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A critical look at new technologies, new approaches and new ways of thinking, from politics to media to environmental sustainability.

Future Tense

Methane levels are going up — not down, despite decades spent trying to reduce emissions from agriculture and landfill. But some countries are bucking the trend, we find out who and how.

Breeding sheep and cattle to burp less is one way to reduce methane emissions. ABC Top 5 Science Residency recipient Luisa Olmo talks us through a genetic selection programme that could lead the way forward.

Guests

Dr Ed Clayton – Ruminant nutritionist, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

Professor Sam Clark – Professor of Animal Genetics, University of New England

Dr Pep Canadell – Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment

Producer

Dr Luisa Olmo — Research Officer, Meat Science and Value Chains, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

The role genetics could play in bringing down Methane levels

Most people want to eat better. And many of us have embraced the trend toward "natural" foods and conscious eating.

We equate "natural" with healthy, nutritious and virtuous, but that can often be way off the mark. New research shows many healthy alternatives are anything but. And our embrace of the term natural is more about expressing identity and morality rather than healthy eating. Empowering people to understand what and how they should eat is what it should be about – and one way to do that is by using a food labelling app.

Guests

Professor Sarah Bridle – Chair in Food, Climate and Society, University of York

Alan Levinovitz – Associate Professor of Religious Studies, James Madison University

Laura Marchese – Researcher, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University

Julie Chapon – Co-founder of the Yuka app

Lisa – Brisbane-based food-rating app user

Further information

Sarah Bridle: Food and Climate Change -- Without the Hot Air, UIT Cambridge

Climate Stack Calculator - A free tool to help you add up the climate impact of different food choices

Play the game: Which of your food choices have the biggest climate impact? 

Take A Bite Out of Climate – resources and games to learn how food choices contribute to climate change 

BBC Future – Foodprint Calculator

The artificial secret behind "natural food"

Nostalgia triggers our emotions and that in turn makes us vulnerable to manipulation. We speak with Richard King about the commodification and weaponisation of nostalgic sentiment. Also, New York Times critic-at-large, Jason Farago, on why he believes our cultural age might be the least innovative in half a millennium.

Guests

Richard King – author and critic

Jason Farago – author, social commentator and critic-at-large, The New York Times

Further information

Richard’s Griffith Review essay - Nostalgia on demand

Jason’s NYT essay - Why Culture Has Come to a Standstill

Nostalgia can make you vulnerable to manipulation

Algorithmic feeds are meant to personalise our online experiences, but increasingly they're flattening our culture and fostering a dull conformity, according to best-selling author Kyle Chayka. And the influence they exert on our lives is increasingly physical not just digital. Also, data scientist Gloria Mark who has crunched the numbers on how our attention spans have fared over the past decade or so. If you can keep focused, you might find it fascinating.

Guests

Professor Gloria Mark – data scientist and psychologist, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Kyle Chayka – author and contributing writer for The New Yorker

Further information

Gloria Mark - Attention Span: A Ground Breaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity 

Kyle Chayka – Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

Algorithms create a dull conformity — off and online

In our uber-connected world, the development and management of really anything is becoming increasingly complex. Planning for the future has to involve more than just grand ambitions, it also needs to be alert to unintended consequences. Otherwise things you didn't even dream about will go wrong and that can prove enormously costly. Part of the solution is to think past the immediate and adopt a systematic approach to thinking.

Guests

Dr Edward Crawley – Ford Professor of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Dr Isabel Sebastian – Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Gavin Maguire – Global Energy Transition Columnist, Reuters News

Nicola Twilley – Writer and podcaster, author of the forthcoming book "The Birth of Cool"

The must-have skill for the future: Untangling unintended consequences

Authoritarians rule through fear. We can clearly see that from China to the Middle East to eastern Europe. But why do we constantly overlook the way in which fear also shapes democratic societies? It's fueling populism and distorting our future focus. Then there's anger. It's inspired generations to man the barricades and right society's wrongs. But anger is increasingly becoming a driver of commerce. There's billions to be made in getting you riled up and keeping you that way. Fear fuels anger, and anger blinds you to recognise that your fear might be misguided. A truly vicious cycle.

