We Teach the Future

#16: Negotiating the Future: Climate Finance and Youth at COP29

What does it mean to practice future-building, not just talk about it? In this episode, we sit down with Genaro, a climate finance advocate and COP29 negotiator working at the intersection of youth leadership and global governance. While many imagine climate activism as protest and public pressure, Genaro chose a different entry point: the financial rules and negotiation frameworks that quietly determine whose futures are funded and whose are deferred. We explore what it feels like to sit inside high-level climate negotiations shaping the New Collective Quantified Goal, and how mechanisms like Article 6 translate into real-world consequences for communities across generations. Through this conversation, climate finance becomes more than technical policy. It becomes a question of intergenerational equity and anticipatory responsibility. We also unpack the deeper shift happening among young leaders, moving from symbolic participation to structural influence, and from reacting to crises to building long-term systems literacy.

#15: WTFutures: How Do We Rethink the Future… Together?

What happens when you stop treating the future like a puzzle for experts and start inviting whole communities into the conversation? In this episode, we sit with Daniel and Rose from Plurality University to trace how WTFutures began, the ideas that pushed it forward, and the moments that completely reshaped its purpose. We talk about the spark that set the project in motion, the unexpected ways the community has grown, and the real challenges that come with trying to build a space where many futures can exist at once. We also explore the role of partners like the European Climate Foundation and Teach the Future, and what it could look like for more organisations around the world to join this experiment. The conversation ends with a simple but very human question: what futures do we actually want, and how can WTFutures help us imagine them with more courage, creativity, and people in the room?

#14: Rewriting Who Gets a Seat at the Table: Shai Naides

In this episode, Shai Naides, UNICEF’s Chief of Youth Engagement and Strategy, joins us to explore why institutions still struggle with genuine youth representation and influence, and how foresight can help shift that reality. We talk about the origins of the Youth Foresight Fellowship, what changes when young people are invited to imagine futures, and the surprising insights that emerged from UNICEF’s work across 40 countries. Shai also reflects on the toughest principles for institutions to uphold, moments where youth reframed the conversation for adults, and what he’s learned while scaling a global foresight initiative.

#13: Designing Conscious Futures with Erica Bol

In this episode, we sit with Erica Bol, a Conscious Future Designer whose work bridges foresight, creativity, and policy. Currently at the European Commission’s Policy Lab, Erica explores how futures thinking can move beyond research to truly shape the world we live in. Together, we unpack what it means to design with awareness, how creativity and consciousness can make future scenarios more human, engaging, and actionable. Erica shares what inspired her to enter the field of foresight, how she helps institutions think long-term in a short-term world, and why empowering young people to imagine sustainable futures matters more than ever.

#12: FutureWISE and Beyond: Randi Millard & Janine Nel

In this episode, we sit down with Randi and Janine from Teach the Future, two inspiring educators leading futures literacy work across the United States and South Africa. Together, they unpack what it means to make education more future-ready, from empowering teachers through FutureWISE and educator trainings to helping young people turn uncertainty into possibility.