Are We Always Thinking About the Way That Things Could Be Better?

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. 

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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.