In which we learn about how Appreciative Inquiry can be a tool for the co-production of inspiring futures that involve communities and stakeholders and connect present, past and possible futures..

Obviously we talked about more than three things, but if you only remember three things about this episode, here they are:

—Rob Hopkins / Time traveller, activist, and co-founder of the Transition Movement

In this uplifting and practical conversation, Suzanne and Rosie explore how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is used to help communities co-create futures they actually want. Rosie shares stories of working with schools, universities, and neighbourhood groups to develop visions grounded in what people value—and then taking real, collective action to move toward those visions.

Key topics include:

—Rosie Cripps / Facilitator, Trainer, Evaluator

—Rosie Cripps / Facilitator, Trainer, Evaluator

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Rosie Cripps is a facilitator, trainer, and evaluator who works at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and community action. She has 15+ years’ experience supporting charities, public sector organisations and communities to think creatively about the future, align around shared dreams and co-produce large-scale, whole community-led initiatives.

Rosie brings a deep commitment to social justice, agency and collective leadership, often using Appreciative Inquiry to inspire large networks of people and build momentum. Her work supports communities to map influence across complex systems, build on what’s working, and take hopeful, grounded steps toward positive and inspiring futures.

Reach out to Rosie to:

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosie-cripps/

Suzanne Whitby is a futurer, facilitator, and storyteller who helps people imagine and co-create hopeful, sustainable futures. She’s the host of Futuring Is…, a podcast that explores how we think about what’s next — and how we get there together.

With over 20 years of international experience, Suzanne works at the intersection of foresight, communication, and sustainability. She’s the founder of Futures Fit, a consultancy focused on futures thinking and transformation, and SciComm Success, an award-winning training company that helps scientists and researchers become confident communicators - because science matters in creating sustainable futures.

She leads And Better, a facilitation training initiative for people working at the messy, hopeful edges of change, and gives talks and runs workshops on climate change and climate action there, and for the Austrian initiative klimafit. As an active climate and sustainability communicator, she can be found running People. Planet. Prosecco. events across Europe, making sustainability conversations social and accessible.

As a researcher, Suzanne explores the intersection of place, the senses and future stories using her senstoryscapes approach to climate and sustainability communication at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 

She lives a life full of awe and wonder with her (rather marvellous) husband, and in her free time can be found telling stories, sailing, walking, playing with puppets and attempting to play the ukulele.

Links:

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In which we learn about longing-driven activism, why imagination is a tool for change, the necessity – and practicality of hope, and ideas for going out and FINDING futures that are already herre.

Obviously we talked about more than three things, but if you only remember three things about this episode, here they are:

If we don’t actively imagine better futures, the future will be shaped by those with power and money. Reclaiming our imagination is an act of resistance.

People are more likely to take action when they long for a future, rather than when they’re paralyzed by fear. We need stories of possibility, not just crisis.

Instead of waiting for solutions to appear, look at the pockets of progress happening in communities worldwide. These are the signals of a better future, and we need to amplify them.

—Rob Hopkins / Time traveller, activist, and co-founder of the Transition Movement

The Power of Longing for Better Future(s):
Rob describes how he uses a metaphorical “time machine” to help people imagine and emotionally connect with a better 2030—a near-future in which humanity has made great strides toward sustainability.

Multi-sensory Futures: The importance of engaging all senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste) when imagining the future. Rob shares vivid descriptions of a future where urban air is fresh, bird song is louder, and people live with purpose and connection.

The Role of Storytelling: Rather than relying on fear-driven climate activism, Rob advocates for storytelling that fosters longing and excitement for a better world. He draws inspiration from movements like Afro-futurism, which create visions of hopeful, inclusive futures.

Practical Approaches to Change: Rob discusses how his work extends beyond community activism to engaging with municipalities and businesses, encouraging them to think beyond their immediate roles and responsibilities.

Upcoming Projects:

Rob’s book, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Changing the World, focuses on how longing for a better future can be a powerful tool for activism.

The Field Recordings from the Future music project, combining electronic music with sound recordings from real-world sustainable projects to create immersive auditory experiences.

The Field Recordings from the Future Time Portal, a traveling, immersive experience that allows people to “step into” the future through projections, music, and storytelling.

The Importance of Optimism: Rob shares a powerful anecdote about a former French Resistance member who noted that all the people she knew in the movement were optimists—suggesting that optimism is a crucial trait for those working toward systemic change today.

—Rob Hopkins / Time traveller, activist, and co-founder of the Transition Movement

—Rob Hopkins / Time traveller, activist, and co-founder of the Transition Movement

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Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He presents the podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘.  In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Hopkins has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought and A Good Read, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Apres Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.

