Future Tense

Frozen frogs, tissues and cells — the health and environmental benefits of keeping it chill

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rana Sylvatica is an unassuming wood frog with an extraordinary gift. In the depths of winter, it can slow down its metabolism, flood its cells with ...

Building a new social contract 

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a growing public sense that the current model of the social contract is broken, due in large part to rising inequality and the pursuit of p...

Whatever happened to...?

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, despite the hype, despite extensive funding, and despite clever and ingenious thinking, good ideas fail. Or at least don’t live up to th...

A Future Tense retrospective 

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the program’s final episode and, as such, we look back over the past 17 years. What did the future look like back in 2009 when the show fir...

Is AI really taking over the internet?

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How many of the articles you see on the internet are actually written by AI, not by humans? We'll give you a figure based on the latest research. Als...

A tale of two futuristic cities

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Designing a futuristic city is a fraught task — a mixture of ambition, state of the art technology, inevitable budget blowouts and the need to not ...

Ancient viruses, new threats

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The global Covid 19 lockdown may seem like an eternity ago, but the threat of another full-scale pandemic has never resided.  Scientists warn that a...

Microplastic removal and decarbonising cement

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Negotiations over a global treaty on microplastics have broken down. So, where to from here for one of the world's biggest environmental threats? We ...

Learning how to learn in the age of generative AI

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's exactly three years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene. In that short period of time the process of academic assessment has been in upheaval. Ac...

Disinformation, digital tech and democracy

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this programme we hear three thoughtful perspectives on the threat digital technologies pose for democracy. Henry Farrell from Johns Hopkins Unive...

Getting up to speed with autonomous vehicles

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Long before AI dominated the media hype-cycle, self-driving cars surfed the hyperbolic wave. But fully automated vehicles have now been a long time i...

Technology and language — a dynamic relationship

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While technology platforms increasingly dictate the way we write and converse, language is being modified to fight back, to subvert the platforms. In...

Are we turning the housing crisis into a living crisis?

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We build more and more homes for growing urban populations. But doing so without providing much needed amenities doesn't serve our suburbs and the pe...

Reviving the past and digital mapping for the future

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The remote Canadian island of Oikiqtaruk is disappearing fast, but its cultural and environmental heritage is being captured in digital form. We talk...

Are we kidding ourselves about decarbonisation?

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australian rooftops are resplendent with solar panels, but sustainability expert, Martin Brueckner, warns the popular notion that we're rapidly trans...

Is globalisation dying? 

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Globalisation isn’t what it used to be thanks to the legacy of the Covid-19 lockdown and, more recently, Donald Trump’s weaponisation of tariffs....

Taxing carbon on the border and at sea

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The European Union is implementing a groundbreaking new tax: a carbon border tax. It's meant to prevent distortions between countries with differing ...

Existential hope vs Existential Fear

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Existential risks to human life abound, from the threat of nuclear Armageddon; to an uninhabitable planet; or an AI-induced apocalypse. Understanding...

Cooperation, not conflict on the High Seas

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We're now halfway through the UN-designated "Ocean Decade" — new research initiatives have been launched, and global cooperation has been strengthe...

Convenience culture's inconvenient truth

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have an evolutionary bias toward seeking convenience, experts say. But what happens when the desire for convenience becomes a dominant social ...

Perspectives on the potential of AI-powered policing 

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Policing has always embraced new technologies and Artificial Intelligence is, of course, the flavour of the month. Working out when and why it should...

The truth about AI and productivity

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How real is the link between Artificial Intelligence and increased productivity? Jon Whittle from the CSIRO, one of Australia's leading science agenc...

Sinking Cities

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cities across the world are beginning to sink — some by as much as 10 centimetres a year. A recent study suggests that more than a third of urban C...

How to balance the population needs on our planet

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We face multiple looming demographic crises — and our responses seemingly contradict each other. A rapidly aging population means that we need mor...

Lessons from South Korea's security dilemma

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

South Korea is a test case in how to maintain democracy against sustained pressure from dictatorship. The innovative and entrepreneurial country live...

A turning point for the United Nations

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Suffering internal division and stymied by geopolitical bullying, the United Nations is facing a future of diminishing influence. As the organisation...

