Jason Kingsley

Future Imperfect

History EN ↓ 60 episodes

Jason Kingsley is a technologist who started one of the UK's most exciting games companies, Rebellion. He's also fascinated by the past. In this podcast he talks to historians, scientists, and experts from all fields about what we the future might hold, and what we should do to prepare for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author

Jason Kingsley

Category

History

Podcast website

shows.acast.com

Latest episode

Jul 7, 2026

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Episodes

How can we live chivalrously? 24.07.2024

In a change of format, we talk to Jason Kingsley, CBE, himself. We dig deep into what chivalry means, why Jason is fascinated with mediaeval history, and how is affects his life and the way he runs his business. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we fix our oceans? 01.12.2023

Professor Guy Standing is an economist who has a radical way to fix the problems in our oceans, one from the past. He wants to see them held in common, as mediaeval resources often were. He talks to Jason about how this would work. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does genetic engineering mean for our futures? 23.11.2023

Gene editing therapies are just starting to be used to treat conditions. In this episode, Jason talks to Matthew Cobb, Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester about how we got here, and what it could mean for each of us in the future. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did gift-giving work in the past? 14.11.2023

When European settlers arrived in the Americas they found many economies based on gift-giving. Jason talks to Brian Owensby about how this worked, how it didn't work, and how this could have led to conflict between the Old World and the New. Producer: Natt Tapley Sound: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the digital mediaeval? 07.11.2023

Jeremy Silver is the CEO of Digital Capital, and he believes that we are living in our 'digital mediaeval period'. He joins Jason today explain what he means by that, what problems it poses, and what we need to do to move to a 'digital renaissance'. Producer - Natt Tapley Sound - Pete Dennis Photo by Bingqian Li: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-near-castle-and-scaffolding-16105790/ Hosted on A...

How did they deal with pandemic disease in the 1660s? 16.10.2022

Jason talks to Rebecca Rideal about 1666, and pandemics, great fires, and wars. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How big were mediaeval warhorses? 12.09.2022

Jason talks to Alan Outram and Oliver Creighton who have done the most extensive study of mediaeval warhorses ever made. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are our trees going north? 10.08.2022

Ben Rawlence joins Jason to explain how the tree-line is moving, what that means for us, and what we can do about it. Produced by: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we bring back action comics? 17.06.2022

Jason talks to comics legend Garth Ennis about war, computer games, history, and how to bring back comics of the past. Producer: Natt Tapley Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can we geo-engineer our way out of climate change? 02.06.2022

In this episode Jason talks to Gernot Wagner about the damage we're doing to our limate and whether or not it's on our power to reverse it. Producer: Natt Tapley Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are we going to run out of soil? 21.05.2022

Jason talks to Jo Handelsman, the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at University of Wisconsin, about the role soil has played in the historical invasions of Ukraine, how fast we're running out of soil and what will happen when we do. Presenter: Jason Kingsley Producer: Natt Tapley Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

Is the world coming to an end? 28.04.2022

Professor Nicholas Guyatt joins Jason to talk about apocalyptic cults, beliefs in the end of the world, and what that might look like. Producer: Natt Tapley Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Audio: Pete Dennis Image: St Jean de Montmartre 4th Horseman of Apocalypse by Peter Haas licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Were the Dark Ages dark? 01.04.2022

Jason talks to David Perry & Matt Gabriele about their new book, The Bright Ages, which tries to reassess the period after the fall of the Roman empire (if that even happened). Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Photo by Ali Khalil from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/columns-and-dome-of-hagia-sophia-7542061/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

When did we invent love? 13.03.2022

Jason talks to Professor Suzannah Lipscomb about how we find out about mediaeval women in the past, how marriages worked, and whether or not Henry VIII was the ultimate romantic? Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does bias change the world? 06.03.2022

Jason talks to Jessica Nordell , who showed how small amounts of bias can have huge impact on large organisations. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do we have to work? 28.02.2022

In this episode, Jason talks to Professor Jan Lucassen about the different roles work has played in human history. Have we always worked? Will we always work? How do we define work? Producer: Nathaniel Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Photo by  Yury Kim  from  Pexels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should we worry about World War III? 14.02.2022

Recorded last month, Jason talks to Cold War historian Alex von Tunzelmann about tensions between Russia and the West, and whether or not we're all likely to die in a Third World War. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Assistant Producer: Abi Robinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do plants have souls? 30.01.2022

Hildegard of Bingen was a mediaeval abbess who was famous in her own time for her thoughts about the natural world. Michael Marder talks to Jason about what her philosophy can teach us today about the way in which we interact with plants and what it could mean for our future. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are we entering new Fire Age? 21.01.2022

Are we entering a new Age of Fire? Emeritus Professor Stephen Pyne believes that we have altered the geological age through our control of fire. Jason talks to him about our past manipulation of fire, and what the world is likely to look like in this new Fire Age. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Photo: Eric Chistov Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we beat our unconscious biases? 17.01.2022

Jason talks to Pragya Agarwal about unconscious bias, brain structures and what we can do to combat our own unconscious biases. Producer: Natt Tapley Sound: Pete Dennis Photo by  Daniel Reche  from  Pexels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there life on Mars? 01.01.2022

One of the designers of the Mars Rover, Larry Crumpler, who has been involved in space exploration for forty years joins Jason to talk about the history of space exploration, and where it goes next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we communicate science better? 23.12.2021

Simonyi Professor for the Understanding of Science, Marcus du Sautoy joins Jason to talk about what we need to know about science, why it's important, and how we can improve our understanding. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can ancient Greeks teach us about resisting tyranny? 12.12.2021

Overbearing governments have been with us throughout time. Professor Emily K. Anhalt believes that the ancient Greeks left us good advice in their poetry to tell us how to resist tyranny, and tells Jason all about it. Producer: Nathaniel Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does ancient Egyptian bread taste like? 05.12.2021

Jason talks to Seamus Blackley, the father of the Xbox about gaming, technology, being fascinated with the past, and how to collect ancient Egyptian yeasts. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do the aristocracy hold onto political power? 26.11.2021

This week, Jason is joined by Hannah Greig to discuss how the aristocracy have held onto their land and power for almost a millennium in England. Produced by: Natt Tapley Audio by: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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