Rob Hopkins
Episodes
Rob Hopkins and Immy Kaur in conversation. Civic Square, 16th July 2025
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the courtyard of Civic Square in Birmingham, Immy Kaur and Rob Hopkins discussed the core ideas in his book 'How to Fall in Love with the Future', ...
Time Machine sound effect
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Here is the sound created by Ben Addicott to use for online events to signal the transition between the present day and the near future. Feel free to ...
2030 Field Recordings of Cornish beavers
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
2030 Field Recordings of Cornish beavers by Rob Hopkins
The Utrecht bicycle rush hour.
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I was in Utrecht recently, to record, for 'Field Recordings from the Future', the rush hour of bicycles. Here is a taste of that.
A taste of the Vauban
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What would a car-free, low carbon, delicious future sound like? I visited the Vauban in Freiburg to find out.
Introducing 'Field Recordings from the Future'
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Here is a short piece to introduce a new project I'm doing with the amazing Mr Kit: https://kitmusic.bandcamp.com/ Watch this space!
From What If to What Next: Episode 44
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to 2022. We start this year with a fantastic episode and a really important question. What if we were to implement every solution that we alre...
From What If to What Next: Episode 45
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Here's Episode 45 for you, I hope you're going to love it. Meet Tim Gill and Alice Ferguson of Playing Out, brilliant guests for a vital discussion. T...
From What If to What Next: Episode 43
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Although not planned as some kind of 'Christmas Special', that's kind of what this episode is, so hopefully it will give you the opportunity to treat ...
From What If to What Next: Episode 41
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Episode 41 of 'From What If to What Next'. Powerful psychology is used to convince us, often subliminally, that we want and need things we ...
From What If to What Next: Episode 42
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The IPCC report that came out in mid-2021 said “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting w...
From What If to What Next: Episode 40
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I'm not going to say much about this episode, other than that it's incredible. We are exploring Afrofuturism, which has been variously described as “...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Nine
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Usually our podcasts aren’t that topical, you can hopefully listen to them at any time and they are still relevant. Today’s is not like that. It i...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Seven
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The decline of insect populations around the world has been nothing short of terrifying. Last year I visited a school in an intensive wine-producing r...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Eight
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everywhere, where you live included, has a patchwork of organisations of different sizes who are doing business and making things happen in a way that...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Seven
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The decline of insect populations around the world has been nothing short of terrifying. Last year I visited a school in an intensive wine-producing r...
From What If to What Next: Episode 36
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oh wow, you're in for a treat. Today we bring together Anthea Lawson, author of the fabulous new book 'The Entangled Activist' and Alastair McIntosh, ...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Five.
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s episode of From What If to What Next is about care. Care has been very much on our minds of recent. COVID has highlighted how vitally import...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Four
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You are in for such a treat. This is one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring episodes of this podcast yet. It was my huge honour to be joined ...
From What If to What Next: Episode Thirty Three
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here is the perfect accompaniment to the long summer days. Or the deluge. Or perhaps a bit of both. Today we are talking about travel. As many cities ...
COP26 Day 3 conversations
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here are some people I spoke to on my third day at COP26 in Glasgow. The voices you'll hear here at Dorothy Grace Guerrero, Head of Policy at Global J...
COP26 Day One Conversations
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here are a few conversations I had with people while in Glasgow on my first day in the city for COP26. Here I talk to Bill McKibben, to community supp...
Episode Thirty Nine: What if the leadership team for COP26 were 50% women?
23 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Usually our podcasts aren’t that topical, you can hopefully listen to them at any time and they are still relevant. Today’s is not like that. It i...
Episode Thirty Two: What if the black imagination were valued as it should be?
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is one of my favourites so far. This week we are exploring the black imagination, with two amazing guests. A little more about your guest...
Episode Thirty One: What if the future were non-binary?
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is such an incredible episode. One of those ones I had to go off and sit under a tree afterwards to absorb. Today we talk about gender. I grew up...
Episode Thirty: What if the revolution was well facilitated?
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Thirty. Wow. Whoever thought we'd get this far? Thank you so much for your support in making that possible. We have a delicious episode to mar...
Episode Twenty Nine: What if we mastered the art of time travel?
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you had a Time Machine, which year would you set the dial to? This episode is about time travel. More specifically, it is about using imaginary tim...
Episode Twenty Eight: What if we redesigned the operating system of our entire civilization?
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The time for imagining that change happens in small, incremental steps is now way behind us. As Naomi Klein says, "there are no non-radical solutions ...
