What if we stopped asking what's broken—and started asking what's possible?

In this conversation, educator, entrepreneur, and game designer Keaton Wadzinski explores dreaming as a serious practice for building a different world.

After a decade working with innovation methodologies like design thinking and lean startup, Keaton began questioning their underlying premise: that the world is a collection of problems waiting to be solved. What if, instead of beginning with problems, we began with possibilities?

Together, we explore Keaton's shift from problem solving to possibility finding, his Buildable Dreams framework, what collaborative storytelling games can teach us about imagining together, and why making time to dream may be one of the most responsible things we can do in moments of uncertainty.

We also go inside his course, Giving Yourself Permission to Dream: Building Hope in Dystopian Times, and dream together about what the School of Radical Imagination—and education itself—could become.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about Giving Yourself Permission to Dream: Building Hope in Dystopian Times

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/giving-yourself-permission-to-dream-building-hope-in-dystopian-times

📚 Explore Fall courses at the School of Radical Imagination https://www.radicalimagination.school/catalog

In This Episode

04:25 Questioning the assumptions behind design thinking and creative problem solving

06:10 The Buildable Dreams framework: past, present, and future

08:15 What collaborative storytelling games can teach us about building worlds together

10:36 Hope, strength, and endurance as practices for dreaming

11:18 The transformation Keaton wants learners to experience

14:56 The School of Radical Imagination as an emergent learning community

21:46 What happens if we bring this model to younger learners?

22:24 Moving education beyond academics toward human flourishing

Key Takeaways

Dreaming isn't indulgent. Especially in moments of uncertainty, intentionally making space to imagine hopeful possibilities can be an act of responsibility and resistance.

Dreams don't belong exclusively to the future. Keaton's Buildable Dreams framework asks us to see the past, present, and future together—grounding our dreams in lived experience while identifying what we can begin building now.

Imagination can be collaborative. Tabletop role-playing and collaborative storytelling offer a model where no single person owns the story. New worlds emerge through participation, agency, and collective creativity.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for conversations with scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners exploring what it takes to question the systems we've inherited and imagine what else is possible.

Enrollment is now open for Giving Yourself Permission to Dream: Building Hope in Dystopian Times, beginning October 21.

If this conversation shifted your perspective, subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review, and share this episode with one person who could use a little more permission to dream.

Until next time, keep learning, keep imagining, and keep building the world you want to live in.

This conversation originally aired on Progress Reimagined, hosted by Kathleen Chu. We're resharing it here with permission.

What if more information isn't what we need to transform our lives?

We live in a time when almost any answer is available within seconds. We can read the book, watch the YouTube video, listen to the podcast, or ask AI—and still find ourselves stuck.

So what actually helps us transform?

This week's episode is a little different. Besan Abu-Joudeh, founder of the School of Radical Imagination, joins Kathleen Chu on Progress Reimagined to share the story behind the School—and the personal unraveling that led her to imagine a different kind of education.

They explore why learning alongside other people can unlock something information alone cannot, why imagination is far from "fluffy," what most of us get wrong about making an impact, and why the traditional idea that we go to school for four years and then spend the rest of our lives working may soon feel outdated.

At its heart, this is a conversation about what education could become when the goal isn't simply acquiring more knowledge—but becoming someone different because of what we've learned.

In This Episode

03:02 — The experience that planted the seed for the School of Radical Imagination

04:18 — A six-month pause and reorienting toward love and life

09:35 — Why the School chose live, cohort-based learning

12:07 — Why faculty have autonomy over what they teach

16:31 — What we get wrong about making an impact

21:00 — Building something with a 10-year vision

21:48 — A future beyond the traditional four-year model of higher education

27:47 — Why imagination isn't "fluffy"

29:54 — Why unlimited access to information can still leave us feeling stuck

30:34 — The difference between information and transformation

33:23 — Creating a learning space where science and spirituality can coexist

Key Takeaways

Learning is relational. Transformation often happens through conversation—with a teacher, a peer, or another person who says something that unlocks a room in our minds we haven't entered before.

Imagination isn't fluffy. CEOs, world leaders, academics, and other people with significant power intentionally create spaciousness to step away from the day-to-day, think about where the world is going, and imagine what comes next. Everyone deserves access to spaces that cultivate that capacity.

No one has all the answers. The School is intentionally built around co-learning. Faculty bring deep expertise, but they enter the classroom with questions too. The teacher is also a learner, and the learner is also a teacher.

About Progress Reimagined

This conversation originally appeared on Progress Reimagined, hosted by Kathleen Chu—a podcast exploring innovative ideas, technologies, and emerging economic models that put humanity and our planet first.

Connect with Kathleen Chu and Progress Reimagined here.

