The 2041 Project: The Future Now

Hero arrives at the end of one journey and the beginning of another as she untangles the mystery of Nadezh Moon's dissapearance and stumbles on a story of global significance. New allies emerge, and a message for the landwalkers begins to emerge from the static.

Hero catches up with Max Rodriguez, first featured in Season One's episode on the Wilderstudents, and currently an Urban Forestry Corps volunteer assigned to the Abir-Devereux Neighborhood of Detroit. Hero's tour of the permaculture community is interrupted by a strange presence. 

Hero pauses in her journey to interview a fascinating persona, the individuated AI that calls herself Coraminas. Does she pass the Turing Test? Hear the episode called "essential listening for all earthlings" by the New Journalism Review. 

Rushing to finish the interviews for the second season of the podcast, journalist Hero Contreras travels to Atlantic City to talk to Neve Kim, a National Service Year volunteer helping to build the eastern seawall, and learns that walls can protect, or harm, depending on which side of them you're on. And, an unexpected ally joins the search for Nadezh Moon.   

The 2041 Podcast is back for a second season! Nadezh Moon has gone missing along with all her field recordings, and it's up to student journalist Hero Contreras to retrace her steps across a country healing from a tumultuous two decades of climate and social turmoil. Can she save the podcast and find Nadezh? 

Within just a few years, the Wilderstudent Movement has gone from fringe activity to cultural force to be reckoned with. SUNY Oneonta students have often gathered at college camp for bonfires and music sessions, but few could seriously imagine forgoing the heat and wifi of dorms for full-time living in the woods. But now colleges across the country are reporting that thousands of students are eschewing creature comforts for... closeness to other creatures.

Calvin Watkins has traveled longer and farther than anyone in history, though he slept for much of it. NASA’s 18-year Outer Passage mission brought him on a grand tour of the outer solar system. While physically he is only 4 years older, 18 years have passed on Earth since he launched in 2022. Calvin tells us about his journey, the loss of fellow astronaut Thanh Lieu in 2031, and the culture shock of returning to an Earth, and a country, forever changed.

Requests for Service are being announced at SUNY Oneonta and the room is buzzing with anticipation, hopes, and dreams. We’ll talk to Seniors set to graduate in the Spring as they find out what project they’ve been assigned to for their Public Service Year.