From What If to What Next
Each episode, writer and Transition Movement founder Rob Hopkins invites cutting edge thinkers to visualize a new future. The podcast explores bold, visionary, and imaginative ideas for reimagining everything in a time that calls for fresh thinking.
Episodes
103 - Kate Pickett
Kate Pickett was co-author of the seminal 'The Spirit Level', and she just published her new book 'The Good Society: and how we make it'. 'The Good Society' is an utterly brilliant and compelling vision of what a more equal future fundamentally rooted in care would look like. I can't recommend it highly enough. It draws on a wide array of empirical evidence to bring alive what such a future would
102 - Solitaire Townsend
The second (Episode 102) of my rejuvenated and back-in-your-life podcast, 'From What If to What Next' features my conversation with the fabulous Solitaire Townsend. Following 2025's New York Climate Week online, the key thing that caught my attention was Solitaire standing up and boldly stating 'Fuck Doom'. She told Climate Week "Fuck the sad little "last generation" memes. Fuck climate being serv
101 - Rasheedah Phillips
It's deeply exciting to be able to present your first new episode of 'From What If to What Next' in almost 2 years. As the months have gone past, I've had a sense that there was more still to do, more conversations to be had. From the research I did for 'How to Fall in Love with the Future' and since, I've come across so many amazing people with stories that you read need to hear, with important t
100 - In conversation with Walidah Imarisha.
And here we are. Episode 100. What a journey! Thank you so much for being a part of it with me. I could not be more delighted by today's guest, who I have wanted on this podcast since its inception. It's the wonderful writer, educator and poet Walidah Imarisha, one of my great she-roes. I really hope you are going to love the conversation that we had. And this episode starts with a couple of BIG a
99 - What if invitations to participate in civic life were creative and caring?
On this, our 99th episode of 'From What If to What Next', we have the first episode in which both guests actually joined my physically in the studio! I was joined by Ruth Ben Tovim and Anne-Marie Culhane, both extraordinary practitioners of community arts and what they call 'the Art of Invitation'. I have learned so much from both of these extraordinary women. The question we dive deep into is "Wh
98 - What if we deeply listened to the natural world?
You're in for a bit of a treat here. In today's episode things are a little bit different: you usual Producer is your host, you usual host is a guest, we've woven some beautiful sound recordings into our episode to make it a sensory experience for you. Our other guest is Andrew Skeoch, sound recordist and author of the excellent book, Deep Listening to Nature. You can find his Listening Earth cata
97 - What if there was an alternative to capitalism, after all?
Today's episode is a beauty. It brings together Dr. Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages with Nick Romeo, author of 'The Alternative', to explore 'What if there was an alternative to capitalism after all?' They bring such contrasting yet complementary perspectives for a conversation that, at
96 - What if we had a Right to Roam?
Here in the UK, the Right to Roam has been pushed into the news headlines by the activities of Dartmoor landowner Alexander Darwall, who just announced that he is appealing the recent victory for campaigners who overturned the ban on wild camping that he brought in last year. His actions have triggered a beautifully colourful and well-supported campaign, and growing political support. This week we
95 - What if we became better Protopians?
Better what, I hear you ask? You're in for a treat as I introduce you to futurist and futures designer Monika Bielskyte. She is one of the world's boldest and most adventurous futures thinkers, so you are in for a treat as we dive deep into her concept of 'Protopian' thinking, and so much more. Prepare for a super workout for your imagination! Please consider supporting the podcast by visiting w
94 - What if compassion could heal society?
Season's greetings to you! Here is your special Christmas day episode, appropriately focusing on the theme of compassion. Our guests are Jared Seide and Dr Ann Seide, whose work on compassion is amazing. To find out more about Centre for Council, click here. You might also enjoy this film about their "Cops & Communities: Circling Up" program, this one about LAPD officers talking about working with
93 - What if we could reimagine the world in bioregions?
As you'll have spotted by now, we're never ones to shy away from asking a good big bold What If question. This week we are diving into the question of how different things would be if we were to rethink the scale on which we operate, and were to root ourselves more closely in nature's own boundaries. The bioregional movement was a big thing in the 1990s and faded away a bit, but is now back with a
92 - What if we decolonised the ecological sector?
