Are sci-fi stories the key to a better future?

This week’s episode of How We Future features Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, co-directors of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. For nearly 15 years, they've been running what might be the most unusual university center in the country, one that brings together science fiction writers, scientists, artists, and engineers to imagine hopeful, yet practical, futures.

Ruth and Ed describe how they turn imagination into practice: Kids building Scribble Bots and debating who deserves credit when a robot makes art. Commissioning writers worldwide to explore what human flourishing looks like in a warming world. Pairing speculative fiction with expert essays and original artwork, creating story packages that explore what might actually be possible down the line.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• How collaborative worldbuilding helps experts ask each other new questions
• What happens when you pair exciting stories with science-backed facts
• Why reflecting on the futures you consume in media matters more than you think

Links from the Episode:

• Center for Science and Imagination
• Smithsonian Futures Exhibit

Book and Articles:

• Frankenstein at 200, Ed Finn, New York Times
• Step Into the Free and Infinite Laboratory of the Mind, Ed Finn, Issues in Science and Technology
• Collaborative Imagination: A Methodical Approach, Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, Science Direct
• Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures, edited by Joey Escrich and Ed Finn
• A Rewilded Mind, Corey Pressman, CSI Imagination Fellow
• When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis by Anna Lee Newitz

Exercises and Resources:

• Frankenstein Kit, Resources created by CSI
• Futures by Choice, Futures by Chance, CSI
• CSI Resources for Teachers
• Solar Tomorrow Resources, CSI (Great for Educators!)
• Postcards from the Future, Futures Exercise from CSI

Are you being a good ancestor?

This episode of How We Future features public philosopher Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor and History for Tomorrow, to explore how we can break free from short-term thinking and start planning in generations, not quarters.

Roman argues we all have two competing forces. The marshmallow brain seeks instant gratification. The acorn brain enables long-term thinking, the kind that built sewers in 19th century London for a much larger future population. History shows what's possible when we activate that capacity.

Roman shares practical steps to become better ancestors, from giving children your vote to building social cohesion through community action. He offers examples of things that went right in history and the importance of recognizing what we should repeat, not just what we shouldn’t.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why long-term thinking is wired into our brains and how to activate it
• What it takes for real transformative change to happen
• Why social trust matters more than technology for our survival

Roman sees signs of change, from the EU creating an Intergenerational Fairness Index to educators teaching students to think like futurists, not just historians. The future is ours to create together.

Links from the episode:

• Roman Krznaric Site
• Roman’s new online course: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Term World
• Book: The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long Term Thinking
• Book: History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity
• Book: Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It
• TED Talk: Lessons from History for a Better Tomorrow
• TED Talk: How to be a Good Ancestor
• New View EDU podcast for school leaders with Roman Krnaric
• Long Now Talk: Roman Kzrnaric and Kate Raworth

The future is a paradox we have to learn to hold.

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa Kay Solomon is joined by Pascal Finette, Co-Founder radical, an organization that offers strategic advice to help leaders build organizations that strengthen under stress instead of breaking. Over nearly three decades, Pascal has led transformations at eBay, Mozilla, and Google, and he brings refreshing honesty about what it really takes to navigate uncertainty.

The conversation centers on a simple question Pascal asks thousands of executives: "The future is ___." How you fill in that blank reveals everything. Some say bright. Some say terrifying. Pascal argues we need to hold both views at once because the future genuinely is contradictory. He and Lisa talk about the danger of the "official future," that narrow path organizations and people lock themselves into that leaves them brittle when inevitable shocks arrive.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why holding opposing views of the future at once is essential
• Why curiosity is the most important muscle for navigating change
• What anti-fragility means in practice and how it differs from resilience

Pascal encourages listeners to ask more meaningful questions about their role in society rather than just focusing on quarterly profits. The future, he reminds us, is ours to create.

Links from the episode:

• Radical Briefing
• The Heretic x GYSHIDO
• The Official Future Trap
• Pascal’s Disruption Mapping Exercise