The School of Radical Imagination brings together scholars, artists, practitioners, and lifelong learners to question the systems we've inherited and imagine what else is possible.

Explore our upcoming courses at radicalimagination.school.

How do we design the invisible structures that shape our communities?

In this conversation, architect, creative leader, and systems thinker Hadil El-Baba explores what architecture can teach us about building communities that foster belonging, connection, and meaningful participation.

Hadil shares why she walked away from a successful architecture career in Toronto to follow a deeper question: How do we create the conditions for a different world? Together, we explore the invisible architecture underneath every community—from power and authority to governance, relationships, and belonging—and why changing our larger systems may begin by noticing how these dynamics show up in our own lives.

We also go inside Hadil’s course, The Architecture of Community, an eight-week experiment in consciously designing the communities, organizations, and projects we want to inhabit.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about The Architecture of Community

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/the-architecture-of-community

📚 Explore upcoming courses at the School of Radical Imagination https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

In This Episode

04:39 Returning to Lebanon and learning about belonging, land, resistance, and love

05:51 Reaching the top of the ladder—and deciding you no longer want to play the game

08:44 What architecture teaches us about systems change

10:28 Collaboration, relationships, and learning to zoom in and zoom out

11:44 Why we need to rethink what we mean by “community”

14:41 Inside The Architecture of Community

16:24 What becomes possible when we consciously design the invisible?

17:27 Why Hadil chose to teach at the School of Radical Imagination

Key Takeaways

• Communities aren't simply formed by bringing people together. They are shaped by often-invisible structures around power, authority, governance, participation, and belonging.
• We can ask not only whether we belong somewhere, but how we can belong without losing ourselves or conforming.
• Architecture offers a useful lens for systems change: zoom out to understand the whole while knowing when to zoom in on the relationships and structures underneath it.
• The relational dynamics inside an organization eventually show up in what that organization creates in the world.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for conversations with scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners exploring the ideas and practices we need to imagine—and build—a different world.

If this conversation shifted your perspective, taught you something new, or helped you imagine what else is possible, subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share this episode with one person who would appreciate it.

Until next time, keep learning, keep imagining, and keep building the world you want to live in.

What if we still have the power to shape AI?

In this conversation, leadership coach, AI strategist, and technologist Oumaima Taloua explores how we can engage with AI without getting swept up in either the hype or the fear. Drawing on more than a decade working in technology and AI, Oumaima shares why understanding these tools matters, how our choices can still shape what gets built, and why the human side of technological change may be more important than the technology itself.

We also go inside her course, You're Not Behind, You're Discerning: AI Literacy for Thoughtful Professionals, and explore what happened when a group of curious, critical thinkers came together to learn about AI—not to be told what to think, but to discern for themselves.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about You're Not Behind, You're Discerning: AI Literacy for Thoughtful Professionals https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/you-re-not-behind-you-re-discerning-ai-literacy-for-thoughtful-professionals

In This Episode

02:31 A decade in AI—and bringing perspectives beyond Silicon Valley into the conversation

05:31 The geopolitics of AI and how geography shapes access to technological opportunity

08:14 Why Oumaima moved from engineering and product into coaching and education

12:08 Moving beyond "AI is amazing" vs. "AI is dangerous"

17:57 Inside You're Not Behind, You're Discerning

23:11 Why learning at the School is a conversation—not a transfer of information

24:19 Emotional stability, discernment, and navigating rapid technological change

Key Takeaways

• AI literacy isn't about learning every new tool. It's about understanding enough to make informed choices about where—and whether—AI belongs in your life and work.
• We don't have to choose between uncritical adoption and complete rejection. We can hold both the opportunities and critiques of AI at the same time.
• AI is still being shaped. The more people understand these technologies and participate in the conversation, the more influence we can have over what gets built.
• The pace of AI can create overwhelm, but we don't have to keep up with everything. Discernment means deciding what deserves our attention.
• In a moment of rapid technological change, creating space to feel, talk, think, and discern may be just as important as acquiring information.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for conversations with scholars, artists, technologists, educators, and practitioners exploring the knowledge we need to navigate this moment—and build what comes next.

If this conversation shifted your perspective, taught you something new, or helped you imagine what else is possible, subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share this episode with one person who would appreciate it.

Until next time, keep learning, keep imagining, and keep building the world you want to live in.

Can We Change Systems Without Changing Ourselves?

In this conversation, author and global learning leader Radha Ruparell explores the relationship between inner transformation and systems change. We talk about slowing down in times of urgency, staying in relationship across difference, tending to our individual and collective energy, and why hope itself can be a radical act. Drawing from her work with leaders and educators around the world, Radha reminds us that changing systems isn't only about what we do—it's also about who we are while doing it.