Episode Twenty Seven: What if we all stopped flying?
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This new episode, one of my favourite so far, comes with a challenge. Can you listen to it and not reimagine your own relationship with flying or, as ...
Episode Twenty-Six: What if we could live better in a post-growth economy?
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
These days of COVID have shown us that extraordinary profound reimagining of many aspects of society are entirely possible. Might this be the time to ...
Episode Twenty Five: What if we built an imagination infrastructure?
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s imagine, and this takes quite a leap in Britain in 2021 I’ll grant you, but stay with me, that we had a government who recognised that we ar...
A 2030 to long for: the best of 2030 from Episodes 10-19.
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In which, with the help of specially-composed music by Ben Addicott and Rosie Issitt, we take a step into the 2030 that could result from our doing ev...
Episode Twenty Four: What if we read more books?
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When was the last time you read a book cover to cover? And if you are still able to do this, do you feel you read in the same way you did, say, 20 yea...
Episode Twenty-Three: What if street art could transform the world?
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Episode 23 of our journey together into the imagination and into the powers of What If. Today we are looking at street art. Street art has ...
Episode Twenty Two: What if we learned to embrace failure?
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Episode 22 of 'From What If to What Next'. This week we are exploring failure. More precisely, what if we were able to create a culture in ...
Episode Twenty: What if we addressed the trauma that lies beneath the world's problems?
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Episode 20 of From What If to What Next. This feels like a bit of a landmark for us, our twentieth episode! Thank you for joining me on thi...
Episode Twenty-One: What if dynasties of private wealth reimagined their relationship to money?
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was recently announced that Chuck Feeney, the Irish American former airport duty free shopping entrepreneur who was worth $8bn, had, at the age of ...
Episode Nineteen: What if we rewrote the National Curriculum based on permaculture principles?
31 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By now, in this journey into 'From What If to What Next', it is clear that one of the key things in our world in 2021 that needs reimagining is our ed...
Drucilla Cornell on the power of the public imagination
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Drucilla Cornell is a professor of law, women's studies and political science at Rutgers University. After reading a brilliant article she wrote abou...
Episode Eighteen: What if a revolution in relation to land unlocked a revolution of the imagination?
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to our first episode of 2021! We are planning an amazing series of podcasts for this year, and love that you are part of this exploration. In ...
Episode Seventeen: What if indigenous wisdom could save the world?
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the 17 episodes of this podcast so far, this is the one that I had to go off somewhere quiet afterwards for a while to digest. It is a very pow...
Episode 16: What if we took play seriously?
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 16 of 'From What If to What Next' we explore the question of play. Play is a devalued aspect of both childhood and adulthood which has been...
Episode 15: What if we learned to love weeds?
13 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
During the first Coronavirus lockdown in the UK, a strange phenomenon was seen in towns and cities across the country. As councils became unable, or u...
Episode Fourteen: What if we were to respond to the debt crisis with art and playfulness?
23 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things we love most here at 'From What If to What Next' is stories of people bringing imagination to their activism, of impactful, thought-...
Ministry of Imagination Episode 14 introduction
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Here are the opening couple of minutes from Episode 14 of the bonus Ministry of Imagination podcast. Subscribe now at www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhat...
The Best of 2030: from episodes 1-9 of 'From What If to What Next'
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Every episode of 'From What If to What Next' begins with my inviting my guests to close their eyes and to walk us through what they imagine 2030 could...
Episode Thirteen: What if governments factored future generations into law and policy?
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
And so we reach our thirteenth episode. Wow. Thank you so much for being with us on this journey so far. We have an amazing episode for you today. We ...
Episode Twelve: What if criminal justice resources were instead invested into communities of colour?
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You are in for such a treat today. It is my honour and privilege to share with you our twelfth episode of 'From What If to What Next'. In the US, as ...
Episode Eleven: What if we had the skills and abilities to talk to decision makers?
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to Episode 11 of From What If to What Next. So many of those who listen to this podcast are trying, in one way or another, to bring about chan...
Episode Ten: What if we decolonised education?
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The uprising of Black Lives Matter and other organisations have led to many calls for the decolonisation of education at every level. But what does it...
Episode Nine: What if we lived in a Wellbeing Economy?
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our question this time was slightly adapted from one sent in by subscriber Pamela Barnes. As the world attempts to claw its way back from the COVID19 ...
Episode Eight: What if communities had spaces where they could come together to imagine?
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are exploring a question sent in by subscriber Joy Cherkaoui. One of the things a future in which imagination is able to flourish w...
