Futurist(Mom)

We spend a lot of time worrying about the future our children will inherit—but how often do we ask them what they actually want it to look like? Nicolai Sederberg Rottbøll, sustainability leader and founder of Our World 2050, has built a global movement to find out. By gathering the hopes, dreams, and visions of one million children aged 6 to 21 from every corner of the world, he's discovering something remarkable: kids think bigger, more boldly, and more creatively than most adults dare to. Today, Nicolai shares what children are telling us about the future they want to build—and why listening to them, and nurturing their hope and imagination, might be the most important thing we can do as parents.Why This Matters:→ We're asking adults to design a future for children without asking children what they want. Global sustainability conversations are dominated by experts, policymakers, and decision-makers—rarely by the young people who will actually live in the world being designed. Our World 2050 is changing that, and parents can too, simply by asking their kids better questions.→ Children are natural visionaries—but only if we protect that gift. Students think beyond the limitations that constrain adults. They dream big, free from preconceptions about what's "practically possible." But this natural visionary thinking is fragile. Without adults who nurture it, it fades—and the world loses the very creativity it needs most.→ Hope isn't naive—it's necessary. In an era of climate anxiety, economic uncertainty, and relentless bad news, teaching kids to hold onto hope while engaging actively with the world's challenges is one of the most powerful things a parent can do. Nicolai's work shows that when children are invited to envision a better future, they don't just feel better—they start building it.

We tell our kids to be creative, but do we really know what that means—or how to cultivate it? Doreen Lorenzo, former President of frog design and now Assistant Dean at UT Austin's School of Design and Creative Technologies, has spent decades helping Fortune 100 companies innovate and is now transforming how we educate the next generation. Through her podcast "Creativity is the Job of the Future," she's exploring a crucial thesis: in an uncertain, AI-driven world, creative thinking isn't just nice to have—it's the essential skill. Today, Doreen shares what she's learned from design legends, ultramarathon runners, and unconventional creatives about how creativity actually works, why schools often kill it, and most importantly, how parents can nurture it at home.Why This Matters→ Creativity isn't what we think it is—and that's the problem. Most parents equate creativity with arts and crafts,  rather than with the ability to tackle challenges, find unexpected solutions, and adapt to rapid change. If we're nurturing the wrong thing, we're not preparing our kids for the future they'll actually face.→ Traditional education is systematically killing creativity—even as it becomes more essential. Schools reward conformity, right answers, and standardized thinking precisely when the world needs divergent thinking, experimentation, and the courage to fail. Unless parents actively counterbalance this, kids lose their natural creative capacity by the time they hit middle school.→ AI makes creativity more valuable, not less. As AI handles more routine cognitive work, the uniquely human ability to ask new questions, make unexpected connections, and imagine possibilities becomes the differentiator. Kids who can't think creatively won't just struggle to find jobs—they'll struggle to find meaning and agency in a rapidly changing world.

Every parent holds a vision of the future their children will inherit—but what happens when that future is no longer possible? Juli Rush is both a futurist and a death doula, uniquely positioned to help us navigate what she calls "futures' death"—the grief that comes when the world we expected for our kids fundamentally changes. Juli teaches foresight thinking to both graduate students and middle schoolers, helping them learn to think—and feel—about multiple possible futures. Today, she guides us through the emotional work of letting go, the importance of honoring our grief, and how to help our children build hope and agency even as they inherit unprecedented uncertainty.Why This Matters:→ Parents are grieving a future that will never exist—and we're not talking about it. We imagined a certain world for our children: stable careers, predictable milestones, maybe a better version of what we had. That future is dying or already dead. Until we acknowledge and process this loss, we can't help our kids navigate what's actually ahead.→ Our kids can feel our unprocessed grief—and it shapes how they see their own future. When parents carry unexpressed disappointment, anxiety, or sadness about the future, children absorb it. If we don't do our own emotional work around letting go, we risk projecting our fears onto them or clinging to expectations that no longer serve them.→ Foresight isn't just about thinking—it's about feeling. Teaching kids (and ourselves) to engage with the future means holding both grief and joy, loss and possibility. Juli's work shows that we can honor what's ending while building the capacity to imagine and create what comes next. This isn't toxic positivity—it's the necessary emotional literacy for navigating uncertainty.

