38. TECH: Meet the Future with Märtha Rehnberg

What happens when the world’s most powerful leaders can’t even describe their vision for the future? Our guest, futurist Märtha Rehnberg, reveals something that’s surprised her in her career: too many leaders today are stuck in reactive mode, managing the present rather than daring to imagine, and build, a better tomorrow.Märtha makes a case for the power of audacious or even “unreasonable,” visions, the kind that spark revolutions in science, technology, and society. Yet Europe, she warns, too often settles for bureaucracy and incremental change, leaving it vulnerable in an era of global transformation and technological rivalry.This episode dives into Europe’s vision crisis: Why are we struggling to craft stories that inspire and unite? How can we move beyond just surviving crises to actively shaping our future? The answer, Märtha argues, lies in unlocking imagination, nurturing creativity, and weaving narratives that bring people together around a shared, ambitious purpose.The message is clear: Europe’s path forward demands more than pragmatism. It’s time to embrace discomfort, face hard truths, and invest in the ideas and stories that will propel us toward a future we actually want to live in. Märtha Rehnberg is Co-Founder of DareDisrupt, a think tank specialized in responsible disruption and exponential technologies. She advises some of the largest companies in the world on disruption, with a special focus on heavy asset industries. As policy advisor, she has worked directly on EU’s Industrial Strategy, the Green Deal, the Taxonomy on Sustainable Finance and most recently her work focuses on Science4Policy, with the EU Commission’s Joint Research Council. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thistimetomorrowpod.substack.com