The British Ecological Society's REED Ecological Network (REED standing for Racial and Ethnic Equality and Diversity) was formed due to the very low levels of people of colour represented in the sector, and their feeling that "it's easy to feel alone when working in ecology, the environment and related fields like agriculture". My two guests this week, Bushra Schuitemaker and Reuben Fakoya-Brooks
91 - What if we could train our imagination to reimagine change?
Jonathan Rhodes and Joanna Grover recently wrote a great book called 'The Choice Point' and work together as Imagery Coaching. They work with a wide range of organisations and individuals, building their capacity to be imaginative in a multisensory way. Naturally, their tools and their insights are highly relevant to the themes of this podcast given that, as bell hooks once put it, "what we cannot
90 - In conversation with Aisha Shillingford
On some of our 'decade' episodes (well, 50 and 80 anyway) we changed from our usual two guest format to an in-depth conversation with someone who represents one of the great practitioners of the radical imagination in our times. And so today, in keeping with that 'tradition', we mark Episode 90 with a one-to-one conversation with Aisha Shillingford, whose work I just love. She is Artistic Director
89 - What if everyone had the inner skills to navigate the climate crisis?
This week I'm joined by Aimee Lewis Reau and LaUra Schmidt, authors of 'How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet'. They are also co-founders of the beautifully named Good Grief Network. Aimee also DJs under the name eXis10shAL (I mention in the episode that I would spell it here as it was too time-consuming to spell it out on the podc
88 - What if workers were in charge of the energy transition?
This is a wonderful conversation. It's a deep dive into a powerful reimagining of who our energy system serves, and what it might look like. My two guests are both people who have given this a lot of thoughts. Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker. Her most recent film is the utterly brilliant 'King Coal' (see the t
87 - What if fungi saved the world?
Welcome to one of those episodes of From What If to What Next that really gets under your skin. We are going to step out of our everyday commonplace universe and enter the parallel world of fungi that lives all around us, and really creates the world we live in. It's a pretty wild ride. And I have two amazing guests for you, who will hold our hands on our deep dive into this fascinating world. Dr.
85 - What if our visionaries and activists were properly resourced?
This week's episode is just delightful. Meet Leah Black, currently leading the development of the new Regenerative Futures Fund for Edinburgh, and Shasta Hanif Ali is a writer, poet and anti-racism campaigner who works on racial equity and racial justice at Corra Foundation. I have to say that Shasta's time travellers' reflections from 2030 were possibly the most beautiful we've yet heard on 'From
86 - What if care, cooperation, kinship and collective wellbeing were the ethics we lived by?
When it comes to work that celebrates the radical imagination, Jayna Brown's recent book Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds is one of the most fascinating that I've read recently. Jayna is professor in the Graduate Program in Media Studies at Pratt Institute, and for this episode she is joined by Kevin Quashie, who teaches black cultural and literary studies and is a pr
84 - What if we had a Seaweed Revolution?
As soon as I started reading 'The Seaweed Revolution' by Vincent Doumeizel, I knew we would have to do an episode of this podcast about seaweed! It is a mind-blowing book about the many different ways in which expanding our relationship with seaweed could be good for us, our brains, our ecosystems and our climate, a book that sent my 'What If' brain racing. When we connected and planned this recor
83 - What if we gave Nature rights?
This is a rather special episode, our first recorded in front of an actual audience! Recorded live at the wonderful Timber Festival, this episode takes on a big question and dives deep. Our first guest, Lucy Neal had, the previous day, presented a performance which explored how the near future would be transformed by the introduction of a Rights of Nature Act, and our second guest Paul Powlesland,
82 - What if we loved politicians?
Never let it be said on this podcast that we shy away from the big questions! I loved this conversation so much, it was one of those conversations that really opens up some expansive thinking and some new ways of looking at what might be possible. My guests are Lisa Witter, co-founder and board member of Apolitical, and CEO and co-founder of the Apolitical Foundation, and Graça Fonseca, former Por
81 - What if we lived in a healthy human culture?
