Near Future Laboratory Podcast

In this episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, I talk with my old friend Ian Bogost about his new book, “The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life” — a funny (like..I laughed out loud) , generous, and quietly radical invitation to recover the sensory enchantment of everyday life. Ian’s book begins with ordinary things: stick shifts, toasters, paper cups, plastic film, doorknobs,...

The podcast is back from hiatus with a fun one! Episode 104 is a conversation with Sarah Rothberg and my dear old friend and collaborator Marina Zurkow about More&More, their speculative card-deck and worldbuilding framework for making strange, useful futures with other people. We talk about why constraints are better than blank canvases, how a handful of absurd cards can quickly open up a who...

Andy Polaine is a designer, educator, writer and podcast guy. He hosts the wonderful 'Power of Ten' podcast . Andy is known for his work as a service designer, innovation consultant and professional executive coach. Don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory . Your support would be very much appreciated. Oh, also? Please rate and w...

Please support the podcast on Patreon ! Thank you to all of my paid subscribers! My friend Tom Guarriello joins me to unpack a deceptively simple question— why do some things matter more than others? How is it that “brands” are rarely just products. Tom describes how they’re meaning-machines: coffee cups, clothes, grocery aisles, and the everyday objects we carry through life are the things that q...

Here we are — where imagination becomes strategy and art is the engine of innovation. This is a rebroadcast of my conversation in Episode 54 with my friend Dave Gray - artist, visual thinker, and founder of the School of the Possible - in which we explore how drawing and creativity can unlock new ways of seeing, thinking, and shaping the future. Simple sketches can transform complex ideas and help...

Here is the link to the video we discuss: ⁠https://youtu.be/9pLCIoBZzd4 You'll want to watch that first — I mistakenly said I would include it but I don't want to rug Kirby's Youtube channel! This is a special an curious episode of the podcast — a broadcast from my weekly Office Hours where people join to share and discuss their various “side projects”. Last Friday Kirby Ferguson joine...

Please support the podcast over on Patreon. https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory We don’t suffer from a lack of imagination about the future. We suffer from too much of the same imagination. Every deck, every keynote, every speculative prototype—still echoing the same tropes: chrome cities, self-driving pods, dystopian biotech. A future flattened by repetition. Familiar. Market-tested. Boring....

Outgoing is Brett Gui Xin and Del Hardin Hoyle, they are a creative design team based in Brooklyn. In this chat we discuss their participation in some recent design fairs which gave them a chance to take a break and reflect back on a busy stretch of work. Their media are various: sculptural furniture, music, performance, found materials. We got into their creative processes, the uniqueness of thei...

Visit Normals In my book ‘ It’s time to imagine harder ’, my hypothesis was that bringing the creative consciousness back to work is a clear path to unlocking the unexpected and unanticipated. A way to sense into and feel for the unseen. The creative consciousness - which has a proclivity or impulse to operate comfortably even enthusiastically with the unknown — can dream of the undreamt as if wer...

The Intersection of Imagination, Science Fiction, Strategy and Creativity. we wandered into something I keep circling back to: the idea that strategy is a kind of science fiction . Not in the “space battles and robots” sense, but in the deeper way that science fiction gives us permission to imagine futures—plausible or not—and then build toward them. Jarrett and I talked about design not just as a...

In which Tobias and I converse about the release of the book ' Practices of Future Casting ', the importance of events that gather thought leaders to spur creativity and career development in design and futures thinking, the compilation and production of the book, the value of speculative writing as a legitimate form of future making, the significance of in-person events for fostering impa...

Phil Balagtas' book "Making Futures Work" is a comprehensive map of the work of futuring. https://www.philbalagtas.com/ Learn how to get started with Futures Thinking. With this practical guide, Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative and the global Speculative Futures network, shows you how designers and futurists have made futures work at companies such as Atari, IB...

Please become a paid supporter over on Patreon . Your support helps keep the Podcast going and gets you membership in the Near Future Laboratory community on Discord. A conversation with Troy Campbell who describes his journey from graduate school to becoming a professor and the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet, where he became passionate about the power of behavioral science. We talk about concept...

