Episodes

Australia’s foremost trainer of futurist leaders, Zoe Routh, shares practical insight into her business. She explains how senior executives can improve the entire organization when they master the skill of foresight. Zoe is the author of five books about futurism and leadership. https://www.zoerouth.com

In this weeks episode of The Futurists, cognitive scientist and AI researcher Ben Goertzel joins the hosts to talk the likely path to Artificial General Intelligence. Goertzel is the founder of SingularityNet, Chairman at OpenCog Foundation, and previously as the Chief Scientist at Hanson Robotics he helped create Sophia the robot. Goertzel is on a different level, get ready to step up.

This week on The Futurists, HG Wells, Philip K Dick and Prometheus award wining author and Singularity University faculty Ramez Naam talks the future of the world’s energy systems, and how the Russia-Ukraine conflict has had an accelerating effect on systemic energy thinking. Beyond that we get into sci-fi, multi-generational systems thinking, large scale systems design of the 21st and the incentives and levers in the system for leading humanity to a world of free energy and abundance.

Gerd Leonhard, renowned Futurist and Humanist, bestselling author and thought leader joins The Futurists this week to talk a positive future. Like many of our previous guests Gerd is an optimist, but warns us that we need a new mission for humanity writ large. One that is inclusive, sustainable and purpose driven. We dive into his new “Good Future” project as well as talking his books, the future of capitalism and the planet.

Who owns your streaming TV service? A computer maker, a retailer, or a search engine? This week on The Futurists we learn about the never-ending cyclone of disruption that has been tormenting the media industry for years. Our guest is Jeffrey Cole of the Center for the Digital Future, a longtime advisor to the major motion picture studios. https://www.digitalcenter.org/jeffrey-cole-director/

Thomas Frey is who you will undoubtedly find when you do a Google search on “futurist speaker”. Having shared the stage with many A-listers, Frey has earned that moniker. But his true skill demonstrated repeatedly in this week’s episode is taking an event or innovation and the extrapolating the future. In this episode we see him do that in real time. It’s a unique glimpse into the futurist process.

In this week’s show futurist, digital analyst and anthropologist, along with being a Global Innovation Evangelist for Salesforce, Brian Solis joins us to talk adapting to life in the future. As a renowned specialist on engagement, CX and digital transformation, Brian discusses what it’s like to be a futurist at one of the worlds largest tech companies that is increasingly mission focused. And we get into the implications of his book Lifescale as we emerge from the pandemic.

In this week’s episode of the Futurists, top-ranked Female Futurist (Forbes), science fiction author and TV presenter Elina Hiltunen joins us to talk her unique brand of futurism from Finland. Elina takes us through some of her more concerning forecasts on potential climate collapse, and the role that futurists have to play in setting policy responses, galvanizing public opinion, and helping us navigate the unknowns of the future.

In this week’s episode of the futurists, award winning British Science Fiction author Gareth Powell joins the duo to talk far flung futures and creating epic space operas from scratch. Powell talks through his process as well as discussing the possible future of humanity, and where we might go next.

Real-time 3D computing is vast, but most people are not aware of it. RT3D tech powers online and mobile games, digital twins, industrial simulations and the much-ballyhooed Metaverse. And it has important implications for training machine learning and autonomous systems. This week’s guest expert, technology innovator Sylvio Drouin, has been working at the forefront of RT3D for decades. Join us for a tour of the emerging 3D future.

In this week’s episode of The Futurists, bestselling author of MOVE and futurist Parag Khanna joins us to talk about climate migration, geopolitics, real-estate and agriculture in a world impacted by climate change. Khanna is the founder of futuremap and climate alpha, and has worked with the US government, World Economic Forum and others on climate change adaptation strategies and policy.

Award-winning author and technologist Mark Pesce tells us about the deep history of today’s consumer technology in military R&D including the 30 year arc of the Metaverse which Pesce himself kickstarted in the early 1990s. Pesce points out how consumer technology has outpaced the defense innovation, and now has become a front for a new kind of warfare.

This week we speak to a NASA veteran Wanda Harding about the future of space exploration, human boots on Mars (and back on the moon, and educating people to be passionate about the universe and exploring our solar system. Will Musk beat NASA to Mars? This week on the Futurists.

In this week’s episode Brett King and Robert Tercek, Brett’s The Futurists cohost, interview two-time presidential candidate, entrepreneur, journalist and futurist, Zoltan Istvan. We dive into how the species might evolve to adapt to living with AI, a changing climate and even to life off-planet. It’s controversial, dynamic and the philosophy and ethics of humanity are front and center in the debate. We’ll see you in the future!

In the digital domain, marketing is technology. Glenn White builds advertising systems for brand managers inside game worlds. In this episode of The Futurists, Glenn explains the complex strategic decisions that govern how brand advertising will evolve in the Metaverse.

July 31, 2022 was the fictional birthdate of George Jetson, so we thought we’d take a look this week at how The Jetsons has stood up over time in respect to its vision of the future. It’s just Robert and Brett comparing notes and debating what the Jetsons got right and what they got wrong. From smart watches and flying cars to household robots and 3D printers.

In Episode 19 of The Futurists, David Brin expounds on the interplay between scientific research and storytelling in shaping society’s future. An astrophysicist, prolific science fiction author and the winner of many awards, Brin also writes non-fiction about social dynamics and politics and contributes to NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program. In this playful and wide-ranging interview, Brin discusses all of his passionate pursuits. Brin sets forth the distinction between fantasy and scie...

In this episode Robert and Brett talk to futurist, entrepreneur David Orban, who talks us through the early days of the internet and crypto to where he thinks we’re going as a society with increasingly dense technology saturation and immersion. From his background as Singularity University and as the founder of Network Society Research, David has a uniquely philosophical approach to the application of technology in our world. David was an early bitcoin, ethereum and blockchain adopter, so we get...

In this week’s episode of The Futurists, Peter Hinssen joins the dynamic duo to talk the new normal of constant technology change and his new book The Phoenix and The Unicorn. A specialist in corporate forecast planning, Hinssen’s insights are compelling.

In this episode of the Futurists, OG of Web 3 Tony Parisi joins Tercek and King to talk how the metaverse came to be, and why Web 3 isn’t just about the metaverse but foundational for our Augmented future.

In this episode we learn from John Hagel, one of the prophets of digital transformation. For more than 30 years John has been guiding global organizations through the process of digital reinvention as a practice leader at McKinsey and Deloitte. Today he is focused on the emotional resistance to change and how to surmount it. His new book is The Journey Beyond Fear and web site is www.johnhagel.com.

In Episode 14, our guest is John Smart, founder of Foresight University. John shares insights about the practice and practical application of foresight, the distinction between foresight and futurism and its relationship with complexity and human adaptability. Our Book on Foresight: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Foresight-Executive-Organizational-Adaptiveness/dp/1736558501 Our Substack Series on the Biomimicry Future of AI: https://naturalalignment.substack.com/p/how-biomimicry-can-improv...

In this episode, Australian author, speaker and futurist Ross Dawson joins Robert and Brett to talk the path to the future. From tackling the qualities that make a strong futurist, to the tactical application of forecasting at a organizational level. Dawson is Australia’s leading futurist, but a globally relevant voice.

In Episode #12 of The Futurists, our guest is longtime global futurist and author Rohit Talwar, who offers his perspective on the human side of the forecasting and planning process. Rohit explains how he uses a combination of commonsense psychology, simple but profound questions, non-violent communication techniques, and data-informed storytelling to open executives up to the process of envisioning multiple possibilities. Learn more about Rohit at www.fastfuture.com. https://fastfuture.com/team/...