Why do disasters happen? How do we rebuild after a disaster? What lessons can we learn from them? Our new miniseries, Not Now, But Soon, challenges the stories we often tell about disasters, and explores how we can use speculative fiction to create better futures and policies. 

In this trailer episode, Lisa Margonelli introduces miniseries host Malka Older, an author, humanitarian aid worker, and disaster researcher. Older explains how she became involved in disaster work, and what disasters can teach us about society and our values. 

Not Now, But Soon premieres on September 16. This miniseries is part of the Future Tense Fiction project, a collaboration between Issues and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination.

Resources 

Rethink disasters by reading Malka Older’s Issues piece, “Disasters.” 

Check out Older’s Future Tense Fiction story, “Actually Naneen.” 

Find more of Older’s publications on her website, including Infomocracy, a cyberpunk political thriller, and ...and Other Disasters, a collection of short fiction and poetry centered around disasters. 

Watch Older discuss how speculative fiction can be used to create better policies in the Issues event, “How Can Science Fiction Help Design Better Science and Tech Policies?”