Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future? episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 26, 2026 · 23 MIN

Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future?

from If You're Listening · host Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Matt and Kara discuss the book that inspired the Black Swan series… but didn’t make it into the final cut! Can experts, soothsayers, and psychics really predict what’s going to happen?This episode is connected to Black Swans, a four-part series by If You’re Listening67 years ago, the ABC recorded a collection of predictions about the future—the one we’re living in now, in 2026. Their forecasts are truly extraordinary - Intergalactic super speed travel, future pod houses, Nuclear fallout, but strangely all of them are wrong. In Black Swans, host Matt Bevan gets to the bottom of why we’ve always been so bad at predicting the future.Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app.Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 26, 2026

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Did a 1981 book correctly predict the future?

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