🎓 Explore upcoming courses at the School of Radical Imagination https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

In This Episode

02:43 Living across worlds and discovering our shared humanity

04:52 "The times are urgent, so let us slow down"

08:11 Perfection, play, and the "six by one" practice

11:27 How our energy affects the systems around us

15:30 Multiple truths, righteousness, and keeping our hearts open

18:18 Moving from fighting against to standing for something

22:28 Reweaving relationships as a way to rewire the world

25:20 How to sustain inspiration after the "mountaintop moment"

29:44 Creating cultures where people have permission to disrupt

Key Takeaways

• Slowing down doesn't have to compete with urgency. Grounding ourselves can change the quality of the action we take.
• Systems change isn't only about what we do. How we show up—our energy, presence, relationships, and ways of being—can shift the systems around us.
• Difference and tension aren't inherently bad. Our capacity to stay in relationship through rupture and repair can open new possibilities.
• Instead of only fighting against what we oppose, we can ask what we are choosing to stand for.
• Hope isn't the absence of darkness. It can emerge from our darkest moments and become a courageous practice of looking for what is working and building from there.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for conversations with scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners exploring the ideas and practices we need to build more just and liberated futures.

If this conversation resonated, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with one person who might need a little more hope today.

What if feminism wasn't about gender—but about the future?

In this conversation, feminist systems change practitioner and futures researcher kirthi jayakumar invites us to reimagine foreign policy through a decolonial feminist lens. Together, we explore hope as a discipline, why feminism is fundamentally future-facing, how education can move beyond information toward transformation, and what becomes possible when we see ourselves as active participants in shaping the world rather than passive observers of it.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about Decolonial Feminist Approaches to Foreign Policy

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

In this Episode

01:52 The audacity to hope—and why hope became kirthi's life's work

04:31 What feminism really means through a decolonial lens

07:26 Why foreign policy belongs to all of us

14:30 Reimagining education as transformation instead of information

18:33 Critical thinking, stories, and what traditional education misses

23:20 Why we need spaces to think together, not just consume information

24:47 What learners experience in Decolonial Feminist Approaches to Foreign Policy

27:53 Why Kirti chose to teach at the School of Radical Imagination

Key Takeaways

• Hope isn't passive optimism—it's a practice that helps us imagine and build different futures.
• Feminism is a future-facing project that asks us to interrogate systems of power and cultivate hope through action.
• Foreign policy isn't only negotiated by governments; it's shaped every day through the relationships, conversations, and communities we build.
• Education should transform how we see ourselves and the world—not simply increase the amount of information we retain.
• Stories help us notice the perspectives that dominant narratives leave out and invite us into deeper accountability.
• Meaningful learning happens when we reflect together, question inherited assumptions, and practice imagining new possibilities.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for weekly conversations exploring education, liberation, technology, creativity, systems change, healing, and the futures we're being called to build.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who is imagining—and building—a better world.

What if the way we're trying to change the world is also keeping it the same?

In this conversation, Lena Papadopoulos explores how systems of oppression become internalized—and how they quietly shape the way we show up in our relationships, communities, and movements for change. Together, we discuss saviorism, martyrdom, purity politics, and why building a more liberatory future begins with radical honesty.

If you've ever wondered how to care for others without losing yourself—or how to create change without recreating the systems you're resisting—this conversation is for you.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about Weaving Webs of Care

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/weaving-webs-of-care

Sat, Jul 25 · 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET

Sun, Jul 26 · 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET

📚 Explore upcoming courses

https://www.radicalimagination.school

In This Episode

01:17 Why Lena created Weaving Webs of Care

03:22 Shadow work, self-expression, and collective liberation

05:49 Saviorism, martyrdom, and purity politics

09:40 How we can cause harm with the best of intentions

13:19 Inside the Weekend Intensive: from radical honesty to radical imagination

15:17 Imagining a world rooted in love rather than disconnection

17:12 Why Lena chose to teach at the School of Radical Imagination

Key Takeaways

• Oppressive systems become internalized, shaping how we relate to ourselves and others.
• Saviorism, martyrdom, and purity politics often emerge from unmet needs for belonging, safety, and validation.
• Radical honesty is a prerequisite for collective liberation.
• Community creates the conditions for deeper transformation than we can achieve alone.
• Building a new world requires both shadow work and the courage to imagine new ways of being together.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for weekly conversations exploring education, liberation, creativity, systems change, healing, and the futures we're being called to build.

If this conversation resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who is committed to building relationships and communities rooted in care rather than extraction.

What happens when the life you've built no longer reflects what you believe?

In this conversation, Angela Montijo shares how reconnecting with her core values gave her the courage to make a difficult life change. Together, we explore the difference between inherited and chosen values, how our values shape the way we show up in relationships and movement spaces, and why clarity is often more important than certainty.

