Listen to the Episodes
What would 2030 look like if the U.S. had an economy that truly worked and cared for everyone?
Season One
Our Season 1 episodes are available below and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. You can also enjoy additional episodes on YouTube.
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
Episodes
Trailer
The Light Ahead is a podcast that uses speculative fiction to explore the question, “What would 2030 look like if the USA had an economy that truly worked and cared for everyone?” Through eight stories, co-created by next-economy leaders and Hollywood screenwriters, listeners are invited to expand their economic imaginations by dreaming into a tantalizing array of possible, more beloved, futures.
Ep. 1, Fugue
A young woman wakes up in Louisiana in 2030 with full amnesia - she can’t remember anything after 2020 - and discovers that the world has become a much kinder, more caring place.
Ep. 2, Starfleet: Pension Fund
Prepare yourselves for the cosmic phenomenon that is “Starfleet: Pension Fund!” In this episode, we will be swept away by the galactic sci-fi show taking over the airwaves in the year 2030. We’ll experience an epic battle between two spaceships, one responsible for investing money to support the government pension funds, the other a hedge fund taking all the money it can for its own private investors. Listen in to hear who will win...and to learn about why changes need to be made to the often mysterious world of present-day hedge funds.
Ep. 3, New Era
What is a cooperative, and how do they work? In this exciting episode, we’ll hear a young Cuban-American man discussing with his Cuban mom about his new job at a company that is a worker-owned cooperative. In this family comedy, we’ll hear about what cooperatives mean to the people who work there -- and see that explaining what you do to your parents, while not always easy, can be worth the effort.
Ep. 4, Liberation
Journey into the not-too-distant future in which members of the Oglala Lakota Nation are celebrating a liberated new economy for their Nation that brings back cherished elements of their economic past. . Reimagining the education of Lakota youth is a key part of this future. In this episode, we listen in on a national press conference at the opening day of a new Lakota school, at the foot of a mountain once called Mt. Rushmore. And we hear from a member of the Lakota organization Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation what her everyday life would feel like in this liberated economic future.
Ep. 5, Home
What does "home" truly mean? In particular for African American families and individuals that have so often faced displacement from physical homes, driven by economic forces, for generations? In this episode of The Light Ahead, we venture to Brooklyn in the year 2030, where a young woman convinces her grandmother to visit her childhood neighborhood, a neighborhood that has changed drastically since their family was forced to move out decades before. What they find there changes their idea of home forever and is beyond anything they ever dared to dream. Tune in to hear this poignant story exploring what it could look like to take reparative steps in our neighborhoods and communities toward reckoning with injustices of our past.
Ep. 6, Kayla’s Village
In this episode, we join expectant father Marcus and his mother-in-law as they prepare the home for his partner Kayla’s birthing experience. In this home, we are privy to a birth that is supportive and calm, full of intention and choice, and supported by Kayla and Marcus ’s entire community. How far off from such possibilities are we today, and what could it look like for our communities to support new life and new parents in these ways? Tune in and find out!
Ep. 7, An Extraordinary Ordinary Day in the Life of Rakia McDowell
In this episode, we spend a day in the life of artist Rakia McDowell. As a member of a community who has come together to live and work in ways that enable them to be more whole, Rakia determines her own schedule, buys from thriving local businesses, exchanges resources and skills via a sharing economy, and follows her heart. Could a life in which work is healing and restorative—rather than demanding—be one leap away? Tune in and find out!
Ep. 8, Auld Lang Syne
In this episode, we tag along with C.J. who is meeting up with her date on New Year’s Eve. It also happens to be the eve of the Phoenix Act, which will redistribute wealth across the country. C.J. and her date discuss why she supports the Act - and how her own past impacted her perspective on wealth. Are we far from a new approach to wealth distribution and definition? Tune in and find out!
