The Light Ahead

Welcome to The Light Ahead, a fictional podcast that dreams up a 2030 in which the US has an economy that truly works and cares for everyone and helps us imagine how it might be possible to get there. Co-created by next-economy leaders and Hollywood screenwriters, this podcast presents eight unique, fictionalized versions of what our future economy could look and sound like, beyond the limiting definitions and systems we imagine we are trapped by today. Alongside the fictional stories, you’ll hear from the creators themselves about what went into imagining these alternate futures and what we begin to do to bring those futures about. The Light Ahead is a co-production of Avalon: Story and Beloved Economies, produced in partnership with FRQNCY Media.

In our first journey into a more beloved economic future, we meet Nona, a woman who can’t remember who or where she is - or what caused her to lose her memory. We follow Nona’s quest for answers as she mysteriously finds herself in a time and place where policing, payment, and community support look very different from the world she last remembers. How will Nona be made whole again? And what does this story tell us about our present-day opportunities to make our communities more beloved? Tune in and allow your imagination to be expanded!

Prepare yourselves for the cosmic phenomenon that is “Starfleet: Pension Fund!” In this episode, we will be swept away by the galactic sci-fi show taking over the airwaves in the year 2030. We’ll experience an epic battle between two spaceships, one responsible for investing money to support the government pension funds, the other a hedge fund taking all the money it can for its own private investors. Listen in to hear who will win...and to learn about why changes need to be made to the often mysterious world of present-day hedge funds.

What is a cooperative? Is it a private business, an economic concept, a political statement? In this episode, we’ll hear about a young Cuban-American man trying to convince his Cuban mom that his new job at a factory cooperative is a really good job and in fact, not Communism. In this heartwarming family comedy, we learn what a cooperative really is and that some things, like moms, never change.

Journey into the not-too-distant future in which members of the Oglala Lakota Nation are celebrating a liberated new economy for their Nation that brings back cherished elements of their economic past. Reimagining the education of Lakota youth is a key part of this future. In this episode, we listen in on a national press conference at the opening day of a new Lakota school, at the foot of a mountain once called Mt. Rushmore. And we hear from a member of the Lakota organization Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation what her everyday life would feel like in this liberated economic future.

What does "home" truly mean? In particular for African American families and individuals that have so often faced displacement from physical homes, driven by economic forces, for generations? In this episode of The Light Ahead, we venture to Brooklyn in the year 2030, where a young woman convinces her grandmother to visit her childhood neighborhood, a neighborhood that has changed drastically since their family was forced to move out decades before. What they find there changes their idea of home forever and is beyond anything they ever dared to dream. Tune in to hear this poignant story exploring what it could look like to take reparative steps in our neighborhoods and communities toward reckoning with injustices of our past.

In this episode, we join expectant father Marcus and his mother-in-law as they prepare the home for his partner Kayla’s birthing experience. In this home, we are privy to a birth that is supportive and calm, full of intention and choice, and supported by Kayla and Marcus’s entire community. How far off from such possibilities are we today, and what could it look like for our communities to support new life and new parents in these ways? Tune in and find out!

In this episode, we spend a day in the life of artist Rakia McDowell. As a member of a community who has come together to live and work in ways that enable them to be more whole, Rakia determines her own schedule, buys from thriving local businesses, exchanges resources and skills via a sharing economy, and follows her heart. Could a life in which work is healing and restorative—rather than demanding—be one leap away? Tune in and find out!

In this episode, we tag along with C.J. who is meeting up with her date on New Year’s Eve. It also happens to be the eve of the Phoenix Act, which will redistribute wealth across the country. C.J. and her date discuss why she supports the Act - and how her own past impacted her perspective on wealth. Are we far from a new approach to wealth distribution and definition? Tune in and find out!