Futurist Friday with Glen Hiemstra

Over the course of the summer of 2022, we are releasing 12 interviews with futurists and forward thinkers in order to help our global audience of leaders become better visionaries for their organizations and be more prepared for our uncertain future.

In this episode, Glen Hiemstra joins the show. Glen started his career as a college professor at Whitworth University, the University of Washington, and Antioch University, Seattle. For the last 40 years he has been working as a professional futurist. He is also an author, keynote speaker, and consultant to business, professional and government organizations. The founder of Futurist.com, he serves as Futurist Emeritus on the Futurist.com Think Tank. The site is regularly visited by people from over 120 nations. Glen has also served as a Technical Advisor to future-oriented television programs and he still advises and appears in documentaries. He is the author of Turning the Future into Revenue and co-author of Strategic Leadership, and of Millennial City.

In this interview, Glen discusses the sources he values and trusts as he does his research. He shares the social trends he is following closely including the eventual decline in global population and the global rise of authoritarian governments. He also talks about two technology trends - space exploration, including his meeting with Elon Musk during the early years of Space X, and energy technologies that transition humans away from fossil fuels - that he is tracking.

“Optimism is really not a response to the evidence. It’s an ethic that you live by or a choice that you make every day….Certainly in the last 2 1/2 years, the world has overwhelmed us with a lot of negative news and so you are not going to get up and look at the news and say “that makes me feel optimistic.” You are going to get up and say “I’m going to be optimistic despite what I am seeing in the news because that’s how I want to live.” Glen Hiemstra “Futurist Friday with Glen Hiemstra” talking about his approach to staying optimistic in a world filled with negative news stories.

Sponsor Highlight - The 12 Geniuses Futurist Friday series is sponsored exclusively by The Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is a B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. Reach out at thestarrconspiracy.com for more information, or to schedule a chat with the team.