This week we are exploring how we do things, rather than what we do. We are diving into the concept of 'healthy human cultures' and how to build them. What would it mean if, in the organisations and movements we're part of, we set out to create the best conditions for a shared culture in which we thrive? Luckily we have two great people to help us unpick this one. Leila Hoballah is an organisation
80 - In conversation with Otto Scharmer
Today's podcast was recorded live in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. As part of the wonderful ChangeNOW festival in the Grand Palais Ephémère I had the pleasure of sitting down with Otto Sharmer in the ChangeNOW podcast booth for an in depth conversation and journey into the future. Otto is the creator of the Theory U model of change, and spends much of his time teaching the model to gro
79 - What if sports could accelerate the shift to a low carbon future?
You're in for a treat this week. I so enjoyed this conversation. In this episode I was joined by Laura Baldwin, British Olympic sailor, Transition and XR activist, and co-founder of Sport LOCAL for Life, and David Garrido, who is a sports broadcaster, initially on the BBC, and now on Sky, with a particular area of expertise in the crossover between sport and sustainability. How would it be if the
78 - What If biodiversity bounced back?
The diversity of the natural world is declining at a rapid rate, and has been for many decades. Many people present that as being an inevitability, a trade-off to economic progress. But what if we could create a future in which we enabled the natural world to regenerate? What would that look like, and what would it do to our ability to imagine a different future? This week I am joined by Rebecca W
77 - In conversation with Mariame Kaba
We're back, and boy oh boy are you in for a treat. Since Episode One there were two guests I most wanted to have on this podcast. The first, adrienne maree brown, I was fortunate enough to speak to in Episode Fifty. The second I am sharing with you today. This time there's just one guest, and it is the brilliant prison abolition activist Mariame Kaba. I've admired her work, and her writing, for ye
76 - What If cutting our individual carbon use went viral?
Recent research, entitled The Future of Consumption in an 1.5°C World, carried out by the University of Leeds, C40 Cities and Arup, powerfully shows that the world's comfortably off need to do the most to reduce the world's carbon emissions and need to reduce the impacts of their consumption by two thirds by 2030. But this will only happen if it feels like a move towards something rather than bein
75 - What if we distributed power differently in our organisations?
This was such a beautiful conversation to be part of, with two old friends, and a story that I play at least a small role in. In 2015, Transition Network, an organisation I had co-founded, undertook a transition of its own, from a pretty conventional management model to a non-hierarchical structure that distributed power, using Holocracy. We had to learn how to do it, and were brilliantly supporte
74 - What if we decolonised economics?
We're never one to shy away from the big questions, and to dive deep into the remarkable and far more delightful world that could yet be created if we do so. This week we are joined by two truly great guests who help us explore the question of what our economics system and thinking could look if we were to consciously and ambitiously decolonise it. You're going to love this one. My guests are Prof
73 - What if education took place in nature?
If you were one of those kids in school who stared out of the window most of the time, this episode is for you. I'm joined by Kwesia X, aka City Girl in Nature (check out her many amazing videos), and by Ben Rawlence, author of three books, most recently The Treeline and founder and director of Black Mountains College. It's a beautiful and thought-provoking conversation. Just how different could o
72 - What if we shifted to a not-for-profit economy?
Today's episode brings a big idea, like a really BIG idea, one that you may initially need to suspend disbelief in order to settle into but which, hopefully, by the end, you'll be fizzing with the possibilities of. I'm joined by Della Duncan, Renegade Economist, host of the Upstream Podcast, a Right Livelihood Coach, founding member of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition, and so much more,
71 - What if imagination was treasured as a central part of childhood?
This week I'm joined by two of the greatest practitioners of the imagination that I know. Dr. Penny A Hay is an artist, educator and researcher, Reader in Creative Teaching and Learning and Research Fellow Bath Spa University and Director of Research, House of Imagination. Signature projects include School Without Walls and Forest of Imagination. Ruth Sapsed is the Director of Cambridge Curiosity
70 - What if we all became better Utopians?
This episode of 'From What If to What Next' focuses on Utopianism, on our ability to imagine better futures. This is such an amazing conversation with two people who know more about Utopias than the rest of us. Alex Zamalin's work first came to my attention through his book 'Black Utopia', which I hugely recommend, and which introduced me to so many great ideas and thinkers. And more recently, Gre
69 - What if every institution ran Imagination Activist training?
