Flash Forward

Today’s episode is about a future where humans get weird with sleep. First, what if we tried to take shifts all day, every day? Second, what if we tried to become nocturnal? Guests: Dr. Matthew Wolf-Meyer , an associate professor of anthropology at Binghamton University and author of The Slumbering Masses: Sleep, Medicine, and Modern American Life . Sarah Kaplan , a science reporter at the Washing...

Today’s episode is about a future where we try to control crime with brain implants. Guests: Stephen Kinzer , a journalist and author of Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control . Dr. Shaun Patel , a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Steph Griffiths and Dr. Jarkko Jalava , co-authors of The Myth of The Born Criminal: Psychopathy, Neurobiology, and the Crea...

Today we do a bit of spelunking into the history of Flash Forward, revisit last year’s anniversary, and talk about how the future sausage gets made. Things I talked about on today's episode. Tamara Krinsky’s work The limits of empathy A Queen of Sorts On the Ice Scientists Excited About Humpback Whales Singing In Waters Off New York City On the Verge of Extinction, These Whales Are Also Shrinking...

Today’s episode is about a future where humans decide to live underground. Guests: Dr. Brian Toon , an atmospheric scientist and professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder Jason Wright , a tour guide and resident of Coober Pedy, Australia Dr. Youqin Huang , a professor at Albany State University who studies housing and migration in China Dr. Eun Hee Lee , an assistant professor at the Univer...

Today’s episode is about a future where we (try to) mine asteroids for resources. Guests: Atossa Abrahamian , a journalist who’s written about space mining and is working on a new book about “places in the world where the rules don’t (fully) apply.” Dr. Andreas Hein , a space systems engineer and executive director of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies. Dr. Ram Jakhu , a professor at the McGi...

Today’s episode is all about the future of cities. Do we want them to be smart? What does that even mean?  Guests: Ben Passmore , a comic artist and contributor to the Flash Forward book ! Annalee Newitz , a science journalist, science fiction writer, and author of Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age . Dr. Jathan Sadowski , author of Too Smart: How Digital Capitalism is Extracting...

Today’s episode is about a future without touch.  Guests: Dr. Angela Rasmussen , a virologist currently working at the Georgetown Center for Global Health, Science and Security but soon to be head of her own lab up at the University of Saskatchewan .  Dr. Catherine Cudlick , a historian and the Director or the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. Dr. Tiffany...

WELCOME BACK TO FLASH FORWARD! Today we travel to a future where we become immune to every poison, venom and toxin in the world. What happens next?  Guests: Dr. Bryan Fry — biochemist and molecular biologist at the University of Queensland Dr. Christie Wilcox — science writer & author of Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry Dr. Karin Broberg — geneticist at the Karol...

Today we travel to three past futures, and update you on recent developments! How has COVID brought us closer to robot teachers? Why did Oregon vote to decriminalize all drugs? And what the heck is going on with the antitrust suits against Google and Facebook?  Guests: Audrey Watters — ed-tech expert & author of The Monsters of Education Technology (2014), The Revenge of the Monsters of Educat...

Today’s episode is the LAST OF THE SEASON! And we're getting weird. What if there wasn't just this one timeline, this one universe, but tons and tons of and tons of universes all around us all the time? Constantly splitting and forming? Well it turns out that there is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that says just that. And today we talk about alternate universes, many worlds, memory, and s...

Today’s episode is all about trash. What if every country had to deal with its own garbage instead of shipping it elsewhere? Did you know what trash is bought and sold on a global market? What would happen if that market was shut down? Guests: Dr. Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood — lecturer in sustainable development at the University of St. Andrews. Jim Puckett — founder and executive director of the Ba...

Today’s episode is all about contact. Have we really discovered alien life on Venus? How do you even look for life when you don't know what it will look like? What would happen if we did find it? Should we be sending messages out into the universe? Are aliens going to kill us? What would happen if they showed up? Guests: Dr. Clara Sousa — quantum astrochemist at Harvard University Moiya McTier — a...

Today we travel to a future where housing is guaranteed and provided to everybody.  Guests: Amanda Vail — Director of communications at Plymouth Housing Dr. Sam Tsemberis — Founder of Pathways Housing First and author of Housing First Manual: The Pathways Model to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and Addiction Dr. Ivis Garcia Zambrana — Assistant Professor of City & Metropolitan...

