Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
👉 Never miss an episode! 👉 Subscribe to Urgent Futures now: Youtube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify.
And if you’re loving the show, please share it with a friend who you think would as well!
My guest this week is Andy Hines.
Dr.
is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight. His 30+ years of professional futurist experience includes a decade’s experience working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt, Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His most recent book (just released) is Imagining After Capitalism. Other books are The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, and 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society. His dissertation was “The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations.” He was Founding Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.Grab your copy of Imagining After Capitalism here!
The subjects of degrowth and post-growth are near-and-dear to my heart. I view these overlapping topics as absolutely critical for our continued survival on this planet; it is imperative that we humans bring our species back into alignment with the planet. No doubt that this is going to be difficult and costly, but far less so than continuing on as usual, which will entail ever more extreme measures the longer we put it off—both in terms of paying for disaster responses and implementing mitigation and adaptation measures as the biosphere deteriorates.
Which is why I was delighted to see a fellow futurist, today’s guest, taking up the topic of changing our relationship to the economy in the form of Imagining After Capitalism. Through his pathbreaking work, Andy has been conducting extensive research in these arenas for more than a decade, and applying the unique capabilities of foresight research to craft scenarios that sketch visions of possibility—in both scary and hopeful directions.
Psst, if you want to get up-to-speed on degrowth and post-growth, here are the official Reality Studies reading lists:
His book of the same name outlines this research in depth, including extensive citations and explanations offered by other leading scholars—some of whom have already been on Urgent Futures! I strongly encourage you to grab your copy of the book. If you need a little more convincing, I also recommend checking out the official Imagining After Capitalism website, which includes excerpts from the book, blog posts, and some of the talks he’s done on the subject.
In the meantime, please enjoy this robust, persuasive conversation with Andy Hines.
Another episode you might like:
Art Berman: Oil, How the Economics of Energy Impacts Global Populism, & the Huge Problem We Must Address | #37
Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
Support Reality Studies
NOTE: Thank you for supporting my work by purchasing these products through the links provided. I will only ever share products I actually believe in.
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s time to take your digital hygiene seriously. There are a few super simple, effective things you can do to up your digital self-defense considerably, and the first is to get a VPN. ProtonVPN is the gold standard, with fast service and a commitment to transparency. I promise you: once you realize how easy it is to use your VPN, you’ll be kicking yourself that you didn’t start sooner. Click here to get 55% off VPN Plus ($4.49/mo).
1Password: Password managers may not make for the most riveting dinner party conversation, but listen: 1) They make your life so much easier—it’s called “1Password” because once you get set up it’s the only password you’ll ever need to remember again. 2) They make your online life so much safer, ensuring that you use unique passwords for every account, stored with a high degree of encryption. 3) They are not nearly as complicated to set up as you think they are! Head over to 1Password using this link for a free trial, and individual plans for less than $3/mo after that.
ZBiotics: Right now, get 10% off ZBiotics. Just head over to zbiotics.com and use code JESSEDAMIANI. If you have an evening with drinking and a morning you need to feel fresh, these are a great help. Genetically engineered by a team of PhD microbiologists, ZBiotics is a probiotic drink that breaks down the byproduct of alcohol responsible for rough mornings after drinking (acetaldehyde).
MUD\WTR: Right now, save $20 on starter packs using this link. There’s four different blends to choose from, but my current favorite is :rest. “This is our protest to hustle culture,” they say, and that resonates with me. Not only does it actually help me ramp down to sleep, but since I froth a little milk and make a latte with it, I get the warm cozy feeling of morning coffee at night. (For the evening tea drinkers out there: I’m not saying it’s better, just different!)
Mission Farms CBD: Right now, get 25% off your first order using this link to sign up for emails. Mission Farms CBD crafts full-spectrum CBD products for specific conditions like sleep, stress, and discomfort, using a combination of CBD and terpenes found in essential oils. I swear by this stuff. All of Mission Farms’s CBD comes from a small farm in Bend, Oregon. They farm the hemp organically, tend every plant by hand, and test for purity four times: the soil, the hemp, the hemp-extract, and the final products. This CBD is designed for wellness and it shows.
CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.
Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent episode with media and games scholar Danny Snelson examining the notion of the “little database”:
