The New Abnormal

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Deborah Hayek, who leads Foresight & Innovation at Servus Credit Union, in Canada.She brings over a decade of experience integrating strategic foresight into business strategy within major financial institutions. Previously, at the forefront of Manulife's Global Innovation team, Deborah served as Head of Strategic Foresight, driving foresight initiatives across business lines and shaping innovation strategy through macro trend analysis and immersive engagement tools. Prior to that, she built and led the future-focused R&D team within Desjardins’s Innovation Lab.In parallel, Deborah designs and teaches executive education at HEC Montréal, equipping senior leaders with the methods and mindset to navigate uncertainty and seize future opportunities. Through bilingual instruction, she aims to make strategic foresight both practical and accessible to leaders shaping tomorrow’s economy. She discusses all of the above in our discussion, which I hope you find as interesting as I did. And you can read her newsletter on corporate foresight 'The Sparkline' on Substack... 

This episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features Kateryna Ostrovska, who is a health policy and systems strategist with a background in family medicine and leadership experience across Ukraine’s public and private healthcare sectors. She's worked in conflict-affected regions of Ukraine as a Health Governance Specialist with the United Nations Development Programme, and as a consultant with Deloitte, contributing to the USAID Health Reform Support Project on health workforce policy.Her work focuses on strategic healthcare management, health systems strengthening, evidence-informed policymaking, and the use of foresight and anticipatory governance to navigate uncertainty. She’s a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, the Foresight Europe Network, and the European Health Futures Forum.So, we discuss the above in what I hope you’ll find is a fascinating conversation.

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Petra Hurtado, Ph.D. who's the Chief Foresight & Knowledge Officer at the American Planning Association, leading their foresight program and knowledge portfolio; including research, publications, educational content, and career services. With a Ph.D. in urban planning from the Vienna University of Technology, her areas of expertise and research include strategic foresight, futures literacy, urban futures and emerging technologies, urban sustainability, and environmental psychology. In this episode, we focus mainly on an imminent release from the APA: their 2026 Trend Report for Planners. Titled 'Embracing Uncertainty' it identifies over 100 key trends across three actionable timeframes: 'Act Now, Prepare, and Learn & Watch'.Petra delivers a sneak preview of the report in our discussion, which unpacks the most significant trends and patterns, empowering the navigation of challenges, and showing how to lead the way in shaping a better future for the planning profession, with the overall aim of helping create thriving, resilient communities.

This episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features Klaus Dodds, a leading geopolitical analyst specialising in polar affairs, territorial sovereignty, border disputes and great power competition, with over 30 years of experience bridging academic research and strategic policy advice. Klaus analyses how geography shapes power: from Arctic governance and territorial disputes to the geopolitics of climate change and resource competition. His work examines how traditional diplomatic frameworks adapt to emerging challenges, particularly in polar regions where great power rivalries increasingly intersect with Indigenous rights, commercial and trade-based competition and environmental transformation. His latest sole authored book "Border Wars: The Conflicts That Will Define Our Future" has been translated into multiple languages, whilst he co-authored “Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic" which examines how Arctic transformation reshapes global geopolitics.So, in our conversation I asked him to reference the skills that he used to translate complex geopolitical analysis for diverse audiences (from parliamentary committees to commercial organisations to public forums) where his approach combines deep historical knowledge with forward-looking strategic analysis, examining territorial ambitions, resource competition, and how environmental changes intersect in our dynamic world...

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Marie Roussie, a futurist from the Paris-based collective Making Tomorrow.Marie has spent the past three years examining approaches to the future development of the French armed forces. In this interview we discuss her work and in particular, the dynamic 'Futures of Conflicts' report published by the NATO Defence College, which she co-authored. (It's a quantitative and qualitative study of close to 100 foresight reports recently produced by NATO, its members and partners). As it says 'the return of conflict to the European continent and the ongoing intensification of flashpoints around the world cast a pall over visions of the future...' So, we discuss the report, and her ongoing work in which she aims to shed light on the human element, which in her view provides realistic insights into the wars of tomorrow and an understanding of the military profession. 