It's time for our Christmas special. We wanted to leave 2022 on a high, with a hugely inspirational story of imagination in action, of imagination going big, one that will leave your mind fizzing with possibility. Recently, Camden Council in London became the first UK local authority to offer Imagination Activist training to its staff. 32 people took part over 8 weeks in a course designed to expan
68 - What if the advertising industry helped create a positive future for humanity?
The advertising industry is one of the key things driving the levels of consumption that are pushing us towards climate breakdown. But there are people within the advertising industry who are trying to push things in a different direction. In this episode, we speak to Lisa Merrick-Lawless of Purpose Distruptors, and strategy director and writer Michael Hines, to enter into a future in which the ad
67 - What if we eradicated homelessness?
This is not a podcast that shies away from the big and important What If questions, and today we're reaching out for one of the big ones of our time. Homelessness is one of scourges of our times, and is on the rise. But is it unavoidable and inevitable, or is it just the result of a series of decisions that could just as easily be made differently? Our two amazing guests, Ana Rausch and Sam Tsembe
66 - What if beavers were allowed to reshape our world?
You're in for such a treat. Today's episode is about beavers, and what the future would look like if we allowed them to reshape the world in the way they are so incredibly good at. During the summer I went to Cornwall and fell in love with beavers, which inspired this episode. My two guests are Chris Jones, whose farm I visited to see the beavers, and Eva Bishop, whose work with the Beaver Trust i
65 - What if faith communities were a critical part of the emerging imagination infrastructure?
Today's episode was recorded live at the BTS Centre's Convocation 2022, an online event with the theme of 'Imagination and Collective Liberation for a Climate-Changed World'. It was recorded before a live (online) audience. This was an event which set out to explore "what it means to nourish our imaginations toward a world of joyful possibility and embodied hope, while also holding space for the
64 - What if the Black Fantastic reshaped the world?
This week's episode is such a treat. Over the summer I devoured Ekow Eshun's amazing book 'In the Black Fantastic', the catalogue of the exhibition of the same name at the Hayward Gallery which, sadly, I didn't get to see. But even just the book was an incredible feast for the imagination, as was his concept of the Black Fantastic. If you enjoyed our podcast on Afrofuturism, you're going to love t
63 - What if disability justice, deep inclusion and liberation were centred in healthcare, education and the arts?
I think you are really going to enjoy this one. My reading over the summer holidays was Shayda Kafai's brilliant book 'Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid' (which I notice in the podcast I call 'Crip Wisdom' - sorry!), and as soon as I finished it I knew I had to ask Shayda to come onto the podcast to discuss her ideas. I asked her who her dream fellow guest would b
62 - What if land were owned and managed for the common good?
Just 1% of the population own half the land in England, and citizens have a Right to Roam over only 8% of its surface. This deliberate exclusion has many bad side effects, not least its impact on our collective imagination. But it's only like this because some people imagined it like this. What if we were to reimagine this arrangement so that, like in Scotland, our Right to Roam actually enabled u
61 - In conversation with Cyril Dion
Today's podcast is something a little different. We're departing from our usual format a little to spend some time in deeper conversation with one of the great guardians of the collective imagination, Cyril Dion. If you've ever seen the film 'Demain' ('Tomorrow'), or his more recent film 'Animal', you'll know him, and his amazing work. He's also a poet, a collaborator with musicians, a writer, a
60 - What if we reimagined theatre to be in service to the climate emergency?
Today's episode is really rather beautiful, with Chloe Naldrett and David Micklem exploring the role of theatre in the great transition that lies ahead of us. I hope you love it. Do let me know what you think. Please consider supporting the podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext and becoming a patron.
59 - What if the majority of news was positive news?
It's hardly a surprise that we struggle to hold onto hope and optimism given that the news we receive every day is filled with so much misery, appalling human behaviour, despots, narcissists and hopelessness. So what if instead we lived in a world in which the majority of the news we encountered was positive news? Stories of change going in the right way? That's our question for exploration today,
58 - What if creative learning was considered a lifelong practice?
