safety.
Elissa Farrow works with organisations undoing change, she believes that people when reminded about their Bag of Power can choose and shape their future. Her PhD examined the impact of AI on organisational adaptation.
A re interview with Patricia and Gill Ringland who have just published their fourth book, New Shoots: people making fresh choices in a changing world.
Tanja discusses her community platform , Futures Space, her work on the APF Board and working with the European Commission.
Ana Tiquia creates spaces to embody diverse futures. She uses performance and participatory art, futures research and strategy; produces and curates exhibitions, installations, and immersive performances.
She has worked at the intersections of art, design, and technology with major cultural organisations and design practices in the UK and Australia, and is Founder and Director of All Tomorrow’s Futures – a cultural and strategic consultancy that helps clients develop artistic interventions that contribute to equitable and just futures.
Jacqueline outlines the results and attributes from research with CEOs, called Advanced Executive Fluency.
Heather Benoit and JT Mudge shared the Association of Professional Futurists Student Recognition Award award for 2021. They are also both studying at the University of Houston. They both found Futures and Foresight, or it found them. They describe their journey to date and what they hope for themselves and the field as a whole
Kristin explains how she uses foresight frameworks and methods to the creation of exhibits for young people, using levels of adult development to create content that is relevant for both children and young adults.
The continuation of the ReInterview started in podcast 113. Richard discusses his new book, Deleting Dystopia: reasserting human priorities in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Sarah and Claire have written Storylistening. In it they provide a theory and practice for gathering narrative evidence that will complement and strengthen, not distort, other forms of evidence, including that from science.
Thomas explains how constructing and interpreting narratives are critical to create a shared future that leaders are aiming for.
Marcus talks about his futures leadership journey since we last spoke to him; leadership models and institutions, expectations of colleagues and wisdom embodiment. Marcus also speaks of how he follows people dedicated to practising life and reflecting on their own life critically.
Listen to Karen’s futures journey, from youth activism in Mt Gambier, South Australia to development projects in Peru using the technology of participation.
Adam tells the story of the Mont Fleur Scenario Project, how he uses scenarios to create a space to act together to transform a system, and why power, love, and justice are central to the facilitation practice he describes in his new book Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge DIfferences, and Move Forward Together.
Joe’s is revisiting his earlier work as a futures Intelligence analyst. He explains how futures intelligence has to be in service of something.
Derek explains how abandonment led him to seek performance, being a rebel and finding alternative and ignored culture. He also outlines the upcoming WFSF Conference in Berlin in Oct 21
Bridgette discusses futuring as an act of rebellion and how that tries to coexist with respect. And she also shares her latest spice nut recipe.
Tamás explains how futures approaches like scanning, pathways and visions operate in both primary school and university students. As an educator he is now operating by being one step behind something emerging that he can follow.
Kieran believes that young people working with their communities can learn resilience skills and make a real difference
Allison explains how living a life without regret keeps her energised and focused on long term goals. How by using counterfactuals she flipped herself from angst to hope. She speaks extensively about the Big 3 - Biotech, Nanotech and Computer Science.
Luke explains how developing alternative futures is a very different cognitive action from actually making good decisions. He also thinks that the global rise in mental health issues shows that we cannot quickly adapt and respond to changes around us.
Bill discusses his new book Beyond Knowledge and explains how technology is driving an Age of Consciousness.
Jim is a financial advisor with over 30 years experience. He is also the founder of StratFi, a boutique investment advisor firm that focuses on “what happens next”
Jim holds a B.A. in Economics from the College of William & Mary and an M.S. in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston-Clear Lake
He is a member of our Association of Professional Futurists and has just published Foresight Investing which explains the investment opportunities in the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Cryptocurrencies, Longevity science and new sources of energy.
Erik works on multiple foresight projects in Norway, and across Europe. He has a PhD in Futures Studies from the Free University of Berlin. Erik is a Co-Editor-in-Chief for the European Journal for Futures Research and he is the President of the World Futures Study Federation.
