This podcast was not read by synthetic AI generated replicas … although it could be. Live from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies in Denmark, together with three trained communications professionals, we discuss the future of their field. If there even is one. FARSIGHT podcast host and Head of Publications at the CIFS Casper Skovgaard Petersen, Head of Communications Toke Hanghøj and new CIFS partner, and host Jo Lepore discuss the synthetification of what we create and what we consume.

Technology is rapidly upending the traditional media industry. As this happens, we see literacy rates declining and the increasing ease of outsourcing writing and thinking. So too, all of this influences the stories we create and tell about the future. Whether we paint visions as warning for where our vices may take us, or as a mirror to reflect back what parts of humanity we do not want to lose. And of course, there are lessons in looking back at the past and the stories we told each other that no longer hold true.

In this episode of Looking Outside we explore living your life and career curiously through an openness to learning with trained pharmacist and director of the Novartis Pavillon exhibiting the wonders of medicine, Marcel Braun.

Marcel studied medicine but throughout his career has remained open to entering new fields and living in new places, something he calls both accidental in drifting from one opportunity to another, and intentional as he ticked off ‘dream roles’ from his bucket list. Marcel has worn many hats. He credits this to both chance (“What are the odds that I got to do everything I did?”) but equally to openness; as opportunities came up, scary or divergent as they may have been, Marcel first and immediate said yes, then worked out how to make it happen second.

In Episode 10 of Looking Outside we traverse the past and present of Storytelling with educator, scholar, and my good friend from Australia, Dr Belinda Calderone, Philanthropic Proposals Manager at Monash University.

Belinda shares her learnings in creating a compelling case for change through human focused storytelling. As well as the pitfalls of storytelling, where a clear start and end is missing (fairly common!) or not walking forward along the story path.

In Episode 8 of Looking Outside we explore the power held by Words with wordsmith, curious human and Senior Insights Leader at Mars Inc, Jessica Southard.

Jess and Jo explore how words can be magical, can empower and motivate, but also how they can be destructive and divisive. To do that, Jess shares her personal experience of communication in her Army intelligence days leading soldiers, the transition to the complex world of business, and how she treats words with responsibility raising her three children.