The Wicked Opportunities Podcast

Let’s talk about menopause.Not because this is a medical podcast, but because menopause is one of the most powerful, under-examined, and culturally misunderstood transitions we have. And it perfectly captures what this episode is really about: liminality, the space where you are no longer what you were, but not yet what you’re becoming... and where magical possibilities abound!In this Spill, Yvette and Frank step into the “L” of ALIVE and make a bold claim: our society isn’t afraid of change; it’s afraid of the in-between.We live in achievement mode. We reward certainty. We rehearse VUCA as if volatility and uncertainty are design flaws instead of natural conditions of growth . But nature tells a different story. In ecological systems, the richest biodiversity doesn’t exist in the stable prairie or the established forest. Instead life thrives in the ecotone, the transitional space where two environments meet and something entirely new can emerge.Organizations love to talk about transformation, but what they often want is a clean leap from A to B, with as little ambiguity or disruption as possible. The problem is that the so-called “bad lands” in between is precisely where development happens. It’s where identities loosen, power structures wobble, where relationships birth untamed promiscuity, and imagination stretches beyond inherited narratives. It’s where complexity matures and new potential states begin to take form.Liminality isn’t dysfunction. It isn’t weakness. And it isn’t something to medicate, optimize, or fast-forward through. It is the generative tension of becoming, the fertile instability that allows new ideas, new relationships, and new futures to take root.Intentional evolution requires a different relationship with change. Not change management as a technique, but a deeper intimacy with transition itself. The willingness to remain present when the old story has dissolved and the new one hasn’t yet stabilized.Less fear of the fog.More faith in the meadow.Long live the liminal.

What does a slaughterhouse have to do with your org chart?In this episode of The Intentional Spill, Yvette and Frank trace one of modernity’s quiet organizational origin stories: Henry Ford borrowing the logic of the slaughterhouse to build the assembly line and, in the process, embedding segmentation, efficiency, and divide-and-conquer thinking into the DNA of our institutions .We’ve been living inside that metaphor ever since.But what if the future isn’t a factory?This Spill introduces the “A” in ALIVE: Abductive Thinking, a way of deeply sensing the whole rather than optimizing the parts. Drawing on Nora Bateson’s definition of “mutual learning contexts,” we move from assembly lines to meadows, from siloed data columns to living systems where meaning only exists in relationship.Because a meadow is not a log.A mind is not a spreadsheet.And foresight is not a predictive machine.Along the way, we question whether AI can ever “know” the embodied feeling of care, explore why foresight keeps trying to earn credibility from non-abductive systems, and share a story about a porch goose that might just restore your faith in human interdependence.Intentional evolution asks us to notice the metaphors guiding us.Are we rehearsing futures of separation?Or practicing futures of connection?Less assembly line.More meadow.The future is alive . . . and it’s learning with us. 

In this episode of The Intentional Spill, Yvette and Frank tell the story behind a question that still lingers in foresight work: “Robots, really?” It was said years ago (half skeptical, half dismissive) after a scenario exercise meant to stretch imagination rather than confirm comfort. And it perfectly captures why foresight so often fails when it’s treated as prediction instead of preparation .Moving between personal stories, professional missteps, and the rise of today’s AI-saturated world, the conversation explores how scenarios are designed to surface bias, provoke emotional response, and expand our capacity to engage with change before it arrives fully formed. The point was never the robots themselves, but what they represented: dependence on systems we don’t fully understand, and futures we resist until they’re unavoidable.This Spill invites listeners to reconsider how they respond to unfamiliar futures. Dismissal feels efficient, but it’s often the moment we opt out of intentional evolution. Scenarios aren’t meant to be believed. They’re meant to be felt, wrestled with, and learned from - before reality catches up.When the future sounds strange, that’s usually the signal.

In this episode of The Intentional Spill, Yvette and Frank take on one of foresight’s most comfortable habits (and biggest risks): the “Top 10 Trends” list. Using pop culture, collective joy, and the phenomenon of cultural movements (yes, including Taylor Swift) as a starting point, the conversation explores why what’s trending on Google, LinkedIn, or mainstream media is often the least interesting signal of what’s actually trying to emerge .This Spill challenges traditional trend-scanning as a form of unconscious bias and, at its worst, a self-fulfilling prophecy that reinforces dominant narratives rather than disrupts them. Instead, the episode makes the case for transformational futuring: paying attention to the periphery, questioning inherited social constructs, and cultivating futures consciousness that can hold complexity, imagination, and collective potential states.Along the way, the hosts unpack why foresight isn’t about reporting headlines, it’s about changing the conditions from which futures arise. Less echo chamber. Less algorithm worship. More discernment, humility, and intentional evolution.Stop carrying water for the dominant narrative.Look sideways.The future isn’t in the Top 10.