What if the straight path from high school to college isn't the best way to prepare our kids for life? Abby Falik graduated from Stanford exhausted and burnt out—despite playing the academic game perfectly. That experience led her to spend two decades creating alternatives, founding Global Citizen Year and raising over $65 million to help thousands of young people take transformative bridge years.Now, with The Flight School, Abby is challenging the entire paradigm. She believes our kids are missing something essential: wisdom, a sense of what it means to be human, and the capacity to navigate uncertainty. Through immersive experiences and "the power of the pause," she's reimagining the transition from high school into a rebellious rite of passage that builds a compass, not just credentials. And she also regularly shares her emerging observations and wisdoms via substack. Why This Matters→ The race to college can create hollow achievers rather than wise humans. Many kids work hard to be accepted to college only to arrive exhausted, directionless, and disconnected from any deeper sense of purpose or meaning. Achievement isn't the same as wisdom, and credentials don't teach you what it means to be human.→ The world our kids face requires a different kind of preparation. In an era of unprecedented uncertainty and rapid change, following a predetermined path won't serve them. They need to develop their own internal compass, learn to navigate ambiguity, and discover what they actually care about; that requires a new approach. → The pause isn't a detour—it's the point. Taking time between high school and college isn't falling behind; it's an intentional rite of passage that can fundamentally change a young person's trajectory. When we give kids permission to step off the treadmill and into the unknown, they discover who they are and what matters—which changes everything that comes after. 

When your kids hit the teenage years, the conversations get harder—and more important. How do you talk about sex, failure, relationships, money, and yes, the uncertain future they're inheriting? Jen Shoemaker Davidson, author of Keep Talking: Conversations with Our Kids When They Want Us Least but Need Us Most, isn't a clinician or parenting expert—she's a mom who figured out how to stay connected to her teens even when they pushed back. Through her "life lesson lunches" and commitment to showing up for the awkward conversations, Jen developed a practical approach to building trust and maintaining open communication. Today, she shares strategies for tackling the topics that matter most—including how to help kids process their hopes, fears, and expectations for a future that looks nothing like ours.Why This Matters→ The hardest conversations are the most important—and most parents are avoiding them. When kids enter their teens, many parents retreat just when kids need them most. Without open dialogue, kids fill the void with peers, social media, AI chatbots, or silence—none of which prepare them for what's ahead or keep them safe from emerging threats like online exploitation, gambling debts, or worse.→ The threats our kids face have evolved far beyond "the talk." While we're still focused on condom conversations, our kids are navigating AI companions, online predators, sexploitation, gaming and gambling debts, cyberbullying, and levels of anxiety and dread that can lead to suicidal ideation. Surveillance isn't the answer—real communication is.→ Kids today are inheriting unprecedented uncertainty—and they need us to talk about it. Climate change, economic shifts, AI disrupting careers, rapidly changing social norms—our kids face a future we can't fully predict. If we can't create space to discuss both the everyday challenges and their fears about tomorrow, we're leaving them to process it alone—or with AI companions that can't provide what a trusted parent can.

How to Raise (and Support) a Real Life Superhero | Yarrow KranerAs the world changes faster each day, how can we raise and support superheroes ready for the task? Said another way, what if a child’s challenging traits aren't a problem to fix but a superpower waiting to emerge? In 1999, Yarrow Kraner launched one of the world's earliest social networks built on a radical belief: everyone has unique gifts that can change the world—especially in children—galvanizing 1.5 million youth into action. In 2004, he founded HATCH, connecting and cross-pollinating diverse global influencers and NextGen youth leaders to accelerate collaborations and solutions for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. By bringing together today's real-life superheroes—from astronauts to composers, inventors to software engineers—HATCH has led to thousands of collaborations, companies formed, and systems change at the policy level. The results have impacted the lives of 100 million people. Yarrow shares how he sees human potential and how we can all recognize the visionary traits in children before the world carves away their gifts. As well as ways we can create the conditions where superpowers such as empathy and creativity can flourish. Why This Matters:→ Your child’s misunderstood traits might be their greatest strength. What looks like defiance, distraction, or impracticality could be visionary thinking in disguise—but only if we learn to recognize and nurture it.→ We're accidentally crushing curiosity. Preschoolers ask over 100 questions a day; by middle school, that curiosity has nearly vanished. This dramatic drop is what happens when wonder meets a world that doesn't know how to hold it.→ Society desperately needs more visionaries—but many never bloom. The environments we can create (or not) can be the difference between those superpowers emerging or being shut down forever. 