Episode Seven: What if every city used Doughnut Economics?
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Doughnut Economics is rapidly moving from the fringe to the mainstream. Amsterdam in Holland was recently confirmed as the first ‘Doughnut City’, ...
Episode Six: What if imagination were a universal right?
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Allow me to present one of my very favourite episodes of ‘From What If to What Next’ thus far. The question we explore is ‘What if imagination w...
Episode Five: What if we treated people at the end of their lives with reverence, love and care
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This fifth episode of 'From What If to What Next' has the longest title of any of our shows thus far! It was sent in by subscriber Chris Wells. As we ...
From What If to What Next: Episode Four: What if doctors' surgeries became catalysts for Transition?
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In our fourth episode, we bring together two of the UK's most pioneering doctors to explore what a very different future for healthcare could be like....
From What If to What Next: Episode Three: What if cities relocalised their food production?
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
FWIWN3.mp3 In this third episode of 'From What If to What Next', we're talking about food. Taking a question from Patreon subscriber Tony Buck, we are...
Episode Two: What if a UBI sparked a revival of the imagination?
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this second episode of 'From What If to What Next', we're talking about Universal Basic Income with Alexis Frasz, researcher and cultural strategis...
From What If to What Next: Episode One.
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to this, the first ever episode of 'From What If to What Next'. In this first episode, we meet singer, curator, event creator and lover of bi...
A taste of Episode 1 of 'From What If to What Next'
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Here is a taster of Episode One of 'From What If to What Next', my new podcast series. You can unlock this full episode, as well the exclusive 'Minist...
Rob Hopkins at Schumacher Centenary event at Bristol Colston Hall 2011.
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2011 I gave a talk at Bristol Colston Hall, which as someone who had grown up in Bristol, was hallowed ground. The talk opens with a Captain Beefhe...
'From What Is to What If': Book launch, 20 October 2019.
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Sunday 20th October, at Battersea Arts Centre, following an incredible day of 'Pop Up Tomorrow', I launched 'From What Is to What If'. Here is the ...
Talking play and imagination with Peter Gray
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the very best books I read while researching 'From What Is to What If' was 'Free to Learn' by Peter Gray. Peter is an evolutionary psychologist...
John Crowley: "Imagination actually alters the world"
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the perks of running this website and of writing 'From What Is to What If' has been the opportunity to speak to some of the people who have had...
Ben Goldfarb on how beavers can boost the collective imagination
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the finest books I’ve read recently was ‘Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter’ by Ben Goldfarb. Ben is an Am...
The frogs singing outside my bedroom window in La Farlède
14 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The frogs singing outside my bedroom window in La Farlède by Rob Hopkins
Lucy Neal: "imagination is the most important thing in the whole wide world
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When I started writing what is now called 'From What Is to What If', the first person I spoke to was Lucy Neal. And now, as the process enters its fin...
Michele d'Alena on Bologna, the city with a 'Civic Imagination Office'.
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What follows is my conversation with Michele D’Alena, Director of the Civic Imagination Office. It is a multi-professional team working to build a c...
Dave Strudwick on how a 'School of Creative Arts' can foster the imagination
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We recently spoke to Andrew Brewerton, Principal at Plymouth College of Art, about the fascinating tale of how Plymouth School of Creative Arts came t...
Shana McDavis-Conway on storytelling, imagination and activism
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Storytelling is a powerful political tool. Becoming better storytellers has been shown to make a huge difference to the impact and efficacy of activ...
Clodagh Harris on how Citizens' Assemblies rekindle the imagination
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a lot of talk about Citizen’s Assemblies these days. Some people say, as the UK flounders to try and find a way through the wreckage of Br...
"We decided to create a school": talking imagination with Andrew Brewerton.
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This post is the first of two that will be exploring the story of Plymouth School of Creative Arts, a remarkable new school in the south west of Engla...
Helen Marriage on The Sultan's Elephant and large acts of public imagination
25 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I would like to think that when I reach the end of my life that I will have very few regrets. I know that I will have one though, which is that I was ...
Cllr Matthew Brown on the Preston Model and the economics of the imagination.
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The scholar Richard Sennett once wrote, “modern capitalism works by colonizing people’s imagination of what is possible”. If it is the case that...
Tasha Bassingthwaighte on imagination, meditation and wifi-free retreats.
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier in this series of interviews, I spoke to Dr Larry Rosen who told me, "I would say that our imagination is probably on the decline, exactly in ...