In this episode of The Intentional Spill, Yvette and Frank confront a growing global pattern: the attempt to defang the future by controlling language. Sparked by an expanding list of government-banned words (from equity and race to climate and identity) the conversation explores what happens when imagination, meaning-making, and collective agency are treated as threats .This isn’t a U.S.-only issue, and it isn’t just about words. It’s about how dominant systems preserve themselves by narrowing what can be named, imagined, or made possible. Through humor, provocation, and foresight practice, the episode reframes censorship just as an attempt to convey strength, but as a signal of system fragility, and argues that when the future is declared “illegal,” it becomes even more necessary to practice foresight as resistance and activism.At its core, this Spill is a call to reclaim futures consciousness: the collective, relational capacity to imagine what wants to emerge and to build worlds worth living in, together.Read banned books.Use the words.Imagine anyway.

In this episode of The Intentional Spill, Yvette and Frank take aim at how transformation has been hijacked and turned into a crisis response, a reorg strategy, or a last-ditch effort to save a sinking ship. Sparked by a recent Harvard Business Review call to “stop doing transformation,” the conversation asks a deeper question: What if transformation isn’t the problem, but how we’ve been co-opting it is?Drawing from natural systems, foresight practice, and lived experience, the episode reframes transformation as a living dynamic, not a traumatic intervention. Think acorns and oak trees, submergence and emergence, and capacity-building over change fatigue. You'll learn why real transformation can’t be forced, scheduled, or “bombed” into existence.This is a call to stop reacting and start cultivating.Less treadmill. Less panic.More intention. More life.Transform away.xoxo

Welcome to the 2026 season of the Wicked Opportunities podcast - launching The Intentional Spill, a weekly series of 15-minute, digestible, raw conversations (less prep, more truth). In the kickoff episode, Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer (aka Dr. Juicy Owl) call out “marketed renewal” and the New Year, New You productivity trap, then make the case for Intentional Evolution: getting out of the happenstance dance and back into the driver’s seat of our lives, and our species. Expect everyday foresight as activism, a warning about the Evil E’s (extraction, exploitation, extrapolation, exponentiality), and a reframe of growth as emergence + submergence—because rest isn’t failure, it’s part of the cycle. Less machine. More garden. And please: don’t get deracinated from what wants to emerge. xoxo

The traditional approach to a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment has often involved attempts to eliminate uncertainty, simplify complexity, and overcome volatility and ambiguity. This relies on mindsets and systems built on ideas like strategic hindsight, efficiency, simplicity, certainty, and control. Recent events have highlighted that these existing systems are ineffective. Attempts to solve complex challenges with simple or temporary solutions often fail because they don’t address underlying structures, values, and narratives.The universe is, in its very nature, VUCA. Instead of battling it, we should consider embracing it.Embrace the Long Now.The Long Now is not about compressing time but stretching it. It’s an idea of integrating the best of the past and the most vibrant aspirations for the future to inform decisions in the present. It means seeing the “now” not just as immediacy, but as a longer span, recognizing that our actions today have long-term effects and build upon the past. It is about a mindset that includes the past, present, and future together as one comprehensive timeframe.Embracing the Long Now means leaning into the unknown, mystery, and emergence. It recognizes that complexity and uncertainty are not problems to be solved but inherent aspects of the universe. When embraced, this environment can lead to greater opportunities, generativity, resilience, and abundance. This shifts the focus from trying to control everything to being in a perpetual state of readiness for any future that unfolds.

In this formative interview, TFSX co-founder Frank Spencer speaks with world-renowned social systems scientist, futurist, cultural historian, attorney, consultant, speaker, and author Riane Eisler, diving deep into the (re)framing of a society built upon cooperation, partnership, and deep care. As she states during the conversation, the belief that humans are inherently competitive, egocentric, and violent is utterly false, drawing upon decades of research around the past, present, and future of human equity, empathy, peace, transformation, and models of economic and social partnership. As Riane notes in her book Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, “…humans are capable of living in egalitarian social systems where neither dominates the other, where violence is minimized, and where prosocial cooperation and caring typify social life. This image is not a utopian fantasy but rather a set of potentials, if not inclinations, stemming from our evolutionary heritage.”We’ve waited a long time to interview Riane, as her ground-breaking work is foundational to our passion to democratize the cooperative evolutionary trait of perceiving the emerging “whole” that fosters imaginal anticipation and the co-creation of transformational realities, This is a MUST LISTEN for anyone who cares about the future of humanity, planet, and our cosmic journey, and knows in their heart that there has to be a better way.

