Build the Bridge to Connect Your Community’s Gaps.

Lisa is closing out season 2 with Olatunde Sobomehin (Tunde), co-founder and CEO of StreetCode Academy and co-author of Creative Hustle. Tunde believes that underrepresented communities should be participating in the upside of technology instead of being excluded from it. StreetCode's mission is to hack, hustle, and design the future to bridge that gap, starting in East Palo Alto and expanding outward.

Tunde started out experimenting how to uplift those underrepresented communities. He designed business computer camps in Portland, basketball programs mixed with tech education, and community organizing around music and technology. In 2014, StreetCode Academy took form.

StreetCode Academy has evolved over the years from a program that includes younger students, parents, and other disciplines like entrepreneurship and design. The tagline "Hack, Hustle, Design the Future" captures the mindset, skills, and access are the three outcomes they're building toward.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why tech education works better when whole families learn together
• What college basketball and tech education have in common
• How to map your gifts to your goals through principles, people, and practice.

Tunde is taking both StreetCode and Creative Hustle on the road to places like Hong Kong, Finland, Botswana, and cities across the U.S. If you're inspired, visit streetcode.org or creativehustle.org. Or reach out! As Tunde says, building community is how the work gets done.

Links from the episode:

• Creative Hustle
• Get the Creative Hustle Book
• StreetCode Academy
• Hack Hustle Design The Future, article by Lisa Kay Solomon
• StreetCode Tech Journey @ Stanford Men’s Basketball

People Mentioned:

• Reverend Jesse Jackson
• Coach Eric Reveno - General manager and associate head coach of Stanford men's basketball
• Coach Kyle Smith - Stanford basketball coach known for using statistics and data
• Ebuka Okorie - Stanford freshman basketball player mentioned as generational talent
• sam seidel - Co-author of Creative Hustle
• Hope Meng - Designed custom lettering for Creative Hustle
• Jori Tytus - Designed custom art for Creative Hustle
• Khristopher "Squint" Sandifer - Featured in Chapter 1 of Creative Hustle, film director
• Bryant Terry - Award-Winning Chef featured in Creative Hustle
• Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca - Community organizer featured in Creative Hustle, Forbes 30 Under 30
• Jennifer Brandel - Previous How We Future guest, civic entrepreneur
• Hakeem Olajuwon - NBA legend

Are sci-fi stories the key to a better future?

This week’s episode of How We Future features Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, co-directors of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. For nearly 15 years, they've been running what might be the most unusual university center in the country, one that brings together science fiction writers, scientists, artists, and engineers to imagine hopeful, yet practical, futures.

Ruth and Ed describe how they turn imagination into practice: Kids building Scribble Bots and debating who deserves credit when a robot makes art. Commissioning writers worldwide to explore what human flourishing looks like in a warming world. Pairing speculative fiction with expert essays and original artwork, creating story packages that explore what might actually be possible down the line.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• How collaborative worldbuilding helps experts ask each other new questions
• What happens when you pair exciting stories with science-backed facts
• Why reflecting on the futures you consume in media matters more than you think

Links from the Episode:

• Center for Science and Imagination
• Smithsonian Futures Exhibit

Book and Articles:

• Frankenstein at 200, Ed Finn, New York Times
• Step Into the Free and Infinite Laboratory of the Mind, Ed Finn, Issues in Science and Technology
• Collaborative Imagination: A Methodical Approach, Ruth Wylie and Ed Finn, Science Direct
• Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures, edited by Joey Escrich and Ed Finn
• A Rewilded Mind, Corey Pressman, CSI Imagination Fellow
• When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis by Anna Lee Newitz

Exercises and Resources:

• Frankenstein Kit, Resources created by CSI
• Futures by Choice, Futures by Chance, CSI
• CSI Resources for Teachers
• Solar Tomorrow Resources, CSI (Great for Educators!)
• Postcards from the Future, Futures Exercise from CSI

Are you being a good ancestor?

This episode of How We Future features public philosopher Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor and History for Tomorrow, to explore how we can break free from short-term thinking and start planning in generations, not quarters.

Roman argues we all have two competing forces. The marshmallow brain seeks instant gratification. The acorn brain enables long-term thinking, the kind that built sewers in 19th century London for a much larger future population. History shows what's possible when we activate that capacity.

Roman shares practical steps to become better ancestors, from giving children your vote to building social cohesion through community action. He offers examples of things that went right in history and the importance of recognizing what we should repeat, not just what we shouldn’t.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

• Why long-term thinking is wired into our brains and how to activate it
• What it takes for real transformative change to happen
• Why social trust matters more than technology for our survival

Roman sees signs of change, from the EU creating an Intergenerational Fairness Index to educators teaching students to think like futurists, not just historians. The future is ours to create together.

Links from the episode:

• Roman Krznaric Site
• Roman’s new online course: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Term World
• Book: The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long Term Thinking
• Book: History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity
• Book: Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It
• TED Talk: Lessons from History for a Better Tomorrow
• TED Talk: How to be a Good Ancestor
• New View EDU podcast for school leaders with Roman Krnaric
• Long Now Talk: Roman Kzrnaric and Kate Raworth