Alexandra Rowland on hopepunk, grimdark, story and imagination
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s about how the first step to slaying a dragon is for one person to say, probably drunk in a bar somewhere, “I bet it can be done, though”...
Jackie Andrade and Jon May on imagination, lemons and Functional Imagery Training
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to our last blog of 2018. I'd like to thank you for joining me on this journey over the year and for your support and enthusiasm. Jackie And...
Karen MacLean on Den Grøenne Friskole, where imagination flourishes
07 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In their book ‘Imagination First’, Eric Liu & Scott Noppe-Brandon wrote “it is pretty clear what makes young humans allergic to imagination: sch...
Ruth Sapsed on Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Sapsed is the Director of an arts and well-being charity called Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. She set it up 15 years ago with the artist...
Nicolas Clerc on ‘Télescope’, a café without smartphones
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I recently put out a call looking for places, events or venues that are creating wifi-free spaces, places where people can intentionally get away from...
Nicolas Clerc on ‘Télescope’, a café without wi-fi
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I recently put out a call looking for places, events or venues that are creating wifi-free spaces, places where people can intentionally get away from...
Amy Seefeldt on creating a ‘Centre for Imagination’
18 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Seefeldt set up and runs the Centre for Imagination at an international boarding school in the foothills of the Himalayas in India called Woodstoc...
Kali Akuno on imagination and “the ways we can and must resist”
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As one of the co-founders of Cooperation Jackson and Executive Director of the non-profit division of Cooperation Jackson, Kali Akuno has spent the pa...
Judy Wicks on imagination, entrepreneurship and local economies
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I was recently in Lille in France as a speaker at an event called the World Forum for a Responsible Economy. One of my fellow speakers was Judy Wick...
Dominique Christina on "using the raw material of possible to say all of the urgent things"
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was such an honour to speak to Dominique Christina. Her work is remarkable. Her voice is insistent and fierce and tender and kind and wrathful ...
Marjorie Taylor on the childhood imagination: "I have not seen a decline"
22 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Although the inquiry at the heart of my research on imagination is framed around the idea that we are, collectively, experiencing a decline in our col...
Rosalie Summerton on how Art Angel heals the imagination
14 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week I embarked on the 1o hour train journey to Dundee in Scotland to visit a project I had heard about on the radio called Art Angel. We know th...
Gabriella Gomez-Mont: “Imagination is not a luxury"
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A question that has arisen in my research around imagination and also in the recent interview I did with Stuart Candy was what would it look like if a...
Gabriella Gomez-Mont: “Imagination is not a luxury"
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A question that has arisen in my research around imagination and also in the recent interview I did with Stuart Candy was what would it look like if a...
Gabriella Gomez-Mont: Imagination is not a luxury
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A question that has arisen in my research around imagination and also in the recent interview I did with Stuart Candy was what would it look like if a...
Stephen Duncombe on imagination, spectacle and desire.
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the best books I read this summer was Stephen Duncombe’s ‘Dream: re-imagining progressive politics in an age of fantasy’. Written durin...
Kyung Hee Kim on 'The Creativity Crisis'
21 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The initial spark that set me off thinking that I needed to write a book about imagination was reading a study by a professor at College of William an...
When imagination meets Brexit: the story of the Totnes Passport
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the highlights of my summer was collecting my Totnes Passport. The whole Brexit debacle from inception to its current state of woeful ineptit...
Hilary O'Shaughnessy on the Playable City
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when play disappears from our cities? In a report for the National Trust, Stephen Moss writes "a potential impact is that children who ...
Drew Dellinger: “If we had more imagination, we could have less capitalism”
10 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Listening to Drew Dellinger’s poetry regularly gives me goosebumps. Very shortly it will give you goosebumps too. He is a US-based writer, poet, spe...
Stuart Candy on imagination and being a futurist
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Stuart Candy is a professional futurist and is an Associate Professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
Michel Bauwens on P2P, the commons and the imagination
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, close to my home, was the Transition Design Symposium. It brought together people from around the world interested in what design can bring...
Tom Hirons and Rima Staines on Hedgespoken, ‘a Vehicle for the Imagination’
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rima Staines is an artist, musician and illustrator, puppet-maker, stop-frame animator, clock-maker, theatre designer and one half of Hedgespoken with...
Chris Parsons on Landworks, imagination and moving beyond prison
09 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Close to where I live is a project called Landworks. Landworks describes itself as "an independent charity providing a supported route back into emplo...
Urinetown
31 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Urinetown by Rob Hopkins