I'm posting this on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK. If we ever needed imaginative thinking about how to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, we needed it 30 years ago, but the second best time would be now. Today's episode brings together two people who believe that vital to the refiring of the collective imagination is the availability of life-long learning. We're joined by And
57 - What if energy generation was in community hands?
As the cost of living crisis impacts more and more people, and energy security becomes something far more widely discussed than it was 10 years ago, here is a vital conversation with two leading pioneers of the notion of community energy. Community energy is a movement that is spreading in spite of, rather than because of, government actions, but its potential is huge. What if by 2030 it was the n
56 - What if there were no borders?
In the light of the UK government's recent appalling proposed deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda and their new policy to electronically tag everyone who arrives on our shores, as well as the massive growth in what we might call the 'immigration industrial complex' around the world, this week we are asking a vital, and rarely asked question, what if we just got rid of the idea of borders altog
55 - What if we could find the humour in climate change?
An odd question perhaps... yet in the hands of our guests, Belina Raffy and Sam Knights, a powerful and pertinent one. What if we were to harness the power of humour as a tool in the fight to engage people in the climate emergency? What can humour allow and enable us to do that other approaches don't? We had a lot of fun making this episode, and I hope you will have as much fun listening to it.
54 - What if bread could unlock social transformation?
Welcome to our 54th episode, our 54th journey into the future that is still possible, just. But before I tell you more, a suggestion, as you'll hear in the episode, that this episode will be a lot more enjoyable, and a fuller experience, if you listen to it in a space with fresh bread being baked. So if you've never made bread before, here is a link with an easy-to-make recipe. Good luck! And s
53 - What if the world went vegan?
Here at 'From What If to What Next' we don't shy away from the big questions of our times! Today we are diving deep into the question of what we eat. Rather than debating whether veganism is a good thing or not, today we are stepping, with the help of our guests Tomi Makanjola (aka The Vegan Nigerian) and Dr. Melanie Joy, Founding President of Beyond Carnism, into that world that has already bec
52 - What if our economy truly prioritised health?
Welcome to Episode 52, different from the episode we advertised, a bit of a mix up at What If Towers, but it means some of you now know the subject of our next episode. Oh well. But this week's is such a treat. Meet Dr Rupa Marya and Rhiannon Osborne (many thanks to her, as this episode was her idea), who bring a delightful and fresh inroad into what society could look like if it were to priorit
51 - What if ending male violence was men's work?
We are joined by two amazing guests to discuss a vitally important issue. Ben Hurst of Beyond Equality and Graham Goulden of Cultivating Minds UK join me to explore what a future in which men work with each other to rapidly deescalate male violence in the world would look like and feel like. It's a powerful and vital discussion. My deepest thanks to them both and, as always, to producer Ben Addico
50 - In conversation with adrienne maree brown
Episode 50. That's something worth celebrating! And what a beautiful way to celebrate it, by interviewing the person I've wanted on this podcast since it began, adrienne maree brown. One of the great thinkers and imagineers of our time, it was an honour to finally meet her and to record this episode. I hope you love it. It's been hard keeping this a secret for so long. I'd like to thank everyone
49 - What if we were citizens rather than consumers?
Today's episode is one of my favourites so far, with two amazing guests. It was inspired by one of our guests, Jon Alexander's new book 'Citizens: why the key to fixing everything is all of us', which is just released and highly recommended. He is joined by the delightful Baratunde Thurston, author of 'How to be Black' and presenter of one of my favourite TED Talks. You are going to love this exp
48 - What if rooftop gardening covered our cities' roofs?
When it comes to building food security, biodiversity, employment, spaces that are good for mental health, and so much more besides, we are missing a huge opportunity. Our cities contain many square kilometres of flat roof spaces, currently visited by a few pigeons and that's about it. But what if they were transformed into vibrant vegetable gardens, public spaces for events, places for communitie
47 - What if we addressed the mental health crisis imaginatively?
You're going to enjoy this one. This week we're talking about mental health, and how different the world would be if we were to take a very different approach to it. I'm joined by Jo Hunter from 64 Million Artists, and by Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu of Project LETS. It's one of those episodes that requires a walk afterwards to really digest what you've heard. My thanks to Jo and Stefanie for t
46 - What if printmaking could inspire social change?
