In today’s episode of The Future is How, futurist Lisa Kay Solomon joins me. Lisa is a designer in residence at the Stanford d.school. Lisa focuses on bridging the disciplines of futures and design thinking, creating experiences like “Vote by Design: Presidential Edition” and "The Future’s Happening" to help students learn and practice the skills they don’t yet know they need. At the d.school, she teaches classes such as Inventing the Future, where students imagine, debate, and analyze the 50-year futures of emerging tech.

In our conversation today, Lisa emphasizes the importance of being future-forward and leveraging our imaginations to shape a better world. We explore topics such as:

• The value of developing a ‘futurist’ mindset, and strategies for long-term thinking

• How to expand your perspective by engaging in wider learning and learning from others

• The games, approaches, and activities Lisa uses to help her students visualize the future

• Lisa’s work with Vote By Design and how a futurist approach allows us to build a better world

• Why Lisa leans into curiosity and openness

• A mindfulness practice engaging your imagination to visualize your future in five years

• And more!

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Where to find Lisa Kay Solomon:

• X: https://x.com/lisakaysolomon

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakaysolomon/

• Website: https://www.lisakaysolomon.com/

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Where to find Frederik G. Pferdt

• LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgpferdt/⁠⁠⁠

• YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/frederikgpferdt⁠⁠⁠

• Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/frederikgpferdt/⁠⁠⁠

• Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.frederikgpferdt.com/⁠⁠⁠

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Intro

(02:41) Lisa’s future bio

(06:14) The value of adopting a more ‘futurist’ outlook

(09:28) Strategies for developing a long-term perspective in problem-solving

(14:36) Techniques for imagining the future and your future self

(18:30) Using present day anchors to imagine future prototypes

(22:24) Lisa’s new class, View from the Future

(25:35) Lisa’s civic work at Vote by Design

(31:50) The story of how Eric Reveno got election day off for college athletes

(33:34) Lisa’s continued engaging athletes in civics

(35:15) An explanation of The Polak game

(37:10) How Lisa uses The Polak game and rethinking who is a futurist

(39:47) The power of imagination and why we need to value it more

(43:41) An exercise in imagining the future

(48:55) Lisa’s daily practices

(54:55) Closing

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Music: Andreas Horchler

Art Design: Stefan Schuster, Dino Hohos, Flo Dietrich

Production: Jordan & Adam Bornstein