What if the people best equipped to shape tomorrow aren’t engineers first—but emotional athletes? Our guest, Ahmed Best—actor, educator, Afrofuturist, and the pioneering performer behind Jar Jar Binks—shows how art can lead technology, not chase it. From South Bronx summers where hip‑hop was born to conversations with George Lucas at Lucasfilm, Ahmed traces a life lived at the edge of invention and explains why trusting artists to drive the tools changed cinema—and could change the future.

We dive into dramatic narrative design, the class he created to teach future‑fluent storytelling that centers collaboration over hierarchy. Ahmed breaks down how performance capture emerged by following the actor, how the “used future” aesthetic reframed sci‑fi, and why the fundamentals of drama never age even as mediums flip from film stock to digital sensors and now to AI. He sees today’s AI as a creative accelerator that removes costly bottlenecks so humans can spend more time on what matters: feeling, choosing, and crafting meaning.

Then we open up Afrofuturism through Afrohythms, the worldbuilding game he co‑created with Dr. Lonny Brooks. Using tension cards—“Black superheroes,” “James Baldwin,” and more—players define shared values, build planets, and practice radical imagination without the fear that keeps teams stuck. Ahmed challenges the industry’s obsession with “safe futures,” argues for protopia—incremental betterment we can actually feel—and points us toward the coming “bionexus,” where synthetic biology reshapes identity and possibility.

If you care about culture, technology, and where they meet, this conversation is a map and a spark. Subscribe to Think Forward, share this episode with a friend who loves bold ideas, and leave a review to tell us the protopian story you want to help build.

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/think-forward-conversations-with-futurists-innovators-and-big-thinkers/id1736144515

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Web: https://thinkforward.buzzsprout.com/

Thank you for joining me on this ongoing journey into the future. Until next time, stay curious, and always think forward.

We talk with Peter von Stackelberg about humility in consulting, why timeframes matter, and how narrative foresight turns data into action. We trace his path from journalism to futures, explore exploratory forecasts, and unpack story worlds, transmedia, and cycles.

• building trust through listening and humility
• why clear timeframes beat vague “someday” futures
• exploratory forecasts with indicators and course corrections
• using story to turn data into lived context
• transmedia and story universes for sustained engagement
• the layered timeline of trends, STEEP, and K-waves
• what tracked in war, religion, and social change
• a global platform for co-creating future stories
• where to access Peter’s research and timelines

For you to like and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube, or to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player

Order your copy of SuperShifts: www.bit.ly/supershifts

ORDER SUPERSHIFTS! bit.ly/supershifts

🎧 Listen Now On:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/think-forward-conversations-with-futurists-innovators-and-big-thinkers/id1736144515

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IOn8PZCMMC04uixlATqoO

Web: https://thinkforward.buzzsprout.com/

Thank you for joining me on this ongoing journey into the future. Until next time, stay curious, and always think forward.

Peter Hayward shares his journey from a problem-solving tax professional to becoming one of the most influential futures educators, training hundreds of futurists and co-creating the renowned FuturePod podcast series.

• Finding foresight in mid-career after experiencing existential questioning about purpose
• Joining Richard Slaughter's first Master of Foresight class before eventually succeeding him
• Understanding foresight as developmental - evolving as human consciousness evolves
• Discovering that people seek futures thinking when they can't yet articulate what they want to become
• Recognizing that organizations don't have futures - only people have futures
• Building organizational foresight by aligning personal purpose with organizational purpose
• Creating a "dance" between delivering immediate value and creating space for longer-term thinking
• Using AI as a tool while maintaining human responsibility for context and moral judgment
• Working with frontline employees who bring sophisticated real-world thinking to futures work
• Grounding all futures work in a clear moral foundation, as Wendell Bell advocated

Reach out if you're interested in being featured on FuturePod - Peter welcomes hearing from people who believe they have something valuable to contribute to futures conversations.

FuturePod: www.futurepod.com

Order your copy of SuperShifts: www.bit.ly/supershifts

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

ORDER SUPERSHIFTS! bit.ly/supershifts

🎧 Listen Now On:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/think-forward-conversations-with-futurists-innovators-and-big-thinkers/id1736144515

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IOn8PZCMMC04uixlATqoO

Web: https://thinkforward.buzzsprout.com/

Thank you for joining me on this ongoing journey into the future. Until next time, stay curious, and always think forward.