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How COVID-19 is changing our ideas about the future

By Steve Goldstein
Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - 12:44pm
Updated: Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - 12:45pm

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Futurist Brian David Johnson
Sarah Lavoie/Mater Christi School
Brian David Johnson talks with students about futurism and robotics at Mater Christi School in Burlington, Vermont.

The future is inherently about the unknown, and the pandemic era of the past two years has accentuated that. How do we look ahead, and how much of a vision can we have when our focus so often has been on the next day or week, with changes caused by COVID-19?

Brian David Johnson, a futurist and professor at Arizona State University, specializes in looking ahead and trying to anticipate what all of us are going to have to deal with. He calls himself an optimist, which seems more difficult now than ever.

The Show spoke with him and asked what he thought the biggest societal change caused by the pandemic has been.

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