This week this podcast joins you with printing ink on its hands and under its fingernails . We're talking about printmaking and its potential to unleash social change. I have a vested interest here, I love printmaking. And I love social change! So discussing this gives me the opportunity to bring together two amazing printmakers. Sarah Gillespie makes the most amazing mezzotint prints of moths,
45 - What if we redesigned cities based on children's needs?
Meet Tim Gill and Alice Ferguson of Playing Out, brilliant guests for a vital discussion. Today we're talking about kids, and play and about the places where we live. Kids have almost entirely vanished from our streets. Retreating indoors in the face of the car's domination of our city spaces, and a perception of the lack of safety, kids are all too often starved of play. 'No ball games here' sig
44 - What if we could end the climate crisis in one generation?
We start this year with a fantastic episode and a really important question. What if we were to implement every solution that we already know exists in order to tackle the climate crisis with the sense of urgency that an emergency should inspire? After the damp squib of COP26, it's a vitally important question. Can we do it? Is there still time? And most importantly, what would it feel like to liv
43 - What if visible mending became the new fast fashion?
Although not planned as some kind of 'Christmas Special', that's kind of what this episode is, so hopefully it will give you the opportunity to treat your imagination to something very special over the festive season. This episode will introduce you to Flora Collingwood-Norris and to Orsola de Castro, cofounder and Global Creative Director of Fashion Revolution. Please consider buying Flora's bo
42 - What if we are standing on the cusp of an Imagination Age?
The IPCC report that came out in mid-2021 said "unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 degrees, or even 2 degrees, will be beyond reach". "Immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions". Let's imagine we were able to actually do that in the time available to us. It would mean the complete reimagining of food, trave
41 - What if we reclaimed our public spaces from advertising?
Powerful psychology is used to convince us, often subliminally, that we want and need things we previously never knew even existed. This is especially dangerous at a time when we need to urgently cut consumption of high carbon-generating products and lifestyle choices. It is estimated that in the UK companies spend over £23bn a year on advertising. Research shows that the more advertising we are e
40 - What if Afrofuturism could teach the world about the power of what if?
I'm not going to say much about this episode, other than that it's incredible. We are exploring Afrofuturism, which has been variously described as "speculative fiction from the African diaspora", "a way of imagining possible futures through a black cultural lens" and "an intersection of imagination, technology, the future and liberation". It has so much to teach us about imagination and how to ke
39 - What if the Leadership Team for COP26 Were 50% Women?
The world's governments will be coming together for 2 weeks to, hopefully, reach some kind of binding agreement that might give the world at least a fighting chance of preventing runaway climate change. There's one problem though... On a planet where over half the population is female, the leadership team put together by the UK government, who are hosting these talks, is almost exclusively male.
38 - What if every Place Had a Thriving Social Economy?
Everywhere, where you live included, has a patchwork of organisations of different sizes who are doing business and making things happen in a way that is not solely about the generation of profit, but about serving a larger social purpose. They might be called social enterprises, or socially-trading organisations, or all sorts of other things. Today's episode asks what if they got together and d
37 - What if the Bugs Bounced Back?
The decline of insect populations around the world has been nothing short of terrifying. Last year I visited a school in an intensive wine-producing region in France, and suggested to the kids that they might build an insect hotel, only to be told by the head teacher "we don't have any insects here". It has stayed with me ever since. So in today's episode, we are exploring how it would feel to liv
36 - What if Activists Paid Attention to their own Development as well as the Problems of the World?
