Hello, I'm Tom Standage, Deputy Editor at The Economist, and I'm here to tell you about our new podcast, The World Ahead.

It's a future-gazing series that will examine an assortment of speculative scenarios, what-if conjectures and provocative prophecies.

Some will be more likely to come true than others,

but thinking about possible futures can help us understand the present

and the various paths along which events might unfold.

In the first episode, we'll be asking, what if 50% of CEOs were women?

Diversity in senior leadership leads to better business results, leads to more innovation,

leads to more successful companies. And therefore, what I think it will mean for business

is more successful businesses.

We'll also ask, what if drones ruled the waves?

The reason that drones are so useful, especially in the open ocean, is because they don't require

any humans to operate them.

And having humans on a boat doing anything, whether it's inspecting oil and gas platforms, trying

to do policing, is incredibly expensive.

In the coming weeks, we'll be taking out our crystal ball and trying to imagine what things

will be like in the world ahead.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and see you in the future.