Dr. Markku Wilenius is the Unesco Chair in Learning Society and Futures Education. This week on The Futurists, Markku shares his global perspective on emerging trends and regional conflicts, including the fate of the EU, the newly-active BRICs, Chinese military projection, the end of US hegemony, the emergence of new trade blocks and what lies beyond the limits of global society. Dr Markku Wilenius on the web: https://www.markkuwilenius.net/

Brett and Rob unpack the result of the 2024 US national election. President-elect Donald Trump has announced candidates for his next Administration. The verdict? His picks are a clown car of unqualified candidates who intend to dismantle the apparatus of the federal government of the United States. What might this wrecking ball achieve…or destroy? Who benefits from the chaos? Join us for a lively future-focused discussion about geopolitics, BRICs, global trade, technology, isolationism, the viability of NATO, the fate of small nations. Plus, the immense power of billionaires who have stepped forward to demand their share of the spoils. And one wildcard: will Donald Trump be the instrument of humanity’s survival? Absurd?. But if the Trump Administration green-lights a SpaceX mission to Mars, there’s a non-zero probability that Elon Musk’s long term plan for human colonization of another planet might actually occur.

Former CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame exposes the future of espionage and spy craft. The advent of artificial intelligence, especially deep fakes and a flood of disinformation, has made the task of gathering reliable intelligence exponentially more difficult, with big implications for democracies. Listen to this episode to learn about the 17 US intelligence agencies, how 9/11 changed spy craft, the impact of disinformation on civic society and government, how undercover agents cultivate sources, and how artificial intelligence raises the stakes in the effort to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

In this weeks episode of The Futurists we talk to author Gunjan Bagla, a leading figure in India-US trade relationships and commerce. Bagla argues that while China is seen as a massive threat to the US, India is a natural ally of the west having supported outsourcing over the last 4 decades, and being more aligned on policy. But like China, India has big ambitions and will overtake China as the most populous nation this decade. Will that translate into economic growth or does India need infrastructure investment to level up as a global economic powerhouse?

Anders Sorman-Nilsson is a Swedish futurist living in Australia, but he believes that humanity is on the cusp of a new renaissance where humanity finds purpose beyond consumption and market profit. He calls out human systems that are coming to a natural conclusion due to this emerging thinking, including the damage that fossil fuel companies and others have done to our ecosystem in the name of profits. Ultimately, Anders is an optimist but he thinks that human behavior and technological leaps and bounds don't necessarily align, but it's navigating the conflict between our long-held traditions, global conflicts, and climate disasters, along with our rapidly advancing technical capabilities that will define humanity for centuries to come. We get deep on this one...