This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features the independent futurist Jonas Drechsel, who is also a member and co-initiator of the dynamic collective practice youngK Berlin; which is interdisciplinary, exploratory, and holistic.

His mission as a solo freelance futurist is to make desirable futures more likely. As a critical futurist, he thinks about how the status quo works and what doesn't. As a real utopian, Jonas participates in the creation of exemplary projects that anticipate a better world. And thereby create spaces of possibility. 

We discuss those issues in this episode, where he explains why working with the youngK collective is so fun, as their culture, exchange, and collaboration contributes to shaping futures with joy and dedication. He also covers the leading-edge methodologies that he’s using, along with a piece he’s just written for the Journal for Futures Studies.

And we cover the recent ‘Futurist Archetypes’ report that he produced, which has gained a lot of attention in the futurist-community. Whilst he insists that these archetypes are ironic and deliberately exaggerated, they’re also both funny and uncannily accurate. The crucial question for futurists is, of course, in which of them might you recognise yourself?

So, I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Series Six

This episode of The New Abnormal features Alice Dimond, who leads Mō Āpōpō Future-Makers at Tokona te Raki, a project that equips young people to imagine and create better futures. 

This includes designing a toolkit grounded in Māori perspectives and stories, empowering young people to use these perspectives to navigate complexity and drive transformative change. 

In addition, she's a Fellow with Next Generation Foresight Practitioners, an Advisory Trustee at Ako Ōtautahi Learning City Trust and the National New Zealand Lead for the Futures Methods from Around the World project, where she explores how Māori worldviews, ways of thinking, organising, and acting can unlock new pathways to better futures. 

Alice has presented at global forums such as the Dubai Future Forum, World Futures Day, and the Building Hopeful Futures Festival. She's committed to using innovation to challenge dominant thinking, create new solutions, and drive change. 

So, we discuss all the above and I hope you enjoy the conversation!

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Marianna Maki-Teeri, Director of Foresight at Futures Platform. 

She’s an internationally recognized futurist with 15 years of experience in strategic foresight & futures studies, and helps organizations around the world make sense of change before it happens.

At Futures Platform, Marianna leads an analysis team in translating emerging signals and “what ifs” into actionable insights, while advising clients on building and scaling their own foresight capabilities. Her work serves as a constant bridge between practice and theory. 

As a doctoral researcher at the Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC), she investigates the synergy between human and machine intelligence in foresight work, exploring if and how AI can augment our capacity to reach more impactful outcomes.

Marianna is driven by the conviction that foresight helps us become better architects of tomorrow. In an era of constant disruption, she works to ensure that systemic transformation is a deliberate choice rather than a passive drift.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to Marianna as much as I did!

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Mikko Dufva, the Leading Foresight Specialist at Sitra.

Mikko works on projects across an array of areas including those related to the futures of synthetic biology, platform economies, forestry, mining and use of renewable energy. 

Sitra is a future-orientated organisation that promotes Finland’s competitiveness and the well-being of the Finnish people. They specialise in anticipating societal change, trying out new operating models and accelerating businesses aimed at creating sustainable well-being. 

In the interview, we discuss Sitra’s approach to examining trends, the tensions between them, and aligning with weak signals of change alongside mental images connected with the future, in order to make futures more approachable. 

We particularly focus on their ‘Megatrends 2026’ report which aims to strengthen Finns’ future-orientated thinking and their capacity for foresight in decision-making; but also discuss their newly released report the ‘Growth Atlas’ along with ‘IF magazine’ which focuses on weak signals. Finally, Mikko also illuminates a side project regarding the development of ways to explore futures through body and movement. 

So, I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I did! 

This episode of the New Abnormal podcast features Ramila Khafaji Zadeh, who is a trainer and designer in Futures Literacy at Hanze University of Applied Sciences and part of the UNESCO Chair in Futures Literacy. 

She leads projects with governments, industry, higher education, and NGOs, and has previously worked with the UN on futures-oriented initiatives. With expertise in social innovation and governance, her current work focuses on transitions and how being futures-oriented, as a capability, helps navigate and shape these processes. 