This is Episode N°093 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast , a conversation with filmmaker/director Gary Hustwit, the creative punk mind behind documentaries Rams, Helvetica and Objectified. We dive into his journey in independent filmmaking, his DIY ethos, and his bold ideas about storytelling in a digital world. Gary shares his approach to creating generative cinema—films that evolve and change...

Read More 👉🏽 ⁠https://detroit.imaginesharder.com Can you imagine your idea of the future of work, beyond Zoom calls from the beach? What is the Onboarding Guide for the Future of Work? What is the Resumé from the Future of Work? What does the equivalent of the ‘org chart’ look like? Want to help create a reinvigorated future imaginary of what work could be? Want to try your hand at Design Fictio...

Tobias and I have a tidy morning/evening conversation that revolves around the impact of Philip K. Dick's science fiction, particularly how his imaginative devices influence modern technological narratives. We talk about the ways he refers to and anticipates AI and other artifacts, of course there's a deep dive into the significance of the Minority Report's gestural interface created f...

Near Future Laboratory Podcast Episode 90: Exploring Creative Worlds with Kyle Ng Support the podcast on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory Join us at Detroit Imagines Harder: https://detroit.imaginesharder.com $55 Gets You 4 Design Fiction Books (Plus Electronic Sheep Training Cards): https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/the-manual-of-design-fiction-paperback In Episode 9...

In Episode 089 I get into an in-depth conversation with guest Silvio Lorusso, a designer, artist, and writer based in Lisbon. Our discussion centers around the complex relationship between design, disillusionment, and the evolving role of design in society, as Silvio has articulated in his recent book 'What Design Can't Do', a critique of the rhetorical expectations placed upon design....

A discussion with Dave Gray about our experiences creating communities that foster human connection, imagination, and possibility. We share our own approaches to building new kinds of ways of organizing human potential where people can explore ideas and practice creatively. "What if school was a place where we could test our theories by creating prototypes, proposals, and provocations; where...

Taryn O'Neil and Tamara Krinsky are the creative force behind ⁠Scirens⁠ , a creative team working at the intersection of science & storytelling, creative entertainment that encourages curiosity and imaginative thinking to shape a new vision for a rapidly changing world. They recently produced the trailer for Arizona State University's Center for ⁠Science and the Imagination⁠ 's ⁠Cl...

This is a digest of the 3PM session of General Seminar Season 05 Episode 01 where we discuss possible futures in which AI is as normal, ordinary, and everyday as wheels on luggage and televisions we talk to. General Seminar is Near Future Laboratory's platform for sense-making in which we excavate artifacts from possible futures rather than make predictions and prognostications. This is the De...

This is a digest of the 10AM session of General Seminar Season 05 Episode 01 where we discuss possible futures in which AI is as normal, ordinary, and everyday as wheels on luggage and televisions we talk to. General Seminar is Near Future Laboratory's platform for sense-making in which we excavate artifacts from possible futures rather than make predictions and prognostications. This is the D...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather 'round for an electrifying journey through the cerebral and speculative realm of "Thrilling Wonder Stories." Listen as we regale you with a tale of imagination, innovation, and intellectual wonder. Our narrative unfolds through a dazzling array of discussions, exploring the intersection of technology, science, and the arts. From the organi...

In this episode, I chat with the fun, creative, thoughtful Ruth Guerra, a design researcher with a knack for amplifying the questions about design, creativity, research and futures through a wonderful social media presence. We dive into her journey from a theater undergrad to mastering future design, where she champions participatory design with a twist. Ruth shares her passion for storytelling, n...

Some things that happened at the Near Future Laboratory the last weeks of 2023 including a day trip to SFO using a travel voucher that was going to expire at the end of the year, meeting with the NFL gang for an awesome lunch and chat, hanging with Will Carey from https://formation.eco to continue working on the meaning, purpose, and offering of this reinvigorated evolution of Near Future Laborato...