The Wicked Opportunities Podcast
by TFSX
The world is filled with Wicked Problems - incredibly complicated predicaments that don’t have simple solutions. However, the real problem isn’t our complex world, but rather our outdated mindsets. The way that we see the future directly impacts the actions that we take today, so a better world requires better visions. Join futurists Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer each week as they use the Natural Foresight® Framework to reframe our Wicked Problems into the transformational ideas that they call Wicked Opportunities.
Episodes
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Long Live the Liminal
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…
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The Meadow, Not the Machine
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...
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Robots, Really?
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...
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The Top 10 Trend Extravaganza (and why we don't trust it)
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...
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Making the Future Illegal
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…
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Transformation Bombing
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...
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New Year - New You?
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”...
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WO Live! - Battling VUCA
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,...
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Reclaiming Our Cooperative Potential
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.…
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OK, Boomer
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...
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Let's Make More Pie!
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...
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The Year of Defying Gravity
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...
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The Future Will Not Be Televised
“The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be live.” – Gil Scott-Heron Real 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...
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We Belong to Stories
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...
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Transdisciplinary Collaboration and Innovation
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...
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Art as Foresight
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…
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Pathways of the Unimagined with Nora Bateson
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...
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Humility - Acting Toward the Future Without Self-Importance
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…
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Connectedness - Commitment to Connection Around the Future
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...
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Appreciation: Appreciation for the Positive Qualities in Various Future Situations
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...
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Long-Term Orientation and Visioning: Embracing a Long-Now View in the Development of Visions of the Future
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…
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Sense Making: Actively Looking for Patterns and Stories About the Future
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...
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Perspective Skills: Humility About the Short-Coming of One’s Own Future Orientation
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…
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Complexity Awareness: Grokking Our Interdependencies and Emergent Futures
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?...
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Critical Thinking: Asking Probing Questions to Determine the Validity of the Future
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...
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Presence: I’m Here, I’m Present, I’m Listening To the Future
“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…
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Self-Awareness: Ability To Regulate Our Emotions About the Future
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...
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Openness and Learning Mindset: Curiosity About Multiple Ways of Futuring
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...
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Integrity and Authenticity: Being True To the Future
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…
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Inner Compass: Responsibility to the Future of the Whole
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...
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Foresight Deficit Syndrome
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....
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Me, Myself, and I
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...
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The Kids Are Alright!
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...
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Where’s Your Crystal Ball?
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…
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The Future of Haircare In-Shower
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...
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The Future is not a footnote
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.
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Is Foresight a Luxury or a Right?
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...
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Where are the Whales?
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.
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We don't talk about futures, no, no, no
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…
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Can you teach me thermodynamics in 20 minutes?
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...
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Say Good Bye to Yvette and Frank
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…
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Building A Body of Knowledge: Wicked Creations
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...
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The Nuts and Bolts of Open Science: Wicked Maps
“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...
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Weak Signals of Life: Wicked Explorations
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...
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It's Alive!: Wicked Discoveries
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...
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Unidentified Future Ontologies (UFOs): Wicked Creations
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...
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Empires, Rebellions, and a New Hope: Wicked Maps
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...
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Take Me to Your Reader: Wicked Explorations
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,...
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The Thing From Another World: Wicked Discoveries
"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...
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Aim for the Brain: Wicked Creations
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...
About this show
The world is filled with Wicked Problems - incredibly complicated predicaments that don’t have simple solutions. However, the real problem isn’t our complex world, but rather our outdated mindsets. The way that we see the future directly impacts the actions that we take today, so a better world requires better visions. Join futurists Yvette Montero Salvatico and Frank Spencer each week as they use the Natural Foresight® Framework to reframe our Wicked Problems into the transformational ideas that they call Wicked Opportunities.
Hosted by
TFSX
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