What if the economy our children inherit looks nothing like the one we grew up in—not because of disaster, but by design? Gaya Herrington, the econometrician whose viral research confirmed we're tracking toward the collapse scenarios predicted 50 years ago, believes we're at a pivotal moment. We can either let limits to growth force themselves upon us, or we can deliberately redesign our economy around wellbeing instead of endless expansion. Drawing from her work with the Club of Rome and her book Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse, Gaya reveals what a post-growth economy actually looks like—and why it might be exactly the world we'd want our children to inhabit anyway.Why This Matters→ The economic system our kids will inherit is fundamentally breaking down—whether we acknowledge it or not. Gaya's research shows we're tracking the "business as usual" scenario that predicted global industrial decline beginning around now. This isn't pessimism; it's data. The question isn't if the growth-obsessed economy ends, but whether it ends by design or disaster.→ Post-growth doesn't mean post-prosperity—it means redefining what prosperity is. A wellbeing economy isn't about sacrifice or deprivation. It's about working less, connecting more, meeting everyone's needs by design rather than hoping growth will trickle down, and building resilience in a world where "business as usual" is no longer viable.→ We're teaching our kids to succeed in an economy that won't exist. If parents don't understand what a post-growth world looks like, we're preparing our children for a game whose rules are already changing. Understanding this shift isn't just about their economic future—it's about their values, their wellbeing, and their ability to thrive in the world they'll actually inhabit.links: https://gayaherrington.com/https://www.ted.com/talks/gaya_herrington_will_the_end_of_economic_growth_come_by_design_or_disaster

Understanding Fear and Proven Neurohacks to Help Kids (and Parents) Override Overwhelm | Guest, Dr. Mary Poffenroth, Biopsychologist and Fear Researcher Our kids are growing up in a world moving faster than any generation before—constant change, information overload, and pressures that can overwhelm even the most resilient young minds. Dr. Mary Poffenroth, a biopsychologist and fear researcher, believes the answer isn't to shield our children from stress, but to give them the neurohacks to navigate it. Drawing from her award-winning book Brave New You and her work with organizations from NASA to Google X, Mary reveals science-backed strategies to help kids of all ages regulate their nervous systems, transform fear into fuel, and build everyday courage. These aren't just coping mechanisms—they're tools that rewire how our children respond to an uncertain world.  Why This Matters: We're raising the most overstimulated generation in history—and traditional parenting advice isn't enough.  • Kids today face neurological challenges previous generations never encountered. Without neurohacks grounded in science, we're asking them to navigate a Ferrari-paced world with horse-and-buggy tools. •  Fear isn't the enemy—suppressing it is. Teaching kids to "be brave" or "push through" actually amplifies anxiety and leads to burnout. Dr. Poffenroth's research and easy-to-follow RAIN Method shows that transforming our relationship with fear—not avoiding it—unlocks courage, creativity, and resilience. •  Small neurohacks create massive shifts. Simple, science-backed techniques can help kids regulate their nervous systems in real-time, turning everyday fears from roadblocks into stepping stones. These aren't just survival skills—they're the foundation for thriving in uncertainty. HelloBraveNewYou.comwww.marypoffenroth.comBrave New You book:  https://a.co/d/5jkLDR4 