The urban legend of Generational Warfare has haunted us all for far too long, and it’s high time that we pull the mask off of this specter that has caused so much age-related fear and loathing.During this month's WO Live!, we are exploring the idea of the People Cloud where we can connect with individuals around the globe based on shared passions and goals rather than the outdated construct of generational warfare. This is more than just a discussion, it's an opportunity to join a movement that's committed to creating a more connected, equitable, and empowering world. The People Cloud offers a framework for addressing current challenges related to social division, the changing nature of work, the impact of technology, the need for new ways of thinking and learning, and global collaboration. This livestream is an invitation to:Challenge the assumptions of generational warfare and other limiting narratives that hold us back.Reimagine systems and structures through a lens of abundance and possibility, focusing on a post-human and post-material way of seeing life.Connect with a community passionate about building a future where everyone thrives, using frameworks that support a shift from "individual rights to collective liberties".Learn how to apply the mindsets of sense, mesh, and transform to bring about a more abundant and collaborative future.The People Cloud isn't just an idea; it's a call to action to rewrite our stories and move toward a more equitable, connected, and empowering future for all. Don't miss out on this chance to engage with fellow visionaries and contribute your own unique perspective to the future of the People Cloud.

In the world of foresight, we’re no strangers to complex challenges. But perhaps none feels as pervasive and daunting as the “Tragedy of the Commons.” This age-old narrative of scarcity and competition for limited resources shapes our decisions, our systems, and often, our very outlook on the future.As activist and founder Adrianne Wright says, “the scarcity mindset is how we tell a fundamentally American tall tale about a nation built on notions of individualism; a male-dominated story filled with loners who suck it up and ride off into the sunset as others applaud our resilience. Shifting our stories from scarcity to abundance honors the fullness of our humanity.”As foresight practitioners, we understand that the future is not a fixed destination, but a canvas for our collective imagination.Join us for our next Wicked Opportunities Live! where futurists Frank Spencer and Yvette Montero Salvatico will guide us on a journey beyond scarcity, toward the liberating power of Imagination Literacy.This livestream is an invitation to:-Challenge the assumptions of scarcity that hold us back.-Reimagine systems and structures through a lens of abundance and possibility.-Connect with a community passionate about building a future where everyone thrives.

Welcome to 2025… it’s time for Wicked Opportunities® to take the stage!As we begin our collective journey down the path of the new year, it’s imperative that we seek out new minds, new hearts, and new spirits – not only for ourselves, but for one another as well. However, this will mean that we will be defying gravity, soaring beyond the hold that a world in crisis has on our minds. With the collapse of one world at hand, we must embrace transformation of all that we know, and enter into alternative realities that change us all for the better.Join Futurists Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer as they introduce an exciting new initiative that will have us all flying high – Wicked Opportunities: Reimagining Systems for Transformational Realities. Over the span of 7 months, How to Thrive in Uncertain Times: 7 Lessons to Empower Hope will be presented as a once-a-month interactive livestream + an accompanying course that will dive deep into the research around our 7 Shifts in the Age of Opportunity, reframing one wicked problem each month as a Wicked Opportunity… and empowering you to do the same!

“The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be live.” – Gil Scott-HeronReal transformation doesn’t come from headlines or top-down decisions. It happens in the hearts, minds, and actions of people – of us.Join Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank W. Spencer IV for a dynamic Wicked Opportunities® Live! session as we explore:🔹 How love, empathy, and activism fuel real change 🔹 Why advocacy and empowerment are essential for the future 🔹 The undeniable power of community to ignite societal transformation ✨ The future isn’t something we watch – it’s something we build together.

