How We Future: Stories of Hope, Hype, and Gratitude

How can you use your opportunities to benefit everyone?

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa talks with Chase Griffin, former quarterback at UCLA, 2x NIL Male Athlete of the Year, and a leading voice in the evolution of college athletics.

Chase shares how he learned to navigate moments of change—from NIL to civic engagement—by centering and designing for collective value. Together, they explore how leadership can happen from inside systems you didn’t create, and how athletes (and non-athletes alike) can turn personal opportunity into shared impact.

This conversation is a course on turning influence into impact, and “me” into “we.”

In this episode, we explore:

• Lessons from being early in the NIL era—and why preparation mattered more than luck
• How to structure partnerships that create real community benefit
• Why athlete voices are often missing from conversations about college sports and Chase is changing that

This week, maybe reflect on where in your own life you can redesign success so it benefits more than just you.

If this episode resonated with you, leave a comment or review and share it with someone who’s navigating change—or creating it—from the inside.

Links from the Episode:

• The Athletes Bureau (TAB) — Chase's newsletter by athletes, for athletes
• The Team — the civic engagement organization Chase partnered with during the 2020 election
• Find Chase on LinkedIn and Instagram
• Learn about NIL (Name, Image, Likeness)

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email [email protected]

Communication anxiety is real. It’s time to start practicing.

This episode of How We Future, features Matt Abrahams, Stanford lecturer and host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast. Lisa and Matt explore how effective communication is a learnable skill and why we’re rarely taught how to practice it.

Matt shares the frameworks he teaches to every incoming Stanford MBA to help them speak more confidently in spontaneous, high-stakes moments. From managing anxiety to the importance of clarifying your intentions, the episode focuses on practical tools for showing up with clarity, presence, and purpose when the pressure is on.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• The mindsets and methods of effective communications
• Simple ways to practice spontaneous speaking before the stakes are high
• How to structure answers so people actually remember what you say
• Why listening and pausing are powerful leadership tools

Communication is about connection. It will never be perfect, but like all skills, it gets better with practice.

Please rate and leave a comment, we’d really love to hear from you!

Links from the episode:

• Matt’s website

• Matt’s Podcast: Think Fast, Talk Smart
• Matt’s Book: Think Faster, Talk Smarter

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email [email protected]

What if you can learn to be lucky?

In our first episode of season 3, Lisa Kay Solomon is joined by author, educator, and neuroscientist Tina Seelig to explore how curiosity, generosity, and small daily choices can dramatically expand what’s possible over time.

Drawing from decades of teaching at Stanford and her forthcoming book What I Wish I Knew About Luck, Tina reframes luck as a skill that can be cultivated rather than an accident we stumble into.

Tina shares how taking risks, showing appreciation, and staying open to unexpected opportunities can create compounding advantages. She also reflects on what she’s learned from teaching thousands of students, leading the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, and watching ideas evolve when people are given permission to experiment.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why luck often shows up at the intersection of preparation and openness
• The role generosity and curiosity play in long-term success
• How to design environments that make luck more likely

The future is something we shape through the questions we ask, the risks we take, and the people we choose to learn alongside. If you’ve ever wondered how to tilt the odds in your favor, Tina offers practical wisdom and hopeful perspectives on how to get started.

Please rate and leave a comment letting us know what classes you wish you had taken!

Links from the Episode:

• Preorder What I Wish I Knew About Luck: A Crash Course on Turning Aspirations into Achievements by Tina Seelig
• What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course in Making Your Place in the World by Tina Seelig
• inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity by Tina Seelig
• Creativity Rules: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World by Tina Seelig
• Tina’s Ted Talk: The Little Risks You Can Take to Increase Your Luck
• Tina’s Website

Follow How We Future:

• Lisa Kay Solomon on LinkedIn
• @lisakaysolomon on Instagram
• @howwefuture on TikTok
• howwefuture.substack.com

Want to contact us? Email [email protected]

Build the bridge to connect your community’s gaps.

Lisa is closing out season 2 with Olatunde Sobomehin (Tunde), co-founder and CEO of StreetCode Academy and co-author of Creative Hustle. Tunde believes that underrepresented communities should be participating in the upside of technology instead of being excluded from it. StreetCode's mission is to hack, hustle, and design the future to bridge that gap, starting in East Palo Alto and expanding outward.

Tunde started out experimenting how to uplift those underrepresented communities. He designed business computer camps in Portland, basketball programs mixed with tech education, and community organizing around music and technology. In 2014, StreetCode Academy took form.