Digital Leadership Expert and Best-Selling Author, Erik Qualman has a core message that's simple but powerful: the real challenge of the digital age isn’t access to information, it’s how we choose to direct our attention, energy and intention inside an environment designed to constantly pull us away from what matters most.Every platform, brand and algorithm is competing for our attention, but where we place it ultimately shapes our lives, our relationships, our work, our creativity and our sense of purpose. Erik has spent more than a decade helping global organizations, leaders and teams understand how digital technology is reshaping how we think, work and lead. Through his books, research, and global speaking work, he has shaped how companies and individuals think about digital behavior, not just as a technology issue, but as a human one. In this conversation, we talk about how focus actually works, why modern technology makes it harder than ever to maintain it, and — most importantly — how parents and leaders can intentionally build focus as a skill in themselves and in the next generation.Why this matters:→ Focus isn’t just a productivity tool, it’s a survival skill for the modern world. Today’s digital ecosystem is designed to fragment attention. Without intentional focus habits, we don’t just lose productivity, we lose depth, creativity, and the ability to think independently.→ Kids who learn to control their attention early will have an enormous life advantage. Focus impacts everything — learning, emotional regulation, confidence, creativity, and resilience. Kids who can direct attention intentionally will be better equipped to navigate social pressure, digital noise, and rapid change. → The ability to align attention with values may be one of the most important skills we can pass on to the next generation.

Our children’s first experiences of comfort and learning are increasingly shaped by algorithms, not just human relationships. From AI-powered Barbie dolls to baby monitors that promise to soothe your child with predictive algorithms, the next generation of parenting tools raises urgent questions about privacy, ethics and the boundaries of care. In this timely and provocative conversation with futurist Faith Popcorn, we explore how families can thoughtfully navigate the rise of AI companions—balancing the promises of convenience and safety with the deeper responsibilities of human connection, values transmission and privacy protection. Looking ahead, how will families evaluate technology wisely and shape it ethically ensuring AI tools uplift rather than replace our essential roles as caregivers and guides?Known for her work forecasting major social trends and consumer behavior changes, Faith has long focused on the emotional and human consequences of technological progress. In this conversation, she helps us step back from the hype and fear around AI and ask deeper questions: not just what technology can do for us, but what it should do — and where human care, judgment and emotional presence must remain non-negotiable. Why this matters:→ Our children’s earliest experiences of comfort, learning and emotional feedback are increasingly mediated by technology. The rise of AI caregivers challenges families to define what authentic human connection looks like in an age of algorithmic empathy. → Privacy is no longer just a tech issue — it’s a childhood development issue. The question isn’t whether AI will help raise the next generation, it’s whether we will stay conscious enough to decide how.→ Convenience always comes with tradeoffs. Families will need to weigh where technology genuinely supports development, and where it risks replacing critical experiences like frustration tolerance, imagination, and human-led emotional regulation.

How do we prepare kids for a world where stability doesn’t come from a job title — but from the ability to continuously create value, learn quickly, and adapt? And how does this fundamentally change what kind of education actually matters now?In this eye-opening conversation with Deborah Perry Piscione, an innovation expert and author of Employment is Dead. How Disruptive Technologies Are Revolutionizing The Way We Work, we explore why the next generation must think like innovators, not employees, building career capital through skills, networks and creative pursuits rather than chasing job titles or climbing outdated ladders.Deborah has spent years working at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship and the future of work, helping organizations and leaders understand how rapidly the definition of “career” is evolving. In the future, success will be built less around linear career paths and more around a mosaic of experiences, passions, projects, and collaborations. Through her work, writing, and research, she has helped shift the conversation from employment as identity to contribution as identity, a shift that becomes even more urgent in an AI-accelerated world.Why this matters:→ The future of work won’t wait for kids to apply — it will reward those who create. Opportunity is increasingly going to people who start things, build things, and connect ideas across disciplines.→Career security is shifting from job titles to skills, relationships, and adaptability. Those who can learn quickly, collaborate widely, and pivot confidently will have the greatest stability.→ Kids need to learn how to build opportunities, not just qualify for them. Success will come from initiative, creativity, and the confidence to act without a predefined path.