Today we bring together Anthea Lawson, author of the fabulous new book 'The Entangled Activist' and Alastair McIntosh, author of 'Soul and Soil' and 'Riders on the Storm'. I usually try to constrain the conversations we have here to around 45 minutes, but this one was so fascinating that we just kept rolling, and just kept chatting, and so this one actually comes in at an hour and a quarter! But y
35 - What if Care Work Was Valued
Today's episode of From What If to What Next is about care. Care has been very much on our minds of recent. COVID has highlighted how vitally important care is and yet how undervalued it is. It is so often seen as being the domain of women, and around the world it is often either underpaid, or unpaid work. As the populations of the Global North live longer and longer, and as young people are unabl
34 - What if Young People Reimagined the School System
You are in for such a treat. This is one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring episodes of this podcast yet. It was my huge honour to be joined by Yumna Hussen and Lottie Cooke to discuss what a reimagined education system would be like. Honestly, spending an hour in the company of these two remarkable young people, so articulate and well informed, was just a joy. Lottie and Yumna are part
33 - What if the Future of Travel in Cities was on Two Wheels rather than Four?
Here is the perfect accompaniment to the long summer days. Or the deluge. Or perhaps a bit of both. Today we are talking about travel. As many cities begin to actively take steps away from the dominance of cars, we are asking what might it be like if that had already happened? What might it be like to live in a city in which more travel now takes place on food or on two wheels? And how are electri
32 - What if the Black Imagination were Valued as it Should Be
Firstly, sorry I'm late posting this. I was on a clifftop in Cornwall and the sun was shining and so it took me a while to get home! But, I must say that this episode is absolutely worth the wait. One of my favourites so far. This week we are exploring the black imagination, with two amazing guests. Natasha Marin is an antiracism consultant based in Seattle, specialising in communications, commu
31 - What if the Future was Non-Binary
This is such an incredible episode. One of those ones I had to go off and sit under a tree afterwards to absorb. Today we talk about gender. I grew up in a society that thought in terms of two genders, you were male or you were female. This was accompanied by expectations that men behaved in ways that were 'masculine', and women in ways seen as being 'feminine'. If you were someone who didn't iden
30 - What if the Future was well Facilitated
Episode Thirty. Wow. Whoever thought we'd get this far? Thank you so much for your support in making that possible. We have a delicious episode to mark this moment. Farzana Khan is a writer, director, cultural producer and award-winning Arts educator. She is the co-founder and Director of Healing Justice London. She has a background in Youth and Community work particularly focused on arts based
29 - What if we Mastered the Art of Time Travel?
If you had a Time Machine, which year would you set the dial to? This episode is about time travel. More specifically, it is about using imaginary time travel, or futurism, or deep dreaming, or whatever you want to call it, in our activism. Why is it so powerful to invite people to imagine the future? What does it do to us to step into an imaginary future? And what tips of the trade can help us to
28 - What if we redesigned the operating system of our entire civilisation?
The time for imagining that change happens in small, incremental steps is now way behind us. As Naomi Klein says, "there are no non-radical solutions left". Today we are thinking big. Really big. With big thinkers. While some of our episodes focus on what if questions that are quite specific and focused, in this episode, Episode Twenty-Eight, we are thinking big, so hang on to your hats. Luckily w
27 - What if we all Stopped Flying?
This new episode, one of my favourite so far, comes with a challenge. Can you listen to it and not reimagine your own relationship with flying or, as one of our guests puts it, being "twanged around in an aluminium sausage"? I stopped flying in 2006. I travel to the far reaches of Europe on the train, travelling to Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Mallorca, as the extent of my reach. I long one
26 - What if we could Live better in a Post-growth Economy?
These days of COVID have shown us that extraordinary profound reimagining of many aspects of society are entirely possible. Might this be the time to forever do away with the idea that the only way to measure our progress, cultural, social, spiritual, economic, is purely by how much bigger our economy is than it was last year? It's a weird metric… imagine if that was the only way we assessed the
25 - What if we Built an Imagination Infrastructure?
Let's imagine, and this takes quite a leap in Britain in 2021 I'll grant you, but stay with me, that we had a government who recognised that we are living through a time of imaginative contraction alongside a climate and ecological emergency, a social justice emergency and so much more. Let's imagine that they were able to recognise this as the crisis it is, that allowing a population's imaginat
24 - What if We Read more Books?
When was the last time you read a book cover to cover? And if you are still able to do this, do you feel you read in the same way you did, say, 20 years ago? How is the decline in our collective attention span affecting our ability to read and, by extension, our collective capacity for knowledge, wisdom and art? What do we lose when we lose our ability to focus? This was such a fascinating convers