StreetCode Academy has evolved over the years from a program that includes younger students, parents, and other disciplines like entrepreneurship and design. The tagline "Hack, Hustle, Design the Future" captures the mindset, skills, and access are the three outcomes they're building toward.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why tech education works better when whole families learn together
• What college basketball and tech education have in common
• How to map your gifts to your goals through principles, people, and practice.

Tunde is taking both StreetCode and Creative Hustle on the road to places like Hong Kong, Finland, Botswana, and cities across the U.S. If you're inspired, visit streetcode.org or creativehustle.org. Or reach out! As Tunde says, building community is how the work gets done.

Links from the episode:

• Creative Hustle
• Get the Creative Hustle Book
• StreetCode Academy
• Hack Hustle Design The Future, article by Lisa Kay Solomon
• StreetCode Tech Journey @ Stanford Men’s Basketball

People Mentioned:

• Reverend Jesse Jackson
• Coach Eric Reveno - General manager and associate head coach of Stanford men's basketball
• Coach Kyle Smith - Stanford basketball coach known for using statistics and data
• Ebuka Okorie - Stanford freshman basketball player mentioned as generational talent
• sam seidel - Co-author of Creative Hustle
• Hope Meng - Designed custom lettering for Creative Hustle
• Jori Tytus - Designed custom art for Creative Hustle
• Khristopher "Squint" Sandifer - Featured in Chapter 1 of Creative Hustle, film director
• Bryant Terry - Award-Winning Chef featured in Creative Hustle
• Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca - Community organizer featured in Creative Hustle, Forbes 30 Under 30
• Jennifer Brandel - Previous How We Future guest, civic entrepreneur
• Hakeem Olajuwon - NBA legend

Are sci-fi stories the key to a better future?

This week’s episode of How We Future features Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, co-directors of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. For nearly 15 years, they've been running what might be the most unusual university center in the country, one that brings together science fiction writers, scientists, artists, and engineers to imagine hopeful, yet practical, futures.

Ruth and Ed describe how they turn imagination into practice: Kids building Scribble Bots and debating who deserves credit when a robot makes art. Commissioning writers worldwide to explore what human flourishing looks like in a warming world. Pairing speculative fiction with expert essays and original artwork, creating story packages that explore what might actually be possible down the line.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• How collaborative worldbuilding helps experts ask each other new questions
• What happens when you pair exciting stories with science-backed facts
• Why reflecting on the futures you consume in media matters more than you think

Links from the Episode:

• Center for Science and Imagination
• Smithsonian Futures Exhibit

Book and Articles:

• Frankenstein at 200, Ed Finn, New York Times
• Step Into the Free and Infinite Laboratory of the Mind, Ed Finn, Issues in Science and Technology
• Collaborative Imagination: A Methodical Approach, Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, Science Direct
• Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures, edited by Joey Escrich and Ed Finn
• A Rewilded Mind, Corey Pressman, CSI Imagination Fellow
• When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis by Anna Lee Newitz

Exercises and Resources:

• Frankenstein Kit, Resources created by CSI
• Futures by Choice, Futures by Chance, CSI
• CSI Resources for Teachers
• Solar Tomorrow Resources, CSI (Great for Educators!)
• Postcards from the Future, Futures Exercise from CSI

Are you being a good ancestor?

This episode of How We Future features public philosopher Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor and History for Tomorrow, to explore how we can break free from short-term thinking and start planning in generations, not quarters.

Roman argues we all have two competing forces. The marshmallow brain seeks instant gratification. The acorn brain enables long-term thinking, the kind that built sewers in 19th century London for a much larger future population. History shows what's possible when we activate that capacity.

Roman shares practical steps to become better ancestors, from giving children your vote to building social cohesion through community action. He offers examples of things that went right in history and the importance of recognizing what we should repeat, not just what we shouldn’t.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why long-term thinking is wired into our brains and how to activate it
• What it takes for real transformative change to happen
• Why social trust matters more than technology for our survival

Roman sees signs of change, from the EU creating an Intergenerational Fairness Index to educators teaching students to think like futurists, not just historians. The future is ours to create together.

Links from the episode:

• Roman Krznaric Site
• Roman’s new online course: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Term World
• Book: The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long Term Thinking
• Book: History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity
• Book: Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It
• TED Talk: Lessons from History for a Better Tomorrow
• TED Talk: How to be a Good Ancestor
• New View EDU podcast for school leaders with Roman Krnaric
• Long Now Talk: Roman Kzrnaric and Kate Raworth

The future is a paradox we have to learn to hold.

