From What If to What Next

An odd question perhaps... yet in the hands of our guests, Belina Raffy and Sam Knights, a powerful and pertinent one. What if we were to harness the …

Welcome to our 54th episode, our 54th journey into the future that is still possible, just.  But before I tell you more, a suggestion, as you'll hear in the episode, that this episode will be a lot more enjoyable, and a …

Here at 'From What If to What Next' we don't shy away from the big questions of our times! Today we are diving deep into the question of what we eat.

Rather than debating whether veganism is a good thing or not, today …

Welcome to Episode 52, different from the episode we advertised, a bit of a mix up at What If Towers, but it means some of you now know the subject of our next episode. Oh well. But this week's is such a treat.

Meet …

We are joined by two amazing guests to discuss a vitally important issue. Ben Hurst of Beyond Equality and Graham Goulden of Cultivating Minds UK …

Episode 50. That's something worth celebrating! And what a beautiful way to celebrate it, by interviewing the person I've wanted on this podcast …

Today's episode is one of my favourites so far, with two amazing guests. It was inspired by one of our guests, Jon Alexander's new book 'Citizens: why the key to fixing everything is all of us', which is just released …

When it comes to building food security, biodiversity, employment, spaces that are good for mental health, and so much more besides, we are missing a huge opportunity. Our cities contain many square kilometres of flat …

You're going to enjoy this one. This week we're talking about mental health, and how different the world would be if we were to take a very different …

This week this podcast joins you with printing ink on its hands and under its fingernails . We're talking about printmaking and its potential to unleash social change. I have a vested interest here, I love printmaking. …

Meet Tim Gill and Alice Ferguson of Playing Out, brilliant guests for a vital discussion. Today we're talking about kids, and play and about the places where we live.  Kids have almost entirely vanished from our …

We start this year with a fantastic episode and a really important question. What if we were to implement every solution that we already know exists …

Although not planned as some kind of 'Christmas Special', that's kind of what this episode is, so hopefully it will give you the opportunity to treat …

The IPCC report that came out in mid-2021 said “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 degrees, or even 2 degrees, will be beyond …

Powerful psychology is used to convince us, often subliminally, that we want and need things we previously never knew even existed. This is …

I'm not going to say much about this episode, other than that it's incredible. We are exploring Afrofuturism, which has been variously described as …

The world’s governments will be coming together for 2 weeks to, hopefully, reach some kind of binding agreement that might give the world at least a …

Everywhere, where you live included, has a patchwork of organisations of different sizes who are doing business and making things happen in a way …

The decline of insect populations around the world has been nothing short of terrifying. Last year I visited a school in an intensive wine-producing …

Today we bring together Anthea Lawson, author of the fabulous new book 'The Entangled Activist' and Alastair McIntosh, author of 'Soul and Soil' and …

Today’s episode of From What If to What Next is about care. Care has been very much on our minds of recent. COVID has highlighted how vitally important care is and yet how undervalued it is. It is so often seen as being …

You are in for such a treat. This is one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring episodes of this podcast yet. It was my huge honour to be joined by Yumna Hussen and Lottie Cooke to discuss what a reimagined …

Here is the perfect accompaniment to the long summer days. Or the deluge. Or perhaps a bit of both. Today we are talking about travel. As many cities begin to actively take steps away from the dominance of cars, we are …

Firstly, sorry I'm late posting this. I was on a clifftop in Cornwall and the sun was shining and so it took me a while to get home! But, I must say …

This is such an incredible episode. One of those ones I had to go off and sit under a tree afterwards to absorb. Today we talk about gender. I grew up in a society that thought in terms of two genders, you were male or …

Episode Thirty. Wow. Whoever thought we'd get this far? Thank you so much for your support in making that possible. We have a delicious episode to …

If you had a Time Machine, which year would you set the dial to? This episode is about time travel. More specifically, it is about using imaginary …