The potential benefits and risks of developing "mirror life"

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Synthetic biologists are hard at work developing artificial biological molecules as the first step toward developing a mirror cell that would be immu...

The world after us!

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What will Earth look like when humans become extinct? What "technofossils" will paleontologists of the future unearth and no doubt ponder over? Will ...

How to start your own golden age

19 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

History has many lessons for how to develop a successful civilisation. The trick is to understand the patterns that lead to optimism and innovation. ...

Australia and Canada — Strategic partners, but near total strangers?

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Australia and Canada share much in common, politically, historically and socially. Why then do we know so little about each other? In a time of globa...

Reassessing the laws of war; and why progress isn't always a straight line

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The International commitment to ban landmines is wavering. Several European countries are reversing their opposition to using them. The shift comes a...

Beyond the cloud — storing data in space

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers and corporations are already working to relocate data servers beyond the Earth's atmosphere — on satellites.Data servers are essential ...

Forgetting, not memory, moves us forward

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Forgetting is the only safe response to the world's problems, from a geopolitical perspective, according to author and journalist David Rieff. Someti...

Bitcoin boom or digital deception?

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump is establishing a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. He wants it to rival the country's stockpile of gold. He boasts America will one day be ...

Can the oceans solve our carbon removal problems?

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's been growing research and investment in projects that use the oceans to artificially remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Such techniqu...

YouTube turns 20; and the interesting side of boredom

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

YouTube is the second biggest website in the world, containing more than 14.8 billion videos. It's been a huge success, but its public image as a hav...

Remember the Jevons Paradox! 

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We like to think that increases in efficiency lead to greater sustainability – to lower resource use. But from cars to computers to bitcoin, it see...

The power and peril of the optimistic mind

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Human beings have a bias toward optimism, says astrophysicist turned author and editor, Sumit Paul-Choudhury. While we may not always acknowledge it,...

AI's "hidden labour" and the move toward a linkless internet

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial intelligence, it turns out, has a heavy human backend — they're called "data labellers"; they mostly live in developing countries, and t...

The roots of techno-authoritarianism

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Does the spirit of the "Futurist" movement live on today in the likes of Elon Musk and America's intrigue of techno-oligarchs? The Italian poet and f...

Some challenges to conventional economic thinking 

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Does modern economic thinking act as a roadblock to change? Economists Kate Raworth and Rainer Kattel certainly think so. The alternatives they propo...

Civility, trash talking and more sociable cities

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It certainly feels like a very shouty world. But have we really reached a new low point in civility? And, if so, where to from here?We examine what c...

Limitarianism — could a cap on wealth reduce inequality?

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When a company CEO can be paid 1,000 times the average employee's salary it's probably time to take a long hard look at wealth inequality. And those ...

Understanding attention and a craving for certainty

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are we really facing an attention crisis? Historian, Daniel Immerwahr, has his doubts. In fact, he says ours is an era of obsession as much as distra...

Flow Batteries, windships, and a new approach to off-grid solar

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They're cheaper and safer than their lithium counterparts, they're easier to scale-up, and they can hold power for much longer than conventional batt...

Modern museums, accountability, and openness

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is opening-up its storeroom, turning the back end of the operation into a public resource. It's about attrac...

Nuclear tombs and the distant discourse of danger

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A series of massive underground tombs for nuclear waste are currently under construction. They've taken decades to plan and build and they're designe...

The danger of generational labelling

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Terms like "Gen Z", "Boomer" and "Millennial" are popular, but they have no basis in science. Demographers and social scientists are now pushing back...

Could Utopian thinking save democracy?  

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why does Utopian thinking get such a bad rap? It’s often derided as delusional and dangerous. But what if that stereotype is designed to limit our ...

How to ensure privatisation serves the public good

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Privatising public services like trains, hospitals or prisons — is a proven vote loser. But governments of both the left and right continue to priv...

The vicious cycle of fear and anger — and how it traps society

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Authoritarians rule through fear. We can clearly see that from China to the Middle East to eastern Europe. But why do we constantly overlook the way ...

Algorithms create a dull conformity — off and online

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Algorithmic feeds are meant to personalise our online experiences, but increasingly they're flattening our culture and fostering a dull conformity, a...