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa Kay Solomon is joined by Pascal Finette, Co-Founder of radical, an organization that offers strategic advice to help leaders build organizations that strengthen under stress instead of breaking. Over nearly three decades, Pascal has led transformations at eBay, Mozilla, and Google, and he brings refreshing honesty about what it really takes to navigate uncertainty.

The conversation centers on a simple question Pascal asks thousands of executives: "The future is ___." How you fill in that blank reveals everything. Some say bright. Some say terrifying. Pascal argues we need to hold both views at once because the future genuinely is contradictory. He and Lisa talk about the danger of the "official future," that narrow path organizations and people lock themselves into that leaves them brittle when inevitable shocks arrive.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why holding opposing views of the future at once is essential
• Why curiosity is the most important muscle for navigating change
• What anti-fragility means in practice and how it differs from resilience

Pascal encourages listeners to ask more meaningful questions about their role in society rather than just focusing on quarterly profits. The future, he reminds us, is ours to create.

Links from the episode:

• Radical Briefing
• The Heretic x GYSHIDO
• The Official Future Trap
• Pascal’s Disruption Mapping Exercise

The best way to unstick the present is to think further into the future.

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa Kay Solomon sits down with Aditi Juneja, Executive Director of Democracy 2076, to explore how thinking 50 years ahead can break down current obstacles and make seemingly unrealistic hopes feel very possible. Democracy 2076 helps us plan democracy not for the next election cycle, but for the next 50 years.

The conversation reveals how the media we consume shapes our perception of what democracy looks like. From Scandal normalizing election fraud to The West Wing making some viewers think our government is running smoothly, Aditi's research uncovers how TV shows and movies are quietly teaching us civics.

You'll also hear:

• Why a 50-year timeline makes change feel possible instead of impossible
• What happens when people sit down to design constitutional amendments together
• Why we need to give people a menu of possibilities, not just ask them to imagine the future

The episode closes with practical advice for staying resilient in noisy political times. Thank you, Aditi, for joining How We Future!

Links from the episode:

• Democracy 2076
• Report co-authored with Harmony Labs on how media shapes people’s attitudes about the problems facing democracy
• The Long-Term Futures Work of Building a Better Democracy
• A Constitution for 2076
• Pro-Democracy Political Coalitions for 2076

Can graphic design be a force for good?

In this episode of How We Future, Lisa sits down with Franzi Sessler, the co-founder of global design agency Kreatives, to explore how design, storytelling, and creativity can shape better futures.

Recently, Franzi, and her team have made stunning sports explainers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. Their collaboration with Allianz and the International Paralympic Committee started in 2024, when her team created animated explainers for all 22 Paralympic sports, helping millions of viewers understand and enjoy the amazing athletes and games.

The conversation also touches on projects like All Vote No Play and Futures Happening, revealing how design can activate civic imagination, build momentum, and turn uncertainty into possibility. Throughout, Franzi shows what’s possible when constraints are treated as creative fuel and when imagination is taken seriously.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• How design can close the gap between confusion and connection
• Why constraints often unlock the best ideas
• What it takes to design with trust, empathy, and impact

Links from the episode:

• Kreatives
• Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Sports Explainer Videos
• Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Sports Explainer Videos
• Franzi’s favorite Paralympic Disciplines to Design for: Boccia and Swimming
• Paris 2024 Paralympic Sports Explainer Videos
• Franzi’s All Vote No Play designs
• The Team

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

For our first-ever live audience recording of How We Future, Lisa Kay Solomon sat down with architect and author Chad Oppenheim at Book Passage in San Francisco.

The conversation centers around Chad’s book RIDE: The Iconic Wheels of the Silver Screen and the vehicles that became emotional anchors in film history. From the Back to the Future DeLorean to Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari, these cars were modes of transportation, meaning, and possibility.

Chad shares how childhood Matchbox cars sparked a lifelong fascination with design and storytelling, and how those early influences still shape his architecture today. This live episode explores the importance of imagination and why the things that once made us feel limitless can still guide how we build the future.

You’ll hear:

• Why movie cars function as emotional characters
• How nostalgia shapes creative vision
• Chad’s favorite movie car

This week, take Ferris Bueller’s advice and slow down. Revisit a movie that meant something to you as a kid.

Ask yourself:

• What did this story, or this machine, make me feel back then?
• What part of that feeling do I want more of in my future?

And if you’re up for it, share with us: What was the iconic ride that changed how you saw the world?

Links from the show:

• Oppenheim Architecture
• LAIR: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains
• RIDE: Most Iconic Wheels of the Silver Screen
• Watch 1 minute Trailer: RIDE