In this episode we discuss all of the above, but do so by particularly focusing on her homeland of Iran. Thus she illuminates her views on why the freedom of imagination is so important regarding utilising plural perspectives to imagine plural futures. As she says "what happens next hasn't been written yet, and the next chapter cannot be written only by what we fear might return..."

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features the renowned superforecaster Warren Hatch, CEO of Good Judgement Inc. 

He joined the organisation as a volunteer forecaster in a research project sponsored by the US government / funded by the intelligence community, where they emerged as the undisputed victor re: geopolitical forecasting. 

Warren then became a 'Superforecaster' and is now CEO of the commercial successor, Good Judgment Inc, a world leader in applying innovative probabilistic solutions to real-world decisions in order to forecast the future.  

He's assisted governments and private companies around the world to improve their foresight and quantify uncertainty. Warren's prior career was on Wall Street where he started at Morgan Stanley, and he earned his PhD from Oxford University.

So, we discuss all of the above in what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating conversation, focusing around Warren's views on how to quantify subjective risks to deliver accurate and early foresight, thus enabling better decision making about the future. 

This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Maija Knutti, a Policy Analyst in the EU Policy Lab Foresight Team, which is part of the European Commission Joint Research Centre.

As Maija explains, it's a collaborative place for innovative policymaking, which is intended to help policymakers think holistically and long-term. 

She goes into real detail in this episode about what her role entails, and in doing so explains the approaches taken and ranges of outputs delivered re: the ESPAS (European Strategy & Policy Analysis System), the ranges of foresight engagement tools & approaches that the teams utilise in the wide variety of reports they generate; along with highlighting the development of the Nordic Foresight Network, and an exciting forthcoming Polyfutures event. 

So, I hope you enjoy listening to her, as she covers the above dynamic issues!

This episode of 'The New Abnormal' podcast features Muhammad Alaraby, an award-winning Arab futurist, policy analyst, and editor.

He's also Head of Strategic Foresight at the independent think tank Future for Advanced Research and Studies (FARAS), which seeks to enrich public dialogue, support decision-making and enhance academic research pertaining to futures-issues that currently constitute a real problem in the Middle East region. 

In light of instability and unpredictability, the overarching goal of FARAS is to help ward off future shocks regarding these developments. 

So, we discuss the above, during a conversation in which Muhammad outlines his interest in 'the rugged terrain of futures, strategic foresight, geopolitics, geoeconomics and intelligence. Not forgetting history, literature, arts and philosophy...' 

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Lisa Giuliani M.A., who is an experienced educator with over ten years of work in higher education, K-12, the private sector, and nonprofits. 

Dedicated to empowering young people and organizations through futures literacy, Lisa currently serves as the Director of the Young Voices Network at Teach the Future, which is based in the US but operates globally. 

Passionate about intergenerational equity, making futures thinking accessible, and inspiring youth leaders, she believes that collaboration across generations enhances organizations and communities.

So, we discuss all of the above, along with the forthcoming World Futures Day, a 24hr global conversation about our common futures that brings together intergenerational voices from around the world to ensure youth perspectives are central to the global dialogue. 

In particular, regarding this conversation, Lisa explains how Teach the Future, in partnership with the Millennium Project, launched the Young Voices Edition.

So, I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as did - and make sure you listen into World Futures Day on 1st March!

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Deborah Hayek, who leads Foresight & Innovation at Servus Credit Union, in Canada.

She brings over a decade of experience integrating strategic foresight into business strategy within major financial institutions. Previously, at the forefront of Manulife's Global Innovation team, Deborah served as Head of Strategic Foresight, driving foresight initiatives across business lines and shaping innovation strategy through macro trend analysis and immersive engagement tools. Prior to that, she built and led the future-focused R&D team within Desjardins’s Innovation Lab.

In parallel, Deborah designs and teaches executive education at HEC Montréal, equipping senior leaders with the methods and mindset to navigate uncertainty and seize future opportunities. Through bilingual instruction, she aims to make strategic foresight both practical and accessible to leaders shaping tomorrow’s economy. 

She discusses all of the above in our discussion, which I hope you find as interesting as I did. And you can read her newsletter on corporate foresight 'The Sparkline' on Substack...