The way we picture the future is still based, in large measure, on the visions brought to life at the world’s fairs and international expositions that swept the globe between the 1850s and the 1960s—especially the New York World’s Fairs of 1939-40 and 1964-65, the Seattle World’s Fair of 1962, and Disney World’s EPCOT Center (which is, in essence, a permanent World’s Fair). But the fairs were about much more than technology: they were also about a specific vision of Western dominance, one that treated people from colonized or developing countries as little more than zoo specimens. In this special crossover episode we present “Tomorrow, Today,” a recent story from our sister Hub & Spoke show Ministry of Ideas. Host Zachary Davis tells the story of the world’s fair movement, and of the unexpected critiques and challenges that surfaced within it. Listen to the end for a conversation between Davis and Soonish host Wade Roush.

More information at https://www.soonishpodcast.org/episodes/2018/7/2/209-tomorrow-today-with-ministry-of-ideas. Subscribe to Ministry of Ideas at http://www.ministryofideas.org

Music in this episode is by Graham Gordon Ramsay, Tim Beek, and Joel Roston and Andrew Willis of Titlecard Music in Boston.