The time for imagining that change happens in small, incremental steps is now way behind us. As Naomi Klein says, "there are no non-radical solutions …

This new episode, one of my favourite so far, comes with a challenge. Can you listen to it and not reimagine your own relationship with flying or, as one of our guests puts it, being "twanged around in an aluminium …

These days of COVID have shown us that extraordinary profound reimagining of many aspects of society are entirely possible. Might this be the time to forever do away with the idea that the only way to measure our …

Let’s imagine, and this takes quite a leap in Britain in 2021 I’ll grant you, but stay with me, that we had a government who recognised that we are living through a time of imaginative contraction alongside a climate …

When was the last time you read a book cover to cover? And if you are still able to do this, do you feel you read in the same way you did, say, 20 …

Today we are looking at street art. Street art has stood alongside the fight for climate justice, the Black Lives Matter revolution, and pretty much …

This week we are exploring failure. More precisely, what if we were able to create a culture in which failure is embraced, celebrated even, rather …

It was recently announced that Chuck Feeney, the Irish American former airport duty free shopping entrepreneur who was worth $8bn, had, at the age of 89, succeeded in his goal of giving away all of his money to …

Today we are exploring the question of trauma, and I must confess that recording this conversation rather blew my mind, as it will no doubt blow yours. I had to lie down afterward and digest it for a while. I am joined …

By now, in this journey into 'From What If to What Next', it is clear that one of the key things in our world in 2021 that needs reimagining is our education system. In this episode, we explore how it might be if at the …

Our far-reaching conversation, which could have gone on for hours, explores our relationship with land, and how a reimagining of that could unlock so …

Of all the 17 episodes of this podcast so far, this is the one that I had to go off somewhere quiet afterwards for a while to digest. It is a very …

Play is a devalued aspect of both childhood and adulthood which has been declining now for decades, and its decline has had many knock-on effects …

During the first Coronavirus lockdown in the UK, a strange phenomenon was seen in towns and cities across the country. As councils became unable, or unwilling, to maintain their usual programmes of spraying weeds and …

One of the things we love most here at 'From What If to What Next' is stories of people bringing imagination to their activism, of impactful, …

We live in a world where so much political decision-making seems to be based on short-term thinking, the next opinion poll, next quarter, next …

In the US, as elsewhere, vast amounts of money are poured into mass incarceration and brutal and violent policing. What if instead that money was …

So many of those who listen to this podcast are trying, in one way or another, to bring about change in the world. Whether it is the more confrontational activism demonstrated by groups like Extinction Rebellion and …

The uprising of Black Lives Matter and other organisations have led to many calls for the decolonisation of education at every level. But what does …

Here is Episode Nine. Our question this time was slightly adapted from one sent in by subscriber Pamela Barnes. As the world attempts to claw its way …

In this episode we are exploring a question sent in by subscriber Joy Cherkaoui. One of the things a future in which imagination is able to flourish will need is spaces in which imagination and creativity are invited. …

Doughnut Economics is rapidly moving from the fringe to the mainstream. Amsterdam in Holland was recently confirmed as the first ‘Doughnut City’, …

Allow me to present one of my very favourite episodes of ‘From What If to What Next’ thus far. The question we explore in this episode is ‘What if imagination were a universal right?’ My guests to explore this are …

As we start, hopefully, to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected older people, many people have experienced an end …

In our fourth episode, we bring together two of the UK's most pioneering doctors to explore what a very different future for healthcare could be …

In this third episode of 'From What If to What Next', we're talking about food. Taking a question from Patreon subscriber Tony Buck, we are asking "What If towns and cities set out to intentionally relocalise their food …

In this podcast, we’re talking about Universal Basic Income with Alexis Frasz, researcher and cultural strategist with Helicon Collaborative, and …

In this first episode, we meet singer, curator, event creator and lover of birdsong Sam Lee, speaking to us direct from a birdsong-filled woodland clearing, and Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl, who is doing amazing work …