He is a guest researcher at the Institut Futur in Free University of Berlin, Germany, and a policy advisor to the Minister of Education and Research in Norway. He has lectured at the University in Stavanger on Foresight Management issues, and has served as a key note speaker on conferences in Norway and abroad. In 2012 he was the founder of and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Futures Research
Sylvia conducts foresight research on the future of health, well-aging, and social interaction, the future of work and life-long learning, as well as transformations in mobility and retail. She graduated from HEC Paris (2003). She settled in San Francisco in 2005, where she has developed a special interest in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Sylvia is involved in the future of our oceans and sustainability, and supports positive ocean tech startups. This past year, she focused her research on mental health and the home of the 2020s, developing a resilient housing framework and four archetypes of future homes.
Susanna Carman is a strategic designer with an eclectic educational background who weaves disparate yet related disciplines together to create something new. From her base in the Northern Rivers she creates learning experiences for design, leadership, and change practitioners to enhance their reflexivity and lean into this time between worlds. Here Susanna talks about creating ecologies of support for practitioners reaching into different systems, engaging your embodied intelligence, and how what we create today shifts when we think about time in non-linear ways.
As radical uncertainty undermines how we make sense of the world, ourselves in that world and what we do, Mike has three principles that help us navigate.
Paul thinks that the opportunity for moving systems and making a difference is changing as the leverage points and also the agency for changes moves too.
Tracey looks for the clues to the future. She argues for the value in talking to a wide range of people about their thoughts and expectations about the future. She believes that, as a society, we have entered the phase of post literacy.
Richard observes that the early responses to the pandemic did not follow the science. He expects to see increasing levels of civil disobedience. He thinks there have been interesting startups in the P2P and Co-Op space and that people who want to make a difference should focus where they have agency
Chris Jones is a researcher, author, and educator with an extensive history in our community. He has taught political science and future studies in the USA state systems of higher education in Hawaii, Oregon, Texas and Colorado and was Secretary General of the World Futures Studies Federation for 4 year. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies.
Guests: Riel Miller, John Sweeney & Josh Floyd
Host: Peter Hayward
Conversation Question
“Should the field abandon preferred futures? Recently, Richard Slaughter even called into question the efficacy of "alternative futures." Distinguishing between anticipation for "the future" and anticipation for "emergence" also highlights this tension. How can (and must) the futures field shift in both theory and practice to deal with this core tension? “
Lidia is freelance researcher, currently based in Brazil. She publishes on culture, technology and science fiction. She uses science fiction to help clients be more imaginative and creative. Lidia believes that our active engagement with through death and grief, what she calls Death Consciousness, is a vital and energetic capability, especially helpful in our current times.
Alex is passionate about better understanding how to use them methods we employ to assist people. He believes that through collaborating with other disciplines to test our methods, we can become more influential in the public discourse.
Tyler believes that our values are key in moving forward in the face of uncertainty. That through synchronizing the minds of groups all work, especially foresight, starts from the best place with the best contents of consciousness. He asks if we are upgrading our ability to be human as the upgrade the world around us.
Cherie believes that people should be allowed to experience timescapes in ways that make sense to them and that ‘Futurity’ speaks better to the indigenous understanding of the future. Now is the time to have a really strong mind and focus.
Sara talks about the correlation between fossil fuels and authoritarian governments, how using the empirical futures frame helps her with working in very normative spaces and how the distillation of crazy in extremist groups can be a force for reversing their support
Gill discusses a wide range of her experiences using Foresight. She tells us about the European Commission’s decade long engagement with Foresight and how it became comfortable in using it. She gives us the Three things that Foresight people need to improve.
David walks us through his ideas that Futures projects should be seen to do something in the real world and that he believes that now is the time for a FOPP - a Future Orientated Political Party. He believes that we lack high quality images of possible futures and so he is about finding a language for futures literacy.