Guests

Erika Ferszt – Owner, founder and lead-consultant, Scintillate Brand Consulting

Professor Jennifer Lerner – Public Policy, Management and Decision Science, Harvard University

Professor Robert Peckham – historian and Fellow at the Royal Historical Society, London

Margot Faraci – Global leadership expert

Further information

Robert Peckham – Fear: An Alternative History of the World 

Margot Faraci - Love Leadership Survey

The vicious cycle of fear and anger — and how it traps society

Privatising public services like trains, hospitals or prisons — is a proven vote loser. But governments of both the left and right continue to privatise — when it suits them. And it suits them, it seems, when large sums of money are needed to pay down debt, or when a government seeks to off load risk and liability to the private sector. So, what conditions should be applied to ensure that privatisations truly serve the public interest and don't simply decrease competition?

Guests

Owen Hayford — Strategic legal and commercial adviser, Infralegal

Nino Bucci — Justice and Courts Reporter, The Guardian

Richard Denniss — economist and public policy commentator

Professor Graeme Samuel — Monash University Business School

Benjamin Goodair – Senior post-doctoral researcher, Oxford Universty

How to ensure privatisation serves the public good

Why does Utopian thinking get such a bad rap? It’s often derided as delusional and dangerous. But what if that stereotype is designed to limit our imagination and choices? We hear often that people are tired of democracy and turned off by short-term political thinking. So, is it time to be much more adventurous and ambitious – dare we say utopian – in our imagining of the future? 

Guests

Professor William Paris – Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto 

Professor Barbara Prainsack – Professor for Comparative Policy Analysis, University of Vienna 

Professor Anna Abraham – Director of the Torrance Centre for Creativity and Talent Development

Could Utopian thinking save democracy?

Terms like "Gen Z", "Boomer" and "Millennial" are popular, but they have no basis in science. Demographers and social scientists are now pushing back. Generational labelling, they argue, is akin to Astrology and while politicians, journalists and media influencers find them irresistible, they actually promote pseudo-science, sew social division and can reinforce prejudicial stereotypes. So why are generational labels so popular?

Guests

Professor Bobby Duffy — Director of the Policy Institute, King's College London. Author of The Generation Myth.

Professor Philip Coen — Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland

Professor Crystal Abidin — digital anthropologist and ethnographer of vernacular internet cultures, Curtin University

Professor David Costanza — Professor of Commerce, University of Virginia

Further information

Philip Coen’s open letter to Pew Research Center on generation labels 

Pew Research Center's response

The danger of generational labelling

A series of massive underground tombs for nuclear waste are currently under construction. They've taken decades to plan and build and they're designed to house the world's nuclear waste for millennia to come. So where are they being built? How safe will they be? And how to devise a toxic waste warning sign that will make sense to people living tens of thousands of years from now?

Also, the latest research on how climate change is beginning to impact on internal migration within countries.

Guests

Mark Piesing — a UK-based freelance journalist

Dr Shastra Deo — Nuclear semiotics expert and author, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland

Professor Raya Muttarak — Professor of Demography, University of Bologna (Italy)

Lisa — a climate-concerned resident of South-east Queensland

Further information

Mark Piesing's article: How to build a nuclear tomb to last millennia

Nuclear tombs and the distant discourse of danger

Scientists are changing the genetics of cells so that they can be used for a whole range of purposes never before imagined. Think building a biocomputer with a processor powered by bacteria or re-engineering microbes to make environmentally-friendly concrete. The potential is enormous, but there are warnings from within the field, not to let the hype get ahead of reality.

Growing houses and running computers with help from bacteria — the future of synthetic biology

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