Sophie Strand – one of our favorite thinkers, writers, and “life-weavers” – shared in her article entitled “Myco Eco Mytho” that, “Stories don’t belong to human beings. But human beings belong to stories. Let’s enter back into the complex, tangled work of letting go of authorship and letting ourselves be told.” This call to rewild our role across time, space, and experience – past, present, and future – sets the stage for this captivating interview where Sophie covers ideas such as the importance of ecological storytelling (creating households over heroes); fantasy as much-needed “feral futures” over the “fake realism” and of our human-centric and diagnostic stories; the responsibility we have around “creative self-fulfillment when imaging possible futures; and engaging humanity as “lovers” rather than information gatherers.Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Give her a salamander and a stone and she’ll write you a love story. Sophie was raised by house cats, puff balls, possums, raccoons, and an opinionated, crippled goose. In every neighborhood she’s ever lived in she has been known as “the walker”. She believes strongly that all thinking happens interstitially – between beings, ideas, differences, mythical gradients. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand,The Madonna Secret, and the forthcoming memoir The Body Is a Doorway as well as the creator of the popular Substack “Make Me Good Soil.” You can follow her work on Instagram @cosmogyny.

In this episode of the Wicked Opportunities® Podcast, TFSX Principal Frank Spencer speaks with physician, aquanaut, dive medical technician, speaker, martial artist, skydiver, and VP of Immersive Medicine at Luxsonic Technologies, Dr. Shawna Pandya.Dr. Shawna Pandya has a vision for shaping the future of medicine through transdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. 

Breaking free from conventional thinking, TFSX Principal Frank Spencer delves into futures through an "art-based" lens with ARTEFACTO Founders Andrea Busquets and Pablo Reyes Arellano. Explore their innovative approach, liberating us to envision new futures, "dream ourselves awake," and contribute to cultural evolution through civic participation. 

TFSX Co-Founder Frank Spencer discusses her new book, Combining, in-depth with Nora Bateson. Listen as Nora discusses poems, passages, and concepts from her book that reinforce our need to elevate our sacred connection to the cosmic whole to discover/engage with understand/undergo ancestral and generational transformation.

We know… it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way. (At least that’s what Mac Davis said back in 1980, and when was he ever wrong?). Nevertheless, we all need to realize that we hold only a small part of the larger human, planetary, and cosmic story, and such a realization will attune us to the deeper picture within various situations, as well as helping us to take our personal viewpoints, perspectives, and self-importance out of that picture. When this happens, we are better positioned to see what really desires to emerge for the betterment of the whole rather than designing a future that only serves the few. Or, as Spock so eloquently put it, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” We’re not suggesting that only a Vulcan can practice humility, but we do hope our podcast becomes galactically popular.

When you think about the future, does the idea of connection come to mind? It did for Kermit the Frog! (Well, at least in relation to rainbows, lovers, and dreamers). In reality, connection is a critical mindset when it comes to practicing rigorous foresight. Exploring alternative possibilities through the lens of ecosystems, interconnectedness, and the “larger whole” - past, present, and yet-to-come - is the only way to perceive the deeply emerging realities necessary for robust futures-readiness and futures-empowerment. Join connectors-extraordinaire Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer as they dive into the IDG of Connectedness to surface pathways toward holistic well-being, global community, and positive outcomes. Or, as our favorite green muppet once said, “What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing, and what do we think we might see?” I guess you’ll have to listen to find out. (Thanks Kermie!)

You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop… the Relating dimension! (Thank you for letting us include a Twilight Zone reference - this is a foresight podcast, after all.) Our first stop in this new dimension within the Inner Development Goals: Appreciation, a skill, and trait that enables us to cultivate wonder, gratitude, and awe - important capabilities if we want to become deep imaginariums and generative wellsprings of alternative possibilities and transformational realities. Without the ability to appreciate the unfolding world around us and to recognize the joyous potentialities that reside in spaces that are yet to be, our futures thinking will fall prey to the systemic dominance of a seemingly inescapable “nowism” or a fatalistic vision of self-fulfilling apocalypticism. As the inspirationalist Wayne Dyer once said, “The Universe provides abundantly when you’re in a state of gratefulness.”

In this last episode within the Thinking dimension of the Inner Development Goals, TWOP hosts Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer get to talk about their favorite subject: Kevin Bacon! Correction… we meant to say “visioning.” (But who doesn’t also love a good 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon story?) Embodying the trait of visioning is about much more than supercharging our imaginations for greater possibilities, though that’s an important part; it’s about having the inner ability to sustain and act upon those visions so that we don’t lose heart on our journey to transformative outcomes. And that’s not all! Visioning also empowers us to expand our field of passion, purpose, and potential, both individually and collectively, enlarging our initial ideas to encompass spaces beyond our wildest dreams. So roll up for the magical mystery tour - we’re hoping to take you away. (Don’t worry, we’ll bring you back again, but we can’t promise you’ll be the same.)