Njeri explains how the Rwanda genocide for her was a turning point where she realised how important agency was rather than just awareness. Agency for her arises from inclusion of diverse thinking and a preparedness to challenge underlying assumptions
Jerome C. Glenn is the co-founder in 1996 and CEO of The Millennium Project. He has over 40 years of Futures Research experience working for governments, international organizations, and private industry. Jerome invented the “Futures Wheel” and he has published over 100 future-oriented articles in various publications including Foresight, Futures, Technological Forecasting, Futures Research Quarterly, and The Futurist.
Jerome has a BA in philosophy from American University, an MA in Teaching Social Science – Futuristics from Antioch Graduate School of Education. He has an honorary professorship and doctor’s degrees from two universities in South America and is a leading boomerang stunt man.
Born in 1949 in Shimla, India, Acharya Shambhushivananda Avadhuta, popularly known as Dada is a gold medalist of Punjab University, with a Ph.D in Business & Applied Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at several universities in the United States before choosing a monastic life in 1979.
He is presently the Chancellor of Neohumanist Global Education Network with its headquarters at Anandanagar, West Bengal, India. He is the author of “PROUT: Neohumanist Economics”, “Thoughts for a New Era”, “Mystic Verses” and “Towards a Brighter Future: Fragrant Petals from the Life of Beloved Bábá”.
For over forty years, Ruben Nelson has offered futures-oriented strategic advice to Cabinet Ministers, Board Members and senior executives in every sector of Canadian society. He challenges those with whom he works not only to raise their game, but to learn to see, embrace and cooperate with the long transformation we are engaged with. His vision of an emerging Co-creative civilization offers a basis for the hope that lies the other side of despair.
Ruben has written extensively on a wide range of topics, including civilizational paradigm change, and strategic foresight 2.0 as the new cognitive work of leadership.. Ruben is a graduate of Queen’s University and Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Canada. He has also taught at Queen’s University and the University of Calgary. Ruben Is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Business Academy.
Richard Yonck is a Seattle-based futurist whose outlook on the future was informed by over 25 years experience as a computer systems programmer-analyst, during which time he guided clients through the rapidly-shifting technological landscape.
He founded Intelligent Future Consulting where he consults to businesses and organizations, speaks to audiences and writes about artificial intelligence and other emerging trends and technologies, with a focus on their impacts on business and society. and to promote our preferred futures.
Richard’s writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Futurist Magazine, Scientific American, World Future Review, Fast Company, Wired, & Psychology Today.. His books include Heart of the Machine in 2017 and his new book Future Minds.
Guests: Maree Conway and Peter Hayward
Host: Meredith (Mendy) Urie
Conversation Questions
Question 1: When working with a client org you sense has low levels of internal trust, how might you describe the potential benefit of engaging in collective foresight practice?
Question 2: How do you see the role of experts in going through this process to make it real? and linked with this is diversity of ideologies and biases within the experts.
Question 3: Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives as is to our futures. Yet imagination is deeply affected by trauma. What might trauma-informed foresight reveal?
Question 4: How can I develop an ongoing social foresight conversation in a virtual environment with a changing cast of participants?
Question 5: What could enable a return to polylogic futures? Logical from within each own unique direction?
Roope places Arts at the centre of his futures work. He is seeking a joyful and sustainable transformation of democracy and our institutions.
Roope Mokka is a Futurist based in Helsinki who found is calling via punk and dance. He jointly founded Demos Helsinki as a futures and social transformation consultancy. He has just begun a 10 year project called Untitled which is going to be a 10 year festival of imagining and experimentation.
Thomas teaches his students to be Philosophers -in-action. He believes that there is no learning without emotional shock and he wants us to deepen our conversations to decomplexify our physical reality.
Thomas Gaultier is Professor of Strategy and he directs the Disrupted Futures program at Emlyon Business school in Lyon, France. He believes that all decisions simplify complexity and that we have outsourced or complexity management to those who supply our products and services. We need to change this and rebuild our personal complexity capacity in order to create sustainable futures
Kimberly discusses both the challenges and rewards of development work in West Africa, and explaining foresight to your mother. She also walks us through the Houston Foresight Framework to exploring the future.
Kimberly Daniels pursued a doctorate in Strategic Leadership/Strategic Foresight, which empowered her with confidence to work alongside of people in Burkina Faso, West Africa, towards achieving Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Her approach to MDG 1, Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, involved introducing permaculture and rainwater harvesting to small farmers in Burkina Faso. Shortly before leaving West Africa and returning to the U.S., Kimberly joined the Association of Professional Futurists. She now is exploring decolonization futures and Afro Futurism as integral knowledge systems for rewriting the narratives for people of colour. She is testimony to how you can assist people to change their life.
Joining us in this special episode are our past guests, Richard Slaughter and Tom Lombardo. They share their memories and experiences of Wendell Bell, a giant in the field of Futures.
Anita says that ethics is how we work with our power and support others. She works across corporate clients who wish to operate with sensitivity to their impacts, and also how community resources, like water, are shared.
Anita Sykes-Kelleher found Dr Who and Futures via working in insurance and academia. Two Masters and a PhD later she is an enthusiastic proponent of social and cultural futures that are ethically founded in the narratives of local communities. She believes that change is created both within each person and collectively.
We are all in unusual times at present and so today we are doing something unusual. Ordinarily our Futurepod conversations are with guests you have met before in earlier interviews. But today you are going to hear a conversation with people you have not heard from before. But hopefully we will get them back for a longer interview later on.
Jerome (Jerry) C. Glenn, Theodore (Ted) Gordon and Paul Saffo from the Millennium Project have just released a set of COVID scenarios for the American Red Cross. And we at Futurepod thought that these scenarios were important and hopefully useful for our listener’s that we changed up how we normally do things in order to get this to you as soon as we could.
The Millennium Project connects futurists around the world to improve global foresight. It was founded in 1996 after a three-year feasibility study with the United Nations University, Smithsonian Institution, Futures Group International, and the American Council for the UNU.
Maree Conway posed this question to Peter Hayward:
“How can we make our individual and collective foresight capacities ‘real’ in futures practice and processes?“
Roger believes that we need to allow the disruptive patterns to emerge to make the wisest choices. He also speaks of embracing the beginners mind to lead ourselves, our organisations and our societies through an increasingly disruptive world.
Roger Spitz is a merchant banker who found that complexity science helped him to understand the emerging external present, and existential philosophy helped him understand the internal journey too. Operating in concert the two sit at the core of his practice. He believes that our true essence is found through our choices, experimentation and creativity.
Shermon chats about history, culture, gross national cool and how the story of Rip Van Winkle is a great way to introduce futures thinking.
Shermon Cruz is the Co-founder of the Philippine Futures Thinking Society. Hear about his journey from Political Science to UNESCO Global Futures. His is a mission to embrace a conversation about risk and to work with the specific narratives of different communities. He has an abiding passion for Causal Layered Analysis and is the joint author of the Disruption Game.
Conversation question: “What are some of the possible scenarios of the USA post-election period (whoever wins) that sees changes that begin the journey to bring America together rather than to drive it further apart?“
In this podcast, we have Peter Hayward and Peter Bishop returning for a conversation. Peter Hayward is an internationally respected futures thinker, foresight practitioner and educator. He is also a co-creator and co-host of FuturePod. Peter Bishop is a professional futurist, a retired Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight, and the former Director of the graduate program in Futures Studies at the University of Houston.
Jordi discusses how change itself is changing, and how we need to up our game to better navigate our lives. He also speaks of how the dignity of younger generations can explain their anger with how post normal times are being managed.
Serra del Pino Serra is the Deputy Director of the Center for Post Normal Policy and Future Studies and he is also an experienced futures consultant and researcher. He explains how he believes that we are in post normal times and how the use of the three tomorrows framework assists in navigating these challenging times.
Mark talks about the unlikely connection of horse manure and foresight, and explains how ‘pre’ mortems could improve decision-making. He also speaks of his interest in life extension.
Mark Sackler found Futures after a 40 year career in media and marketing roles. He advocates for more Foresight in society and has turned his skills to how we communicate with the public about the work we do. One of his initiatives is https://seekingdelphi.com/ which is a complementary series of podcasts which debuted in January 2017. Listen to Mark explain a variety of communication approaches.
Rebecca explains the importance of effective and powerful communication and she discusses whether generational change is 'a thing' or not.
Rebecca Ryan is a futurist, thought leader and zen practitioner who works with local governments. In addition to her futures toolkit she places emphasis on our listening, awareness and the breath. Getting people to slow down in order to find the energy to run our life experiments and to smooth out our brokenness.
Conversation question: “What next for the field of foresight? How can we move on from the foundation methods and tools that seem to have us locked in their grip? How can we become more relevant and more practical? How can we approach design from different ontological frameworks.“
Hazel saw first hand the evolution of technology and business with its impacts on political power and from that came her life work, tracking and promoting the technologies and mind sets for the Solar Age.
Hazel Henderson is a living legend of our field and is still working hard on creating better futures through matchmaking technology, capital and human energy. Her story goes back to the clean air protests in New York and she has gone on to play key roles in the Office of Technology Assessment and the ethical investment field just to mention a couple
Bryan discusses scanning as a client service and product, the notion of human identity, the globalisation of culture and the future of Higher Education.
Bryan Alexander works at the forefront of Higher Education and technology working. He sees this moment as the Golden Age of autodidact learning. He passion is to return the student to the centre of discussions about the future of Higher Education.
A futures powerhouse and greatly respected globally, Wendy speaks about art, poetry and music; the tools of culture, to create more evocative, vivid and more densely experiential futures, and much more.
Wendy started her futures education at the University of Hawaii in Manoa 40 years ago, and has been Director of her own consultancy, Infinite Futures for over 30 years. During this time Wendy has worked broadly and deeply in foresight research, planning and facilitation across many countries including Canada, America, Croatia, France, Samoa, England, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Her specialisations are in horizon and environmental scanning, impact analysis, scenario building and planning, visioning, training and facilitation.
Wendy speaks about coming from a beginning which was average in every way, to making the most of resources in her orbit. She encourages people to throw themselves into change, from philosophy, technology and social change to humanity and the universe.
Today we have two of our previous guests returning for a conversation, Dr John Sweeney from Narxoz University and Riel Miller Head of Futures Literacy and UNESCO.
Conversation question: “Should the field abandon preferred futures? Recently, Richard Slaughter even called into question the efficacy of 'alternative futures'...How can (and must) the futures field shift in both theory and practice to deal with this core tension? “
Charles describes how he finds it easy to have conversations about the future with everyone he meets. He explains the use of his favourite tool, the Futures Cone, and his long-time engagement with Schools and Futures.
Charles Brass accidentally found Futures as an HR Executive looking at the Future of Work. He then went onto to create his own Futures focused organisation that he has worked in for over 30 years. Charles sees us being a point in time where we can examine and ask the right questions about our relationship with money, wealth and value.
Yvonne's is a story of how we grow up as human beings and also the journey of both inward and outward honesty.
Yvonne Curtis had a full career in Chemistry before switching over to work in Futures for another 40 year career in that. Hers is the story of the New Zealand Futures Trust which for over 30 years operated as a not-for-profit future focussed organisation with all the New Zealand community as their stakeholders.
Patricia is an internationally recognised, self-taught, pragmatic futures practitioner who works in the people-space when the problem is not technical. She believes we should all use our foresight muscle and focus on making it stronger.
Patricia is a rule-ignorer who insists on Futures being of real use in helping make better decisions, often using an inclusive process of appreciative in-quiry to find out what resources are available, to uncover the necessary energy for change and, then, to find a way forward.
Tom takes you through his journey from being a graduate at university, to hospital psychologist, to educator and finally author. The twin ideas of Futures Consciousness and the centrality of Science Fiction emerged from that journey.
Tom Lombardo is a psychologist, futurist, educator and author who belives that Futures Consciousness is innate to humans but it is a capacity that should be heightened. He has had a life long passion for Science Fiction which he sees as operating as a Futures mythology. For Tom, humans can consciously evolve themselves and our species and that we all need to face up to that responsibility.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Professor Sohail Inayatullah is the first UNESCO Chair in Future Studies and also holds positions at two Australian Universities and Tamkang in Taiwan.
Sohail speaks about, science and spirit, slowing down and the symbolic security of the face mask during the time of COVID-19. His guidance is to chose frames' wisely when thinking about the future beyond COVID.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Rowena speaks about how COVID-19 is allowing us to view our cultural and societal cracks. She also observes how the futures tool of scenarios has been quickly and broadly taken up and used by leadership in Australia to help navigate this time.
Using a wealth of corporate experience with teams and organisations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Rob uses an Integral approach and rich experiential learning when working with the “front line troops who really get it”. The results are clear: people are cared for and the organisation benefits. However those at CEO and board level remain harder to convince.
Rob encourages us to pause and look at this unique opportunity that could never be planned, to think about what the world ‘could’ look like. He personally is looking for examples of leadership and signals of change in our global structures.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Debra is Professor and Dean (Education) at Flinders University in Australia. She completed her Masters of Education (via Thesis) on the ‘case for futures education in Australian schools.’ Deb then completed her PhD looking at the interconnections between futures thinking, curriculum and human capacity.
Deb has published several articles in the Futures journal, and has received local and national awards for her contributions to student learning.
Deb talks about this as the perfect time to use futures thinking in all levels of education. She also discusses the new language and identification that is arising and their impacts, from ‘essential’, to ‘global citizen’.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Victor introduces you to the twin brothers of the Wise and Ignorant mind as part of how he seeks integral futures. He also discusses the Pandamic (China’s general influence) and also the Pandemic (COVID-19).
Victor Vahidi Motti is the Director of the World Futures Study Federation (WFSF) which is our foremost body for independent future studies scholarship. Victor explains how he applies an Integral Futures Framework, which is based on the science of complex systems and names after Zurvan, the entire god of infinite time and space in ancient Persian mythology. For him, Futures is the search for the Husraw Wisdom and finding trans-formative narratives.
Listen to Frank get jazzed up about complexity, and discuss how Foresight is our destiny. He explains that we need Holoptic Foresight, and that leadership needs to be a collective and cooperative process.
Frank Spencer calls himself a complexity geek and in this interview he brings an enthusiasm and an urgency for everyone to become more comfortable with working with complexity. Embracing complexity along with democratising the future and democratising foresight are the foundations upon which his businesses (Kedge and The Futures School) operate.
From COVID-19 quarantine, Peter Black walks us thoughtfully through the worlds of veterinary epidemiology and how a full Foresight toolbox can help in the Long Game and the Hard Game. Peter has some important reflections on how we have come to this current COVID-19 moment on-board an outdated old vessel and what will make the difference between snapping back to spend more and more money in keeping her afloat or taking only what we need to re-set the future.
Donna is passionate about how Emergency Management and how foresight can help them. She sees herself as a bridge between the two professional domains. The evolutionary paradigm of resilience gives her hope that we can manage the current and future emergency challenges we all face.
Donna Dupont works with Emergency Management and Foresight and Design. Her story is also a professional journey from working in public sector organisations to running a start-up B2B professional services company. Donna is trained in Foresight and Design and she believes that Foresight is both a mindset and a skillset to explore possibilities for shaping the future over the long term.
Stuart Candy is another of the new generation of hybrid futures practitioners who works with thinking, imagery, narrative and experience to create powerful and personal experiences in both academic, policy and life spaces.
Stuart Candy has integrated Futures, Media and Experiential learning to create a hybrid and creative approach that for him is about enabling futures work live up to its potential to create better for futures for all. In his interview Stuart ranges over storytelling, emotional labour and the juxtaposition of the mundane and dystopian. A wonderful narrative journey of the integration of art, practice and inspiration.
Kieran is a Futurist and Co-Founder of Foresight Lane and Crazy Ideas College. Kieran speaks about the importance of making sure ‘reinvention’ is still part of our stories as we move through the response stage of the pandemic. He has been leaning on Jim Dator’s ‘Four Archetypes’ to help clients make sense, respond well, and capitalise on opportunities from the disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones. At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Paul Higgins is an experienced foresight consultant whose business is geared towards identifying those organisations that want to get on with doing things that will accelerate our path to our 100 year future.
Paul speaks about the fast moving and fluid environment we all are existing in, and offers COVID-19 scenarios for organisational strategy, and talks through this offering he has made to whoever would like to refer to these. He also speaks about some of the impacts and potential changes for working visa’s to Australia, from skilled migrants, to partner visas to permanent residency.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Bridgette speaks about her intellectual interest in the unintended consequences of the pandemic, including to her pet projects such as the ‘future of work’, and her day to day existence as a Senior Lecturer at a University who has moved completely online.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Guest: Peter Bishop
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
Interview Date: Saturday, 28 March 2020
Interviewed By: Peter Hayward in Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Peter C. Bishop is the Exec Director of Teach the Future, Inc., having retired as an Associate Professor of Strategic Foresight and Director of the graduate program in Foresight at the University of Houston.
Peter Bishop speaks about how a new era is possible, though not guaranteed; this historical moment breaks the frame, opening up the possibility for innovation, or we might snap back to how we were before. The disruption is already causing a great deal of risk and suffering and the financial debts will burden future generations. There is potential for radical change in education with a recognition of the importance of public health and planning for a world of increased frequency and depth of disruption.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Guest: John Sweeney
Location: Belarus
Interview Date: Friday, 27 March 2020
Interviewed By: Peter Hayward in Melbourne, Australia.
John reminds us that futures are still plural, and the importance of holding the space for possibilities. One of the most immediate things each of us can do, is pay careful attention to the language we use to navigate this time. Peter and John also discuss going beyond a technocrat (the technically elite) response by having good conversations to support values-led futures, and help clarify what we want to keep from the past.
Guest: Riel Miller
Location: Paris, France
Interview Date: Thursday, 26 March 2020
Interviewed By: Peter Hayward in Melbourne, Australia.
Riel provides us with positive perspectives during this time of shock. Discussing how this pandemic is a powerful opportunity to make a fundamental change in how humans make choices, and the immense power of a capability we all hold, imagination.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Guest: Richard Hames
Location: Thailand
Interview Date: Tuesday, 24 March 2020
Interviewed By: Peter Hayward in Melbourne, Australia.
Richard speaks about COVID-19 as not just being a threat, it is also a gift. He explains there is an opportunity to understand more deeply what are we doing that works in our favour and what in fact works against us in society. It is also an opportunity for nature to re-establish itself.
The COVID-19 pandemic is moving rapidly around the world. Extinguishing our expected futures and opening up the possibilities of different ones.
At FuturePod we have decided to speak to our previous guests, to ask them what this particular moment in time means to them, and more importantly, to us all.
Jorge brings his nerdiness to help people and organisations understand what is changing around them and how to use that to help decision-making. He believes that the work of people like him in Mexico and others elsewhere is re-enchanting our field.
Jorge Camacho is both an educator and practitioner who works with Design and Strategic Foresight but he did not train as a Designer or Futurist. His is a practice of evolution and movement, of change and hope, Jorge explains how culture and system thinking are foundational to his work. How he is excited and honoured to be part of the next generation of practitioners taking this work forward. For him the capacity to design your future should be universal.
Clem Bezold takes you through the use of scenarios and visioning and discusses equity rising and abundance advances.
Clem Bezold had a remarkable start to his Futures career. Being mentored by Jim Dator and Alvin Toffler and then establishing the Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF) that for over forty years encouraged Anticipatory Democracy. In this podcast Clem explains the IAF's approach to scenarios and the centrality of the vision to any successful futures work.
Listen to Andy as he explains the Houston Framework, his work on Beyond Market Capitalism, how you 'find the fringe', and how you work with Futures 'learners'.
Andy Hines is an experienced corporate and consultant futurist, who has moved his performance space into the classroom as Program Coordinator at the University of Houston's Graduate Program in Foresight. His wealth of experience in what creates successful work with clients has led Andy to argue for the slow journey, not the fast cycle time of the consultant on the 3 month brief. For Andy, sustainable success come from taking the time to develop deep subject knowledge.
Meet Pupul, a storyteller, and let her help you open the doors in your own thinking to find your own "different way" to practice foresight.
Pupul Bisht is a multi-disciplinary designer and futurist. In 2018, she won the Joesph Jaworski Next Generation Foresight Practitioner award. She is pioneering the use of a folk story telling tradition, Kaavad, to uncover narratives of alternative futures and marginalised futures that lie unexplored in our everyday world.
Andrew takes us into the genesis and elaboration of the “real” Three Horizons method and how it can be used for a lot more by practitioners, and shares other Futures gems.
Andrew Curry is a journalist and futures practitioner with considerable scenario development experience. He was part of the team that developed what we now know as the Three Horizons approach for Futures work. In this interview Andrew describes the method as much more than "three lines on a page" and he explains its nuances. He also has observations on the state of the scenario method. A great interview for all practitioners.
Debra (Deb) Bateman has great breadth and depth in learning and teaching, infusing her curriculum with futures thinking in both schools and higher education. She shares her eclectic futures tools; a must listen for those in the Education sphere.
Debra completed her Masters of Education (via Thesis) on the ‘case for futures education in Australian schools.’ She then completed her PhD looking at the interconnections between futures thinking, curriculum and human capacity. Deb has published several articles in the Futures journal, and has received local and national awards for her contributions to student learning.
She is currently exploring her passion in Learning and Teaching, Educational Strategy and innovative curriculum and pedagogical design to lead some complex and longstanding projects to interesting and very successful futures. Deb has recently been appointed as Professor and Dean (Education) at Flinders University in Australia.
Verne explains the contribution that Futures has made to society and the power of the Futures Wheel. He exemplifies that it’s never too late to learn something new about yourself and the world.
Verne Wheelwright is different in that he came to Futures and Foresight as a 60 year-old small business aficionado. Having 'found' his community he then completed a PhD studying how people think about their future and authored two books. Verne is a great communicator, with a deceptively simple approach to conveying powerful ideas.
Zia explains his ideas of the Familiar Future and the Unspoken Future and he challenges those who work in our field to actually make a contribution to ensure that the Future is open and is not 'colonised' by those currently holding power and privilege.
Ziauddin (Zia) Sardar is an Islamic polymath and who also edited the field’s flagship journal ‘Futures’. His scholarship into Muslim Futures brought him into the community and he stayed. His latest foray is into postnormal times which Zia believes is the zeitgeist of our era. He is a driving force behind the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies. Zia explains the 3Cs of postnormal times; Complexity, Chaos and Contradictions, and also introduces some of its menagerie; the Black Elephants, Jellyfish amd Swans.