An Ashoka Fellow, Hopkins also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and has received two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the Mayor of the city. Rob runs ‘Imagination Catalyst’ trainings for organisations as diverse as Balenciaga, London Marathon Group, local councils and Museum Booster. He has collaborated with musician Mr Kit on a project called ‘Field Recordings from the Future‘, due out in 2025, to coincide with his next book, ‘How to Fall in Love with the Future’. He is a keen gardener and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project. He blogs at transitionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition.

Reach out to Rob to:

Links:

LinkedIn
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rob-hopkins-09442948

Suzanne Whitby is a “futurer” and futures researcher, facilitator, communicator, storyteller and the host of the Futuring Is… podcast. She is convinced that it is possible for humanity to co-create hopeful, sustainable futures, and this shapes everything that she does. She brings 20+ years of international experience to her work as the founder of Futures & Foresight consultancy, Futures Fit and the award-winning science communication consultancy, SciComm Success. She leads the initiative, klimafit, where she delivers talks and workshops about climate change, climate solutions and sustainability. She created the popular sustainability event format, People. Planet. Prosecco. Suzanne developed the senstoryscapes approach to climate and sustainability communication and she researches its efficacy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She lives a life full of awe and wonder with her (rather marvellous) husband, and in her free time can be found telling stories, sailing, walking, playing with puppets and attempting to play the ukulele.

Links:

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Obviously we talked about more than three things, but if you only remember three things about this episode, here they are:

—Sophia Cheng / Facilitator, connector, changemaker

Sophia shares insights from her work with With Many Roots and the Cli-FI Imaginarium, a creative space for collaborative future dreaming. She also discusses her experiences bringing futures thinking into corporate and NGO spaces, including a pilot program with the Woodland Trust designed to help employees develop resilience through creative storytelling and futures exercises.

The conversation ends with a powerful reflection on play, agency, and hope—and why imagining hopeful futures is not just an intellectual exercise but a radical act of resistance in uncertain times.

—Sophia Cheng / Facilitator, connector, changemaker

Get instant access to our free summary in “story” format – with a simple start, middle and end, all the take-aways, useful resources and bios, too.

With 15+ years of communications experience across the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, agency and in-house Sophia is a facilitator, connecter and changemaker. Her varied career to date includes communications work all over the world, with organisations of all kinds; from grassroots indigenous activist groups to multinationals working in the heart of extractive capitalism. Sophia has made a habit of making ‘the hard stuff’ more accessible and focuses her work on the comms, training and engagement to address the climate and ecological crisis.

Firmly putting roots down in York, UK, she co-holds spaces locally including YorkCliConnect, People Planet Pint and Widening Emotional Resilience circles for women.

She balances her mitigation work with adaptation; exploring what it means to also thrive in these times. She has been fact-based, group-dreaming the world we know is possible via the Cli-Fi Imaginarium since 2020 and it’s having present-day consequences. As Gloria Steinam puts it, “Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” She is now part of York’s first co-housing project, Lowfield Green Housing Cooperative and she is figuring out what parenting in the Anthropocene looks like with her one-year old…

Reach out to Sophia to:

Links:

LinkedIn

Suzanne Whitby is a “futurer” and futures researcher, facilitator, communicator, storyteller and the host of the Futuring Is… podcast. She is convinced that it is possible for humanity to co-create hopeful, sustainable futures, and this shapes everything that she does. She brings 20+ years of international experience to her work as the founder of Futures & Foresight consultancy, Futures Fit and the award-winning science communication consultancy, SciComm Success. She leads the initiative, klimafit, where she delivers talks and workshops about climate change, climate solutions and sustainability. She created the popular sustainability event format, People. Planet. Prosecco. Suzanne developed the senstoryscapes approach to climate and sustainability communication and she researches its efficacy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She lives a life full of awe and wonder with her (rather marvellous) husband, and in her free time can be found telling stories, sailing, walking, playing with puppets and attempting to play the ukulele.

Links:

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Welcome to the Futuring Is podcast. Well, not the podcast, the trailer.

So what will Futuring Is BE when, you know, it’s more than a trailer? Thanks for asking. It’s going to be fabulous, obviously. It’s going to be a place where I interview thinkers, dreamers and doers who are reshaping our world through the lens of the future. It’s going to be a collection of inspiring conversations with people who are exploring possible futures in unexpected ways – through research, art, philosophy, consulting, visioning and more. It’s going to be an adventure. You’ll want to be listening in.

The post The Trailer: Futuring Is appeared first on Futuring is... Podcast.