You want a story? Ok, “Once upon a time, there were two crazy but incredibly smart podcast hosts who loved to talk about the future…” Oh, you want us to help you find the stories all around you? Well, why didn’t you say so? We love to empower people to look for the puzzle pieces, the interconnections, and the patterns that make up the stories that are actually shaping our realities. This is what is meant by sense-making - the critical skill of structuring the unknown, engaging with diverse lived experiences, and understanding our perception of the things we experience. Join Yvette and Frank as they explore the topic of climate change to demonstrate how we can deepen and broaden our stories about the world by becoming better sense-makers and how this IDG trait can unlock our inner futurists. Who knows, they might even throw in a short story of their own for good measure. (Don’t they always?)

Are you curious about our next episode in the 23 and Me series? If so, you’re in luck because this one’s all about being more open and curious. (See what we did there?) Our present-day political, social, and economic landscapes have created an unfavorable environment for fostering perspectives that are culturally rich and tend to narrow our assumptions and blind spots. This means that we have to be even more intentional in our pursuit of perspective-building than ever before. Join Yvette and Frank in their invitation to travel down the rabbit hole where things become “curiouser and curiouser” in order to grasp better that our view is… just one view. (And, like Alice in Wonderland, you may even be “so much surprised, that for the moment (you will) quite (forget) how to speak good English.” Y&F certainly have.)

In most contexts today, from businesses to governments to social development, we’re told to view complexity as our mortal enemy - crush it, vanquish it, overcome it, and do everything in our power to simplify it. How would you feel if we told you this is the opposite of what you should be doing? (Obviously, that’s exactly what we’re about to do!) For many years, we’ve allowed a landscape built on repetitive efficiency to snuff out the grand potential found within the matrix of creative complexity, and it’s high time that we shift our thinking to embrace this feature of all maturing systems. Join Yvette and Frank as they explain the intimate dance between complexity and foresight, and explore how ecosystems of wildly diverse connections open up a whole new world of possibilities for those who feel like bustin’ loose. (Hey, Nelly fans, Chuck Brown did it first!)

We’re now entering the “Thinking” dimension of the Inner Development Goals. If you weren’t already 100% convinced that the 23 traits and skills highlighted in the IDGs are the same attributes necessary for robust futuring, then these next several podcasts should do the trick. (Honestly, what else do you want from us, friends!) In this episode, Yvette and Frank take a critical look - very meta of us - at the need for foresight to continually ask the “who, what, where, when, and why” questions when presented with any issue or idea, and to avoid the temptation of falling into the “face value” crowd. This means that we’re going to wrestle with the way that foresight often makes us feel threatened - a sure sign that futuring is less about changing the world around us than it is about first challenging the world inside of us.

“Hey, Yvette and Frank, I’ve been loving how you’re demonstrating the connection between the Inner Development Goals and a futurist mindset, but what does “being present” have to do with foresight?” We’re glad you asked! (And, no, you won’t have to take a self-help course on multi-tasking.) In this final podcast in the “Being” domain, our “what lies ahead wayfarers” explore how practicing the act of presencing empowers us to avoid the “tyranny of extraction” from the deep experiences, connections, and realities around us; be fully available to encounter other ideas and perspectives that can guide us into new future territories; and activate the multi-faceted “deep now” that illuminates pathways of possibility previously unimagined. (Yes, we are shameless Nora Bateson fans).

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself”? It certainly seems like a lot of governments and organizations have never listened to Hip Hop, and that lack of awareness is making us an Endangered Species. (Two Ice Cube hits, and we’ve barely gotten started!) Without being able to reflect deeply on our own thoughts, feelings, and desires, we can’t possibly hope to effectively engage with our world of exponential complexity. Join Frank and Yvette as they challenge the inner stories we tell ourselves about the world and navigate the processes that short-circuit our ability to be constructively provoked by the future.

