To build a better future, we must first imagine it. We need stories to show us the light ahead.
The Light Ahead is a podcast featuring short narrative fiction episodes co-created with change-makers and award-winning Hollywood screenwriters.
Seen through the lens of pop culture, the future could look dystopian: Black Mirror, Westworld, The 100, 3%, and myriad other shows, movies, and books imagine what will happen if the darkest aspects of humanity win out. The Light Ahead looks in the opposite direction. Listeners are invited to imagine: What would society look like if we actually manage to get things right?
In the way that Star Trek inspired a generation of scientists, investors, and techies to grow up and create technologies that seemed impossible only decades ago, The Light Ahead offers listeners visionary ideas for a kinder, more inclusive and just future.
The podcast was co-created by author and activist Jess Rimington and actress, writer and producer Naomi McDougall Jones, originally as a part of the Beloved Economies campaign. In its first season, The Light Ahead united over 120 collaborators from across the entertainment industry and social justice sector. It is now hosted and produced by the Futuring Collective, with a Season 2 to release in 2024.
Season 1
What would 2030 look like if the U.S. had an economy that truly worked and cared for everyone?
The Opportunity Agenda named The Light Ahead podcast a must-listen podcast of 2022!
Produced by Beloved Economies and Avalon: Story, the first season of The Light Ahead podcast creatively explores the question, “What would 2030 look like if the U.S. had an economy that truly worked and cared for everyone?” Through short narrative fiction episodes, The Light Ahead brings to life scenes from beloved economic futures. What would life be like in an economy that worked for everyone?
Each episode is a scripted piece of short-fiction set in 2030 and informed by the visions of activists and justice advocates.
12 screenwriters each paired with an individual or group of individuals leading cutting-edge work in the next economy movement.
Each screenwriter immersed themselves in the ideas and ideals of the next-economy leaders, and then creatively spooled that thinking into an imaginative 10-15 minute episode. The screenwriters were assembled from award-winning talent in film and television and represent a broadly diverse set of voices.
Season 2
The Future Beyond Funding:
What will it look like when we redistribute wealth, democratize power, and shift economic control to community?
Coming Soon.
A co-production of The Futuring Collective and Justice Funders
This second season of The Light Ahead takes listeners even further into the future, illuminating what has become possible one hundred years from now, when we have moved far beyond philanthropy and investment as they currently exist.
Co-produced with Justice Funders, each episode is informed by years of collective experience and imagination from Justice Funders’ movement partners, board, and staff. Regardless of whether we currently work in funding or have never before thought about its role in shaping reality, Season 2 of The Light Ahead takes us on an illuminating and irresistible journey ahead.
Listeners experience why moving reimagining how we fund has unlocked futures in which life is soulful, joyous, and rooted in the wisdom of our ancestries.
The Opportunity Agenda named The Light Ahead a must-listen podcast of 2022!
“Listening to The Light Ahead, especially the New Era episode, really inspired me to envision my business differently. I'd never heard of the cooperative model before, but now I'm learning more about it and hoping to apply values of shared power and ownership at Compass Coordinators. The Light Ahead is so refreshing!”
— Jasmine Hathaway, founder of Compass Coordinators