If you look around at the state of the world—and the despair that comes with the reality of climate change, fascism spreading its tentacles around the world, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—it’s very difficult to feel hope. It begins to feel like the forces of destruction and death have colonized our futures, limiting our dreams and stifling our imaginations. 

It’s in these times specifically that it’s essential we remember that the future, our dreams, our imagination—that these things are political. And that exercising our hope for a just and beautiful future is an important, in fact, crucial political act. Not on its own, of course, but imagining and dreaming fuels our actions and gives soul and spirit to our revolutionary movements. And as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote, "The future must enter into you long before it happens." 

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and the author of several books including The Transition Handbook, From What is to What if, and most recently, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller's Guide to Changing the World.

In this episode, we explore what it’s like to be a time traveler from Rob’s perspective, how dreams and imagination are powerful tools for driving change, and the role that art and music play in the fight for a better future. We explore examples of communities that have made a claim on the future, from the Afro-futurism and Black Utopianism of jazz musician Sun Ra to the occupation of Waterloo Bridge in London and the pop-up community that arose as a result. And finally, we look at how the future is not just an abstract concept, but something that can be felt, touched, heard, seen, and smelled. 

Further resources:

• How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller's Guide to Changing the World, by Rob Hopkins
• Field Recordings from the Future
• Crowdfunder: Field Recordings From The Future Immersive Show
• Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City, by William Sites
• From What If to What Next: 72 - What if we shifted to a not-for-profit economy?

Related episodes:

• Transition Towns with Rob Hopkins
• Beer: Crafiting a Better Economy (Documentary)
• Everyday Utopia and Radical Imagination with Kristen Ghodsee
• Extinction Rebellion with Gail Bradbrook
• The Work that Reconnects with Joanna Macy
• A World Without Profit with Jennifer Hinton
• Doughnut Economics with Kate Raworth

Intermission music: "A Car-Free Neighbourhood" by Field Recordings for the Future Artwork: Aga Kubish

This episode was produced in collaboration with EcoGather, an experimental educational project focused on heterodox economics, collective action, and belonging in an enlivened world. EcoGather hosts gatherings to bring some Upstream episodes to life—this is one of those episodes. The EcoGathering for this episode will be held on Friday, June 27th. Find out more at ecogather.ing.

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