FUTURES Podcast

Mechanical Engineer Shini Somara shares her thoughts on why we need impactful storytelling in science communication, how diversity drives innovation in STEM, and why imagination is key to understanding new technologies.

Dr. Shini Somara is a Mechanical Engineer specialising in Computational Fluid Dynamics and an award-winning media broadcaster. She deep dives into all topics on scienc...

Blockchain Socialist Joshua Dávila shares his insights on using blockchain technology to challenge capitalism, why we should take a techno-probabalistic approach to crypto, and how to build a more equitable and decentralised world.

Joshua Dávila has been working in the blockchain space for the past five years in Europe and has been anonymously moonlighting as the one behind The Blockc...

Futurist Ari Wallach shares his insights into why we need ethical long-term visions that prioritise humanity, the importance of transgenerational empathy, and how to co-construct inclusive stories that imagine better tomorrows.

Ari Wallach is a futurist and social systems strategist. He is the founder and Executive Director of Longpath Labs, an initiative focused on bringing long-term thinking and coordinated behavior to the indivi...

Researchers Dr. Corinne Cath & Dr. Fieke Jansen share their insights into critical approaches to internet infrastructure, the environmental costs of data centres, and how to reimagine our relationship with digital technologies to ensure a more equitable and sustainable future.

Dr....

Authors Kelly Weinersmith & Zach Weinersmith share their insights into the challenge of building settlements on Mars, how extended periods in extra-terrestrial environments would impact our body and mind, and how international space law needs to be updated if we are to become a multi-planetary species.

Dr. Kelly Weinersmith received her PhD in Ecology at the University of California Davis, and is an adjunct faculty member in the Bi...

Mathematician Prof. Ian Stewart shares his strategies for explaining abstract mathematical concepts to the public, the role imagination can play in education, and how science fiction can assist in solving the world’s most complex mysteries.

Professor Ian Stewart is a British mathematician who majored in mathematics at the University of Cambridge and is an emerit...

Philosopher Dr. Émile P. Torres & sociologist Prof. Steve Fuller share their thoughts on the history of human extinction, how apocalyptic narratives inform culture, and what it means to live in the end times.

Émile P. Torres is a philosopher whose research focuses on existential threats to civilization and humanity....

Astrobiologist Prof. Lewis Dartnell shares his insights into how biology has shaped civilisation, the challenges of living on Mars, and why cooperation is our human superpower.

GUEST BIO

Lewis Dartnell is a science researcher, and writer and holds a Pro...

Journalist Richard Fisher shares his thoughts on the importance of taking a long view of the future, why short-termism is the greatest threat to civilisation, and how metaphors are key to our comprehension of time.

Richard Fisher is a Senior Journalist with BBC Global News in London, where he writes and commissions for BBC Future, the BBC's international-facing science, technology and health features site. H...

Transhumanists Elise Bohan, Prof. Steve Fuller and Anders Sandberg share their thoughts on the future of humanity, the role artificial intelligence will play in society, and the radical ways advanced technology may redefine what it means to be human.

Recorded in front of a live audience at Kings Place, London on 16 February 2023.

Elise Bohan is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Oxfor...

Bioethicist Dr. Sarah Chan shares her thoughts on the ethics of human genome editing, the potential of developing a social model of enhancement, and the possibility of using biotechnology to improve the cognitive abilities of animals.

Sarah Chan is a Chancellor’s Fellow working in interdisciplinary bioethics at the Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics, and Co-Director of the Mason I...

Media scholar David J. Gunkel shares his thoughts on the philosophical case for the rights of robots, the challenge artificial intelligence presents to our existing moral and legal systems, and how tools like ChatGTP force us to confront our human exceptionalism.

David J. Gunkel is Presidential Research, Scholarship, and Artistry Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern...

Cyberpunk author Pat Cadigan shares her thoughts on the role of science fiction in society, her methods for thinking about the future, and which elements of the cyberpunk genre have become features of our everyday reality.

Pat Cadigan was born in Schenectady, NY, and grew up in Fitchburg, MA. Attending the University of Massachusetts on a scholarship, she eventually transferred to the University of Kansas wh...

Macrohistorian Elise Bohan shares her thoughts on the importance of adopting a transhumanist worldview, why we live in a make-or-break century, and what is worth preserving about humanity.

Elise Bohan is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (FHI). She holds a PhD in evolutionary macrohistory, wrote the world’s first book-length history of transhumanism as a doc...

Founder of Second Life Philip Rosedale shares his thoughts on what virtual worlds can teach us about being human, the relationship between Second Life users and their avatars, and the challenges of building the metaverse using Web 3.0 technologies.

Philip Rosedale is the Founder of Linden Lab, parent company of Second Life, an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world and pioneering metaverse. Following S...

Biomedical engineer Ritu Raman shares her insights on designing biological robots, how new developments in tissue engineering may allow us to grow organs, and what biofabrication means for the future of food and medicine.

Ritu Raman, PhD is the d’Arbeloff Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Her lab is centered on engineering adaptive li...

Sociologist James Hughes shares his thoughts on how libertarian transhumanism allows for cognitive liberty and bodily autonomy, the ethical implications of using enhancement technologies to amplify human virtues, and the challenge of being a techno-optimist.

James Hughes, the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, is a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as the Associate...

Metahumanist philosopher Stefan Lorenz Sorgner shares his thoughts on the debates surrounding contemporary transhumanism, the possibility of immortality achieved through mind-uploading, and the ethical issues associated with gene editing, digital data collection, and life extension.

Prof. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner teaches philosophy at John Cabot University in Rome, whereby he particularly promotes the emerging ...

Psychoanalytic theorist Isabel Millar explains the role psychoanalysis can play in helping us to understand what artificial intelligence means for humanity, what modern science fiction reveals about our fascination with sex-robots, and what is driving a desire to replicate human attributes in silicon.

Dr Isabel Millar is a philosopher and cultural critic from London. Her work focuses on AI, sex, the body, fi...