Future-Conscious Thinking

Sustainable Minimalists

Bleav + Stephanie Seferian

Kids & Family, Leisure, Parenting, Home & Garden

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many people — and many societies, for that matter — rely on short-sighted quick wins as their Number One go-tos when managing oversized problems. But what works in the short-term likely isn’t best in the long run; worse, such near-sightedness rarely considers its impacts on generations to come. Enter longpath thinking, a mindset that prioritizes future-conscious thinking and behavior. On today’s episode I speak with author and futurist Ari Wallach. Ari argues that when we step away from knee-jerk reactions we will both reclaim meaning in our lives and help preserve the planet for future generations. And if making daily decisions by considering their reverberations 500 years from now sounds revolutionary to you, you’re absolutely right. Ari’s on the show to ease the transition to future-consciousness in 3 simple steps. Here’s a preview: [2:00] “Future” isn’t a noun; it’s a verb. Here’s why [4:30] Debunking lifespan biases so as to create a better world for future generations [6:00] 3 problems associated with short-termism [11:30] How an understanding of transgenerational empathy encourages us to act on behalf of future generations [17:00] What doubling down on sandbag strategies means for fulfilling our collective moral obligations [20:00] 3 ways to start practicing longpath thinking and acting right now Resource mentioned: Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs This show is listener-supported. Thank you for supporting! Join our (free!) Facebook community here. Find your tribe. Sustainable Minimalists are on Facebook, Instagram + Youtube @sustainableminimalists Say hello! MamaMinimalistBoston@gmail.com.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well, hello there, my friends, and welcome back to my runner-up favorite interview of all time.
0:07.4	This episode came out in August of 2022, and it's all about thinking ahead, thinking way ahead, way into the future.
0:19.9	Generally, when you and I and world leaders and everybody in between make decisions,
0:27.6	we think a year in the future, five years, maybe at most 50 years into the future. How will this
0:35.2	decision impact me or my family or the world 50 years from
0:40.5	now? But my guest on this episode argues that we need to be thinking much further into the future,
0:48.0	more like 300, more like 500 years into the future before making decisions. Now, the reason why I love this episode
0:57.5	with Ari Wallach is because in the minimalism sphere and in the sustainability sphere as well,
1:04.9	conversations always tend to be about the same things. Talk about the same topics. Talk about
1:10.6	the same topics with
1:11.5	the same people over and over again. And I love this conversation with Ari because it is so
1:18.6	vastly different from any conversation I've ever heard in the sustainability sphere. So thank you,
1:25.7	Ari, for bringing your expertise, your insight. And to my listeners,
1:31.1	I hope you enjoy for the first time or enjoy for the second time this conversation about
1:37.1	long path thinking with Ari Wallach. We'll be back next week for my favorite interview of all time.
1:43.6	That'll be next Friday. And I'll see you
1:45.4	then. Hello, listeners, and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian, and you're listening to
1:52.2	episode 299 of Sustainable Minimalists, a twice weekly show about intentional and eco-minimalist
1:59.2	living. On today's show, we are discussing the
2:01.8	principles of long path thinking. Many of us tend to be short-termists. We think five years into
2:09.6	the future, or maybe 10, even my favorite question for putting things in perspective, which of
2:15.4	course is, will this matter in five years? That is a short-term
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bleav + Stephanie Seferian, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bleav + Stephanie Seferian and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.