If you've ever felt pulled in different directions—or wondered what it really means to live in alignment with what you stand for—this conversation is for you.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about The Values Lab: Living What You Stand For

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/the-values-lab-living-what-you-stand-for

📚 Explore upcoming courses at the School of Radical Imagination

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

In This Episode

01:27 Why Angela created The Values Lab

05:04 Moving beyond the traditional values exercise

08:22 The four-week journey from reflection to integration

13:30 When our values clash in relationships

15:38 Values, movement spaces, and learning to work across difference

21:47 Why emergence—not certainty—is at the heart of learning

Key Takeaways

• Values are not abstract ideals—they become a compass for making difficult decisions.
• Many of our values are inherited. The work is discerning which ones still belong to us.
• Small, intentional shifts often create more lasting change than dramatic overhauls.
• Understanding one another's values can deepen relationships and reduce conflict.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for weekly conversations exploring education, liberation, creativity, systems change, healing, and the futures we're being called to build.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who is navigating an important life decision or searching for greater clarity about what they truly stand for.

What is the purpose of education?

In this founding conversation, historian, educator, and activist Dr. Butch Ware argues that education is not simply about acquiring knowledge—it's about becoming more fully human.

Recorded at the School of Radical Imagination's inaugural summit, Education in Times of Revolution, this conversation explores how systems of education have been used to uphold empire, capitalism, and white supremacy, and what it would mean to reimagine learning as a practice of liberation instead.

Together, we discuss the Black liberation tradition, lifelong learning, imagination as resistance, parenting, spirituality, and why the ultimate purpose of education is to cultivate human beings capable of building societies rooted in love, justice, and care.

Resources & Links

🎓 Explore upcoming courses: https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

🌍 Learn more about the School of Radical Imagination: https://www.radicalimagination.school

In This Episode

3:29 What does "education in times of revolution" mean?

06:20 How education reproduces white supremacy, capitalism, and empire

10:19 Building a School of Radical Imagination—and learning from the Black liberation tradition

17:40 The true purpose of education: becoming more fully human

20:42 Parenting, schools, and protecting children's innate curiosity

28:07 Why learning should last a lifetime

31:14 Malcolm X, prisons, and education as liberation

35:55 Why imagination is itself a radical practice

41:31 Rest, healing, and accountability in movement spaces

45:46 Intellectual humility and learning how to say "I don't know"

51:24 Knowledge is not a commodity

Key Takeaways

• The purpose of education is not simply to transmit information, but to cultivate our shared humanity.
• Systems of education are never neutral—they shape how we understand ourselves and the world.
• Radical imagination is itself a form of resistance because it expands what we believe is possible.
• Liberation requires both unlearning oppressive systems and reconnecting with histories and traditions that have been intentionally erased.
• Knowledge is not a commodity to consume—it is something we cultivate, embody, and share in relationship with one another.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for weekly conversations exploring education, liberation, creativity, systems change, spirituality, healing, and the futures we're being called to build.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who is asking deeper questions about what education—and our world—could become.

How do we move from imagining a more just world to actually building it? In this conversation, designer and educator Hanieh Khosroshahi explores design as a practice of collective liberation—one rooted in co-creation, relationships, and shared responsibility. Together, we discuss grief, solidarity across movements, and why creating space for these conversations is essential if we want to imagine new futures. We also reflect on what makes learning at the School of Radical Imagination different: intimate cohorts, honest dialogue, and the belief that another world is something we create together.

Resources & Links

🎓 Learn more about Radical Imagination: Visions for Liberatory Futures

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/radical-imagination-visions-for-liberatory-futures

📚 Explore upcoming courses

https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses

In this Episode

01:25 Why Hanieh found design—and why it became a tool for liberation

03:20 Design as a practice of collective liberation

08:05 What is design thinking?

09:40 Inside Designing for Liberation: from responsibility to collective action

13:10 Holding grief in community during times of crisis

18:20 Grief, white supremacy, and transnational solidarity

21:25 Why radical imagination must be a collective practice

22:35 Inside the Weekend Intensive: from vision to action

24:45 The four pillars for building liberatory futures

28:30 Why collective imagination is more powerful than going it alone

30:10 What makes learning at the School of Radical Imagination different

32:05 Final reflections: hope, community, and belonging

Key Takeaways

• Liberation isn't something we design for people—it must be designed with them.
• Design is a collaborative process rooted in listening, iteration, and shared responsibility.
• Grief isn't separate from the work of social change—it is part of it.
• Collective imagination helps us move beyond inherited assumptions and create new possibilities together.
• Building a more just future requires new skills, new relationships, and the courage to question the systems we've inherited.

Connect

Follow the School of Radical Imagination for future conversations exploring liberation, creativity, systems change, education, technology, healing, and the futures we're being called to build.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who is imagining a better world.