What would change if home was every child’s first experience of dignity, respect, and belonging? Simple, conscious caregiving choices can shift generations; from raising children who comply to raising humans who contribute. In this powerful conversation with Deborah Carlisle Solomon, Former Executive Director of RIE& author of 'Baby Knows Best', we explore how the earliest moments of life shape a child’s sense of agency, trust, and confidence in themselves and the world. Drawing from the RIE® (Resources for Infant Educarers) approach, Deborah shares how simple, mindful parenting practices—rooted in empathy, autonomy, and reciprocal relationships—can transform our homes into spaces where children feel seen, heard and valued from the very beginning. Because the way we nurture our babies isn’t just parenting, it’s culture-building, laying the foundation for how future generations will lead, relate, and create.Why this matters:→ The way we parent today shapes the communities and workplaces of tomorrow. How we nurture our children in the earliest moments shapes not only who they become, but the kind of world they help create.→ Children who feel safe to be themselves early, grow into adults who don’t need permission to become who they’re meant to be. The tone of early love and trust becomes the internal voice they carry into every decision, relationship and risk they take.→ When parents nurture autonomy instead of control, they raise future leaders who think, feel and act with empathy.

The most important test our kids will take isn’t on paper, it’s how prepared they feel to shape the future. In a world where the pace of change outstrips any static curriculum, today’s learners crave relevance, purpose, and the freedom to solve real problems that matter with a true understanding of the tools shaping our new world. MacKenzie Price is the founder of Alpha School, a new model of K-12 education gaining traction across America, that radically redesigns the approach to 21st century learning in the age of AI. In this conversation with MacKenzie we explore how education can shift from rigid systems to dynamic learning environments where technology empowers, curiosity leads, and teachers become trusted guides in the pursuit of mastery.Alpha School is equipping students not just to succeed in the world as it is but to shape the world as it could be.Why this matters:→ Education rooted in relevance and autonomy prepares students to navigate uncertainty, not just pass standardized tests. Confidence built through real-world relevance becomes resilience when systems and expectations inevitably change.→ The world our kids are entering won’t reward rote answers, it will demand bold questions, deep curiosity and real-world thinking. The greatest advantage will belong to those who stay curious enough to keep learning, long after the rules stop being clear.→ When learners are treated as capable problem-solvers, they build the confidence to shape—not just survive—the future. Being trusted to solve real problems teaches them their ideas have weight, and that they’re allowed to use them.

Parenting At The Pace Of Change  | Guest: Dr Katie PritchettSocietal wellbeing begins at home, and yet a rapidly changing world puts so much more pressure on the shoulders (and minds) of parents/caregivers today. What does it take to build capacity for constant change and communal thriving? What are we learning about organizational change and leadership adapativity that we can bring into our homes? How can we better support each other as we reimagine Parenting as a generative practice of mutual growth, adaptivity and genuine caring?Why this matters? Because the way we parent shapes not only our children’s futures but the wellbeing and resilience of society itself.Today’s challenges require adaptive, emotionally intelligent parenting, not perfectionWhen we treat parenting as a shared practice of learning, growing, and caring—not something we have to get “right”—we create space for real connection.Reimagining parenting as a practice of shared growth helps us build families, and communities, better equipped for constant change.

Welcome to the podcast that has been swirling in my heart and head for many years! As a global futurist, technology strategist, and mother to three young adults, I can see how much pressure is mounting on families and children to feel prepared and safe in an era of constant change and uncertainty. So, let’s meet those building the future and get their insights on what lies ahead –  from robot nannies and AI-led education to a world of changing work. And let's rethink Parenting and the best ways to support kids in the world of exponential tech, planetary stress, cultural polarization, and work reinvention. Let’s meet the future—and each other—to change the narrative of what is possible ahead. Why this matters: As exponential technology advances and big cultural shifts are reshaping our world, parents, caregivers, and kids are facing big new questions about what it means to stay aware, curious, and well prepared. What are the big shifts we need to be better aware of?Who can we trust to help guide us in a polarized world of misinformation?How can we reverse the devastating statistics and restore a sense of agency and hope and optimism to our families?