The must-have skill for the future: Untangling unintended consequences

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In our uber-connected world, the development and management of really anything is becoming increasingly complex. Planning for the future has to invol...

Nostalgia can make you vulnerable to manipulation

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nostalgia triggers our emotions and that in turn makes us vulnerable to manipulation. We speak with Richard King about the commodification and weapon...

The artificial secret behind "natural food"

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most people want to eat better. And many of us have embraced the trend toward "natural" foods and conscious eating.We equate "natural" with healthy, ...

The role genetics could play in bringing down Methane levels

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Methane levels are going up — not down, despite decades spent trying to reduce emissions from agriculture and landfill. But some countries are buck...

The cities that create rain; AI in warfare; and do carbon offsets really work?

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The design of your city contributes to how much rain you get. Researchers have found a 'wet island effect' and it's likely to shape the future constr...

Do we need new rules of war as conflict takes on a cyber dimension?

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Military spending around the world has reached a new peak, and it's still going up. All eyes are on Ukraine and the Middle East as new strategies and...

Whatever happened to...?

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, despite the hype, despite extensive funding, and despite clever and ingenious thinking, good ideas fail. Or at least don’t live up to th...

A declaration on future generations

17 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The UN General Assembly has passed a Declaration on Future Generations. It’s designed to ensure the generations of tomorrow aren’t disadvantaged ...

Robots in the home – friend or foe?

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robot vacuum cleaners are so innocuous, many people treat them almost like pets. But they're also potential portals into our private life. Story Lab ...

Melting brains and climate anxiety

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The heating climate is now recognised as a threat to our inner world – to brain health and rationality. Extreme temperatures not only impact our ab...

Frozen frogs, tissues and cells — the health and environmental benefits of keeping it chill

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rana Sylvatica is an unassuming wood frog with an extraordinary gift. In the depths of winter, it can slow down its metabolism, flood its cells with ...

Sex tech, AI and the centrality of consent

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The demand for sex tech is booming. That is, toys and apps that can be used for pleasure, communication or to improve sexual health.Developers are us...

Wolf Warrior diplomacy — Have we finally seen an end to undiplomatic diplomacy?

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It was known as Wolf Warrior diplomacy – a brand of Chinese foreign ministry posturing that was as aggressive as it was unexpected. But has Beijing...

Why China has tightened its belt and road

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gone are the grandiose infrastructure projects, replaced by an emphasis on smaller development opportunities. China's Belt and Road initiative has en...

The year of the poll — democracy's mega test

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2024 has been an eventful year for democracies around the world. More than 80 countries, containing over half the world's population, are holding ele...

Saying goodbye to ageism — the last “acceptable” prejudice

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Could the realities of an aging population and a declining birth rate soon make our obsession with youth a thing of the past? It's not just an equity...

AI snake oil — its limits, risks, and its thirst for resources

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chat GPT pioneer, Sam Altman, reckons democratic countries will need to re-write their social contracts once AI reaches its full potential, such is i...

The "disruption nexus" and the power of a good crisis

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every crisis, they say, presents an opportunity. But history tells us differently. Social philosopher, Roman Krznaric, spells out the vital elements ...

Rediscovering the essence of Liberalism could help in the battle against authoritarianism

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do we underestimate the value of Liberalism? Political philosopher, Alexandre Lefebvre, says liberalism underpins the modern Western world, even if w...

Why in the 21st century are we still talking about the political Left and Right?

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where Donald Trump embraces anti free-trade protectionism and "leftish" governments are going heavy on law and order, do the old political...

"Anthropocene" — why the fight about a name has real world consequences

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Anthropocene – the idea that we now live in a geological age shaped by human activity — is a controversial topic. It irritates those who reje...

We're losing the dark sky and you can already feel the consequences

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The night sky is getting brighter by about ten per cent each year — that's the scientific estimate. While new forms of lighting technology can redu...

Can we afford to continue to keep pets — environmentally and financially?

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If we're genuinely concerned about the impact livestock can have on our environment, why aren't we equally worried about pets? The pet industry is bo...

Technology is revolutionising sport performance

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The rate of technological advancement in sport is unprecedented. From data analytics to robotic umpiring to smart equipment, technologies are reshapi...

