Welcome to the end of Flash Forward. This is the very last episode of the show ever. And on it we tackle the big, BIG question: how do you change the world? How do you change yourself? How do you change tomorrow?

✨ BECOME A TIME TRAVELER ✨

Guests:

• Dr. Jessica Ware -- associate curator of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History
• Sabrina Imbler -- journalist and author of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures.
• Dean Spade -- law professor at Seattle University School of Law and author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next)
• Dr. Ruha Benjamin — professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want
• Liz Neeley — science communicator and founder of Liminal

→ → → Further reading & resources here! ← ← ←

This episode of Flash Forward was written by me, Rose Eveleth, edited by Avery Trufelman, produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman and sound designed by Ariana Martinez. Much of the music in this episode is by Ilan Blanck. The outro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Mattie Lubchansky.

Special thanks to Kendra Snyder at the Museum of Natural History; Cass Adair, who read Sonnet Against Entropy by John M. Ford; Elena Rivera, who read The Hermit Crab by Mary Oliver; and to Siona Petrous, who read our Octavia Butler quote.

That’s all for Flash Forward, go forth and make better futures, okay?

Poem Credits

Sonnet Against Entropy, by John M. Ford, published by Tor in 2011

“The Hermit Crab” by Mary Oliver. Read by the permission of The Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency as agent for the author. Copyright © 1990, 2006, 2008, 2017 by Mary Oliver with permission of Bill Reichblum

That is solemn we have ended,— (87), by Emily Dickinson (public domain)

Why does it always feel like we’re on the verge of something — great or terrible? And how do we resist the pull, the lull, and the stress of the void?

Guests:

• Dr. Matt Connelly — historian at Columbia and author of the book The Declassification Engine
• Dr. Susan Hough — seismologist at the US Geological Survey
• Liz Neeley — science communicator and founder of Liminal
• Eva Hagberg — architectural historian and the author of When Eero Met His Match.

→ → → Further reading & resources here! ← ← ←

✨ BECOME A TIME TRAVELER ✨

Poem Credits:

Tracy K. Smith, "Sci-Fi" from Life on Mars. Copyright © 2011 by Tracy K. Smith. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press. www.graywolfpress.org. Audio provided by the Stanford News Service.

“Storming Towards a Precipice” From After and Before the Lightning by Simon Ortiz. © 1994 Simon Ortiz. Reprinted by permission of the University of Arizona Press.

“Future Memories” by Mario Melendez translated by Eloisa Amezcua, Poetry Magazine, 2017, Reprinted by permission of author.

This episode of Flash Forward was written by me, Rose Eveleth, edited by Avery Trufelman, produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman and sound designed by Ariana Martinez. Much of the music in this episode is by Ilan Blanck. The outro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Mattie Lubchansky. The incredible beat that dropped at the end is by Lazerbeak.

Special thanks to Julia Furlan, who hit the streets of New York City to ask people about aliens for us. Thanks also to everybody who sent in voice memos around that question we couldn’t use them all and wow there were so many good ones. Thanks also to Ed Yong who read a passage from A hundred years hence : the expectations of an optimist; to Tracy K. Smith who read her poem Sci-Fi, and to Stanford University for letting us use that audio; to Jeffrey Nils Gardner who read Storming Toward a Precipice By Simon J. Ortiz; and to Elena Fernández Collins who called to the void for us and read Future Memories by Mario Melendez in both Spanish and English.

Welcome to the end of Flash Forward. This is the first episode in our three-part show finale!! As I say goodbye to Flash Forward, I wanted to leave you all with a rumination on how to think about the future. How do you stay hopeful? How do we imagine better futures? How do we actually GET those better futures? This is my three-part love letter to you all, and to tomorrow.

✨ BECOME A TIME TRAVELER ✨

Guests:

• Jack Shepherd — former editorial director BuzzFeed, author of On Words and Up Words newsletter, co-host of Strange Bedfellows podcast
• Dr. Adam Mastroianni — postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School and author of Experimental History newsletter
• Liz Neeley — science communicator and founder of Liminal
• Dr. Ruha Benjamin — professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want

→ → → Further reading & resources here! ← ← ←

This episode of Flash Forward was written by me, Rose Eveleth; edited by Avery Trufelman; produced by Ozzy Llinas Goodman and sound designed by Ariana Martinez. Much of the music in this episode is by Ilan Blanck. The outro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Mattie Lubchansky.

Special thanks to Libby Larsen, who read Plates by Ethan Leos Verne; Emily C, who read Nailbunny’s post; Afi Yellow Duke who read “Sorrow is Not My Name” by Ross Gay; and Marge Piercy who read her poem “To be of use.”

Poems Credits

“Sorrow Is Not My Name” from Bringing the Shovel Down by Ross Gay, Ⓒ 2011. Aired by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.

“To be of use” by Marge Piercy Copyright ©1973, 1982 by Marge Piercy From CIRCLES ON THE WATER, Alfred A. Knopf. Used by permission of Robin Straus Agency, Inc.