Today we travel to a future where the US and Canada give stolen land back to tribes & bands.  Guests: Molly Swain — cohost of Métis in Space, studying in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Chelsea Vowel — cohost of Metis in Space, author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada .  Matthew Fletcher — law professor at Michigan St...

Today we travel to a future where voting rights are extended to lots more people in the United States including non-citizens, 16-year-olds, and convicted felons.  Guests: Dr. Ron Hayduk — professor of political science at San Francisco State University, and author of Democracy for All Ashawn Dabney-Small — candidate for Boston City Council District 3 and Vice President for the National Youth Right...

Today we travel to a future where we all have digital replicas of ourselves to deploy at faculty meetings, doctors appointments, and even dates.  Guests: Lars Buttler — CEO of the AI Foundation Damien Patrick Williams — PhD candidate at Virginia Tech Dr. Koen Bruynseels — researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands Christel De Maeyer — researcher based in Belgium Dr. Robin Zebr...

🚨 Pre-order the Flash Forward book today! 🚨 Subscribe to Open World here Today we travel to a future where you’re guaranteed a job, but there’s a catch: your job is assigned to you by an algorithm.  Guests: Dr. Pavlina Tcherneva — professor of economics at Bard College, researcher at the Levy Economics Institute & author of The Case for a Job Guarantee . Dr. Kira Lussier — historian at the U...

Today we travel to a future where you can retire to a nursing home… in space.  Guests: Anicca Harriot — PhD candidate at the University of Maryland School of medicine Dustin Gibson — Access, Disability and Language Justice Coordinator at PeoplesHub Dr. Tracie Prater — Aerospace Engineer at NASA Voice Actors: Tour Guide: Emma Bracy Noah: Bretty Tubbs Marco: Tamara Krinsky → → → Further reading &amp...

Today we travel to a future where super-bandages can heal wounds really fast. Sound like science fiction? Well it might be closer than you think!   Guests: Dr. Daniel Cohen — Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University Dr. Keisha Ray — Assistant Professor, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston Sylvan * — street medic in Portland (*pseudonym) Voice Act...

Today we travel to a future where archaeology accidentally runs out of bones.  Guests: Dr. Keolu Fox — assistant professor at UC San Diego, Indigenous Futures Lab Dr. Benjamin Vernot — postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology  Dr. Naomi Martisius — postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology  → → → Further reading & r...

Today we travel to a future where there is no future, because today we’re considering how the universe ends. Plus: how to cope with feeling freaked out by the end of the world, and what the last party ever should be like.  Guests: Dr. Katie Mack — astrophysicist and author of The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) ( also very good on Twitter! )  Dr. Jana Sadler — clinical psychologist ba...

Today we travel to a future where you can sell your personal data directly to a company, to get a better deal on a car or a house or a latte. What could go wrong? Guests: Richie Etwaru — CEO & Cofounder of Hu-manity.co Sarah Jeong — journalist & lawyer Abigail Echo-Hawk — Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute Voice Actors: Commercial voice: Brian Downs ( Patron! )  Monica Pugh; Sha...

Today’s episode takes on a listener question: why not just move the polar bears to Antarctica? The idea might seem silly, but it’s actually got a name — assisted migrations — and the debates around what we should do to help conserve species as the climate warms is a really complicated and fascinating one.  Guests: Jason McLachlan — associate professor of ecology at the University of Notre Dame Cua...

If we really want to combat climate change, why not institute a serious cap on human population? It's a common question, and on today's episode we talk about a future in which there is a global one-child policy put in place, and why that might not actually be a very good, or just, idea. Guests: Dr. Jade Sasser — Associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at UC Riverside, author of On Infe...

INTRODUCING: the newest show in the Flash Forward family — Advice For And From The Future. What happens when your partner wants to flee this planet, and you want to stay? Is wanting to go to Mars basically saying you want to break up? Can you have a long, long, long distance relationship? Is a five-year date a terrible idea? To answer this interplanetary conundrum, Rose calls up Andrea Silenzi , h...