A famous axiom states that “If you never know, you’ll never grow; if you don’t grow, you’ve got no place to go.” (OK, we just made that up, but it’s pretty catchy… right?) Even if it isn’t an actual timeless idiom, the sentiment holds true - when we’re open to learning and expanding our field of knowledge instead of becoming closed to ideas that shake up our cherished worldviews, we discover ideas, experiences, and wonders that exponentially expand our identity, capacity, and abilities. A life filled with constant curiosity produces amazement, awe, and untapped potential in each and every one of us, and when that happens, we become empowered to enact transformational change. Join Yvette and Frank as they skip the light fandango toward a life-long exploration of learning, unlearning, and relearning that can make transformation our present reality. (Bonus points if you can spot the Procol Harem reference; “Trivia Royalty” status for those that can name that tune!)

In a zeitgeist of extreme tribalism and partisanship, it may seem that having integrity and authenticity means standing firm in your worldviews no matter how they might impact those around you. The truth is that acting with sincerity has much more to do with the ability to be vulnerable due to the maturity that comes with a deeply developed identity that is not easily threatened or manipulated. Foresight and Futures Thinking challenges its users to foster this type of awareness concerning their inner processes, reactions, and emotions, allowing us to embrace the diversity around us without falling prey to hiding from the world or becoming defensive. In this episode, Yvette and Frank uncover woke-washing, “values hacking,” and free speech vs. free reach. Spoiler: None of these things are on Santa’s Nice List.

Welcome to 23 and Me, a series that explores the synergy between Foresight and the 23 skills and qualities that comprise the Inner Development Goals. The IDGs represent the inner capacity needed to deal with the increasingly complex environment and challenges represented by the Sustainable Development Goals and also mirror the inner skills needed to be a robust futures thinker. Join Futurists Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer as they kick off the series with the skill of Inner Compass - the necessity of caring for generations past, present, and yet-to-come. (2023… 23 skills… 23 and Me as a reference to your personal DNA… see what we did there?)

When it seems hard to think about the future with intention. When you feel surprised by events that could have been easily imagined, when nostalgia for the future seems impossible to embrace, if you or a loved one have struggled with any of these symptoms, you may have Foresight Deficit Syndrome. FDS can be hard to manage using the well-worn approaches in our present-day systems, but help is available. If you want to be free from the tyranny of short-term thinking - and want to bring others along with you on this journey of freedom - then Foresight and Futures Thinking may be right for you. Don’t hesitate to overcome FDS - join Futurists Yvette and Frank on this episode right away! (Side effects may include dry mouth from trying to explain foresight to others, blurred vision from seeing multiple viewpoints, and temporary confusion from overcoming persistent biases and assumptions.)

We are fond of saying that foresight is a team sport, but what happens if you are the sole player on your squad? Whether because of funding constraints or due to a lack of organizational support, navigating foresight implementation all alone can feel overwhelming. How do you build a futures thinking culture and avoid burn out you while wearing all of the hats in your foresight practice? Join Frank and Yvette as they share proven tips to survive and thrive as a foresight team of one. 

The ideological war that has raged between the youth and the traditional environments that they are born into is nothing new. However, our present-day “meta crisis” - the confluence of climate change, supply chain disruption, authoritarian governance, digital misinformation, extreme economic inequality, and a rising sense of impending global armed conflict - is stirring our youth to become more involved in civic activism than during any other time in history. If a call to avert collapse is motivating young people in unprecedented ways, how much more might cultivating empathy, hope, and transformation through foresight empower them (and all of us!) to co-create a brighter future for all? Join Futurists Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer as they talk about how today’s youth are changing the world, and why Futures Thinking should be a critical part of their toolkit to inspire better tomorrows.

Welcome on board! Let's go on a metaphorical flight from the turbulence of prediction to the friendly skies of perception, recounting every foresight practitioner’s most agonizing journey - the screening process of organizational professionals who demand that we pack a crystal ball. Join us in the airport lounge of podcasts where you’ll be upgraded to a status beyond traditional forecasting, organizational bets and incremental innovation (those are the cheap seats).

While an organization may care about the “future of hair care in-shower,” framing our future thinking efforts around immediate concerns and very short time horizons will only reinforce organizational blinders that result in missed opportunities. Instead of doubling down on near term trends like #nopoomovement, we must stretch our thinking to address provocative ideas that open our eyes to the real change outside of our company and industry.

Traditional long term planning does not really consider the future; it extrapolates the past. Often our Five Year Plans include only an asterisk  alluding to future "threats" and "opportunities." It's time to stop making the future just a footnote. 

