Forward Thinking

February 15, 2023 – A leading economist uses a historical lens to gain insights into the economic consequences of pandemics, likely trends in wealth and globalization, and whether current economic turbulence signals the start of a new era.

February 1, 2023 – “There’s a lot of scare stories in the media saying hybrid doesn’t work,” says a leading economist. “My one piece of advice is just be intentional, be organized. Basically, get folks in on two, three days a week … and be really tough about having them come in. And then let them work from home on the other days.”

January 18, 2023 – “This is certainly the most exciting, contentious, uncertain time when it when it comes to trade policy, certainly in my lifetime,” says a leading trade economist. “And I just had one of those big, round number—half century—birthdays, and so I’ve been around for a fairly long period of time.”

November 30, 2022 – Persuaded by her parents to study science and engineering, Jayshree Seth retained her humanities mindset while becoming the first chief science advocate at the 3M company.

November 16, 2022 – Many people think that hunger and climate change happen to poor people in faraway countries and won’t affect them, says a leading food systems expert. “But that is a naïve perception of the world.”

September 28, 2022 – A prominent economist, author, podcaster, and talent investor discusses how to better match human talent to opportunities, de-bureaucratize philanthropy, achieve higher-quality governance, and identify fields of likely progress, and how to get it all done.

August 10, 2022 – The co-founder and co-CEO of a new think tank, the Institute for Progress, talks about its mission to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding the future of humanity.

July 27, 2022 – The leader of a cutting-edge institute talks about innovative new materials that “eat” carbon and may enable cotton growing without irrigation, as well as the potential for building the world’s shortest supply chain in two 40-foot containers.

July 13, 2022 – A leading economic geographer talks regional growth and inequality, discontent and populism, innovation, migration, and development policies and strategies.

June 28, 2022 – An eminent European economist discusses the economic challenges arising from the war in Ukraine, the spreading economic turbulence, and the need to work together to nurture global public goods.

June 1, 2022 – Born in India and now a professor in Texas, Avinash Collis talks about his work on creating a data dashboard that will enable us to measure the true value of the digital age.

May 18, 2022 – The World Trade Organization’s first African—and first female—director-general reflects on the impact of the pandemic on trade, the imperative to ensure that vaccines reach Africa and other emerging economies, and how to ensure that trade is more inclusive in the years ahead.

May 4, 2022 – “Having a computer science degree should not be a prerequisite for being one of the only people in control of what happens next. It’s about democratizing. It’s about giving folks agency so we can make collective decisions about what happens next rather than it being that technical power race. I don’t know if we can call it race to the—I’m going to call it the bottom, race to the dystopia.”

April 20, 2022 – The former British politician who led the United Kingdom’s winning bid to host COP26 is now focused on coordinating an effective business contribution to the net-zero transition. She sees momentum building. “CEOs left COP saying, ‘We get it. Net zero is the thing we have to do.’”

April 6, 2022 – One of the tech world’s sharpest analysts talks about the frontier and how we got here, connecting the metaverse, Web3, and crypto with everyone from industrialist Henry Ford to writer Voltaire to historian Hugh Trevor-Roper.

March 23, 2022 – A leading US financier discusses the route to carbon neutrality, what the pandemic taught us about resiliency, and the true meaning of stakeholder capitalism.

February 23, 2022 – A leading US economist talks about what has changed in the pandemic, the rise of China, the globalization of trade, and spreading automation.

February 2, 2022 – “Our social contract is broken. And that is at the heart of why our politics is so divided and so many citizens around the world are disappointed and frustrated.” “Modern society is killing Mother Nature. And if you kill Mother Nature, you kill ourselves. We really need to achieve a social contract between us and other humanity and also Mother Nature. And this conversation is only beginning.” Two stark views on the state of today’s social contract.

January 12, 2022 – “William Blake talked about the dark Satanic mills, these inhuman pieces of tangible capital. Intangible capital is in some ways about what makes us human. It’s about ideas, and it’s about relationships. It’s about expressiveness. Some people may ask whether we should be making that the basis of the economy. But we would argue that this is actually making those things that matter to us as humans more central to our thriving.”

December 15, 2021 – A leading economist and business school dean reflects on globalization, concluding that “we’ve learned people want to know policies will matter for them”, and that “a lot of us underestimated the possible magnitude of distribution pressures from freer trade and immigration and flows of capital.”

December 1, 2021 – The first female CEO of the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering reflects on the evolving role of engineering in a dematerializing world, its vital role in science and sustainability—and collaborating with a Formula One world champion.

November 17, 2021 – Two US leaders focused on developing a more skills-based labor market explore ways to broaden opportunity for workers while helping companies plug talent gaps.

October 20, 2021 – The director of one of Europe’s most influential think tanks reflects on how to better prepare for the next pandemic, and turns his attention to the challenges of postpandemic economic recovery in an era of rising climate risk.

October 6, 2021 – A Nobel laureate explores postpandemic prospects, explaining why his cautious optimism about the economic recovery has been replaced by concern related to the slow vaccine rollout in lower-income economies, fragile supply chains, and extreme weather events.

September 22, 2021 – One of the US Navy’s first female fighter pilots, the engineering and robotics professor talks about the promise and peril of automation in airplanes and cars, predicting a “very distinct shift away from replacing human reasoning to augmenting human reasoning.”

August 11, 2021 – “I’m looking at theater over the course of the next generation. And ensuring that theater is accessible to the many, not just the few.”

July 28, 2021 – In addition to the moral argument, the former White House economic adviser explains that gender diversity is “a matter of human capital. It’s a matter of talent. It’s a matter of the evidence mounting over time.”

July 14, 2021 – The influential economist connects the dots between artificial intelligence, productivity, wages, and inequality, and how to counterbalance the impacts of automation.

June 23, 2021 – This researcher is making sure more AI information flows back from China to the West, and his insights are surprising.

June 10, 2021 – How could AI help create jobs even in rural areas, and what would it take? In this podcast episode, Kevin Scott shares his ideas with James Manyika.

May 26, 2021 – “If you look back at episodes of these periods when there has been technical change, and some big cataclysmic event in the economy, things end up being quite different a bit later.”

May 12, 2021 – The Nobel Prize–winning economist talks job loss and creation after the pandemic, plus what economic researchers should be addressing today.

May 12, 2021 – The leaders of Ginkgo Bioworks and the BIO organization discuss the future of biological technologies, from developing vaccines faster to changing how we produce food.

June 18, 2020 – The co-CEO of Ariel Investments shares honest thoughts about pushing for diversity in corporate America and reflects on her path to success.