How to be a good ancestor - with Roman Krznaric

The Larger Us Podcast

We live in the age of the tyranny of the now, driven by 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises – from the threats of climate change to the lack of planning for a global pandemic – the call for long-term thinking grows every day. But what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it?

In this episode, we talk to Roman Krznaric, the author of The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, which reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long, exploring uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight. Drawing on radical innovations from around the world, Roman celebrates the time rebels who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.

Roman is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. He's been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading popular philosophers, and his writings have been influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers.