What exactly is the future, and how are we connected to it?
What exactly is the future, and how are we connected to it?
What exactly is the future, how are we connected to it, and what is our responsibility to it?
What exactly is the future, how are we connected to it, and what is our responsibility to it?
These are questions that the new podcast Future Rising grapples with as it takes listeners on a journey that starts with the Big Bang, and ends with our responsibility to future generations within an increasingly complex world.
They’re also questions that are deeply pertinent to my work as an Associate Dean in the Arizona State University College of Global Futures as I grapple with how we build a more just, equitable and vibrant future together — and how we help everyone to be a part of this.This is a podcast that I’ve been toying with producing for some time — in part because I wanted to explore new ways of opening up my work to a broader audience. But I also created it because these questions around how we’re connected to the future, and how this affects how we live and act in the present, are important.
The podcast itself is based on my book Future Rising, and explores the complexities, nuances, and sheer humanity, of our connections with the future through a series of short reflections.
Each episode (and they’re short — just 3–5 minutes in most cases) is based on a chapter from the book. Individually they provide intriguing glimpses into different aspects of our relationship with the future, whether looking at time, the emergence of intelligence, memory and learning, or how empathy affects how we think about the future of others. Together though, they paint a complex picture of how our actions affect the future, and how we can use this understanding to steer toward a better future.
I am, I must confess, a very much an “aural” writer. The phrasing and cadence of my writing often reflect how I imagine my words would sound if I was speaking them aloud. And as a consequence, I often wonder how much gets lost in translation between how I “hear” what I write, and how my words “sound” to others as they’re read.
Since publishing Future Rising in 2020, this potential disconnect has worried me. I hope that people can hear my voice as they read the book, and can pick up those nuances behind the words. But I’m not sure.
And so I finally took the plunge, and Season One of the Future Rising Podcast has just launched, with new episodes dropping every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This first season takes listeners through the first section of the book — “A Journey Into The Past” — as it moves from Bill Anders’ iconic 1968 Earthrise photo, to the earliest beginnings of the universe, and from there through the emergence of humans as a species that is capable of using intelligence and reason to conceptualize different futures. Depending on how much interest there is, season two will follow later this summer.
You can follow Future Rising wherever you get your podcasts.
Happy listening!
Based on an earlier article on the ASU College of Global Futures Dean’s Blog.