It was the great civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer that said, “Nobody’s free until everybody is free.” We would add that unless everybody is empowered to think proactively about our collective tomorrows, then we will continue to see foresight treated as a luxury for the privileged few who control the future. In other words, nobody is empowered until all voices are included in futures thinking. Join Yvette and Frank as they challenge governments, businesses and social influencers to stop making excuses when it comes to engaging foresight and the diverse voices that hold the key to better futures. Foresight is more than a right - it’s an obligation!

How do we explore the future if we are tethered to today? Framing our foresight efforts can be a challenging balance of the "right now" and the "what's possible." Hear Frank and Yvette share how they've helped clients expand their vision beyond the obvious.

Foresight inspiration can come from anywhere, and Disney's hit film Encanto is a great example. The movie is a tale of an enchanted family with a painful secret: Bruno, their prophetic uncle, has become a sore subject for the household and villagers alike due to their negative view of his visionary gift. What can we learn from Bruno's prognostications, his exile, and the lessons learned by his family? You may be surprised to discover that Bruno isn't the only futurist in Casa Madrigal! 

What have you done for me lately? Today's short attention spans usually result in clients asking practitioners to reduce a 100-year old discipline into pithy soundbites and back-of-the-napkin explanations.  As frustrating as this can be, it is possible to drive home the benefits of long-term thinking in a short period of time.  Short interventions can drive big impact, and can open the door to a deeper dive. 

We introduce our special, year-long collection with a "good bye" instead of a "hello." Join Frank and Yvette as they share lessons from client engagements that didn't go as planned. Learn how Frank's failures in journalism, supply chain management, and construction led to his success as a foresight professional. ;)

Victor Frankenstein created a single body out of spare parts, but we need to create a set of products, services and experiences out of many different bodies. Listen in as Yvette and Frank give life to "Tik Tok education," open source research and environments of play that expand the laboratory of science to the masses. A new perspective on being alive is awaiting us all!

“Trust the science!” But what if the science hasn’t traditionally included me? Mapping the future to our Wicked Opportunity requires us to consider simultaneous multiples: resilient, adaptive, and transformative paths forward. We challenge our institutions to clean up their act, call for more inclusionary scientific practices, and consider a world in which science moves beyond the STEM silos. You might be shocked to discover that “Science” needs a hype man.

Did these trends start in a petri dish, or did they emerge from the broader social landscape outside the lab? Our scan hits this month include designer babies, citizen science, the billionaire space race, and gamers saving the world.  Does the research point to more “cowboy science” or are there signs of more inclusive experimentation on the horizon? Join us to find out!

Welcome to Victor Frankenstein’s foreboding lair strewn with insane equations, strange artifacts and miscellaneous body parts. Is Frankenstein a lone genius unlocking the mysteries of life for the benefit of humankind, or a mad scientist seeking to fashion the world in his own image? The masses certainly want to attack his monstrous laboratory with torches and pitchforks, but what if we instead used our collective energy to create a new workshop of widespread learning and creativity?

To see like an alien requires us, "to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!" Join Yvette and Frank as they prototype "out of this world" metrics, messages, and modifications to the human experience. By naming these formerly "unidentified future ontologies," we hope to make believers out of everyone.  Our flying saucers are real!

When mapping the future, there are so many possibilities that we don’t have the Space or the Time to Continuum.  However, it is hard to ignore the obvious alien in the room which has invaded every facet of our lives for the last 18 months. Whether we build a wall, create a herd, or foster an empathic mutation a successful, sustainable response to this novel virus will require that we embrace "alien" ideas.

The truth is out there, and it's not for the faint of heart. The search will surely result in the unearthing of aliens, but you may find that embracing uncertainty and curiosity is even scarier. Join Agents Salvatico and Spencer as they attempt to make first contact with topics such as disgust, exclusion, and our place in the cosmos. As we comb through all of these X-Files, what weak signals point to societal transformation?

"Take cover! It's the little green men!" That's what those who claim to have seen aliens in the famous "Close Encounter at Kelly, Kentucky" in 1955 might have said. Of course, alien visitations have been documented around the world, and stories of invaders from outer space continue to supercharge our imaginations (and our hysteria). Why do we fear these "others" so much, and what can we do to cultivate an alien perspective that just might transform our world for the better?

You know the drill: to stop a zombie, you must "shoot the head or you'll be dead." However, a headshot in the landscape of the Global Brain takes on a whole new meaning. Instead of simply  eliminating anything that threatens to consume our cognitive capabilities, we can design a world where products, services and experiences expand our collective imagination. Join Yvette and Frank as they end this month turning fiction into reality. Honestly, it's a no-brainer!