Are the big US media platforms swallowing our culture?

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Global media players now dominate the entertainment business and hold the whip-hand when it comes to accessing local news content. In this program we...

A new push in the search for alien life

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

NASA's new telescope will revolutionise the search for non-Earth based life. It's to be called the Habitable Worlds Observatory and will be powerful ...

Technology and language — a dynamic relationship

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While technology platforms increasingly dictate the way we write and converse, language is being modified to fight back, to subvert the platforms. In...

Rethinking productivity and the pushback to shareholder capitalism

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's time to rethink what we mean by productivity, says work futurist, Dominic Price. What's important isn't output, but outcomes. And confusing the ...

Limitarianism — could a cap on wealth reduce inequality?

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When a company CEO can be paid 1,000 times the average employee's salary it's probably time to take a long hard look at wealth inequality. And those ...

Sucking CO2 from the air — a "Mammoth task"

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

They've just unveiled the world's largest air purifier in Iceland. Christened "Mammoth" the machine can filter up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the atmo...

The truth about AI – garbage in, garbage out

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring new ideas, new AI isn't magic, but many of us are accustomed to thinking and talking about it as if it was. It can't solve every problem an...

The best response to disasters: centralised strength or community mitigation?

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Australia's disaster response procedures are under review. The new reality requires us to deal with multiple natural disasters simultaneously — to ...

The greatest demographic shift in a century is being ignored: single living

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Across the globe single household occupancy is skyrocketing. In some Western cities "singletons" make up almost fifty per cent. But it's a trend that...

It's time to take the Influencer economy seriously

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Globally, around 300 million people consider themselves "influencers" or professional content creators. In the United States alone the number is appr...

When good intentions fuel further environmental problems

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us take actions to improve the environment and make for a better planet. But in a consumerist world where status is all, it can be hard to av...

Big corporations are taking over as landlords and it's further fuelling the global housing crisis

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Insecure housing has long-term effects on both individuals and communities, it's impacting the social fabric of countries around the world. Corporati...

The great distribution dilemma – can public interest journalism survive?

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For more than a decade serious news organisatons, including public broadcasters, have increasingly relied on social media and other third-party digit...

Dark sky at night, everyone's delight

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's estimated that by 2030 more than 100 thousand satellites are likely to be buzzing around in low-Earth orbit – and the implications of that for...

Nobel-Prize laureate Abhijit Banerjee on the world's largest UBI experiment

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The world's largest Universal Basic Income trial is currently underway in Kenya. It involves 295 villages and more than 20,000 families. The trial ha...

The manufacturing of "natural food" and how tech can demystify what we eat

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most people want to eat better. And many of us have embraced the trend toward "natural" foods and conscious eating. We equate "natural" with healthy,...

Self-destructive behaviour — the enemy within 

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do otherwise sensible people continue to do things that are bad for them, that impact negatively on their personal future? Also, what happens in ...

Fear and anger – the complicated emotions that govern our world

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Authoritarians rule through fear. We can clearly see that from China to the Middle East to eastern Europe. But why do we constantly overlook the way ...

Algorithmic homogeny – why everything looks and feels the same

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Algorithmic feeds are meant to personalise our online experiences, but increasingly they're flattening our culture and fostering a dull conformity, a...

The weaponisation of nostalgia; and has culture come to a standstill?

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nostalgia triggers our emotions and that in turn makes us vulnerable to manipulation. We speak with RICHARD KING about the commodification and weapon...

Are we really becoming more isolated and less community minded?

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Social cohesion is under strain. The result, researchers say, of economic, political and work-based pressures. At the same time levels of volunteerin...

TikTok's superstar economy – how live-streaming is turning social media into a game played for money

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fans are spending thousands of dollars a month to support their favourite streamers on TikTok Live, but most of the money is going to TikTok itself.

Conversing with aliens and 'decentering' the human

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cambridge University has a new institute dedicated to understanding extraterrestrial languages. It's about being prepared for the possibility that in...

Does AI show we overestimate our human creativity? And what does creativity mean anyway?

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Among the angst over the creative potential of Artificial Intelligence, some researchers and academics are now turning the spotlight back onto humans...