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Lena Tunkers, a renowned independent futurist and facilitator, who has a mass of experience in applying Futures Literacy, Experience Design and innovation methods to navigate change.She's worked with a range of communities, institutions and corporate across Europe, and in Kenya, Australia and Mexico, to guide them in their exploration and struggles with the novel and unknown.Lena is also President of the Foresight Europe Network, and initiator of ORA, a practise working with the future in organisations and society.So, I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I did, as she explains how she challenges conventional assumptions and offers clients a curious and active way of approaching uncertainty.

Series SixThe episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast featured Riel Miller, who for over forty years has been co-creating innovation, leadership and transformation in both the public and private sectors around the world. He pioneered the 'discipline of anticipation' as one of the leading tools for engaging in both research and capacity building around futures literacy, and is a highly experienced designer of processes for thinking about the future. Riel is currently working with universities, governments, companies, and think tanks from around the world to introduce an anticipatory systems and processes approach to understanding the attributes and role of the future. He has been appointed a Senior Fellow at: Ecole des Ponts Business School (France); U. New Brunswick (Canada); NIFU (Norway); U. Witwatersrand (South Africa); Future Africa at U. Pretoria (South Africa), and East China Normal U. (China).He was formerly Head of Foresight and Futures Literacy at UNESCO in Paris, from 2012-2022.  In 1995 he joined the OECD in Paris to work in the International Futures Programme. In 2005 he founded an independent consultancy – xperidox (which means knowledge through experience) to advise clients on how to use the future more effectively . Riel specialises in bringing decision makers to question the assumptions underlying current choices and exploring the potential of the present. Specific sectors inc: The future of money / Future of Schooling and Universities / Future of Cyberspace / Future of Technology / and Future of Governance.So, we discuss the above in what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating interview!

Series SixThis episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Jost Wagner, Managing Director of The Change Initiative and Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Futures Network, the largest network of futurists in the region. Over the last 20 years, he's designed and facilitated over 600 workshops and conferences worldwide for organisations such as the Asian Development Bank, United Nations, World Bank, USAID, GTZ (now GIZ), DFAT, five German political foundations, a number of international NGOs such as Oxfam, Plan, WWF, etc. In this interview, we discuss all of the above, along with his latest article for Compass magazine c/o the Association for Professional Futurists, where he writes about his belief in the urgent need for long-term thinking and action - to counter the futures-thieves that rob others (especially future generations or marginalised groups) of the opportunity to shape or benefit from desirable futures...

Series FiveThis episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Jan Berger, who advises business leaders on how to steer their companies towards a profitable future. He's the Founder & CEO of the renowned Themis Foresight in Berlin, which he founded to anticipate the economic, technological, social and political drivers of future change.The team at Themis are driven by the conviction that outstanding futures research is the crucial key to success for the strategic direction of Europe's economic and entrepreneurial elite.  They bring the results of this research to corporate clients via foresight, scenarios, roadmaps, and strategic design.  Jan is also President of the World Futures Studies Federation, the independent global peak body for Futures Studies Scholarship, an NGO and UNESCO partner founded in 1973. It operates as a global network of practicing futurists, including researchers, teachers, scholars, policy analysts, activists and others from approximately 60 countries. In our conversation, we discuss all of the above, during which Jan also covers a fascinating and incredibly ambitious initiative in which he's currently involved: 'The Industrial Renaissance Project'. So, I hope you enjoy listening to his viewpoints as much as I did!

Series FiveThis episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Stephen Dupont, Principal at Dupont Foresight, who brings a futures mindset to marketing/communications planning and strategy. He also serves on the board of the nonprofit 'Teach the Future' and is a Future Fellow of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).Stephen's expertise in foresight helps clients anticipate change – to see around corners, grab opportunities and avoid risks. Based in the US, he helps organisations communicate their visions of the future, by leveraging foresight tools to help leaders make smarter decisions. He's also editor of Compass, the quarterly magazine of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF). Stephen has also had more than 50 of his articles published about marketing, communications, foresight, future trends, creativity, content marketing, writing, and more over the past few years. Over his career, his work has also been honoured with over 50 awards. We discuss all of the above, along with his feedback on the latest annual Dubai Future Forum. So, I hope you enjoy listening to Stephen as much as I did!